The world has its eyes on Beijing for the 2008 Summer Olympics — especially at work.
On Monday, the first full workday after the official opening of the games Friday, Nielsen Online reports more than 2 million people visited the video section of NBCOlympics.com, up nearly 140 percent from Sunday when the site had about 858,000 visitors.
Overall visits to the site increased 40 percent to 4.6 million compared with Sunday’s 3.3 million.
Traffic to Yahoo’s Olympics site also skyrocketed, up 86 percent to 5.2 million visitors compared with Sunday’s 2.8 million.
Meanwhile, half a world away, Denver is preparing for an influx of some 50,000 people for the Democratic National Convention, August 25-28th.
Qwest, the Official Telecommunications Provider of the DNC, is providing an aggregate data capacity of about 50 Gbps. Qwest installed video equipment with capacity to handle 130 simultaneous video feeds at both the Pepsi Center and INVESCO Field at Mile High stadium using some 3,344 miles of single strands of fiber and 140 miles of single strands of copper and coaxial cable. Qwest added approximately 2,600 additional data lines and 3,400 voice grade circuits to serve both venues to more than 5,000 delegates and some 15,000 members of the media.
All cellular carriers have been upgraded their cellular service in Denver. Sprint has installed additional iDEN and CDMA cell equipments and bi-directional amplifiers at more than 25 hotels in downtown Denver and at the Airport. Sprint’s Network Operations Center (NOC) will monitor the site and has partnered with other telecommunications service providers to outfit the Multi-Agency Communications Center (MACC), a 24-hour communications hub and the brainchild of the United States Secret Service.
Verizon Wireless is beefing up its infrastructure in Denver. The company said on Wednesday that it has added three permanent cell sites to downtown Denver and also plans to install a mobile “cell-on-wheels.” Upgrades at specific cell sites have doubled voice capacity in the city and increased data-handling capacity four-fold.
In-building coverage has also been enhanced with signal boosters and repeaters in a number of hotels, parking garages, and other convention sites. Verizon will also be providing backup microwave facilities and a 24-hour emergency operations center during the convention.
Vertigo Software designed the interface for delivering live, gavel-to-gavel, high-definition (HD)-quality video through the official Convention Web site. Like the 2008 Summer Olympics, it will use Microsoft’s Silverlight.
Research In Motion (RIM) is the Official Smartphone Solutions Provider of the four-day event, providing BlackBerry smartphones with a Rapid Reach Directory, an application specially-designed for the Democratic National Convention that allows Convention planners to connect with one another.
DISH is the Official High Definition Satellite Television Service Provider and will carry coverage on available Channel 211. The DNC’s “Countdown to America’s Future,” is a series of daily webcasts about the 2008 Democratic Convention, to be broadcast on DemConvention.com, Comcast’s Video On-Demand (VOD) and via satellite.
Both Denver and St. Paul, where the Republican National Convention will be held Sept. 1-4, are enlisting thousands of additional police officers to help with security. Even so, their numbers will be only about a third of the 10,000 police officers that New York City fielded for the 2004 Republican convention, just three years after the Sept. 11 attacks.
CBSNews.com and CNET are partnering to produce live, Web-only shows at both conventions. From 10 p.m. to 11 p.m. EDT, Katie Couric will host a live Webcast, analyzing the day’s events along with the CBS political team and other special guests.
