2 Months in Torino

Good evening. Sorry for not posting too much lately. Things have become VERY busy around these parts. Right now it is just after 10pm local time and I have been "at work" since 7 am. I would love to post a bunch of photos & give you an update on all sorts of stuff, but I just can't be arsed (tonight). Also, my connection at the hotel is VERY slow tonight.

However, things are going well for the most part. This morning was an early start becuase of the Broadcast and Technical Manager's (BM's and TM's) seminar out at the Field Shop (our logistics warehouse on the outskirts of town) that started at 8:30 am. The seminar was to provide an update on the last month and a half of progress in Torino. Better stated...to provide an update on the LACK of progress. In otherwords, manage expectations. It's going to be tough. Things are not ready and getting our job done is going to be tougher then at past games. But I digress...

Following the seminar, I headed to the mountains and visited a few of the "compounds" at venues. A compound is our behind-the-scenes area where we set up our offices, stage our equipment, eat our lunch, edit and broadcast shows. It was an absolutely beautiful day up there. The recent snowstorm dumped nearly 3 feet of snow, but today was bright and sunny. (Perhaps I'll post photos tomorrow.)

I also rented my skis, boots, poles and helmet. Nice. I need to go back to the mountains tomorrow, and I think I may get a chance to use them in the afternoon. The BM's and TM's at the Alpine venues want to check out camera positions, so they invited me along :) At 7 pm, I have a short meeting at one of the mountain-area hotels followed by an dinner/beer invite from a few BM's in the area. When it's all wrapped-up I'll arrange for a motol pool ride or Olympic Transport bus back to the big city.


Despite all of this, I do miss home. It's a good job, but home is better.

Thanks for visiting.

I haven't much chance to post over the past few days. This past Sunday was a working day (as predicted), but it was "work lite". Only 7 or 8 hours. So, no walks around Torino. No interesting photos.

It has stopped snowing and started raining. Should clear up soon.

Gotta run.

This is great. The snow is still falling. It's not falling fast, but it is not expected to stop until Sunday. The Torinese are having a bit of a freak-out (as it hasn't snowed like this in the city for 9 years), and their driving skills reflect this reaction.

Story of the day is snow. Finally. When I left my hotel this morning it was trying to snow. About 30 minutes later large, fluffy flakes were everywhere and it was starting to stick. It has been at or close to zero celcius for the last few days, so it didn't melt when it hit the ground.

When I made it to the office, I took at look at the mountain webcam (here) and saw that it was bright and sunny! Very frustrating. We don't need snow in the city, we need it in the mountains. A few hours later, the skies (according the webcam) darkened and soon the pictures were nothing but clouds. Hopefully there was a lot of snow in them clouds.

Of course, with the snow comes slippery surfaces. With slippery surfaces comes sore assess. I watched a few people slip and fall on the snowy cement and I heard that the Technical Manager for the Host Broadcaster at one of the Alpine venues slipped and is now wearing a sling. I am bracing for a flood of injuries.

Tomorrow is an early day. I am geting up at 5:30 am to prepare for a brief training session at the Media Village (accomodation site) with 35 people. The meeting is at 7 am.

Good night.

Perhaps tomorrow I'll find my photos showing why the compound at the Sestriere Colle is so damn dangerous with even the slightest bit of snow or rain. You'll be amazed at the stupidity of what the host has provided for compound ground cover. Think: 1000 m2 on the side of a slight hill, covered with shiny metals plates. It's a recipe for sore coccyges (plural for coccyx or ass bone).

Kevin Kaufman forwarded this URL to a few of us regarding NBCU's lackluster performace lately: http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117936555?categoryid=18&cs=1&nid=2562 . 

As for the Olympics...

"Also in the quarter, all eyes will be on NBC's Olympics coverage. Or so NBC hopes -- the company is gambling on a large public appetite for the Winter Games and will air more than 400 hours of coverage across broadcast and cable.
In the call, GE chief financial officer Keith Sherin estimated the Torino Games would bring in additional revenue of $50 million-$100 million, a relatively small amount. But he predicted that the 2008 Beijing Summer Games, for which the net got an earlier start, could bring in as much as $1 billion in revenue."

That's right.  $1 Billion.

Good news! I didn't have to work afterall. I was on my way back to the hotel to grab quick bite and head over to the stadium when I received a call saying that no one wanted to climb to the roof of the stadium.

Before the call, I was walking around downtown Torino for 2 hours. It was easily 10 degrees C and very sunny. A beautiful Sunday for my last day off until March.

p.s. Let me know what you think about the Flickr photo hosting.

Today is LOCK DOWN at the IBC! Sounds like a cheesy movie title (like this, this, or THIS). Actually it is a security procedure that is performed by the host (TOROC) for every Olympic venue. On lockdown day, the facility or area is emptied of virtually everyone and systematically swept for ... I don't know what exactly. I'm sure they are searching for explosives, weapons, bio-chemical threats. What else? I'm not exactly sure. This involves opening every single drawer and having dogs sniff the entire place. They also open sewer lids and then weld them shut.

(Is it "lockdown"? Lock down? Lock-down? LOCK DOWN!!! is best I think.)

Following lockdown, the venue will have full security measures in place including armed guards, very limited access, as well as "mag and bag". Mag and bag refers to the metal detector and bag/luggage/equipment security check that we must go through everytime we enter ANY olympic facility. It's like going through airport security several times a day.

In Athens is was actually pretty good. The lines were never too long, and the security guards generally seemed like that gave a damn. We shall see how it goes in Torino. It is going to be pretty cold taking off our jackets each time we enter a venue/facility. I'll take a photo of the tents that are set up outside of the IBC, but I'm not sure I'll be able to take a picture inside the tent without having a gun pointed at me. gulp.

As for the day off...the IBC needs to be practically empty. The only people inside are those that are accompanying the security teams. Today is likely the last day off (for 99% of us) until the end of the games.

I have to work for about an hour today. The Director of Venue Ops and our Director Production (Bucky Gunts, he won a primetime emmy for his work on the Athens ceremonies) want to go on the roof of the Olympic stadium to check-out camera positions. The access to the roof is more than a bit dodgy, so they need to wear fall protection. I am going to meet them and teach them how to wear the stuff and what do. It's just an hour, no big deal.

(Do a quick search for Bucky Gunts on Google. There is a good clip where he is mentioned by Ricky Gervais on The Daily Show. His real name is Brent. Everyone loves the guy at work, I just met him yesterday.)

Good morning, I was hunting around blogger.com & decided to do a search for "NBC Torino working" "IBC Olympics Torino" etc. etc. I found a couple of other blogs of NBC'ers in Torino. One of them even works in my office!

(Disclaimer: I really can't be responsible for the content of their blogs. I had a look and it's all pretty innocent.)

• http://serenity-now.blogspot.com/ - Laura works in the same office as I do, as an intern for Venue Ops. Not a lot of posts yet, but watch this space.
• http://www.flickr.com/photos/peaches206 - Laura's pictures are here.
• http://spaces.msn.com/members/torino06/ - I don't know this guy, but I'm sure I have passed him in the IBC. Some interesting pictures of the Media Village (called Riberi) and around the IBC.

Wow.  The day that I posted that huge diatribe/ego-fest, I received a good number of website hits.  Ever since then, people have been staying away in droves.  I've learned my lesson.  I'll stick to pretty pictures.  ;)

Good morning. I thought I'd take some time to outline what I actually do with the Olympics group. As I you may have heard me say before; working for NBC at the Athens games was the hardest I've ever had to work yet the most fun I've ever had working. Sounds a bit cliché but true.

This time (in Torino), will likely be more of the same. So far it's more fun because of the group that I'm sitting/working with: Venue Operations. Venue Ops is made up of 5 permanent NBC Olympics employees, 1 Intern and a Runner. They work their asses (sp?) off and have a great time. I'm very lucky to be stuck with them. (Or are they stuck with me?)

It will be more work (not too bad yet) because I am much more integrated in the overall operations of the entire business. I am being brought in to more meetings, asked for my opinion on more issues and more people know who I am am/why I'm there.

Just like in my regular job, I report through the "operations" segment of the business, but need to support all functions (engineering, production etc.). So I'm used to that. My manager (Sr. VP of Ops) is a big supporter which makes it easier to get people's attention and get things done. This is mainly due to the fact that my manager has made it very clear to other VP's & Directors why I am on-site. (I am getting a lot fewer people saying: "are you that safety guy from GE?" than I did in Athens.)

So what do I do, other than visit venues and take pictures of cool stuff?

• Monitor operations - I walk thru the IBC quite a bit to try to spot hazards and bad practices, and correct them whenever I can. Our activity with the highest risk is use of scissor lifts, by employees, contractors & sub-contractors. The first few days were spent constantly reminding workers to stay INSIDE the lift or stop working. They are getting better, but now they are using the lifts in areas with a lot of pedestrian traffic (hallways etc.), so I am worried about people getting run-over or getting hit by falling tools. I'd block-off the areas, but then no one could get to where they need to go. It's a balancing act.
• Deliver training - this morning (7 am) was the first Hotel Warden training session. We are going to repeat this for every hotel, venue and at the IBC. Overall we must have over 100 wardens.
• Review equipment installations - some departments ask me to take a look at equipment/systems that are being installed. The most recent review was in the kitchen that is almost ready. The kitchen needed to be installed in a large tent attached to the building, so it needed heat. The heaters had to be re-installed at ground level because they weren't providing enough warmth at ground level. They were worried about installing on the ground because of the risk of fire or burn injuries. (I think we found some good placements so the workers are neither burned nor frost-bitten.)
• Assess high hazard areas - the camera crews and cabling crews often need to work at height (above 1 m), and are asked to access some questionable platforms/walkways etc. Today I will be visiting the Main stadium to check out some areas that the Sr. Technical Manager (ours) thought might be dangerous. Happily, I am here a month earlier than last time. I actually have a chance at getting them fixed before we need to use access them.
• Accident Investigation - nothing to investigate. So far...

Alright. That's enough for now. I'd love to post some pictures of the dodgy (sp?) stuff that I have seen, but it might not be such a good idea to share them on the internet. :)

jay

The "Oval" is fantastic, but the pictures don't really do it justice. I am going to try to get some new ones before the events start. This is one of the very few completely new venues built for the Olympics. Most venues are located in pre-existing structures that have been refurbished for use during and after the games.

There is approximately 26,500 square metres under roof. The track frozen for the rink measures 400 metres in length x 12.60 metres in width. The stands can hold up to approximately 8,500 spectators (there will be 2,000 seats in the post-Olympic layout).



The Olympic Stadium is also an existing structure. According to the Torino 2006 website:

Temporary stands will be erected for the ceremonies to raise the capacity of the stadium from 26,000 to 35,000 spectators. There will be two thousand million spectators watching live around the world.
The ex Stadio Comunale was built in the Thirties of the last century and was used as a football stadium up until the end of the Eighties by Torino Calcio and Juventus FC. The stadium is owned by Torino Calcio and has been completely renovate with the addition of a new roof over the stands and by a third ring suspended from the new structure.

The actual rink is 30x60 m.
Venue also contains a second training rink. It holds almost 8,500 spectators. The top teams (i.e. Canada, USA, Russia, Sweden etc.) will play all of their games here and will host the Olympic Opening & Closing Ceremonies.

Designed by Arata Isozaki of Tokyo.

Photos 3 & 4 are me at center ice, at least what is going to be center ice soon enough. I always hoped I would be at center ice at the Olympics, I just didn't know it would work out this way. Either way, I'll take it.

The last photo is the dressing room for Team Canada taken from a window in the door. All of the other teams will rotate dressing rooms throughout the competition schedule but Team Canada gets their own room because they are the reigning gold medalists.

Remember to click the photos to see them full-size.

Hello again. Monday morning was the City Venue tour and once again I was able to visit some interesting places and snap some interesting photos. The "scenery" wasn't quite the same, but some of the buildings were great. Click 'em to see them full size.

...damn. My 'net connection in the hotel is not very good tonight. I will have to upload them tomorrow. Sorry!

Hello. Not to be negative, but the photos from Friday don't exactly paint the right picture. The mountains need more snow. Where they can produce artificial snow, there is loads (as it has been quite cold). However on downhill events, there is not enough snow. I was talking to a couple of "cable crew" guys who were working on the mountain. They said that the skis runs are generally very icy and not a lot of fun for recreational skiers.

Pray for snow. We are expecting some today and tonight. We shall see. Check here to see any improvement.

Along with the scenery, the mountain venues themselves were pretty cool. I ended up taking a bunch of photos of boring work-related stuff (like generators, cabines, and compounds) but haven't included them here.

Here are a few of the venue pics that I have. Click'em to make them bigger.


Building the half-pipe in Bardonnechia.


Snow-making at the Snowboard-cross course at Bardonnechia.



Slalom course at Sestrie



Bumps at Pragelato. I think this is going to a fantastic (but cold) night event. The Aerial jumps are off to the right. Forgot to get a shot.


The start of the Bobsled run at Cesane Pariol.

More soon!

During the tour of the mountain venues today, I couldn't help taking some pictures of the scenery around Sestriere. We visited a number of towns and villages (as the events are spread throught the area) including Bardonecchia , San Sicario, Cesana Torinese , Sauze d'Oulx , Pragelato, & Sestriere. It was an unbelievably beautiful day. Sorry, I don't know the names of the mountains or peaks in these pictures.

All of these locations are just over an hour outside of the City of Torino. Here's a useful pdf map to put into perspective.

(Click on the photos to see them fullsize!)

Gus sent me this article link a few days ago.  Just something to take a look at until I get these photos posted.  Should happen in the next couple of hours.

http://edition.cnn.com/2006/TRAVEL/DESTINATIONS/01/11/turin.tourism.ap/index.html


     jay 

We are in the car in the mountains on a perfect day. Today is the mountain venue tour and the sun is shining, zero clouds and no haze. This evening I should have loads of photos to post.

This is the great part of my job.

jay

The IBC is being hosted in a Convention Center called Lingotto Fiere. It is also service as the MMC (Main Media Center). Link

Until today, life here has been pretty quiet.  Some work to do, but certainly not loads. 

Today we had our first Operations meeting (my dept.) and I was able to hear about open issues from about 20 people in attendance.  Everything form accreditation, staging, catering, staffing etc. etc. etc.  When it was all said and done, I had a page worth of notes/questions/things to follow-up.

Lots of issues with fall protection (for work over 1 m without railings), emergency exits, accomodation readiness, accidents (nothing major happily) and contractors smoking inside.  The good news is that the overall condition of the IBC is much better than in Athens.  This place is simply built better.  Better construction quality with a little bit of natural light makes a world of difference.

Tomorrow (Friday) will be my first tour of the venues.  We are going to the mountains to get a quick look at each location.  I have no idea how we will get it done in just one day as there is a lot of ground to cover.  Monday we will be doing a venue tour at the "city" venues.  This would seem to indicate that I have the weekend off.  Not true.  Saturday will likely be a full day (just 8 hours) and I am going to try to take Sunday off (or mostly off).  No one gets a day off, so I don't feel bad about it.

The price gouging has begun.  There is a cafeteria ("auto grill") in the IBC, so I decided to check it out with some people from our catering department as our Commissary is not open yet.  Wow.  I paid 16 EUR ($19 USD) for soup, salad, cheese and prusciutto.  Good lord.  The worst part is that it wasn't very good.  Oh well.  I have been living pretty cheaply until today.

I will hopefully have some photos to post tomorrow.

On my way to work today I saw banners.  Looking better already.  :)

At lunch today, four of us were discussing the seeming lack of "Olympic look" to the city. By that I mean there are not many banners, signs, flags etc., which is a shame for at least 2 reasons:

• the "look" of the games (logos) are fantastic
• no sense the city is excited about the event

Take a look at the Torino 2006 logo here and the official poster here. The medals are not my favorite, but not bad.

I arrived in Athens about 2 and a half weeks before the opening ceremonies and logos were EVERYWHERE. Maybe I'm here too early. Someone also mentioned that the Committee didn't sign a deal related hanging to posters/flags/banners until late December.

Sportnet.ca has an interesting article on the issue here. Some of the good lines:

• "Aside from plenty of steel scaffolding, colourful cranes and piles of dirt, it's tough to tell that in a matter of weeks the Winter Games will be coming..."
• "Right now, however, the Olympics are one of the best-kept secrets in sports - even in Italy."
• "Whether it's because of the focus on soccer, the lack of a home-grown star, a penchant for last-minute planning, or Turin natives' reputation for being reserved - all cited by Games officials - there's a decided lack of buzz up and down Italy's boot."

I spend a lot of time "in the field" but it is definitely helpful to have a homebase. In Athens, the Manpower (staffing/scheduling) department took pity on me and gave me a desk in their office. Much better than sitting on a couch in the hallway.

In Torino, I sit with the Manpower & Venue Services group (at my very own desk). It makes sense because I work very closely with these 2 teams. The office is in the International Broadcast Center (IBC).

What is the IBC? In simple (read Jay) terms, it is a big TV station/broadcast facility that is built to allow us to be on the air for 17 days. Here's a few interesting notes:

• overall size of the Torino NBC IBC is (similar to Athens – 75,000 sq. ft.) to support the programming needed for the Torino 2006 Winter Games
  
• the 3rd largest broadcast production facility for NBC, rivaling the New York and Burbank facilities
• arguably the largest operating HD facility in the world for 17 Days in February.
• The NBC IBC is assembled in less than 40 days, tested & debugged for 40 days, and then once fully operational, it is in use for 35 days. At the conclusion of the games, the IBC is totally dismantled in 10 days and stored until needed for the next games
  

Couldn't go to the office this morning due to the fact that construction crews unearthed an unexploded WWII bomb. They uncovered the device while digging a tunnel a few days ago. Today they are trying to get it out of town. We have been asked to not got to the IBC (Intl. Broadcast Center) as it is quite close the construction and removal route.

ROUGHLY translated via Babelfish and my best guess, here are the details:

ANSA.it - Torino: dismantling a bomb, evacuates 6 thousand residents of Lingotto
Interruption of national train service from Lingotto at Porta Nuova station , cancels flights at Caselle airport (ANSA) - TORINO, 8 GEN -
To regulate the evacuation of the 6 thousand residents of the Lingotto [neighborhood], where the officials are removing weapon. It will be recovered from the construction yard of the new tunnel of Spezia highway to Turin. The operations will finish in the afternoon. Railway circulation is interrupted between the stations Lingotto and Porto Nuova , air traffic is also suspended at the [Torino's] . The flights will be able to resume from 17:00.

My apologies if I've screwed it up.

Here's the original: http://www.ansa.it/main/notizie/regioni/piemonte/news/2006-01-08_2299863.html

ANSA.it - Torino: disinnesco bomba, evacuati 6 mila residenti Lingotto: " Torino: disinnesco bomba, evacuati 6 mila residenti Lingotto
Interrotta Fs tra Lingotto e Porta Nuova, fermi voli Caselle (ANSA) - TORINO, 8 GEN - Regolare l'evacuazione dei 6 mila residenti del Lingotto, dove gli artificieri stanno mettendo in sicurezza un ordigno bellico. E' stato rinvenuto nel cantiere del nuovo tunnel di corso Spezia a Torino. Le operazioni termineranno nel pomeriggio. Interrotta la circolazione ferroviaria tra le stazioni Lingotto e Porta Nuova, sospeso anche il traffico aereo da e per l'aeroporto di Torino Caselle. I voli potranno riprendere dalle 17. (ANSA) "

Ski jacket

Pants & Gloves

Back Pack

This will be posted when I land and can connect to a network...

Wow, it is now 940 am CET and I think we are going to be on the ground within an hour. Not a bad flight so far.

The child with the blood-curdling shrieks has been blocked-out by my iPod.

The opportunity to expand the extremely limited list of movies that I've seen has gone unfulfilled. The movie was "Sky High". I decided to give it a miss. I think it was a Disney movie for 'tweens. It follows the adventures of some cookie-cutter kids during their time at Sky Team School. Its a school for superheroes (of course). Much hilarirty ensues as our group discovers their super powers and how to use them. (I am not sure if there was a "use-them-for-good-not-evil" conversation, so I cannot discuss the moral and/or ethical aspects of this film.)

I watched with one-eye simply to see Dave Foley and Kevin MacDonald (former Kids in the Hall). They looked funny but I can't confirm it.

Shortly after the crossword was complete (I worry that they give easier puzzles to people in coach), I thought it was time to sleep. Seeing as it was highly unlikely that I would be asked to operate heavy machinery, I took half an Ambien and a can of Stella Artois.

I managed to watch one episode of Seinfeld on DVD before sleeping for about 4 hrs. Nice.

I woke up long enough to see the attendant dropping-off my breakfast. I closed my eyes. I woke up just long enough to see the attendant remove my untouched breakfast. Damn.

I still feel weak like kitten. Ambien works too well.

Flying overthe Alps now. Probably Switzerland. Beautiful. Landing soon'ish.

Delta Flight 84 is on-time and boarding as we speak.

I am traveling all the way to Italy and I'm staying in a Best Western Hotel. The "Best Western Hotel Genova e Stazione", in fact. Take a look here and here. I've stayed there a couple of nights before on earlier trips. The rooms are very comfy, just a bit fugly. In an excercise in understatement, TimeOut Turin described the recent interior re-decorations as "a bit heavy handed".

However, the place is clean, comfortable and has wireless 'net access. And very close to nightlife. Not that I'm in to that sort of thing.

I stayed in a fantastic looking hotel when I was in Torino in November. I'm glad I am not staying there during the games as it is not near anything except for work. No bars, restaurants etc. Just a mall. We have malls here in the US. I'm not going to miss them in Europe. Also, most of the people I know/work with are at the BW. So that should be more fun.

Good morning. Today is the day. I'm off to Torino for 59 days with NBC Olympics. I'm dreading it because it is a long time to be away. Away from my wife, my home (more precisely, my bed), my local, and my real job. Also 2 or 3 days off in 2 months is a bit tiring.

However, who am I fooling? The chance to work at the Olympics, in Italy, in the Winter is fantastic. I will have a great time.

I'm not sure what I am going to do with this blog. Likely share some pictures, links and maybe some words.

Here are the first few links worth sharing:

• This webcam has some views from the locations where some of the "mountain events" are being held: http://www.vialattea.it/it/webcam.html
• Downtown Torino - http://www.comune.torino.it/telecamera/
  It doesn't all look like this. Torino is a lot like many other "industrial" urban centers. It's big, it's grey, and it certainly isn't all pretty. However, there are some beautiful parts. This is what you will see on TV.
• Torino 2006 - http://www.torino2006.org/