2010 FIFA World Cup: International Broadcasting Centre (JHB)

[Mo Rush]

In anticipation of the 2010 subsection.






IBC construction set to begin

By Siyabonga Africa Posted: 26th September 2008Construction will begin on the 2010 FIFA World Cup international broadcasting centre (IBC) early next year, with plans to complete the 30 000m2 media hub by March 2010.
Situated next to the main stadium, Soccer City, at Nasrec, in the south of Johannesburg, the IBC will also be equipped with its own power source – a 1 000kva diesel generator – to ensure it is not affected by any disruptions to the national power grid.

Phumlani Moholi, 2010 FIFA World Cup local organising committee (LOC) chief IT and telecoms officer, says the IBC will be considerably smaller than the one used at the recent Olympic Games, in China, which covered an area of 72 000m2.

Moholi says the IBC command centre, at Ellis Park, is ready to be connected to Telkom's fibre optic backbone. The command centre will be the centre of operations during next year's Confederations Cup, which is widely seen as a practice run for the FIFA World Cup finals, in 2010.

The Confederations Cup will only need between 2Gbps and 5Gbps capacity, while the World Cup event will use up to 40Gbps.

Telkom group executive for multinational customers Thami Magazi confirms that, for the 10 stadiums being built for 2010, FIFA requires 40GB cabling capacity, where 20GB will go live during the tournament and 20GB will be used as failover.

Power hungry

FIFA's Green Goal legacy report for the 2006 World Cup, held in Germany, says the IBC consumed more than 1.9 million kilowatts of power and 660 000 litres of diesel during four weeks. FIFA states that the German IBC also covered more than 30 000m2 of land and housed 15 TV studios that operated around the clock.

According to Moholi, the IBC's R700 000 generator will be commissioned in March 2010, giving the broadcasting nerve centre enough electricity to power it for 24 hours a day, over 31 days.

“The IBC will have its own dedicated and isolated power source. The LOC and the Department of Minerals and Energy are working together on this project,” he explains.

Moholi explains the generator is needed to ensure the IBC will be able to run without any disruptions that might occur on the national power grid. “If you really think about the IBC, it is a critical component in the World Cup, because without it, the rest of the world will not be able to watch the games through video feeds and such.”

[Mo Rush]

Fifa happy with 2010 broadcast plan

By Paul Vecchiatto Posted: 4th November 2008
Television viewers of the 2010 Soccer World Cup are expected to outnumber physical spectators by a ratio of 1:10 000, but tournament organiser Fifa is confident the broadcasting infrastructure will be in place.

Scheduled for July 2010, the country is expecting three million visitors during the four weeks of the World Cup. While there are still concerns over transport infrastructure and accommodation, Fifa says the broadcasting system is all but sown up.

Niclas Ericson, director of Fifa's TV division, says Fifa, along with the Local Organising Committee, Telkom and the Department of Communications, meet regularly on the telecommunications committee to discuss progress.

“We bring our experts, and they bring theirs and there is a good working relationship between all parties.”

Ericson says the upgrade of Telkom's core infrastructure, to meet the broadcasting requirements, would be finished by March next year. He also believes increasing the capacity of the Telkom SAT-3 undersea cable would enhance international connectivity for transmitting the signal out of the country.

Crucial capacity

The international capacity will be crucial during the scheduled three kick-off times of 1.30pm, 4pm and 8.30pm daily.

“We are also pleased to see there is progress in the completion of other undersea cable projects and that the second [Sentech] satellite station will also be completed,” he says.

The requirements for fibre-optic lines with a 20GBps capacity from the 10 stadiums where the matches will be played to the international broadcasting centre, in Johannesburg, will also be in place once the venues are completed.

“All the venues are on track for completion within the required time period,” he notes.

Each venue will have a minimum of 24 high-definition TV cameras and a number of extra cameras, such as “spider cameras”, and 3D tracking, all of which makes for demanding editing requirements, Ericson says.

Free-to-air

Speaking during an event hosted by communications equipment group Ericsson, in Cape Town yesterday, Ericson said Fifa was ahead of schedule in tying up its free-to-air contracts, with the last country, Nigeria, expected to sign a contract shortly.

Fifa wants a minimum of 22 of the 64 matches to be free-to-air. Pay-TV packages will include pre-match interviews and real-time information statistics, such as how many kilometres a player has run on the field.

“We need the pay-TV broadcasters' participation, because free-to-air stations don't necessarily have the capacity to devote as much time to match interviews,” Ericson says.

Fifa also plans to make as much use as possible of non-linear broadcasting – broadcasting media outside of traditional radio and TV. This will include extensive use of the Internet and digital video broadcast – handheld – the receiving of images on a mobile phone.

Ericson says Fifa has held discussions with the African Union of Broadcasters that will result in this coming World Cup being used as a training event to improve the standard of sports journalism.

[waltjie]

Can someone PLEASE plant some grass on those minedumps.....!!!!!

[annman]

Agreed!!! Jo'burg's northern suburbs are not unattractive, but having those hideous mine dumps next to the premier 2010 venue is just unacceptable... Makes Jozi look crappy, when most of it actually isn't!
Do what Waltjie says please!!!

[www.6000.co.za]

Originally Posted by waltjie

Can someone PLEASE plant some grass on those minedumps.....!!!!!

It won't grow. Toxic soil.

We'll have to use vast swathes of artificial grass, which will also serve as a "green screen" so they can have the correspondants standing in front of an image of Table Mountain for their reports.

[Durbsboi]

Mine dumps?

[annman]

Think that image is looking from NASREC/Soccer City northwards towards Brixton (Sentech Tower in background); Not towards the south where the mine dumps and slimes dams are located.

[Durbsboi]

I know, lol I took it, was just joking. There is one to the left of that picture.

[Hunterdry]

toxic soil? i never knew about that. What caused toxic soil?

[annman]

The process of removing gold from the Witwatersrand ore utilises very "environmentally unfriendly" chemicals. The process is huge, but thus leaves the left over ore after extraction and the sludge in the slimes dams quite toxic.

[dysan1]

yummy

[Lydon]

Nothing like a good pile o' sludge.

[annman]

I'm not even going to post what I posted two weeks ago (elsewhere where it's safe), regarding Cape Town City Council's Councilor for Planning's comments on the Cape Town IBC and why Cape Town is doing it...
Could cause a massive toyi-toyi.

Just really hope thet landscape the NASREC/Soccer City premises like crazy, and if the Johannesburg City Council's tree orders from "Just Trees" in Paarl is anything to go by, it should look decent.

[Dames]

Toxic soil? ew...

Originally Posted by waltjie

Can someone PLEASE plant some grass on those minedumps.....!!!!!

You know what they say about putting lipstick on a pig?

[annman]

Originally Posted by Dames

You know what they say about putting lipstick on a pig?

Ummmmm.... You'll still die of imPalin to the brain?!

[Mo Rush]

Johannesburg IBC bid

Floor space proposal

[t-bang!]

they better get skilled technicians on this. i wont handle the ambarrasment.

[Mo Rush]

Originally Posted by t-bang!

they better get skilled technicians on this. i wont handle the ambarrasment.

how would it be different to any other world cup project?

The IBC provides space to be used by the media, fifa, broadcasters etc. The LOC provides the technology and services. I'm not sure I understand your point.

[RavenX]

LOC + Telkom = ???

That's t-bang's point

By the way, Mo, any word on your end about the LOC's in-fighting? It makes for interesting reading.

Cheers

RavenX

[Mo Rush]

Originally Posted by RavenX

LOC + Telkom = ???

That's t-bang's point

By the way, Mo, any word on your end about the LOC's in-fighting? It makes for interesting reading.

Cheers

RavenX

too many ego's.