Computers and the 2002 Olympics: Part 1

in this week's episode, Computer Chronicles goes behind the scenes in Salt Lake City to show the high-tech innovations that ran the 2002 Olympic Games. [Episode #1924, First broadcast: 02/26/2002] show segments In this first of a two-part special series, we show you how SchlumbergerSema, the overall IT Integrator, put together one of the most secure networks ever built, managed databases and integrated software at the 2002 Olympics. Bob Cottam, the Chief IT Integrator and Xavier Roig, the General Manger of Major events both for SchlumbergerSema explain how they built a massively redundant network on the side of a snow covered mountain, guaranteed its security and provided sub-second information throughout the network. Michael Fischer, the Regional IS Manager at the Utah Olympic Park talks about how the technology in Salt Lake City had to be 100% reliable and provided data at extreme speeds. The CIS, or Commentator Information System, made it possible for announcers to have athletes' data in synch with events as they were happening. And, Jason Durrant, the Director of System Testing for SchlumbergerSema, describes the difficulties of integrating software for different sports where each has their own rules and requirements. Then, Nick Harris, the Assistant Venue IS Manager for the Utah Olympic Park, talks about the constant upgrades, debugs and testing that was required to ensure there were absolutely no slippages in an event where second chances do not exist. We also see how techies were able to close the system at the Information Technology Center so that it was bulletproof and safe from hackers. Also, the network backbone at these games was Unix; Dan Smith, VP of Sales for Sun Microsystems, along with Dave Prestwich, Unix Team Manager for the Salt Lake Organizing Committee, describe the massive installation of Sun servers and data storage units. Bob Donohoo, Senior Network Engineer for IKANO, the data-networking supplier, tells the story of how they