Data Management at the Olympics

Content providers whose material is likely to be popular with attendees have been asked to strike a balance between the kind of material they want to offer and its impact on data usage.

"The BBC's iPlayer will adjust throughput speeds [affecting video quality] depending on the capacity available because the broadcaster is working with operators to control that," said Mr Newstead.x
"We have also encouraged developers including the creators of Locog's [London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games] official app to gather as much pre-loaded information as possible before the user arrives at the site."

Mobile phone and computer users are not the only ones using the wireless spectrum.

The Join In app is designed to download data before the user arrives Communications regulator Ofcom has licensed about 20,000 frequencies to allow:

• Broadcasters to use wireless cameras, microphones and talkback systems
• Olympic organisers to use wireless timing and scoring equipment
• Olympic officials, team members, support staff and emergency services to have reliable communication systems.

To secure capacity it borrowed spectrum from the Ministry of Defence and has used frequencies freed up by the switch-off of analogue TV signals.

 

It says it will also have between 30 and 40 staff on site at any one time to check users do not suffer interference from either each others' equipment or deliberate jamming by malicious parties.

It also has spare frequencies that it can hand out to mitigate any problems.

cleaver eh!!!