It’s estimated 4.7 billion people watched at least part of the Beijing Olympics on television last year – the largest Olympic audience ever.

That’s 70 percent of the world’s total population.

In an effort to spread the events of those Summer Games around the world, thousands of journalists descended on China to photograph, videotape, and write about the details, to provide their audiences with up-to-date results.
Ensuring the events of the 21st Winter Olympics in Vancouver are seamlessly broadcast around the world will depend on a reliable telecommunications network – one that Bell Canada has been building for a couple of years now.

In 2004, Bell became the first corporate partner signed by the Vancouver Olympic organizing committee (Vanoc). The $200-million agreement made Bell a premier national partner of the Games, as well as the exclusive telecommunications partner for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games in February. Every image seen on TV and in newsprint from the Olympics will flow through the company’s network. And, for the first time in Olympic history, that network will have complete virtual capabilities.

“It will be the first telephony and IP games; and WiFi equipment will be used tremendously,” says Hugues Hénault, associate director Olympics logistics with Bell.
To accomplish the feat, Bell will be relying on approximately 285 km of fibre optic cables, connecting 45 different sports venues.

“Everything goes through the fibre optics,” says Hénault.

The groundwork of laying cable from Vancouver to Whistler to Pemberton and back again began two years ago. At the same time, Bell constructed cell phone towers along the way, to ensure connectivity of the wireless network.

Traditionally, Bell’s presence in western Canada is secondary to other telecommunication service providers, which is why the company had to build a network from the ground up and utilize 6,000 square feet of warehouse space in Vanoc’s Delta, B.C. location to base their operations.

Despite having enough cable – fibre optic and copper – to stretch from Vancouver to San Francisco and back, 10,000 cell phones, 8,000 IP phones, countless two-way radios, large broadcasting equipment with patch chords, and numerous other items, Hénault says the physical logistics of the operation were not really a challenge.

“(The challenge) is not just-in-time deliveries. The challenge here is not trying to get material into the warehouse,” he explains. “The challenge is coordinating and seeing who is in charge of what aspect.”

In preparation for the Games, deadlines fall on a weekly basis, and when a decision is made it needs to be acted upon quickly so work can begin on the next phase or project. Although Bell is responsible for all the telecommunications of the Games, it has to ensure all efforts and processes are coordinated with Vanoc and other Games partners.

For example, for the duration of the Games, Bell will use Visa as its credit processor – not its usual provider – because Visa is a partner of the Games. Bell had to explain to its customers beforehand how the temporary switch to Visa would affect them.

“It seems odd but you have to plan for these things. It seems small but it can be big if you don’t address them right away,” Hénault says.

“People come from different areas and cultures, and their views can be different,” he adds. “Everybody has an idea how it should work and you need to know what your specialty is.”

The ability to handle personal relations in a positive manner is one lesson Hénault will be able to take away from his Olympic logistic experience.

“In the context of the economic situation, customers are looking more for flexibility and agility. We have to realize that in terms of telecommunications, the decision has to be made to bring that to customers,” he explains. “The loyalty of customers is more on their wallets and you have to be there for customers and make sure you understand their requirements, not just ‘Yeah, yeah, we’ll do it,’ and then take forever.”

Being able to understand employee requirements has also been a big part of Hénault’s work since he moved out to Vancouver a year and a half ago.

“Starting Feb. 12 we’ll have 500 employees from all over Canada in Vancouver,” says Hénault. “Right now there are around 180, mostly technicians and managers. There were around 30 employees a year and a half ago, mostly project managers, making sure processes between Bell and Vanoc were aligned.”

It will fall to Hénault and his team of logisticians to ensure the 500 Bell employees who descend on Vancouver are taken care of and equipped to do their jobs properly.

“With the relocation of staff you have to make sure there are enough rooms, that per diems are paid as expected,” he explains. “You have to make sure they have ladders, trucks, and all the proper equipment.”
And when it comes to safety, there’s a new, but pressing issue that needed Hénault’s attention.

“With H1N1, we needed to have hand sanitizer and first aid kits available for the workers,” he adds. “It is a big deal. People from all over the world coming here and some people are really concerned with that. If they’re not well prepared they don’t want to come out here and help.”

While putting the physical equipment in place may not have been challenging, logistically speaking, making sure it operates according to expectations certainly is.
Luckily, Bell’s network – at least the first version of it – had a dress rehearsal last winter as Vancouver played host to a handful of World Cup and Championship events. The telecommunications network will also get two more technical rehearsals before the Olympics officially launch on Feb. 12.

An essential part of a smooth operation and ensuring seamless transmission of the Games around the world, is seeing into the future. The logistics team at Bell is also developing processes for worst-case scenarios.

“If there’s a rockslide, what’s the recovery plan? If equipment goes down what’s the impact?” says Hénault, listing just a couple of scenarios that need to be pre-addressed.

Perhaps the biggest challenge facing Hénault, and one not too many logisticians are used to, is taking his products back. Return logistics will be a huge challenge when the Games are over because while things have been coming into Vancouver in smaller quantities and then deployed where they are needed, everything’s going to come back all at once when the Games are done. The 6000 square feet of space will no longer suffice.

“We’ll need about 10,000 square feet,” Hénault notes. “There’s a major element there. There’s not really business processes for re-deploying equipment, so we have to invent the processes from scratch, that’s really the challenge.”
All the fibre optic cable and cell phone towers put in place will remain in place, but Bell has shipped thousands of phones, two-way radios, and large pieces of equipment with patch chords, that will need to make their way back east. The items are meant to be refurbished and redeployed, but they’ll need to make it across Canada in near perfect condition for that to happen. And it’s not just enough to get the equipment back in one piece; it’ll have to be done in an environmentally friendly manner.
The Vancouver Olympics are being promoted as a sustainable Olympic experience and as many environmentally friendly products and processes are being used as possible.
“We have to look at being sustainable as a partner,” says Hénault. “What do they do with all that km of copper? We have to think about the redeployment and sustainability across the board.”
Forget having an overbearing supervisor, with potentially 70 percent of the world’s population watching Hénault and Bell know they’ll need to put on a gold-medal performance.

Olympic-sized operation

Getting all the venues ready and Vancouver prepared for the Winter Games, while trying to disrupt day-to-day life as little as possible, will be nothing short of a logistics miracle, and as the saying in Vancouver goes, “it’s business as unusual.”
Vanoc’s logistics team is focused on all physical materials to help set up the Games, but also ensuring the proper movement of goods coming from outside of the country get to where they need to be. The scope of the task includes:

• 85 countries
• 6100 athletes and officials
• 10,000 accredited media
• 55,000 Games workforce
• 1,600 medical personnel
• 4,500 vehicles
• 1,100 network buses
• 5,800 athlete beds
• 90,000 m2 of tents
• 7,000 m2 of scaffolding
• 55,000 m2 of carpet
• 90 km of fencing
• 1600 port-a-potties
• 44,000 folding chairs
• 12,000 trash cans