Olympics diary: Super Saturday and the wrap-up

Claude Philipps, chief technology integrator for Olympics IT partner Atos Origin, is keeping a diary of his Olympics experience exclusively here on silicon.com. See the first instalment and second instalment. Here, in his final report, he updates us on how the systems survived Super Saturday, unusual helpdesk requests and preparing for Torino in 2006.

Day 15 - Saturday 28 August

I am on the day shift, so am at the Technology Operations Center (TOC) from 7am. With eight athletic finals taking place at the main stadium, we are calling it Super Saturday. From an IT perspective, though, it is nowhere near as busy as last weekend.

In fact as the end of the Games draws closer, with the busiest days of sport events in the past, sports competitions concluding each day and a number of venues already closed, it would be easy to lose our focus and concentration. We can't afford to do that. For us, the Athens 2004 Olympic Games will end with the final curtain of the Closing Ceremony. Until then, we have to be alert and ready to deal with any scenario that might affect the critical IT systems that support the Games.

I am pleased to say the systems have been running extremely well. However, there are always issues we need to deal with. So far during the Games, 5,500 tickets have been logged with the helpdesks across all competition venues, ranging from a jammed printer to an athlete's name having been entered into the system incorrectly.

A couple of days ago, we received a call from the boxing venue just hours before the competition was due to begin, alerting us to a problem in the results systems that at first glance seemed serious. A specialist was sent immediately to the venue and quickly identified the problem. The time settings had changed on the results systems from the 24-hour to the 12-hour clock and this was affecting the results format. The incident was resolved in less than 20 minutes - well in advance of the start of the competition.

The IT security team has continued to receive a number of alerts - some of them quite innocent. Earlier this week, a 10-year-old boy was found trying to access one of the computer terminals at the tennis centre. He didn't get very far thanks to the monitoring technology.

The second week is definitely easier for the whole team and we are able to really enjoy being part of the Olympics. We have time to see some of the sport events as well as a little bit of time to enjoy the Athens sun. Yesterday, I managed to get to the Modern Pentathlon, a multidiscipline event consisting of five events that take place over one day of competition: air pistol shooting, fencing, swimming, show jumping and running. As a sponsor of Georgina Harland, we have a special interest and were delighted to see her win the bronze medal.

Day 16 - Sunday 29 August

Today is the final day of the 2004 Olympic Games and I am going to be spending most of it at the TOC. There are 102 events, including tonight's Closing Ceremony, which means I will have time to ensure that everything is in order for the final teardown tomorrow - we have around 20 venues to take down. I also have to set everything up for tonight's big job. By 8am tomorrow, we have to supply the Athens Organising Committee with 37 CDs - one for each Olympic sport - containing the results of every sports event that has taken place since the Games began on 13 August.

Tonight at the Closing Ceremony, we will be providing live information to the broadcasters in the main stadium and at the International Broadcasting Center via the Commentary Information Systems (CIS). This will help them bring the ceremony to 3.9 billion TV viewers around the world. CIS is a browser-based application that is more usually used to display results on touch-screen PCs, in less than 0.3 seconds, so broadcasters know who won before they hear the roar of the crowd.

Epilogue - Monday 31 August

Well, the Games are over. It's been a success professionally as well as a fantastic personal experience. Despite this being my third Olympics Games - I first began working on the Games in Sydney in 2000, when Sema, now known as Atos Origin, was a sub-contractor - nothing quite prepares you for a project as high-profile and time-consuming as the Olympics suddenly ending.

Although for us, it isn't quite over. The final competition venues are taken down today. The big one is the stadium, where alone we have 400 PCs, six servers, 180 CIS monitors and around 40 INFO 2004 terminals. All are sent to the PC factory, where all the Games-specific software will be erased before some are rebuilt to be used in the Paralympics, which begin on 17 September.

By 5pm, the teardown is completed and the whole team meets at the Panathinaiko Stadium for a group photo before heading off to a Greek taverna to celebrate the end of the Games.

It's my last day in Athens. I'll be sad to leave. Tomorrow, I fly to Torino to join the team working on the Torino Winter Olympic Games in 2006. The first test events will take place in less than six months. I am looking forward to a new city, a new culture and a new challenge.