telecommunications for the vi olympic winter games, oslo 1952
TRANSCRIPT
Guest editorial, OlaToftemo ................................ 1
Norwegian Telecom and the XVII WinterOlympic Games at Lillehammer 1994 – a survey, Ola Toftemo ...................................... 3
Technical solutions, Jan Erik Svensson .............. 8
Construction of transmission network,Svein Egil Moen ................................................ 15
Satellite communications, Einar M Hemb ........ 21
Audio and video services, Rolf Sæther ............. 25
Cable-TV in the Olympic Network,Svein Egil Moen ................................................ 31
Contents
Telektronikk
Volume 91 No. 1 - 1995ISSN 0085-7130
Editor:Ola EspvikTel. + 47 63 80 98 83
Status section editor:Endre SkoltTel. + 47 63 80 92 11
Editorial assistant:Gunhild LukeTel. + 47 63 80 91 52
Editorial office:TelektronikkTelenor AS, Telenor ResearchP.O. Box 83N-2007 Kjeller, Norway
Editorial board:Ole P Håkonsen, Senior Executive Vice PresidentKarl Klingsheim, Vice President, ResearchBjørn Løken, Vice President, Market and Product Strategies
Graphic design:Design Consult AS
Layout and illustrations:Gunhild Luke, Britt Kjus, Åse AardalTelenor Research
Switching, Hjalmar A Hanssen ........................ 34
Mobile communication, Steinar Sandbu,Harald Fagermoen, Per Kolbjørn Bjørseth ...... 39
Datacom, Hjalmar A Hanssen .......................... 46
Pay phones, Hjalmar A Hanssen ...................... 51
Network operations and maintenance,Hans-Kristian Ringvold .................................... 56
International sales and marketing,Birger G Barli ................................................... 65
The VI Olympic Winter Games, Oslo 1952 ..... 71
Excellent telecommunicationswas a decisive factor in makingthe Lillehammer WinterOlympic Games 1994 availableto the world. When two billiontelevision viewers the world overturned on their sets on February12, 1994 at 1600 to watch theopening ceremony at Lilleham-mer, they expected telecommuni-cations solutions to functiondown to the smallest detail. Sodid 8,000 media people ready toreport live from the arenas andthe athletes’ achievements.
And responsible for all telecom-munications during the OlympicGames, comprising practicalconsultancy, supply of all equip-ment, installation, operation andmaintenance – was the Norwe-gian Telecom Group.
Our staff of over 700 people aswell as 50 hired experts werebusy handling the operation andserving the customers in the 16
days the Games lasted. The tech-nical personnel did an excellentjob keeping the various networksoperating: the computer network,the telephone network, satellitecommunications, ISDN and themobile network.
And throughout the 16 daysevent visitors, viewers all overthe world, athletes, media -people, customers, suppliers andco-operation partners experi-enced sporting excellence, publicrejoicing and perfect telecom-munications in excellent har-mony.
We expected first class sportachievements and first classtelecommunications. The latterwas our concern during the Win-ter Olympics 1994. It was atremendous challenge – but alsoa great experience. I hope youappreciate the technical solutionsdescribed in this volume ofTelektronikk.
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Guest editorial
B Y O L A T O F T E M O
Ola ToftemoProject Director, Lillehammer Olympic Games 1994
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From the opening ceremony on February 12, 1994
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The Olympic flame was lit by Crown Prince Haakon of Norway
Norwegian Telecom’s Olympic effortswere based on established technologyincorporating advanced and some-times new system solutions and ser-vices. Developments over the past 10years within satellite communications,optical fibre cables, digital switchingand mobile services, provided us witha very good basis for meeting the chal-lenges in flexibility, capacity and secu-rity.
The centre
The International Broadcasting Centre(IBC) in Lillehammer housed all the tele-vision companies producing picturesfrom the individual venues in the regionaround lake Mjøsa. The 26,300 squaremetres was the work place for over 4,000people from NRK ORTO ’94 (the hostbroadcaster), Norwegian Telecom, CBS,EBU and other broadcasting companiescovering all aspects of telecommunica-tions, broadcasting and other media ser-vices. In the centre of the building all“threads” were gathered before the finalproduct was transmitted via six uplink/downlink stations in Norway to 15 satel-lites 36,000 km over the equator, andfrom there down to viewers and listenersin some 70 countries around the globe.
Transmission
Optical fibre cables were laid from theradio and television centre to all the mainOlympic venues. For security reasonseach venue was connected via two
cables, each with sufficient capacity forhandling all the traffic in case of a fault.
Two fibre cables were also used for com-munication from Lillehammer to Oslo, andfurther on to other countries. The transmis-
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Norwegian Telecom and the XVII Winter Olympic Games at
Lillehammer 1994 – a survey
B Y O L A T O F T E M O
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International Broadcasting Centre (IBC)
sion of television pictures in particularrequired such a great capacity that it couldhardly have been done by other media thanoptical fibre transmission systems.
The new synchronous digital transmis-sion system (SDH) with a speed of2.5 Gbit/s was taken into use for the firsttime in Norway. The system offers acapacity of 16 television connections orsome 30,000 telephone channels perfibre. All signals (except cable-TV sig-nals) were digitized before transmission– even some 95 local/regional televisionchannels.
Cable-TV network
Norwegian Telecom was responsible fordeveloping a trunk network for cable-TV, while our daughter company TBKwas responsible for local distribution atthe venues and accommodation villages.This implied solutions based on opticalfibres and radio links with a capacity of24 channels to 23 destinations, as well asether distribution of cable-TV signalswith 8 channels in the IBC area.
Olympic Network
In order to alleviate communication be-tween the various Olympic partners –LOOC, the police, hospitals, athletes, themedia, etc. – a specific telephony solu-tion was established: the Olympic Net-work. A VPN network (Virtual PrivateNetwork) was installed by NorwegianTelecom and TBK, consisting of publicexchanges (Centrex lines) and PABXes(internal exchange lines) offering theusers a large degree of flexibility inchoice of service and user friendliness. Inthe course of the 16 days of the Olympicsa total of 12 million telephone calls weretransferred in the three Olympic ex-changes in Lillehammer. The OlympicNetwork was initially established toincrease efficiency of the Olympic com-munication but brought with it a conceptwhich may easily be transferred to thetelecommunications requirements ofbusiness and trade.
ISDN
During the Olympics ISDN had its debutin this country as a commercial service.Among others, ISDN was employed byNRK (Norwegian Broadcasting Corpora-tion) for interviewing athletes live usinga videophone, as well as by the press fornational and international data communi-cation.
Nearly 400 ISDN connections were sup-plied to customers like LOOC, thenational newspapers Dagbladet andAftenposten, and various broadcasting
companies, and for Norwegian Tele-com’s own use. We would particularlylike to mention that several customersfrom the Japanese press had advancedinstallations requiring ISDN solutions.
Another important service was our ISDNbased switchboards for Centrex use. Nor-wegian Telecom had a total of 14 ISDNswitchboards successfully operating – aservice which is new to us.
Mobile services
Mobile telecommunications played amajor part both in the communicationbetween the various Olympic partici-pants, and between Lillehammer and therest of the world. Never before havemobile telephones been used to such anextent as was seen in Lillehammer. Pag-ing with text was developed as an inter-nal communications network for theLillehammer Olympic Organizing Com-mittee – LOOC, and as part of the com-mon services from the Telecom Group.In addition, GSM was introduced – thenew European mobile telephony systemwhich offers the customer greater mobil-ity since he may use his GSM subscrip-tion wherever it is established, independ-ent of country boundaries. With GSMadded to the existing system, NMT, thecapacity for mobile communications wassix times larger than normal in the area.Total capacity in the Olympic region andalong the supply roads to/from Oslo wasover 2,200 mobile channels, with a distri-bution of one quarter NMT 450, onequarter GSM, and one half NMT 900.
During the Olympics about three millionmobile telephone calls were made in theLillehammer area.
The press terminal
Norwegian Telecom developed a tele-phone for the Olympics specificallyintended for the press. Journalists hadaccess from one and the same terminal towhatever telecom service they mightwish for, with a possibility to add on var-ious equipment from PC with modem tophoto transmitters. Payment was done byuse of prepaid cards or VISA cards in theactual telephone set. The terminal alsohad a display window which could offeruser assistance in six different languages.
A total of 1,000 terminals were located inall the press centres as well as in indoorpublic areas during the Olympics.
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The work of installing technical areas and thousands of permanent cables startedalready in 1992.
Security
In order to meet the strict demands tosecurity in our telecommunications solu-tions, we hired consultants to carry outthree different vulnerability studies withconsequent reports.
An exercise was carried out in connec-tion with a bigger test event called theTelehockey cup which confirmed that wewere well prepared to handle unexpectedsituations. But we also uncovered areaswhich were important to improve in thetime leading up to the Olympics.
Norwegian Telecom’s technical installa-tions and cable routes carrying vitalOlympic traffic were inspected to dis-cover possible weaknesses in security.We would like to mention, for example,that the cable route to Nittedal near Oslowas examined on foot in order to findany weak spots.
Norwegian Telecom was never subject tothreats of any kind during the Olympics.We had frequent contact with the Policefor updates on any development ofthreats, so that preventive measurescould be taken if necessary.
Surveillance, operation
and maintenance
All network administration and surveil-lance was carried out in Norwegian Tele-com’s Surveillance and Operating Centrefor the Olympics (DSOL), situated atIBC. This centre handled all the telecom-munications networks including LOOC’scorporate network supplied by TBK andTele-mobil’s mobile network. In addi-tion, a common fault notification servicewas established for all types of faults inprivate and public networks as well asequipment faults. In the preparationperiod leading up to the Olympics theservice was very busy with an average of100 reported faults per day. This numberwas quickly halved, after a week thenumber was reduced to 20, and the lastfew days it was below 10.
It was the first time in this country thatsurveillance and operation of all telecom-munication networks in an area weregathered on one floor – a concept whichproved very favourable with regard toacquiring a complete overview whenidentifying problem areas.
Norwegian Telecom Group employed atotal of more than 600 people during theGames. In the course of 1993 they wereall given training and particular experi-ence in connection with all the trial
events. The trial events helped us obtaina good knowledge of which areas wewere well prepared for and which areaswe had to concentrate more on. Thetraining emphasized customer handling,Olympic information, training in co-operative work, equipment know-how,technical solutions and various securityaspects. There were also elements of lan-guage training in English.
Sale and prices
The national and international sale oftelecom services for the Olympics startedtwo years before the event. Our own salespersonnel took care of the various typesof customers, like the national press,broadcasting companies, LOOC, nationalOlympic committees, etc. Through exten-sive contacts, both face-to-face and viapost and telephone, we achieved the
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Many cameras were designed to provide total views of the venues and the surroundings.
largest sale of telecommunications ser-vices for any Winter Olympic Games.
The prices of services and products forthe Olympics were stipulated on the basisof the extensive development and shortearning time. Thus, prices were higherthan “normal prices”, but lower than theprices charged by France Telecom duringthe Albertville Winter Olympics. Thepricing system was a progressive one; i.e.the nearer to the event the orders camein, the higher the prices were. Withorders being handled early, NorwegianTelecom would have an opportunity tooffer development as rational and costeffective as possible.
Teleservice
15 Teleservice centres were establishedin the Olympic region and in Oslo, themajority of them for the media at thevenues, in the Main Press Centre (MPC),at IBC and in the participants’ village inLillehammer. They were located in con-nection with common work rooms for thepress at each venue and were responsiblefor selling and hiring out various types ofequipment: mobile telephones, adapters,calling cards, telefax machines, etc. Inaddition, the centres handled new sub-scriptions and gave assistance in sendingtelefaxes. During the trial event the pre-vious year it became clear that many
needed assistance in transferring theirarticles to their newspaper’s main office.We therefore had technically skilled per-sonnel at the Teleservice centres whocould assist if need be.
Project management
The realization that telecommunicationswas an important prerequisite for a suc-cessful Olympics brought NorwegianTelecom into the planning process at anearly stage. Norwegian Telecom’sOlympic Project (TOP) was establishedas early as 1989, with a particularresponsibility for planning, co-ordinatingand following up Norwegian Telecom’stotal Olympic commitments. The projectorganization was kept as small as possi-ble with just over 50 people as a maxi-mum, while the regional and central basisorganization was largely responsible forthe operative planning and developmentin accordance with agreements madewith TOP. The total development, com-prising nearly 5,000 defined activities,was implemented with the help of a pro-ject management program for keepingtrack of costs, time schedules and person-nel resources. Such a tool is necessaryfor meeting requirements of quality, fol-low-up and time schedules in an eventlike the Olympics.
The project management program usedduring the installation was also used forthe dismantling period. More than 90%of the installed equipment was dis-mantled.
After-use
Norwegian Telecom, together with oursubsidiaries TBK and Tele-mobil, sup-plied overall telecommunications solu-tions for the Olympics. After theOlympics, the Norwegian TelecomGroup was left with experiences whichour customers could also benefit from,firstly in the form of
- Installations
- Experiences and skills within newtechnology, new services, project man-agement, quality assurance of overallsolutions and international sales
- A modern telecommunications net-work in the Olympic region
- A stronger telecommunications net-work to other countries
- Re-use of dismantled equipment.
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Technical solutions
B Y J A N E R I K S V E N S S O N
This article describes general aspects onmaster plans, security, project processand project tools, dismantling, logistics,instrumentation, quality securing, etc.
Other articles will have more detailedinformation on the technical equip-ment and solutions related to thisequipment.
1 Introduction
As telecommunication is the most impor-tant element for a successful modernsports event, it was a big challenge toproduce the right technical plan at theright time in a most cost-effective way.
The pre-planning period started just afew weeks after Lillehammer had beenawarded the XVII Winter Olympic
Games, and some conclusions werereached quite soon, like:
- Fibre and digital equipment to be usedinstead of micro-wave links
- Well-known systems with no youngertechnology than 1992 to be used
- Secure systems important
- Very high capacity necessary
- At least two transmission ways to/fromevery important venue were needed
- Requirement analysis had to be donebefore detailed technical plans andconstruction could start.
The basis for our requirement analysiswas earlier plans from Calgary,Barcelona and especially Albertville,
compared to special conditions in Lille-hammer like topography, “CompactGames”, and the fact that the WinterGames would be of great interest in theScandinavian countries.
The plans also aimed at allowing maxi-mum re-use of the equipment after theWinter Games.
2 Master plans
During the planning period five masterplans were published, based on corre-sponding requirement analyses. A num-ber of smaller technical groups workedwith details concerning plans for mobilesystems, switching systems, data sys-tems, transmission systems, traffic analy-sis and all types of terminals.
Cable-TVSub-end
Cable-TVDistribution
Circuit moduletie lines
Circuitmodule/publicexchange lines
Subscribermodule
PABXMod/comb
Videojack-field
To ORTO'Sdistribution
network
Cablesfrom
arena
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NORWEGIAN TELECOM'STECHNICAL ROOM
Auxiliary cable
Coax cablefor 2 Mb publicexchange lines
To LOOC'sdistribution
network
Local feed of cable-TV channels LOOC'S TECHNICAL ROOM
NRK ORTO 94CCR
NRK ORTO 94LDR
Norwegian Telecom's responsibility
Figure 1 Outline of interface between Norwegian Telecom, LOOC and NRK ORTO ’94 at IBC
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The plans described Norwegian Tele-com’s construction of layouts and instal-lations to be used during the Olympics.The Olympic region itself is limited geo-graphically from Kvitfjell in the north toHamar/Gjøvik in the south, a total dis-tance of nearly 100 km, but our plans andinstallations covered in all nearly 70technical rooms in the eastern and south-ern part of Norway.
At first, we only made plans for theOlympic venues and for the transmissionways to/from them, but as we realisedthat the normal infrastructure would alsohave a lot of installations (nearly 3,000subscribers), detailed plans were made inco-operation with Region East of Norwe-gian Telecom.
Early on in the process we also realisedthat it was very important to define thecorrect interface towards LOOC, NRKORTO ’94 and TBK. In the contractswith these partners, we therefore madesome interface outlines. The interfaceoutlines are shown in Figure 1 for IBCand Figure 2 for the other venues.
We also stressed the importance ofincluding in the contract with LOOCsome main items concerning power con-sumption, area fortechnical/logistic/relaxation/office use,area for telecommunication services andarea for Telecom cars and technical tow-ers. Table 1 shows details of these items.
2.1 Responsibility
Together with TBK, Norwegian Telecomhad the total responsibility for telecom-munications between all venues andto/from the rest of the world. For Norwe-gian Telecom this responsibility includedhigh-capacity construction of infrastruc-ture for TV pictures and sound, lines forradio commentary, normal subscriberlines, Olympic Network lines, ISDN,secure systems, satellite communications,cable-TV, mobile and paging, telex anddata communication, and all the mainte-nance systems. It also included installa-tion of the equipment for using theinfrastructure, including space in ordi-nary sites for Norwegian Telecom forradio base equipment for TBK, LOOC,the police, NRK ORTO ’94, etc.
Cable-TVDistribution
Circuit moduletie lines
Circuitmodule/publicexchange lines
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To ORTOsdistribution
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ROOM
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Coax cablefor 2 Mb publicexchange lines
To LOOC'sdistribution
network
Coax cable for local feed LOOC'S TECHNICAL ROOM
NRK ORTO 94CCR
NRK ORTO 94LDR
Norwegian Telecom's responsibility
KK toORTO
Cable-TVmodulator
DX rackHK/KK
Patchpanel
Cable-TVtransmitters
Figure 2 Outline of interface between Norwegian Telecom, LOOC and NRK ORTO ’94 at an Olympic arena
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2.2 Choice of equipment
As mentioned before, we had to chooseequipment that was technically well-known and in stable production in 1992.This applied to most of the equipment.But it was not so for the switching systemand for some of the broadcasting systemsconcerning the transmission parts.
The switching system was based on S-12delivered by Alcatel Telecom Norway inco-operation with Bell. Due to problemsin the new program package to be deliv-ered, we had a long and heavy way to gobefore the solutions were stable andworking well. Thanks to a fantastic effortand skilled persons it was successful, but
not until some days before the Gamesstarted. The delay concerning the broad-casting part was caused by the fact thatthe host broadcaster (NRK ORTO ’94)changed from analogue to digital produc-tion so late that we had some problemsordering equipment to match the newtechnical interface.
Arena/venue Technical area, NT MPC and SMC
m2/net Power (kW) Storeroom Operations Telecom Office Car park TowerUPS/prior. NT/LOOC room, NT service (m2) (No. of founda-
(m2) (m2) centre places) tion
Kvitfjell 55 7/19.9 50 15 50 15 5 X
Hafjell 55 3/10 50 15 50 15 5 X
Hunderfossen 60 3/8 60 5 35 20 5 X
IBC 585 28/53 60 180 60 12 X
IBC/Booking 140
IBC/Satellite 5000 250/0area
MPC/ 50 6/4 30 100 140 30 12Press centre
Olympic village 35 2/4 50 10 5
Håkons Hall 100 8/33.2 40 15 35 20 5 X
Kanthaugen 70 3/8 60 15 40 30 5
Abbortjern 6001) 83/0satellite
Abbortjern 70 13/19.9 50 20 35 15 5 X
Gjøvik Olympic 38 3/10 40 25 35 20 5 XCavern Hall
Hamar Olympic 45 3/8 40 20 35 15 5Hall
Hamar Olympic 50 3/8 50 20 35 15 5Amphitheatre
Ceremony/ 35 3/6 2Medal awards
Hamar/Media 35 3/6 50 10 2
Hafjell/Media 35 3/6 50 10 2 X
Storhove/Media 35 3/6 50 10 2
Nordseter/Media 35 3/6 50 10 2 X
Jorekstad/Media 35 3/6 50 10 2 X
Skeikampen/ 35 3/6 50 10 2 XMedia
IOC Hotel 20 0/3 30 10 2
Banken/ 10 0/3Maihaugen
LOOC 10 5/3
Police 3
1) Outdoor area
Table 1 Installations/arenas – area, power consumption, car parks and tower foundations
A main task for us was also to use identi-cal equipment in all technical rooms tosimplify the operation concept, so thatthe operation personnel were familiarwith the installations at all the differentvenues.
In Table 2 is listed some of the equip-ment that was installed.
2.3 Re-use
From the beginning all our plans had anoverall goal to plan for re-use of theequipment after the Olympics. Becauseof that, we had to get equipment thatwould fit into the ordinary network and
to construct the infrastructure for maxi-mum re-use. Of course, some of theequipment will have no re-use due to thesher mass of equipment and the fact thatnot all of it consisted of standard compo-nents (only Olympic standard).
3 Security
In order to get through such a big, com-plex and media focused event as theXVII Winter Olympic Games and withthe Norwegian Telecom as the mainbearer of all telecommunications in theregion and out to the world, the securityhad to be managed very strictly.
If Norwegian Telecom did not succeed,the Olympics would not succeed:
We bring the Olympics to the world– and we did!
Working with our plans in the installa-tion and operation period the securityaspects had been one of the main items todiscuss and to solve.
These main items were evaluated:
- Physical security of the constructions
- Different transmission ways
- Technical security, with focus onhacking and data virus
- Security concerning fire
- Security concerning burglary
- Security concerning documents
- Security concerning personnel
- Types of alarm and where to put detec-tors for alarms
- Co-operation between the police andNorwegian Telecom for where to puton security staff to protect technicalinstallations
- Locking system with high reliability.
We had discussions with the Ministry ofJustice and LOOC to get some generaloutlines, but most of the rules that weworked with were prepared by Norwe-gian Telecom itself. We also establisheda security group that gave recommenda-tions and carried out security inspectionsat all venues several times. The OlympicProject also had its own security deputy.
Because we started rather early with ourinstallations at the venues, the securitywas not a primary aspect for LOOC atthat time. To us it was important to havea total control of the equipment to pre-vent anybody from stealing/damaging theequipment or install unauthorised equip-ment that could cause failure during theOlympics. After the Games we have tosay that the co-operation with LOOC wasquite good, but not as good as we hadhoped, and we therefore did not reach thedesired level of security.
Our highest tension was at IBC (Interna-tional Broadcasting Centre) because allof our lines had to go to/ from this build-ing, including all video and audio lines.Beside IBC, we also had one of the mostimportant temporary satellite stations.
In the process we decided to hire a neu-tral company outside Norwegian Tele-
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Purpose Type of equipment Supplier
48 V power station Rectifier, PRS 1500/PRS 500 Eltek
Batteries (ventilator regulated) Eltek (Tungsten)
Batteries (lead) Eltek (Varta)
Switching S-12, N-4 Alcatel
Transmission 2500/622 Mbit/s PhilipsFOT-line equipment
140/34 Mbit/s SiemensFOT-line equipment
2 Mbit/s pair cable, Telettraline equipment
140/34 Mbit/s muldex, AlcatelGEN 90
140 Mbit/s micro waves, NEC700 mkII
34 Mbit/s micro waves SIAE
DACS Siemens
Satellite Antenna NEC, Vertex and ABB Nera
GEC equipment NEC
HPA equipment MCL and NEC
Codec Video, PAL/140 Mbit/s Siemens
Video, 4:2:2/3 Mbit/s/140 Mbit/s Siemens
Audio, 15 kHz Siemens
Audio, 7 kHz Philips
Cable-TV Fibre equipment Teleste
Modulators Teleste
CTV micro waves Lyscom
Mobile basestations NMT 450 Mitsubishi
NMT 900 Nokia and RS
GSM Ericsson
Paging with text Magnetic
Data Datapak Sprint
Flexi-mux, DXX Martis
Table 2
com (Scandpower AS) to give usan evaluation of our securitylevel. In their work the personnelat Scandpower had full access toall our plans, to all venues, and toall our installations includingplaces where we did not havededicated Olympic installations.
They were asked to do investiga-tions during three periods:
- 02.92 – 03.92: Work on analy-ses concerning security work ingeneral, security from sabotagefrom outside and inside theorganisation, security fromdamage because of fire, hightemperature, water, snow ordust, security if some of ourtechnical equipment should notbe operational in time forthe Games, the survival ofthe network in case ofsabotage, technical faultor human fault shouldoccur, security of the datanetwork, security of theinformation and loss ofvital information.
All the analyses were presentedto us in a report consisting of42 points of action which wereimplemented during 1992.
- 05.93 – 06.93: Work on thesame items as in the firstperiod, both to check whetherthe 42 points of action were fin-ished and whether new aspectsof the same items had occurred.
In addition, work on analyseswere done concerning restric-tion of admittance to “our”buildings/ areas, security of thenetworks in the Olympicregion and to/from Oslo/Nit-tedal/Stavanger, spare parts,plans for readiness andinternal communications.
These analyses involvedRegion East, Region Oslo,Region South and Region Sta-vanger, plus NorwegianTelecom International,Norwegian TelecomSatellite and Tele-mobilAS.
All the analyses were pre-sented to us in a reportconsisting of 166 points ofaction which were implementedat the end of 1993.
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10.DX-stativ11. FOT linjeterminal12. Audiokodek, 7.5 kHz
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13. FOT-kabelterminering 14. DXX15. AK-hyller+div16. Modemstativ + div.17. IRSU18. PS-tekst20. Alarmskap for S1221. Audiomux, 15 kHz22. Mux 2/34, 34/140 Mb/s26. Svitsj 1+127. Overdrag korttelefon28. Modem radiolinjelink29. Miljøskap30. Skap for fiberskjøt
Figure 3 a)
- 11.93 – 12.93: More work on the sameitems as in the first and second periodto check whether all points of actionhad been finished. Inquiries were madewhether the plans were updated andwell known to the hired people and itwas made sure that the plan for readi-ness was well known.
When all activities were closed, Scan-dpower prepared a statement. Thisstatement was very positive to Norwe-gian Telecom and concluded with “...in our opinion this implies that Norwe-gian Telecom has secured itself againstall aspects that can be regarded as arealistic picture of threat”.
4 Project process
As mentioned earlier, all technical con-structions were based on requirementanalyses. Nearly 5,000 activities weredefined into a project planning system –Prima Vera. The Olympic Project estab-lished an internal customer/contractoragreement, where the project was thecustomer and the Networks Division ofRegion East was the main contractor.Every contract was signed by the twopartners and was followed up in monthlymeetings. Other contract partners wereRegion Oslo, Region South, Region Sta-vanger, Norwegian Telecom Satellite andNorwegian Telecom International. Thecontracts were based on the NS-3401standard.
As soon as the installation was com-pleted a statement had to be signed con-cluding with an agreement that the instal-lation was as specified. If not, we had tomake a supplementary agreement.
Our plans and constructions were basedon the ordinary infrastructure in RegionEast. But as most of the venues were newand had no connection to this infrastruc-ture, we had to both rebuild the ordinaryinfrastructure and construct a lot of newinfrastructure.
Most of the cabling was done in 1991and 1992, and the main installations inthe technical rooms took place from thesummer of 1992 to the end of 1993.Work at IBC was started in January1992.
Our experiences in using a project plan-ning system was that it would have beenvery difficult to go through such a hugeproject without a project system. Con-cerning the use of hours, we learnt earlyin the project period that the use of hoursshould be minimised in similar projects
13
Figure 3 b)
Tegnforklaring:
1. Fordelingsskap 400/230V2. Batt./likeretter4. HK/KK-stativ5. Kabel-TV8. Mux 2 Mb/s
10. DX-stativ13. FOT-kabelterminering15. AK-hyller + div17. IRSU22. Mux 2/34, 34/140 Mb/s31. Fordelingsskap 48V
4
13
11
10
22
8
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31 2 2 1
17
later on. The project system also told usto move some projects around within thetime schedule to optimise the use of man-power. If we did not finish in time, thesystem would always tell us (in red).
5 Dismantling
Before we had finished the construction,we also had to start planning the disman-tling. The construction plans included anafter-use part, and we also started discus-sions with the owner of the venues to getan agreement for Norwegian Telecom tohave some installations left after theGames.
We made detailed plans in 1993 for thedismantling and started dismantlingmeetings in January 1994. The disman-tling period started in March 1994 andwas closed in August 1994. It was a veryshort dismantling period and it was veryimportant not to damage any part of theequipment because of the re-use of it.And another challenge was to disconnectall the customer lines nationally andinternationally, and to normalise all thecomputer supporting systems.
6 Logistics (Material
administration)
It was very important to have good logis-tics system. This system should cover theinstallation period, the period for packingand delivering of hired equipment to ourcustomer and also to handle all equip-ment after the Olympics.
For this purpose we had two storehouses– one in Hamar and one in Lillehammer,and we also had small storerooms atnearly all the venues.
All equipment had to be registered in thestorehouses before installation, making itpossible to follow up if some equipmentwas missing.
Equipment for installation came fromdifferent countries and companies, asshown in section 2.2 and involved a lotof meetings with the central administra-tion of Norwegian Telecom and withsales companies. These meetings tookplace in the period 1989 – 1993.
Equipment for our customers was hiredfrom LOOC and TBK. After registrationand packing it was brought out to ourcustomers. Nearly 1,000 such packageswere produced in the storehouse in Lille-hammer.
To ensure that we had sufficient spareequipment, TOP had established anagreement with the most important com-panies. In the storehouse in Lillehammerand the storerooms at each venue, andalso in some cars, we kept spare equip-ment. It was important that spare equip-ment was readily available if failureshould occur during the Olympic period.
7 Other aspects
7.1 Earth connection
An experience from earlier Olympics hadbeen the problems with earth connectionfor the equipment. As a result of this,TOP established an agreement withLOOC and NRK ORTO ’94 taking theoverall responsibility to measure andreport the quality of this issue.
We had meetings with companies whichwere responsible at the venues for elec-trical installations. The importance ofunderstanding this issue could not bestressed enough. Our technical specialisthad to measure several times and giveinstructions at the installation sites beforewe could inform LOOC that the resultwas approved by us.
7.2 Instruments
Because we had to install a lot of newequipment in a short time, we had to col-lect instruments from all parts of Norwe-gian Telecom as well as initiate the pur-chase of instruments. Nearly 80 instru-ments were hired from the instrumentalbank at Lødingen and about 35 instru-ments were hired from other parts ofNorwegian Telecom. During theOlympics all the venues had their ownbank of instruments and IBC had an extrasupply of special instruments.
7.3 Static electricity
To avoid having the equipment damagedby static electricity all technical roomswere marked on the floor with a yellowline, and crossing this line without per-sonal antistatic equipment was notallowed. All personnel who worked intechnical rooms were equipped with spe-cial antistatic shoes and we also boughtsome test instruments for control.
Because of all the visits we had to buysome antistatic equipment: a special heelstrap. All visitors who were allowed toenter the technical rooms had to use theseheel straps.
7.4 Handbook for the construc-
tion of technical rooms
The technical rooms at each venue weredelivered to us by LOOC ready for tech-nical installations. It was thereforeimportant that the rooms had a technicalstandard similar to our normal standardgiven in our own technical manuals.
Early in the process we produced a spe-cial handbook to inform LOOC, theDirectorate of Public Construction andProperty (SBED), consulting engineersand all other contractors, how to con-struct the rooms to fit our standard.
7.5 Assembly handbook
We early decided to produce an assemblyhandbook for standardisation of all thetechnical rooms. We were of the opinionthat it was very important during theoperational period that the technicianswere familiar with the rooms if they hadto move from one venue to another in anemergency.
As can be seen from Figure 3 we had onestandard for a large technical room andone for a small technical room. That cov-ered all technical rooms, except smallrooms for cross connection and IBC. IBCwas so special and so huge that we had tomake a special plan for this.
7.6 Quality assurance
In the contract with LOOC it was statedthat we should reach a quality level cor-responding to the NS-ISO-9001 standard.Since Norwegian Telecom is not certifiedfor this standard we spent a lot of timeproving that all our work was at least asgood as this standard.
14
1 Scope of the
construction
As early as the pre-project phase in 1989it was anticipated that Norwegian Tele-com (NT) in all probability would begiven the responsibility for transmittingservices requiring large capacities, suchas pictures and sound for the broadcast-ing companies. The transmission of pic-tures in particular demands such largecapacities that it was a vital issue in lay-ing down the premises for dimensioningNorwegian Telecom’s transmission net-work. Each picture transmission requiresa whole 140 Mbit/s channel in the trans-mission systems. With an anticipatedneed for 4–5 such channels from eachvenue into the Radio and Television Cen-tre (IBC), any other need for telecom ser-vices would have a minimal effect on thetotal capacity requirement.
Another scope of the construction of thetransmission network lay in the demandsfrom Lillehammer Olympic OrganisingCommittee (LOOC) / InternationalOlympic Committee (IOC) of operationtimes for the telecom services. This,together with NT’s own wish to appearas a serious supplier of telecom serviceswith a high quality and wide availability,indicated that security had to be empha-sized in the construction of the telecom-munication network. It was thereforestated quite early that alternative routeshad to be established between the mainvenues and IBC, as well as between IBCand the connection points for interna-tional transmission.
A third important condition was ofcourse which termination points NTshould cover, which in the Olympicregion were all the Olympic sites, as theywere defined one by one. As regardsinternational connections a discussionwent on for some time about which up-link stations to use. Nittedal earth stationwas decided quite early on. At a laterstage, Eik earth station and Tryvann wereintroduced as important up-link points,together with two locations in Lilleham-mer. The international exchanges in Oslowere also early defined as important con-nection points in a transmission network.
2 Choice of transmission
medium
In order to meet the transmission require-ments stated above, high-capacity trans-mission systems would be needed. Onthe basis of the relevant technology atthis time and the developments visual-
ized in the time leading up to theOlympic Games, three alternative waysof construction became apparent:
- Construction with satellite connectionsbetween the sites
- Construction with digital radio links
- Construction with fibre optic transmis-sion systems.
Bearing in mind the wish for “CompactGames”, with relatively short distancesbetween the venues and IBC, and after abrief financial assessment, it was conclud-ed that conditions were suitable for fibreand high-capacity transmission systemsin the Olympic region. Radio links andsatellite transmission were so costly thatthey would require long distances of trans-mission in order to be competitive solu-tions. On this basis it was early decidedthat fibre optic connections were to beestablished between the venues and IBC.
The national fibre optic network was atthis point being expanded between Osloand Trondheim via the Gudbrandsdalenvalley. This expansion was taking placeindependent of the Olympics. Some sec-tions were already established, while newsections were planned.
Conditions were therefore found to bewell suited for thinking in terms of fibreoptics even for national transmissionsover great distances.
In order to cover the international trans-mission demands for pictures, satelliteswere the unquestionable solution. Longdistances in combination with a largenumber of points receiving the same pic-tures has made this a unique solution inother connections, too.
For services requiring less capacity, how-ever, the earth-bound network was a rele-vant alternative. The needs for interna-tional connections were undeniably great,but not of a magnitude requiring theestablishment of separate transmissionmedia. International connections, withthe exception of picture transmission,were to be based on existing media withincreased capacity.
3 Construction of fibre
cables
As mentioned above, the starting pointfor this construction was the decision touse the national network cables wherepossible in Norway, and otherwise estab-lish new fibre cable sections, particularlyin the Olympic region itself.
The demand for a high degree of securityand alternative transmission routes con-tributed to the fact that ring structureswere sought in all parts of the network.Leading into each individual venue, thetwo cables were completely separate asfar as inside the walls of the actual build-ing where the cables were to be terminat-ed. Furthermore, at least one of thecables to the venues should be under-ground. Aerial cables should only beused on the alternative route.
3.1 Construction in the Olympic
region
With IBC as the starting point, fibre ringswere established to all the Olympic sites.All sports arenas, the press centre andLOOC’s administration building weredefined as high priority and should beincluded in the ring solutions. Theaccommodation villages were defined tobe of a lower priority; consequently onetransmission route would be sufficient. Inaddition to the fibre cable connections,copper cables were established from theOlympic sites to IBC or to the nearestexisting NT building. The purpose of thiswas to be able to run alarm circuits andother types of control circuits in NT’sown cables and routes independent of thecables they were monitoring.
3.1.1 Co-operation with other
partners
There were naturally other service orga-nizations who needed to dig trenchesclose to the Olympic sites and NT had towork closely with them. A co-ordinationcommittee was established to make surethat all digging activities were co-ordi-nated so that trenches only had to be dugonce. Furthermore, NT made an agree-ment with LOOC whereby LOOC wouldundertake to establish all cable trenchesinside the arena boundaries. This impliedthat LOOC would have the trenches dugand pipe trenches laid from a manhole atthe arena boundary into NT’s technicalrooms. Then NT would pull their cablesthrough and connect them up in the man-holes.
3.1.2 The Olympic Park ring
The Olympic Park – comprising HåkonsHall, Lysgårdsbakkene, KanthaugenFreestyle and Birkebeineren Ski Stadium– was included in one ring. The accom-modation village and Skihytta satellitestation were also on this ring. There wereno existing cables on this ring, so com-pletely new cables had to be installed in
15
Construction of transmission network
B Y S V E I N E G I L M O E N
this area. Pipe trenches were laid in thewhole of the ring, and a G16 fibre cablewas pulled through with termination ineach of the technical rooms of the ring.As a further safety precaution for theconnections to Håkons Hall – where oneof the two Olympic exchanges was locat-ed – a through-connection across to theaccommodation village was established,so that transmissions between HåkonsHall and IBC would not have to take thedetour via Birkebeineren Ski Stadium.
3.1.3 The Gudbrandsdalen ring
Further up the Gudbrandsdalen valleywere the venues Hafjell Alpine, KvitfjellAlpine and Hunderfossen Bob/ Luge.These three arenas were included in onering. Even before the Olympic construc-tion was started, a fibre cable had beenlaid up the Gudbrandsdalen valley. Thispassed close to all the three sites. A largepart of this cable was mounted on poles,making it necessary to lay new sectionsof earth cable in order to bring thesearenas a new main route. Hafjell andHunderfossen were close to IBC, makingnew earth cable routes economical. Kvit-fjell, however, was situated so far from
IBC – some 60 kilometres – that a finan-cial assessment indicated that a radio linkconnection there would be more favour-able as an alternative route to the existingfibre cable. The result here was a fibrering comprising Hafjell, Hunderfossenand IBC. Kvitfjell had its own ring in-cluding the existing fibre cable from IBCto Fåvang with a new section betweenFåvang and Kvitfjell, while the alterna-tive route became a radio link from Kvit-fjell to Korpeberget radio link stationnear Lillehammer. From Korpebergetthese connections were transferred viafibre back to IBC.
3.1.4 The Mjøsa ring
In order to connect the Olympic sites inHamar and Gjøvik to IBC the nationalnetwork cables were used. There wasalready a fibre cable in the lake Mjøsabetween Gjøvik and Lillehammer. Theplanned work between Hamar and Lille-hammer was brought forward because ofthe Olympic Games and was used as theother half of the ring to the two towns onthe Mjøsa. The new cable betweenHamar and Gjøvik was also included inthis ring.
Hamar Olympic Amphitheatre in Hamarwas directly connected to the nationalnetwork fibre. From the Amphitheatre asection of fibre was laid to SnekkerstuaMedia Village. The national networkfibre was further terminated at NT’sbuilding in Hamar, and a separate newfibre ring was laid from this building toHamar Olympic Hall. A single fibre sec-tion was also laid to the accommodationvillage in Hamar.
In Gjøvik, the national network fibre wasterminated in NT’s installation inside themountain next to Gjøvik Olympic CavernHall. All that needed doing here was tolay new cables inside the mountaininstallation.
3.2 National network
Before the “Olympic construction” wasstarted, fibre cables were already estab-lished on the sections Oslo – Gjøvik,Gjøvik – Lillehammer, Lillehammer –Trondheim, as well as Oslo – Hamar andHamar – Gjøvik. New installations werebeing started up between Hamar andLillehammer as well as a replacement ofthe installation between Hamar andGjøvik. Both the latter installations werestarted up at such a late date that theOlympic requirements could be takeninto consideration when dimensioningthe cables.
The cable between Oslo and Gjøvik hada branch to Nittedal earth station and wasthe obvious one to use for traffic betweenIBC and Nittedal. However, this cableincluded a number of aerial sections. Thecable between Oslo and Hamar was laidin water and earth all the way, and it wastherefore natural to define this route asthe main route for all traffic out of theOlympic region.
There was a branch to Nittedal from theOslo – Hamar route, too, however, thiswas an aerial cable. In order to avoidfurther work laying this underground, itwas decided to carry the Nittedal trafficdown to Oslo and back again on theexisting Oslo – Nittedal cable. In thisway a fibre ring was established com-prising the points IBC – Hamar – Oslo –Nittedal – Gjøvik – IBC.
The traffic to Eik earth station was ini-tially carried along the alternative routesbetween IBC and Oslo, and from therealong a single route to Eik earth station.Immediately before the Olympics, how-ever, the installations from Lillehammerto Trondheim and from Trondheim south-wards along the coast to Bergen and Sta-
16
TO HAMARTOGJØVIK
Mesna
MJØSA
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E
RV213
NORDSETERVEGEN
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BIRKEBEINEREN
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TELE
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SKÅRSETH
SOPP/LUNDEBEKKEN
MEDIA
VORMSTUEN
JOREKSTAD
TRANSPORT-CENTRAL
ACCREDIATIONCENTRE
MPC
Road
Cable
Figure 1 Fibre cables in the Olympic Park in Lillehammer
vanger were opened for traffic. This madeit possible to bring an alternative route toEik, which was established at theeleventh hour.
3.3 International connections
In addition to using satellite connectionsvia earth stations at Nittedal, Eik, Try-vann and Lillehammer, international traf-fic was routed in the earthbound networkvia fibre cables to Denmark and throughSweden. Four different cable connectionsout of the country were used: two fibrecable connections directly between Nor-way and Denmark across the Skagerrak(Norway – Denmark 5 and 6), and twocables between Norway and Sweden andfurther south to Denmark (Sarpsborg –Tanum and Kongsvinger – Arvika).From Copenhagen the traffic was dis-tributed in different directions to Europe.The trans-Atlantic cables PTAT, TAT8,TAT9 and TAT10 were used to the USA.
4 Transmission systems
The transmission systems in the Olympicnetwork were to be used for transmissionof all ordinary telecom services as wellas the special broadcasting services forsound and picture. They comprised:
- 2 Mbit/s lines for telephony (S12, RSUand PABX connections)
- 2 Mbit/s lines for data network (DXXconnection)
- 2 Mbit/s lines for broadcasting net-work (Codec connection)
- Analogue leased lines, 3.4 kHz
- Digital leased 2 Mbit/s lines
- 140 Mbit/s lines for picture transmis-sion.
Given the premises on capacity for dedi-cated Olympic purposes, new transmis-sion systems had to be established bothin the Olympic region itself and from theOlympic region to Oslo/Nittedal. Fortraffic being routed from Oslo to othercountries and to the satellite earth sta-tions, capacity in the established trans-mission systems could be utilized, re-quiring only a strengthening of the multi-plexing equipment.
4.1 Choice of equipment types
Right from the start, the general policy inchoosing equipment types was to usemodern equipment with a high post-Olympic value. But the Olympics shouldnot be used for testing of new, unknown
technology. On this basis it was decidednot to use equipment which had notbecome generally available and had beenthoroughly tested by the first half of1992. As time went by, the latter require-ment had to be relaxed.
4.1.1 Fibre optic line systems
The dimensioning of the line systemswas mainly given by the transmission oftelevision pictures, where one TV picturewould occupy a whole 140 Mbit/s chan-nel. (See chapter on broadcasting trans-missions.)
For connections between the sportsvenues and IBC and connections fromIBC to Nittedal and IBC to Oslo, itbecame necessary, for capacity reasons,either to establish several parallel565 Mbit/s systems, or to use 2.5 Gbit/sline systems. The latter were not yet onthe market at the time when these assess-ments and decisions had to be made, butthey were promised delivered by the timenew equipment should be available andtested.
After a careful study of the needs for TVtransmissions it became clear that suchtransmissions required so many parallel565 Mbit/s systems on some sections thatthe fibre capacity in the cables weretotally consumed. This was particularlycritical for the section Oslo – Gjøvik. Onsumming up the needs for dedicatedOlympic systems, national systems andregional systems on sections of thiscable, it was found that there would notbe enough fibres to cover all this. Theuse of capacity present in the new2.5 Gbit/s SDH systems was thereforemore or less forced upon us.
At this point in time a close co-operationstarted up between NT’s Olympic Project,special divisions in NT’s central adminis-tration (TLT and TMI) and the relevantsuppliers. After extensive negotiationswhere prices and times of delivery werethe most important parameters, Philipswas chosen as supplier of 2.5 Gbit/s and622 Mbit/s SDH line systems. Both thesesystems were able to operate on alterna-tively 140 Mbit/s or 155 Mbit/s interfacesat the station side. In the Olympic net-work these systems were only utilized aspure line systems. But one of the condi-tions for this choice was the fact that thesystems could be updated to form part ofa future up-to-date synchronous networkwith other SDH facilities.
On the basis of what the suppliers wereable to deliver, NT’s Olympic Project
chose to use these systems also in theOlympic region itself. Firstly, this pre-sented a uniform and simple operationalsituation with regard to many differentsystems, and secondly, it offered a flexi-bility to handle unexpected requirements,which later proved to be very useful.
There was also a need for low capacitysystems in the Olympic network. Theequipment chosen was generally avail-able as stock goods. For the 140 Mbit/sand 34 Mbit/s levels were used SiemensPDH systems, and for 2 Mbit/s twincable systems, Telettra was chosen.
4.1.2 Multiplexing systems
In order to meet the requirements outlinedin the Requirement analysis it would benecessary to establish the whole muxhierarchy from K/30-mux upwards. Theneeds for K/30-mux were mainly initiatedby the large number of commentary con-nections with return and conference lines.The 34 Mbit/s and 140 Mbit/s levels natu-rally had to be used in order to enter theseconnections into the large transmissionsystems. For the 2/34 Mbit/s and 34/140Mbit/s muxes a clarification was neces-sary with regard to choice of supplier.Alcatel was about to sign an agreementwith NT on the delivery of a new genera-tion 90 mux with new and improved con-trol functions. Following negotiations onterms of delivery this type was chosen.The ordinary Siemens mux was chosenfor the K/30 mux.
4.2 Network construction
The premises laid down regarding ringstructures to the most important arenasand telecom installations in the Olympicnetwork were taken a step further in theplanning of the transmission systems.Where capacity requirements so indicat-ed, dedicated 2.5 Gbit/s systems wereestablished from IBC to the individualarena, and two systems were establishedto each of the arenas – one on the mainroute and one on the alternative route.This solution was chosen for all thearenas in the Olympic Park, GjøvikOlympic Cavern Hall and for the systemsbetween IBC and Nittedal earth station.
Where capacity requirements were lower,the 2.5 Gbit/s systems were connected inseries along the fibre ring with a through-connection of the 140 Mbit/s level linesat each arena. This solution was chosenfor the section IBC – Hafjell – Hunder-fossen and for IBC – Hamar OlympicAmphitheatre – Hamar Olympic Hall.For these arenas one system was estab-
17
lished directly to IBC and one system be-tween the two neighbouring arenas.
In the national network 2.5 Gbit/s sys-tems were established on both routes be-tween Lillehammer and Oslo. They hadvacant capacity which could be used for
Olympic purposes. Dedicated Olympicsystems between IBC and Nittedal earthstation were established, while all othertraffic to be terminated or through-con-nected in Oslo were transferred to thenational network systems.
18
Figure 2 Transmission systems in the Olympic Park
A total of 48 line terminals with2.5 Gbit/s capacity were purchased aswell as ten 622 Mbit/s terminals. Thesefigures include the purchase of spareparts.
KTV
HDTV
565 MB1300 nm
LAN
IBC
OLYMPICVILLAGE
LYSGÅRDSBAKKENE
HÅKONS HALL
IOC
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565 MB1300 nm
565 MB1300 nm
KTV
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4.3 Alternative routes
The above mentioned ring structures forfibre cables and their two transmissionsystems to each arena had formed thebasis for giving all lines an alternative
route in case of a fault in one route. Thetransmission systems were so well dimen-sioned that they were able to transfer alltraffic in one system. There was also astrong wish for using automatic switch-over between main and alternative route.
For this purpose was chosen a 1 + 1 alter-native route switch which was already inuse in the local network in Oslo and inthe national network in Northern Norway.The switch could operate on both the 34Mbit/s and the 140 Mbit/s level. It was
19
Figure 3 Switching system between the two alternative routes
AUC1
140 MBRL 7+1
HAFJELL
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SKEIKAMPEN
KORPEBERGET
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decided to use it in the Olympic networkfor switching both the 34 Mbit/s and the140 Mbit/s level.
All telephony, data and commentarylines were to be switched on the34 Mbit/s level. Most of these connec-tions entered the transmission network onthe 2 Mbit/s level and were multiplexedin a 2/34 Mbit/s mux. It was assumedthat all this traffic should be carried withload sharing, i.e. the traffic should beequally distributed on the two alternativetransmission routes. In order to achievethis, a complete mux hierarchy from 2/34Mbit/s mux upwards had to be establish-ed to both alternative transmissionroutes.
By placing the switches between 2/34Mbit/s mux and 34/140 Mbit/s mux, acontrol function in case of faults in the34/140 Mbit/s mux was also included.
Switching on the 140 Mbit/s level wasonly done for video transmissions. Theseconnections had an interface on the 140Mbit/s level and therefore could not beswitched at lower speeds.
A great challenge in connection with theswitching system was achieving goodswitching parameters and an alarm sensorwhich would render a clear general viewof network status. Considerations ofspace forbid me to describe this set-up indetail here. For example, in order to keepa clear view of the network status, theprinciple of re-routing all traffic from onesystem to the reserve system had to beintroduced even if only one channel wasfaulty (the 2.5 Gbit/s systems had sixteen140 Mbit/s channels). Furthermore, it wasnecessary to always make sure that therewas a continuous 140 Mbit/s multiplexsystem between two opposite switches.On certain sections the lines passedthrough several transmission systems inseries, necessitating an alarm sensorwhich could sense the status on the wholesection. If there was insufficient traffic tohave a whole 140 Mbit/s multiplexingsystem in a section, a system workingsolely as an alarm sensor had to beestablished.
5 Operational experiences
The operational situation in the transmis-sion network may be divided into twophases:
- Operation before the Olympics
- Operation during and after theOlympic Games.
In the pre-Olympic period the operationalsituation was characterized by a lot offaults and a turbulent existence for thetechnical engineers. In particular theintroduction of the new SDH systemsbrought with it a disturbingly unstablenetwork. Components – particularly fibreoptic transmitters – as well as softwarewere burdened with numerous faults. TheGerman suppliers had to make severalvisits to Lillehammer to assist in faultfinding and repair.
Even the new multiplex systems had togo through an updating procedure beforethey functioned as intended.
On the international connections, therewere several serious faults in the fibrecables to Denmark, and the consequentre-routing of traffic progressed veryslowly.
This situation brought a lot of stress tothe technical personnel as it coincidedwith the most intense installation period.In addition to delays because of fault-finding, the personnel also had to accom-pany service personnel from the suppliersto the installations.
However, as the opening day of theOlympic Games approached, this situa-tion changed radically. All of a sudden itseemed as if the equipment got rid of allits teething trouble and it played up as itshould do. Both software and compo-nents were stabilized and the fishingfleet’s ravaging with the North Sea cableceased. At last, we had reached a stagewith regard to equipment where we hadoriginally wanted to be in the summer of1992. Throughout the whole of theOlympic Games and later on during theParalympics the transmission networkfunctioned almost without a singlenoticeable fault.
20
Satellite communication was widelyused for international transmission ofspeech, video and data signals duringthe Olympic Games. Satellites werepartly used also nationally for contri-bution of TV signals. In total, 49 satel-lite earth stations located at six siteswere available for communication to16 satellites! The TV transmission timecounted 768,240 minutes in total!
1 General
Norwegian Telecom (NT) has a long his-tory of involvement with the WinterOlympic Games. The first such Gamestook place in Oslo way back in 1952 withall telecommunications planned and exe-cuted by our people at that time. In 1952there was no television, mobile phones orother means of communication that mod-ern times make extensive use of. Theoperation was somewhat easier, but justthe same, it took lots of planning andmoney which is an essential part of anylarge scale operation such as OlympicGames telecommunications. NorwegianTelecom got its first indication of whatwas to come already in 1985 when Lille-hammer started talks of applying for theWinter Olympic Games in 1992! Thisstarted a process in NT as well, since TVnow had become an essential part of allsuch sporting events and it was now pos-sible to reach a large part of the world bythis means of communication. At first, allthat was done was to do surveys in Lille-hammer to see if it was possible to trans-mit TV from the arenas or from theplanned International Broadcasting Cen-tre, IBC, located a few kilometres northof the city centre.
The initial survey pointed at possibilitiesof transmitting to the western hemispherefrom an area just below the expected IBC.The eastern hemisphere was blocked fortransmissions by satellite by the highmountains in the eastern direction. Wehad to look for an another site and foundthat we could transmit to the satellites inthe Indian Ocean region from sites on thehills above the city of Lillehammer.Unfortunately for us, the skijumps werebuilt where our sites were first planned.We had to move to another site a fewkilometres from our initial choice.
Lillehammer did not get the Games for1992, but we had made our choice ofsites and made no further arrangementsin Lillehammer for a couple of years.
We estimated the number of TV circuitsto be transmitted on the basis of previousgames and came to a total number of 12-
13. We thought this number to be reason-able at the time. We estimated the num-ber of commentary circuits to be a coupleof hundred.
No planning was done for a couple ofyears, but the plans were not shelvedsince we in fact had the feeling that Lille-hammer would succeed in 1994. Lille-hammer was awarded the arrangement ofthe ‘Winter Olympic Games 1994’ onSeptember 15, 1988.
The Satellite Division of the NorwegianTelecom started serious planning, and aninternal organisation to cater for theactivity was arranged. The organisationencompassed experts from all telecom-munication fields from satellite transmis-sions to telephone, telex, data, as well asTV circuits on fibre cables. This provedto be a very capable group of experts.
Norway is a member and signatory to twolarge international satellite organisations.The INTELSAT organisation with head-quarters in Washington and the EUTEL-SAT organisation with headquarters inParis. By the aid of the satellites belong-ing to these organisations we would beable to transmit TV programs to morethan 2 billion people around the world.
2 TV customers
We started to work with the Americancompany CBS as the first of the foreignright-holder (with the right to transmitTV signals). This proved to be a veryclose co-operation. We had several meet-ings at the CBS headquarters in NewYork as well as in Lillehammer later on.
CBS became our first large customerwith 4 fixed (24 hours) TV channels tothe USA as well as one in the oppositedirection. CBS also rented one of ourmobile satellite stations with Norwegianpersonnel for day-time as well as night-time transmissions.
With the Canadian company CTV wemade an agreement for transmission of 2fixed TV channels. From Canada thetransmissions also went to New Zealandby receiving in Canada and re-transmit-ting to New Zealand through one of thesatellites above the Pacific Ocean.
Japan was very early in asking for trans-mission of the so-called High DefinitionTelevision from Lillehammer to Japan.The result of our discussions with NHKwas that we got an order for such trans-missions for this company. In additioncame two ordinary fixed TV channelsfrom the Games to Japan.
Our largest customer turned out to be theEUROVISION (EBU) which is a motherorganisation for most of the Europeanbroadcasters. There are also membersoutside Europe as far away as Baghdadand Cairo. Russia is also a member andthis had its impact on the transmissionslater on, since we had to arrange for sep-arate TV transmissions for them. Wemade an agreement with EBU for thetransmission of 10 programmes to allEuropean satellites as well as to a Rus-sian satellite in the Intersputnik system.We also transmitted TV channels byradio link to Sweden and Finland as theonly international earth-bound transmis-sions.
To cater for Mexico and Latin- and SouthAmerica we made arrangements with theAmerican satellite system PanAmSat fortransmission of two TV channels fromLillehammer. Later on, another TV chan-nel was added because of their largerequirement for transmissions to theircustomers.
In addition, we had agreements for fixedTV-channels for transmissions to Koreaand Australia.
Summing up, we come to 26 fixed TVchannels for TV transmissions and onefor reception from the USA.
For these fixed TV transmissions weused 16 different satellites. Three of themwere located above the Indian Ocean,whereas the others were above theAtlantic Ocean in different positions.
Occasional transmissions were also usedto a large extent. In total, we had suchtransmissions for 343 hours and 34 min-utes. For these transmissions we used 18different satellite stations and 12 differ-ent satellites. China was one of thelargest users of occasional transmissions.
Altogether, we made use of 35 differentsatellite earth stations in regular use, andin addition, we were equipped withreserve stations. The total number at ourdisposal during the Olympic Gamescame to 49 stations! Counting satelliteswe used a total of 16 different ones tak-ing into account those used for occa-sional transmissions.
The TV transmission time comes to theincredible number of 768,240 minutes.During all this time we had a down timeof only 4 minutes giving a regularity of99.9995 %.
Our customers have expressed their satis-faction with our services during theOlympic Games 1994.
21
Satellite communications
B Y E I N A R M H E M B
3 Satellite earth sta-
tions
Taking into account the initialsurveys made back in 1985 ittook nearly 10 years in planningfor the Olympic Winter Games1994. The early beginning wasmodest compared to what was tobe the final result with regard tothe number of TV-channels thathad to be transmitted. There is alarge gap between the projected13 TV channels and the final 26with a large number of occa-sional transmissions.
We have had the satellite earthsite Eik in Rogaland in south-western Norway since 1976. Thesite was built to cater for commu-nication with the oil-platforms inthe North-Sea. Later on, the sitewas built out for communicationwith the Arctic islands of Sval-bard. The INMARSAT systemwas also established at Eik in theearly eighties. A new subsidiarysite to Eik was built a year beforethe Games. Two new large anten-nas were built there to cater forsatellites that could not bereached from the main site Eikdue to the hills around the site.
Norwegian Telecom also builtanother site in 1984-1985, Nit-tedal earth station near Oslo, totransmit and receive TV pro-
grammes as well as data communicationwith the aid of the European EUTELSATsystem. The site has later been extendedwith several large antennas with diame-ters from 11–18 metres as well as a num-ber of smaller antennas.
At Tryvann (which can be seen from thecity of Oslo) two small stations werebuilt in 1986 to distribute some pro-grammes to remote parts of Norway.
We therefore had a good starting pointwith many large antennas that could beused for this traffic. In spite of this, wehad to build three large new antennas tocater for the Olympic traffic. Two werebuilt at the Nittedal site and one at Eikwith diameters from 13 to 16 metres.These came in addition to several smallerantennas. The “older” stations wereequipped with a great deal of new trans-mitters and other equipment as well.
We built six additional stations for theLillehammer sites. These were in theform of containers with transmittingequipment and small antennas from 1.8m at Ku-band to 4.6 m at C-band. A cou-ple of stations had two antennas enablingtransmission of two programmes fromeach container without redundancy inthis case. These stations were installed attwo temporary sites in Lillehammer, atthe IBC and at Skihytta east of the ski-jumps. We stationed four of our ownmobile SNGs at Lillehammer and thesewere in extensive use.
Germany had large mobile stations withenough transmitting power, and werented four from Deutsche Bundespostwith personnel. In addition, we had aFrench mobile station used for EuropeanHDTV with personnel from France.
4 The transmission in
cables
We had six different sites at as many dif-ferent geographical locations with satel-lite earth stations to be connected byfibre optical means. Modern opticalcables can transfer large information‘bundles’. We needed to transfer 13simultaneous video channels to Nittedalearth station as well as 3 to Eik earth sta-tion and one in the opposite direction.This in itself presented no problem sincethe country-wide fibre network is wellbuilt out with a 2.5 Gbit/s system. Theproblem was to protect the informationalong the routes to the earth stations.This problem was solved by usingreserve routes carrying the same informa-tion as the main route.
22
Eik earth station
Nittedal earth station
Tel
enor
AS
Tel
enor
AS
We had one broken fibre connection inNittedal just before the Olympicsbecause of repair of a water pipe. In addi-tion, an avalanche on the west coastbroke one of the reserve routes. Thecommunication did not suffer because ofthese problems.
The international communication bywhatever means at disposal was also theresponsibility of NT’s Olympic Organi-sation. The planning of the transmissionroutes and the lay-out of reserve circuitswere started as soon as Lillehammer wasawarded the Olympic Games. Transmis-sion by means of international sea cablesis a lengthy process that normally takes
several years from the start of planning tothe implementation.
The connection between the sites had asimilar history of planning and executionas the international cable connections.Both types of circuits had to be con-nected by reserve routes in case of faultsin the cables. For the inland circuits, Nor-wegian Telecom could do all the plan-ning themselves, but for the internationalcircuits one had to rely on agreementswith the different countries. These cir-cuits can also be connected by reserveroutes by failure of the main circuits, butfor the Olympic Games a higher degreeof reliability was needed. The countries
in Europe were very responsive in thisconnection. Denmark and Sweden bothdelayed planned work that involved theNorwegian traffic until after the Olym-pics. We were grateful for this attitude.
For international switched services themost important were the telephone- andISDN circuits which received the highestdegree of attention both before and dur-ing the Olympics.
We expected large traffic to the USA forthe “country-direct” service and this wasalso the case. US direct had a mean con-nectivity of 99.2 %, which is a goodresult.
New switches for international switchedcircuits should replace the previous ones.We had some delay here, but enough cir-cuits were established in time for theGames. For the ISDN circuits a verytedious and time-consuming testing hadto be done. The necessary ISDN circuitswere after all established and the cus-tomers’ requirements were fulfilled.
The international telephone traffic mea-sured in minutes did not come up toexpectation compared with the traffic ofthe previous year. The increase was inthe order of 20 %. The reason for therather small increase is probably thedecrease of “business-traffic” in normalhours. Country-direct traffic is normallyaround 10 % of “dialled-up” traffic. Theincrease in this traffic from January ’94to February ’94 can be seen in Table 1.
23
Country-direct
Country/ Minutes Minutes ChangeCompany Jan. ’94 Feb. ’94 %
USA/AT&T 231,344 820,252 255
USA/MCI 33,679 141,168 319
USA/Sprint 20,177 71,715 255
Canada 13,385 140,340 948
Japan 6,819 33,485 391
Australia 1,998 15,039 653
New Zealand 870 5,364 517
Denmark 14,538 15,103 4
Finland 1,147 3,670 220
France 4,172 18.299 339
Italy 362 8,897 1,358
Netherlands 20,578 73,837 259
Sweden 34,716 38.070 10
Germany 2,723 5,968 119
Table 1
Skihytta earth station at Lillehammer. HDTV to Japan was transmitted from this sta-tion. Double fencing and military guard in front
C-band containers with antennas of 4.6 m diameter at the IBC/Satellite site
Tel
enor
Tel
enor
5 Security
The security of the earth stations and par-ticularly the long land-lines as well as theinternational cables was a major concernfor the Project Management. NT had itsown security officer that was stationed atLillehammer before and during theGames. The security officer suggested atan early stage that the most importantearth station sites should be protected bydouble fences with an alarm system. Thesystem would be connected to the policewho would take action in case of analarm. The recommendation wasadopted. In addition we had military per-sonnel as guards at the most importantsites. We had no problems with sabotageduring the Games.
6 Emergency Plans
As already mentioned, the Project Man-agement put great emphasis on the secu-rity of the communication. A comprehen-sive “Emergency Plan” was prepared.This plan consisted of three volumestotalling 600 pages. The plan covered allaspects of failures that we could think ofand the ways to act if a failure shouldhappen in spite of every precaution. In acouple of instances the responsible peo-ple were alerted and prepared to followthe plan. The incidents causing the alertswere corrected and normal operation wasrestored without break in communica-tion. The Emergency Plan was a largework, but we were happy that we hadmade it. It gave us confidence and pre-paredness during the whole operation.
7 Organisation, operation
and personnel
The total responsibility for the NTengagement in the Olympic Games 1994operation was at Lillehammer. Norwe-gian Telecom, Satellite Division as wellas Norwegian Telecom International arelocated in the NT headquarters in Oslo.These two divisions operated as a groupunder the Management of the SatelliteDivision and according to an internalcontract with NT’s Olympic Project sta-tioned at Lillehammer. Personnel fromboth divisions were involved in the year-long planning of the operation.
From January 29 until February 28, 78persons were directly involved in thesatellite related operation. In addition, wehad personnel from Norwegian TelecomInternational working with internationalcircuits of all kinds.
24
The Network Operations Centre at theIBC switched and controlled the TV traf-fic for all satellite stations in the systemas well as co-ordination with INTELSATand EUTELSAT. INTELSAT had twopersons at the IBC with direct computercontact with the headquarters in Wash-ington. The personnel at the IBC satellitesite had automatic fault-reporting bycomputer from all satellite stations in theLillehammer area which was a great helpsince all major faults were reported andaction could be taken at once. The mobilesatellite stations were located at the IBCsatellite site and were directed by the net-work centre from there. All satellite sta-tions involved from Eik to Nittedalreported to the Project Management at theIBC satellite site and meetings were heldwith the Lillehammer Project Manage-ment every morning for the duration ofthe Games. During these meetings, majorproblems, if any, were discussed and cor-rective steps were taken without delay.
The NTS Project Management also hadexperts from the major equipment suppli-ers at their disposal. These experts werestationed at different sites where equip-ment from their firms was in use in largerquantity.
Personnel from Tanum earth station inSweden were engaged as well as personnelfrom USA, Germany, Japan and France.
The positive attitude of all personnelregardless of origin and their flexibilityin working under cold climatic conditionresulted in a perfect overall operation.
We look back with satisfaction on theperformance of NT during the WinterOlympic Games 1994.
Satellite stations used during
the Olympics 94
The Project Management of NTS had atotal number of 49 satellite stations attheir disposal with antennas ranging from1.8 m in diameter up to 18 m. Some ofthese antennas had both C-band and Ku-band capability and are at present quiteunique in the world.
EBU For EBU and their members,stations at IBC/SAT (earth sta-tions at IBC), Nittedal, Tryvannand Eik earth stations were used.
CBS For CBS, stations at Nittedal,Sætra and a mobile station wereused. A large range of other sta-tions were also used for occa-sional transmissions for CBS.
CTV For Canada/New Zealand, sta-tions at IBC/SAT and at Eik(Sætra) were used.
NHK For Japan, stations at Nittedaland Skihytta were used. HDTVfor Japan was transmitted fromSkihytta at Lillehammer.
CH9 For Australia we used a stationat Nittedal.
MBC For Korea we used a station atNittedal.
PAS For PanAmSat we used stationsat IBC/SAT.
The planning of the traffic through allsatellite stations took a couple of yearswith the final routing being done the last6 months before the Olympics.
Traffic through the satellites started onJanuary 28, when the satellites becameavailable to us.
Satellites used during the
Winter Olympics 1994
Satellites from a number of organisationswere used.
- INTELSAT with the following satel-lites:
INTELSAT 504 (328.6°), 505 (66°),512 (359°), 601 (332.5°), 602 (63°),604 (60°) and 605 (335.5°).
- EUTELSAT with the following satel-lites:
EUTELSAT 1F5 (21.5°), 2F1 (13°),2F3 (16°) and 2F4 (7°).
- KOPERNIKUS with the followingsatellites:
KOPERNIKUS DFS-2 (28.5°) andDFS-3 (33.5°).
- INTERSPUTNIK with the satellite:
STATIONAR4 (346°).
- TELECOM with the satellite:
TELECOM 2B (355°).
- PanAmSat with the satellite:
PAS1 (315°).
- TELE-X with the satellite:
TELE-X (5°).
Olympic Games is first of all a spec-tacular TV-show. To ensure reliableTV and sound transmissions to allparts of the world, high transmissioncapacity and special equipment isrequired. This article is divided intothree major parts: TV-transmissions,sound transmissions and HDTV-trans-missions, each dealing with their ownspecialities.
This article covers the technical solu-tions for the transmission of video andsound in the Lillehammer area. Theinternational transmissions are de-scribed in the article describing thesatellite operations.
1 TV-transmissions
(4:3-format)
Modern Olympic Games are character-ised by a very large number of TV-chan-nels being transmitted at the same timedue to the following circumstances:
- Competition activities at severalvenues at the same time
- High degree of parallel unilateral pro-ductions
- High degree of production outside thecompetition venues to describe Norwe-gian nature and folklore
- Other special needs.
1.1 Production and transmission
of the official TV-signal
LOOC made a contract with NRK (theNorwegian National Broadcasting Com-pany) to fulfil the IOC-requirement ofproducing an official TV-signal coveringall competitions, ceremonies and medalawards. To handle this operation, a spe-cial organisation was established, calledNRK ORTO ’94 (Olympic Radio- andTV-Organizer). Norwegian Telecom hadthe responsibility for transporting thesesignals from the venues into the Interna-tional Broadcasting Centre (IBC). Toensure sufficient capacity, high qualityand reliability, a close co-operation be-tween Norwegian Telecom and NRK wasestablished already back in 1989.
The discussion on whether to use ana-logue or digital transmission was verystrong at the beginning. Analogue tech-nique was well known and accepted byNRK ORTO ’94. Norwegian Telecomearly decided to go for a purely digitaltransmission between the venues and theIBC. This turned the discussion intowhich coding techniques to be applied to
convert the TV-signals into digital formin accordance with the CCITT hierarchi-cal bit rates.
At this time the specification work inETSI for the 34 Mbit/s video codec wasalmost completed. Due to our scheduleswe soon concluded that the price for thecodec units for 34 Mbit/s would be muchhigher than codecs for 140 Mbit/s trans-mission. Due to a flexible fiberopticaltransmission network we concluded thattransmission capacity would not be alimiting resource from venues to the IBC,and therefore we could use 140 Mbit/svideo encoding which would give us thehighest possible transmission quality andequipment at reasonable costs.
1.2 Production format for inter-
national signal
In the first planning period compositePAL-production was assumed to be dom-inant. As time went by, the discussion onwhether to use digital production formatwas actualized. During work in NRKORTO ’94 to develop the graphical stan-dard to be used in the production, it soonappeared that only graphical units withdigital interfaces could fulfil the demandsof flexibility and high quality standards.This meant that the production signal hadto be digitized before putting on thegraphics at the venue. Due to reasons liketiming information input and distributionto other broadcasters at the venues it hadbeen decided that the graphics had to beput on the video signal at the venues, andnot in the IBC. NRK ORTO ’94 alsodecided to go for a digital recording stan-dard in the IBC for the archives. UsingPAL transmissions from venues to IBCwould result in the following conver-sions:
- Analogue PAL production
- A/D conversion to insert graphic
- D/A conversion to prepare for PAL-codec
- A/D conversion for transmission in140 Mbit/s format
- D/A conversion to deliver PAL in IBC
- A/D conversion to record for archiving.
This transmission chain was said not tobe satisfactory according to the qualitystandards that NRK ORTO ’94 requiredfor the signals distributed to all the right-holders in the IBC.
During the Winter Olympic Games inAlbertville ’92, digital production units
were introduced by Thomson CSF. Theworking principle is to digitize the cam-era signal as early as possible and do allthe mixing in the digital domain. Thisensures very high quality, and also en-ables embedded sound production/mix-ing in AES/EBU-format.
1.3 Digital TV-formats
There are two “established” digital studioTV-formats, digital composite and digitalcomponent. Digital composite is “push-ed” by Panasonic/Japan, and has its sup-porters especially in NTSC-countries.During the Summer Olympic Games inBarcelona ’92 digital composite was usedfor archive recording (D3-format) by thehost broadcaster RTO ’92. This digitalTV/sound-signal has a bit rate of177 Mbit/s.
For some years analogue component pro-duction has been used among some EBUmembers. SONY/Japan has been veryactive in promoting the digital compo-nent format. This standard is described inCCIR Rec. 601. Up to 1991–1992, equip-ment worked in the parallel form accord-ing to CCIR 656. This gave complicatedcabling and mixing units, and was nothighly used, even if the quality wasimproved significantly. The introductionof low price parallel to serial converterssuddenly made it possible to reduce com-plexity in cabling and mixing and starteda new trend in production units. Fullydigitized units have become the newstandard for TV-production units. Thenew production units that NRK ORTO’94 provided for Lillehammer ’94 TV-production was based on this technique.
CCIR 601 describes this digital standard.The analogue components signals; lumi-nance and two colour difference signals,are digitized as shown in Table 1.
CCIR 656 describes how to serialize thissignal (8 bit/word or 9 bit/word) whichgives serial signal with the bit rates of216 or 243 Mbit/s. The 216 Mbit/s signalis also named D1-signal.
However, SONY has made their ownstandard based on 10 bits/word whichgives the serialized bit rate of 270 Mbit/s.This has been established as de facto dig-ital TV-studio standard. Available equip-ment works in accordance with this“standard”.
In fact, due to the available graphicalunits and the development of a reason-ably priced digital recording machine torecord this signal format, NRK ORTO’94 chose to go for this production for-
25
Audio and video services
B Y R O L F S Æ T H E R
mat. The affordable recording unitswhich SONY developed for the NRKORTO 94 recorded in the new digitalBetacam format (not true D1 format).This decision was also based on the factthat transmission of this signal at 140Mbit/s bit rate had been successfullydemonstrated by Thomson CSF andFrance Telecom during the WinterOlympic Games in Albertville 1992.
1.4 140 Mbit/s transmission of
270 Mbit/s serial digital
format
To transmit the 270 Mbit/s signal (con-taining digital video and embeddedsound) in a 140 Mbit/s CCITT channelbit rate reduction is required before trans-mission. In the reduction process videoand sound have to be handled separately.CCIR Rec. 721 describes a technique forreducing the D1-signal (216 Mbit/s). Themain principle is to adapt the 8 bit signalinto a 6 bit signal through HybridDPCM-technique (HDPCM) and removehidden information. The reverse processhas to be done at the decoding side.
1.5 CCIR Rec. 721 – HDPCM
To enable transmission in a 140 Mbit/schannel the van Buul technique isapplied. This is described in CCIRG.721. To reduce information the hori-zontal and vertical blanking is removed.Only the 576 visual lines out of 625 aretransmitted. This gives no quality reduc-tion. Through the HDPCM-process sig-nal levels are digitally approximatedfrom a 128 level table to a 32 level tablewhere the approximation for low digitallevels are none (PCM) to an increasingdegree of approximation for higher digi-tal signal levels (DPCM); hence thename HDPCM. The conversion table isshown in Table 2.
Each of the 576 lines will have a struc-ture where the words are transmitted asshown in Figure 1.
Adding FEC (Forward Error Coding,Reed-Salomon type) and frame alignmentword the resulting bit rate of 135 Mbit/sis obtained (standardized bit rate for the
so-called “TV-container”). Multiplexingwith auxiliary information gives the stan-dardized CCITT transmission bit rate.
The video decoding process at the receiv-ing end is based on calculating the 6 bitwords into 8 bit words by the inverseHDPCM process. Combined with thisprocess two-dimensional prediction with8 bit accuracy brings the signal back toits original form with very small degra-dation.
1.6 Choosing equipment
supplier
Two companies handed in bids for devel-oping this type of equipment. ThomsonCSF had a model used in ’92, but someadjustments had to be made to achievethe correct interfaces towards the super-vising system. Siemens/Germany offereda solution with same mechanical outfitand alarming as the PAL-codecs whichhad been used for some time in Norwe-gian Telecom. Siemens was chosen dueto price and mechanical solution.
The realisation of the practical codec sys-tem was done in co-operation betweenNorwegian Telecom and Siemens/Ger-many. Siemens had a contract with“Institut für Rundfunktechnik” inMunich to develop the video coding anddecoding ASICS. This work was man-aged by Dr. Hoffman. The project man-ager at Siemens/Germany was Dr. Fried-rich Schalamon.
The first prototype of the video part wastested at “Institut für Rundfunktechnik”in February 1993. The operation wastested with test signals like “sound plate”and the EBU test tapes. The operationwas excellent. Only some minor adjust-ments to achieve the EMC requirementshad to be made. To keep the costs down,this implementation of the HDPCM pro-cess did not include the forward errorcoding process. This was acceptable aslong as almost all circuits would beimplemented into a fiberoptical network.One microwave system was used as thehalf of the ring structure to Kvitfjell, butthe fading conditions in February wereconsidered to be favourable.
1.7 The sound part
The digital codec was developed withsome parts of the existing PAL-codec.The video part was completely new, butthe multiplexer between digital video sig-nal and additional information was thesame. The PAL-codec contained 1 x2.048 Mbit/s and 1 x 1.024 Mbit/s chan-nel for additional information. For thePAL transmission it had been decided touse 15 kHz sound codec (384 kbit/s)through these capacities. NRK ORTO’94 used the AES/EBU standard (20 bitresolution/48 kHz sampling) at the pro-duction side, so it was required to trans-mit this signal together with the digitalvideo. The AES/EBU-channel consists ofstereo sound, 48 kHz sampling and 32bits word, independent of the choice of20 or 24 bit resolution for the sounditself. The 32 bits/word also containsinformation about channel identification(left or right) and pre-emphasis settings.This leads to a bit rate for a stereo chan-nel of 3.072 Mbit/s, which equals thesum of the two existing channels in theSiemens solution. Modifying the multi-
26
Signal Sampling Bit/ Resultingfrequency sample bit rate
Luminance 13.5 MHz 8 108 Mbit/s
Colour difference signal Ca 6.75 MHz 8 54 Mbit/s
Colour difference signal Cb 6.75 MHz 8 54 Mbit/s
Resulting signal 27 MHz 8 216 Mbit/s
Table 1
Level No From Value To
0 0 0 01 1 1 12 2 2 23 3 3 34 4 4 45 5 5 56 6 6 67 7 7 78 8 8 89 9 9 9
10 10 11 1211 13 14 1512 16 17 1813 19 20 2114 22 23 2415 25 26 2716 28 30 3217 33 35 3718 38 40 4219 43 45 4720 48 50 5221 53 55 5722 58 61 6423 65 68 7124 72 75 7825 79 82 8526 86 89 9227 93 96 9928 100 103 10629 107 110 11330 114 117 12031 121 124 127
Table 2 Quantizer characteristic CCIRRec. 721
plexer, necessary converting betweenAMI/ CMI and impedance/level adjust-ment was a rather simple implementationcompared to the video part.
1.8 ASO – automatic
switch-over unit
At the IBC NRK ORTO ’94 received twosimilar signals from each venue, trans-mitted via two different routes. Tochange between the hot and standby sig-nal an automatic change-over unit (ASO)was used. This unit included a framestore to prevent picture distortion duringchange-over. This operation becamemore complicated than anticipated. Thedigital decoder unit produced a true digi-tal video signal even on signal loss at thecoding end or at loss of signal (e.g. AISto the decoder). This picture did not con-tain information, but the signal formatcontained correct digital synchronisationsignal. Viewed on a monitor it was eithera total magenta or black/deep green sig-nal. Magenta or green signal was set bycoincidence by a flip-flop in the parallelto serial converter chip (SONY-made).The magenta picture occurred as maxi-mum chrominance, and deep green withminimum luminance. The prototype ofthe ASO unit checked the digital sync,but with this described decoder, noresponse was produced during real fail-ure situation (unless it was a decoding
failure or cable failure between the de-coder and the ASO). Therefore, this unithad to be modified to search for the spe-cial magenta and deep green signalsoccurring in such a long part of the signalthat the probability that this was a realfailure could be high enough (to avoidunnecessary switchings). This problemwas only discovered quite close to theGames, so SONY and NRK ORTO ’94had some thrilling days before it wassolved. The ASO software was based onPROMs that had to be renewed after thenew software was implemented.
The network for contribution of the inter-national TV-signal is shown in Figure 2.
1.9 Operation through the
Games
The local digital TV-circuits for NRKORTO ’94 operated very well during theGames. There were some minor prob-lems with a couple of NRK ORTO ’94’sA/D converters at two venues with PALproduction. There were no equipmentfailure in the codec equipment during theGames.
1.10 Production assistance
Due to the large number of venues to becovered to make a complete internationalproduction, NRK ORTO ’94 made a con-tract with several other broadcasting
companies for assistance in this produc-tion. The list in Table 3 shows whichcompanies were hired by NRK ORTO’94 to make the productions of the differ-ent events.
In total, 26 OB-vans (editing units), 220cameras and 142 VTRs wwere used tomake this complete NRK ORTO ’94coverage of all events.
1.11 Unilateral production/
transmission of digital video
Beside the NRK ORTO ’94 internationalproduction, the national unilateral NRKproduction was also produced in digitalvideo. For the NRK unilateral feeds theASO-switching unit was not implement-ed. The switching involved here was theNorwegian Telecom spare route switch-ing at the 140 Mbit/s level which is de-scribed in another article (transmissionnetwork).
1.12 Analogue TV-formats (4:3)
All unilateral production and transmis-sion besides NRK was in analogue com-posite form. The major part of this wasPAL production/transmission. A few TV-circuits were produced and transmitted inNTSC-format.
1.13 Codecs for analogue
composite transmission
To transform the analogue composite sig-nals PAL and NTSC a Siemens codecsystem was used. This system is based onPCM-coding, 9 bit resolution, 13.5 MHzsampling rate. FEC (forward error cod-ing) is implemented with 1 bit per word.This gives 10 bits word and a bit rate of135 Mbit/s. 2 Mbit/s and 1 Mbit/s chan-nels for auxiliary information are addedand with stuffing bits, the hierarchical bitrate of 140 Mbit/s is reached.
Due to this PCM technique the codecswere usable for PAL, NTSC andSECAM TV-formats. SECAM was notused in Lillehammer.
1.14 The TV-sound part
The PAL/NTSC-circuits were establishedwith 2 * 15 kHz sound circuits based ondigital coding and compression inaccordance with CCIR Rec. 660. The cir-cuits were established with Siemensequipment, 5 x 15 kHz channels encodedinto one 2.048 Mbit/s channel (384 kbit/sper 15 kHz channel).
27
Figure 1
Cb Y Cr Y Cb Y Cr Y Cb Y Cr Y
6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6----------------
3 octets 3 octets 3 octets
360 x 3 octets = 1080 octets
The resulting video bit rate will then be:1080 octets/line * 8 bit/octet * 576 lines/frame * 25 frames/second = 124,416 Mbit/s
Company Event
NRK, Norway Ceremonies, cross-country, ski jumping, Nordic combined
SVT, Sweden Freestyle
YLE, Finland Biathlon
SRG, Switzerland Alpine/downhill and super-G
FR3, France Alpine/slalom, giant slalom
BBC, England Bob/luge
NOS, Netherlands Speed skating
CTV, Canada Ice hockey, short track, figure skating
DR, Denmark Medal award ceremonies, press conferences in MPC
Table 3
The unilateral VANDA (Video ANDAudio) network for Lillehammer ’94 isshown in Figure 2 (excluding the internalsolution at each venue). For special pur-poses in news gathering and helicoptershooting, receivers for mobile cameraswere established at strategic sites forsome broadcasters. A video network forpolice operation was also establishedwith receiving points strategic in theOlympic area. Mobile cameras in vansand in helicopters for traffic supervisionwas used with great success.
2 Commentary circuits
The commentary circuits were estab-lished with 3 different qualities:
- Ordinary 3.4 kHz telephony quality
- 7 kHz high quality
- 15 kHz music quality.
2.1 3.4 kHz telephony quality
This is called “ordinary 4-wires” and isthe low price alternative for commentarypurposes. The service was established byusing ordinary 2 Mbit/s multiplexers withanalogue 4-wire connection cards.
Circuits for co-ordination purposes (be-tween production areas and IBC and be-tween IBC and home office) were estab-lished in the same way.
The majority within this quality classwas the co-ordination circuits.
2.2 7 kHz high quality
commentary circuits
This service was established by usingequipment working in accordance withthe CCITT G.722 standard. This standarddescribes the coding of a 7 kHz signalinto one 64 kbit/s channel.
The coding process is based on 16kHz/14 bit uniform encoding (resultingbit rate of 224 kbit/s). This digital signalis digitally filtered through a transmitquadrature mirror filter which splits digi-tally the band into two sub-bands 0 –4000 Hz and 4000 – 8000 Hz each with8 kHz sampling rate. The lower band isby an ADPCM encoder (mode 1) adaptedthrough a 60 level (6 bit) adaptive quan-tizer. The resulting bit rate is 48 kbit/s.The upper part of the band is by anADPCM encoder adapted through a 4level (2 bit) adaptive quantizer. Theresulting bit rate is 16 kbit/s. After multi-plexing the resulting bit rate is 64 kbit/s.The standard also describes two othermodes for allocating bits to the lowerband, mode 2 (30 level/5 bit) and mode 3(15 level/4 bit). The resulting multiplex-ed bit rates are 56 kbit/s and 48 kbit/s.
28
Figure 2 ORTO VANDA Contribution Network
Encoder
Encoder
Encoder
Kvitfjell
Decoder
Decoder
Encoder
Encoder
Decoder
Decoder
Hafjell
Encoder
Encoder
Decoder
Decoder
HunderfossBob&Luge
EncoderMPC
Encoder
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Decoder
DecoderKorpebergettower
Encoder Decoder
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Gjøvik mountainhall ice hockey
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ASO
ASO
ASO
ASO
ASO
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ASO
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ASO
ASO
EncoderDecoder
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ASO
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ASO
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ASO
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ASO
EncoderDecoder
BirkebeinerenCross country &Biathlon
LysgårdsbakkenSki jumping
KanthaugenFreestyle
Haakons hallIce hockeyMedal awards
Hamar Olympic hallSpeed skating
Hamar Olympic amphitheatreFigure skating/short track
"ORTO
digital
matri
x"
29
Figure 3 Unilateral VANDA network
Encoder
Encoder
Encoder
Kvitfjell
Decoder
Decoder
Hafjell
HunderfossBob&Luge
MPC
Korpebergettower
Mistberget
DecoderBirkebeinerenCross country &Biathlon
LysgårdsbakkenSki jumping
KanthaugenFreestyle
Haakons hallIce hockeyMedal awards
Hamar Olympic hallSpeed skating
Hamar Olympic amphitheatreFigure skating/short track
Encoder
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Encoder
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Encoder DecoderStudio
mtv
Encoder Decoder
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Gjøvik mountainhall ice hockey
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EncoderBangsberget/Hamar
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ORTO matrix
with connection
to all
rightholding
companies in
IBC
Decoder
Decoder
Decoder
StudioCBS/Newsnet
StudioTNT Sports
StudioFT2/FT3
PanAmSatstudio/injection
PoliceOperation centre
Encoder To police operation centre
From Kvitfjell
Only mode 1 was used during the Lille-hammer ’94 operation.
Equipment from two different suppliers(Philips/Germany and RE/Denmark) wasused in the Lillehammer ’94 network.The Philips equipment has a layout withup to 28 circuits per rack (4 channels percard) with a standard 2.048 Mbit/s inter-face (G.703). This equipment was usedbetween the competition venues and IBCwhere the number of circuits was high.From other sites with a few 7 kHz cir-cuits the RE equipment was used. Oninternational circuits RE equipment wasused. The RE equipment was used withboth G.703/64 kbit/s and X.21 interfaces.Full compatibility between equipmentfrom different suppliers is not achievedeven though all equipment is working inaccordance with this same recommenda-tion. This proved to create some prob-lems for the international commentarycircuits.
Norwegian Telecom applied this equip-ment on leased 64 kbit/s circuits forinternational 7 kHz circuits. Some broad-casters also applied such equipment onEuro-ISDN or switched 64 kbit/s circuits.
2.3 15 kHz music quality circuits
As described in the chapter for VANDAtransmission the music circuits wereestablished with Siemens equipment, 5 x15 kHz channels encoded into one 2.048Mbit/s channel (384 kbit/s per 15 kHzchannel). The coding is uniform PCM,32 kHz sampling, 14 bit resolution, bitcompressed to 12 bit/sample (includingerror correction) with instantaneous com-pounding technique described in CCIRRec. 660.
3 HDTV (16:9)
Two companies implemented HDTVproduction in Lillehammer ’94:
- NHK Hi-Vision/Japan- HD Thames/Vision 1250/Europe.
The HDTV operation was quite similarto the former operations of these groupsin Albertville ’92 and Barcelona ’92. AtLillehammer there were HDTV produc-tion at 5 venues.
The production was co-ordinated be-tween these two companies due torestrictions from LOOC concerning useof camera space in the venues. To enableboth companies to use all the productionsignals a conversion between 1125/60and 1250/50 and vice versa was done inIBC. HD/Thames converted the 1125/60signals to 1250/50 from Hamar OlympicHall and Lysgårdsbakken. NHK Hi-Vision converted the 1250/50 signals to1125/60 from Håkons Hall and Hafjell.
The venue list shown in Table 4 alsoshows the producing company and whoordered fibre connections to the IBC.
3.1 Transmissions venue – IBC
As an agreement between NorwegianTelecom and the operators, NHK Hi-Vision and HD/Thames brought in theirown equipment to be used on NorwegianTelecom optical fibres. Both analogueand digital type of equipment was used.The digital transmissions were based onserialized digital components (luminanceand two colour-difference signals) with aresulting bit rate of 1.3 Gbit/s (includingdigital audio) transmitted on dedicatedoptical fibres. The analogue systemswere based on FM/FDM modulation ofanalogue components and sound andwere also applied on dedicated fibres.The need for these transmissions fromvenue to IBC was greatest by the Euro-pean producers due to no time difference.The different time-zone in Japan enabledNHK Hi-Vision to record much of thematerial at the venue and to transmitfrom IBC at suitable Japan-time. Only at
Birkebeineren ski stadium they establish-ed a direct line to give the possibility fortransmitting directly to Japan the eventsin Nordic Combine where the chances ofa Japanese gold medal was highly antici-pated.
3.2 International transmissions
The HDTV-programmes were edited inIBC and encoded before transmissioninternationally.
The NHK Hi-Vision 1125/60 was en-coded to digital MUSE with a resultingbit rate of 60 Mbit/s. After being modu-lated (QPSK) in IBC the resulting IF-sig-nal was transmitted on dedicated opticalfibres to the up-link station. At the up-link station this IF-signal was passed tothe satellite up-converter and HPA andantenna pointing to IOR 66 degrees withan elevation angle of about 4 degrees.After receiving this digital MUSE signalin Yamaguchi/Japan the signal was con-verted to analogue MUSE before domes-tic distribution by the direct broadcastingsatellite BS-3b.
The European 1250/50 was encoded to a45 Mbit/s signal before satellite transmis-sion. This signal was connected locally tothe up-link station by an optical fibre(short distance transmission system). AFrench Telecom satellite was used forthis transmission. The signal was receiv-ed at some test receiving points inEurope.
4 References
1 Recommendations of the CCIR, 1990Rec. 601,656, volume XI-1.
2 Recommendations of the CCIR, 1990Rec. 660, 721, volume XII.
3 Recommendations of the CCITT(blue book) G.703,722, volume III -fascicle III.4.
30
Event Venue Producing Fibre opt.company connection
Slalom/giant slalom Hafjell HD/Thames HD/Thames
Speed skating Hamar Olympic Hall NHK Hi-Vision HD/Thames
Ice hockey Håkons Hall HD/Thames HD/Thames
Ceremonies/ski jumping Lysgårdsbakken NHK Hi-Vision HD/Thames
Cross-country Birkebeineren NHK Hi-Vision NHK Hi-Vision
Figure skating Hamar Olympic NHK Hi-Vision Only recordingAmphitheatre
Table 4
1 Introduction
One of the requirements from the Inter-national Olympic Committee (IOC) toLillehammer Olympic Organizing Com-mittee (LOOC) was to make available acable-TV service with two main aims:
1 To offer a better service to coaches,team leaders and athletes both at thearenas and in the accommodation areas
2 To serve the media with pictures fromall ongoing activities, also to be usedas a working tool in connection withcommentating individual events.
In addition, it would also be a serviceoffered to the public, by the fact that TVmonitors would be placed in busy loca-tions which the public had access to.
In order to fulfil the first requirement,offering the athletes and leaders a variedselection of entertainment, it was import-ant that the cable-TV network was fedwith commercial channels like BBC,CNN, Eurosport, etc. To meet the needsof the media, the network had to bedimensioned so as to receive all simul-taneous events, making it possible to beat any arena or accommodation area andat the same time make commentaries onevents going on in quite different places.
Based on these prerequisites, LOOCthemselves produced a specification forthe cable-TV network regarding the needfor number of channels and the pro-gramme selection on these. Dimension-ing the number of channels was based ona principle by LOOC that each arenashould have its own dedicated channel.This opened for the individual broadcast-ing companies being able to buy spacefor their own channels, while space wasbeing reserved for a result service and anInformation channel. On this basis, 23channels were needed.
The next important parameter to clarifywas which locations in the Olympic areato cover with cable-TV signals. LOOCthemselves needed to cover all arenas,press centres and accommodation areasin addition to their own administration.Others also expressed a need for the useof cable-TV signals, which resulted in 23geographically different locations beingdefined to be covered by the cable-TVand the number of monitor connectionsto be some 10,000. The point of pro-gramme feed of cable-TV signals was theradio and TV centre at Storhove (IBC).This was also the place where signalsfrom all the arenas could be picked up,
and it was therefore natural to establishreception point of the other signals at thislocation.
2 Delivery agreement
LOOC made an inquiry to NorwegianTelecom (NT), TBK and other possiblesuppliers with the intent of signing anagreement on the delivery of a cable-TVservice.
For NT it was natural to concentrate oncarrying cable-TV signals from IBC outto the geographically different destina-tions.
Planning the transmission network wasbased on establishing fibre-optic cables toall the arenas. As early as the projectphase, in 1989, there was technologyavailable on the market which could carrycable-TV signals via fibre over relativelylarge areas. Conditions were thereforewell suited for NT to offer this service toLOOC even if it was outside themonopoly scope of NT.
NT therefore entered into negotiationswith LOOC which ended in NT gettingthe responsibility for carrying cable-TVsignals from IBC to a given interface ateach arena/venue.
TBK accordingly handed in a bid to sup-ply the distribution network within eacharena. This also resulted in an agreement,making the Telecom Group responsiblefor the total delivery of the cable-TVside. In addition to supplying the distri-bution network, TBK also made anagreement to take down commercialchannels from satellite and deliver thesesignals to the cable-TV network.
3 Interface
Norwegian Telecom and TBK had signedseparate agreements with LOOC and for-mally operated as two different parties.Because they were to supply separateparts of the network, the definition ofunambiguous interfaces between the twodifferent network segments was vital.
At the point of programme feed at IBC,the interface between NT and the sup-pliers of programmes was defined to bebase band signals in PAL or NTSC for-mat 1 Vpp for pictures. Furthermore, theinterface for sound was defined to bebase band signals with a level of 0 dBm.Modulation of signals to the RF levelwere included in NT’s delivery.
Several programme suppliers were tofeed their signals to the network:
- LOOC data, as supplier of result ser-vice and information
- Norwegian Broadcasting Company(NRK) ORTO ’94, as supplier ofpictures from the arenas
- Other broadcasting companies, as sup-pliers of self-produced pictures fromthe arenas
- TBK, as supplier of commercial ser-vice channels.
NRK ORTO ’94 was given the role asco-ordinator for feeding the signals to thecable-TV network, and it was they whocollected the signals from the various“producers” and supplied them to NT ona given interface.
Interfaces on the various arenas betweenNT and TBK were defined. The part ofthe network supplied by NT was definedas a D1-network, and should consequent-ly meet requirement specificationsaccordingly:
- Signal voltage on the output:>= 74 dBmV
- Maximum signal fluctuation:+/- 1 dB
- Signal/noise ratio:>= 46.5 dB
31
Cable-TV in the Olympic Network
B Y S V E I N E G I L M O E N
Figure 1 TV reporter at his commentary desklooking at a monitor
Fot
o: M
orte
n B
run
A detailed definition of the interface wasprepared stating cable types, connectorcards and who supplied what at whichlocations. This resulted in personnelbeing confident regarding areas ofresponsibility when the installation phasestarted, and the work progressed rapidlyand efficiently.
4 Technology
One of the prerequisites which formedthe basis for selecting equipment typesand technology for the cable-TV trans-mission, was the predominant use offibre technology. The greatest challengewas to cover the arenas furthest awayfrom IBC. This applied to the followingarenas:
- Kvitfjell Alpine Arena:Distance to IBC 52 km
- Hamar Olympic Amphitheatre:Distance to IBC 64 km
- Gjøvik Olympic Cavern Hall:Distance to IBC 50 km.
Following a detailed assessment, theFinnish company Teleste with their sys-
tem SOF900 was chosen as supplier ofthe transfer network.
Teleste is an analogue system with inte-grated modulator and fibre transferequipment. The system is built in mod-ules so that units may be placed arbitrar-ily in shelf positions with power andalarm cabling supplied. All other cablingtakes place at the front of the units. Thesystem may be supplied as an AM or anFM system. The AM system modulatesthe base band signals up to normal RFsignals with the correct channel dis-tances, so that the signals may be carrieddirectly to an ordinary distribution net-work. Typical range for this system isapprox. 15 km. The FM system has awider range – typically 40–50 km, but italso has a greater channel distance thanthe AM system. Near the interface to thedistribution network the signals musttherefore pass through an FM demodula-tor and be modulated up again in an AMsystem before hand-over. This makes theFM system considerably more expensivethan a pure AM system.
5 Network structure
The network was constructed as a ramifi-cation network, based on LOOC’s re-quirements for where sub-ends for cable-TV were to be established and on thechoice of system made by NT. With IBCas a centre, a star network was establish-ed out to the arenas branching off alongthe way where the attenuation budgetwould allow. With fibre technology andshort distances, conditions were verywell suited for the use of optical distribu-tors, thereby saving on both transmitterequipment and capacity in the fibrecables.
The three arenas furthest away were orig-inally planned to use FM systems, butthen Teleste introduced more powerfuloptical transmitters and more sensitivereceivers for the AM system. This en-abled the use of the AM system even onthe distance IBC – Kvitfjell, althoughwith a repeater along the route. Conse-quently, the need for FM systems wasreduced to comprising the connections toHamar Olympic Amphitheatre andGjøvik Olympic Cavern Hall. Gjøvikmight have been covered in the sameway as Kvitfjell, had the solution of anemergency route to Hamar not been pre-pared (see below).
5.1 Emergency routes
For safety reasons LOOC wished to haveemergency routes established for cable-
32
Figure 2 Teleste SOF 900 FM-system. Transmitter (right), receiver (left)
TV along the lines of emergency routesfor ordinary transmission systems. Thisonly applied to the sports arenas and theMain Press Centre. Since there were nobuilt-in functions in the system to handlethis, NT chose to base the emergencysolutions on establishing blank fibre onalternative routes, and rely on manualchange of cable-TV signals from onefibre to another. One problem connectedto this was to achieve the same level ofsignal into the receiver independent ofwhich route was chosen. This was alle-viated by adding optical attenuationnodes on the route which obtained thestrongest signal.
5.2 Use of cable-TV radio link
One of the media villages was situated sofar from existing cable routes that radiolink was chosen to maintain ordinaryconnection with it. It then seemed obvi-ous to evaluate the possibility for usingradio link even for the cable-TV signals.There were already special cable-TVradio links in use, with a capacity of upto 24 channels. They had ordinary RFinterface and could thus be fed directlyfrom the network. One such link wasestablished from Korpeberget to the topof Hafjell, and one link was also used asemergency route from IBC to Kvitfjell.
6 Distribution network
As mentioned before, TBK had theresponsibility for establishing the distri-bution network. With one exception, thiswas built as an ordinary coax-based dis-tribution network within the individualarenas/venues. Where two arenas wereclose together – e.g. Lysgårdsbakken SkiJump and Kanthaugen Freestyle – TBKalso built a D2 network between thesearenas.
The one exception was the distribution ofcable-TV signals to the media accommo-dation quarters around Storhove and atJorekstad. This was a particularly big andconcentrated accommodation area andwould mean a large and expensive distri-bution network to erect. LOOC thereforesigned an agreement with TBK on estab-lishing an ether based distribution net-work to cover these locations.
7 Ether distribution of
cable-TV signals
In order to establish an ether based distri-bution of the signals, TBK signed anagreement with Norwegian Telecom assub-supplier. Because of a special regard
both to economy and to the capacity inthe frequency plans, the number of chan-nels for ether distribution was reduced to8. The technical solution to this was tomount 8 transmitters on two antennas.The transmitters were fed with signals onthe MF level. These signals were tappeddirectly from the Teleste equipment byplacing a divider between the MF stepand the RF step in the modulator equip-ment. This was done on four of the per-manent channels in the main station at
IBC. A further 4 modulators dedicatedfor ether distribution were mounted,which were then fed from alternativeprogramme sources, depending on theactivity at the arenas. NRK ORTO ’94was responsible for feeding these pro-grammes. Antennas were erected at eachof the accommodation units in the mediavillages with a distribution network fromthe antennas in each building.
8 Key figures
- Number of cable-TVconnections: Appr. 10,000
- Number of sub-ends: 23
- Number of channelsin the network: 24
- Distance of fibre: Appr. 272 km
33
Figure 3 CTV network with AM-systems
AM
D2
D2
Kløv
D3
Kvitfjell alpine
Tx
Tretten
D2 D2
12,5
10,2
1,4
2,5
3,2
4,0
2,6
1,6
1,25
2,23
6,0
1,04
0,350,5
10,4
0,80
4,80
4,80
MPC
IBCHead-end
Hunderfossen
Hunderfossensub-media
HafjelltoppenMedia
Reservevei tilKvitfjell
LOOC
IOCHåkons hall
Kanthaugen freestyle
Skårseth
NT
Kanthaugen
Abbortjerncross country
Abbortjernski
SOPPLundebekken
POLICETOP *)
10
11
6
6
RL
Rx
Rx
D3 D3
D1 D1
RL
RL
Håfjell
D3
RxD3Rx
RxD3
D3
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TxTxTxTx
Tx
Tx
D3
Rx
D3
Rx
7 8 3 9
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RxD3 Tx
Rx
Rx D3 D3
Rx
D3 D3
D3
D3
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D3
Rx
D3
Rx
Korpeberget
TxRL
AM = AM-modulator/Head-end
= Televerkets ansvarLOOC's ansvarSenderMottaker
=TX =RX =
*) InngÂr ikke i Televerketsleveranse til LOOC.
D1 = Koaks D1-nett = Optisk splitter
34
Switching
B Y H J A L M A R A H A N S S E N
The telephone network used in Lille-hammer to serve the XVII WinterOlympic Games was a very sophisti-cated Virtual Private Network (VPN),based on Alcatel S-12 public switchesand Northern Telecom Meridian SL-1PABXes with services never seenbefore in such a network.
1 The initial phase
To supply a PSTN for the Olympicsmany surveys had to be done. Items ofgreat importance were:
- Traffic load based on user patterns andtype of users/services
- Total estimated number of subscribers/user groups
- Overall synchronization of the network
- How to achieve the best integrationbetween a public exchange and aPABX network (ref. supplementaryservices across the interface)
- Integration of the public exchanges inthe existing switching network in Nor-way
- Level of reliability and back-up facili-ties
- Signalling systems, public switches
- Signalling systems, between PABXesand public switches
- Type of supplementary services to beprovided
- Final testing of the network.
2 Major components in the
network
Two parties co-existed in the so-calledOlympic Network (ON). NorwegianTelecom supplied two S-12 publicswitches especially for the Olympics, andthese were connected to the publicswitches in Lillehammer, Gjøvik andHamar, five switches in total in a WideArea Centrex configuration (WAC).Beside the public switches, the networkcomprised 38 ISDN Remote SubscriberUnits (IRSUs) mainly connected to thetwo Olympic public switches in Lille-hammer (IBC and Håkons Hall).
The other party in this network wasLOOC, represented by TBK and theirMeridian PABXes. Total figures weretwo main switches, one in IBC and onein LOOC’s administration building, and25 nodes at the venues/media villages.
3 Traffic handling
calculations
Before any purchase of the equipmentwas possible, NT had to do several traffichandling calculations based on figuresfrom previous events, such as theAlbertville Olympics, besides LOOC’sand NT’s own estimates. To achieve real-istic figures for the traffic load all userswere divided into main groups with sub-groups covering each single telecom ser-vice to be provided. NT made severalcalculations, based on figures handedover from LOOC. The basic figures topurchase switching equipment was basedon NT’s third calculated traffic report. Toinclude changes in the number ofusers/user groups and traffic, NT madetwo additional calculations themselvesduring the project phase. Because therealways is a limitation in any system, NTfound it convenient to ask Alcatel (NTchose Alcatel S-12 exchanges in the end)to do final traffic load calculations basedon the ordered system. The reason forthis was related to a predicted extensiveuse of supplementary services. Thesefive reports and the one from Alcatelproved to be quite accurate because NThad made their calculations so that abuilt-in redundancy was available. In
12.Feb 13.Feb 14.Feb 15.Feb16.Feb 17.Feb 18.Feb19.Feb 20.Feb 21.Feb 22.Feb 23.Feb 24.Feb 25.Feb 26.Feb 27.Feb
900
800
700
600
300
400
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100
0
Telephone traffic Mobile traffic
Figure 2 Telephone network
HamarLille-
hammerOsloU2 Gjøvik
International Broadcast Center(IBC)
Håkons Hall
OsloU1
Oslo
25 PABX'sLOOC/TBK
GjøvikOsloIN-node
HamarMTX
Venues
Media villages
Media villages
Olympic villages
Norwegian Telecom : 8 000 linesLOOC/TBK : 10 000 lines
38 RSU's
Figure 1 Traffic during the Olympics
35
Figure 1 are shown the traffic figurescovering the Olympic days. Normal traf-fic in the area is approx. 1/3 of the maxi-mum per day.
4 The overall switching
network
The overall switching network (ref. Fig-ure 2) comprised two Alcatel S-12 publicswitches and 38 IRSUs. As seen in Fig-ure 2 the main switches were located in
IBC and Håkons Hall, and the IRSUmainly installed at the sports venues andthe media- and Olympic villages.
In order to have a secure and stable inter-national communication, the mainswitches were connected directly to theinternational exchanges Oslo U1 and U2.This was a special solution for theOlympics because the switches in IBCand Håkons Hall were classified as sub-scriber switches which implies that suchcommunication always should follow the
hierarchical structureof the national switch-ing network. In addi-tion, this was done byconnecting the IBC andHåkons Hall switchesto Gjøvik FS-II (Tran-
sit Switch class II) switch. Overflowpossibilities towards the four interna-tional exchanges were established viaGjøvik FS-II and Lillehammer GS(Group Switch).
Another special solution was the connec-tion of IBC and Håkons Hall switches toHamar MTX (mobile telephone switch).After the deregulation of mobile servicesall communication towards a cellularoperator should always be done via anFS-II switch. Gjøvik FS-II is a networknode also used for the commercial tele-phony traffic in the Mjøsa region, and isof course handling much traffic not onlyrelated to the Olympics. To avoid con-gestion and other possible problemsrelated to that node, especially for thecellular system, the shown solution waschosen.
Another direct connection was the Intelli-gent Network Node (IN-node) in Oslo.This was used to serve the use of VISAcards in the card operated telephone setfor the press, and to convert the 8xx-numbers such as Country Direct.
In Figure 3 the network is broken downinto further details, showing how NTtook care of the importance of eachvenue. Each sports venue was covered byat least two IRSUs, one connected to theIBC switch and the other one to theHåkons Hall switch. To secure the com-munication in the IBC and Håkons Hallarea, even these locations were given alimited redundancy in the form of IRSUs,connected to the opposite main switch.The media villages and the Olympic vil-lages were the exceptions, because eachof these venues were connected to a sin-gle IRSU. All IRSUs, except those in themedia villages, were equipped with someISDN 2B+D subscriber cards in additionto analogue subscriber cards.
Euro-ISDN (2B+D) proved to be a popu-lar service, especially because of the datacommunication capabilities and the veryshort establishing time for the communi-cation. One of the main users of this ser-vice was LOOC Data Department. Thisclient had a very sophisticated data com-munication network, based on IBMToken Ring. To serve their needs for asecure communication they chose ISDNas their third back-up possibility. ISDN
Figure 3 Details of the overall switching network
Abbortjern 181-19
Hunderfossen 121-17
Hafjell 185-17
Kvitfjell 212-17
Gjøvik Ishall 185-17
Hamar Figureskating
287-17
Hamar Speedskating
183-22
Hafjelltoppen 58-0
Snekkerstua media 19-0
Jorekstad media 36-0
Hm S12Lm S12O-U2 Gk AXE O-O1
IBC 1424-22IBC 1414-22Sopp Storhove 2-0Lundebekken 8-0
Håkons Hall 1003-89Håkons Hall 243-17Kristins Hall 7-0Lhmr misch. 726-70
Kanthaugen 133-19
O-U1 O-F1
10 104
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Håkons Hall RSU 480-24
IBC RSU 480-24
Skårseth 480-8
Toneheim 240-8
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IF Assistor 0-16
IBM Mastemyr 0-16
Haslevangen 0-48
IN-node
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36
was not available in all regions in Nor-way, and to be able to provide this ser-vice for important use at Mastemyr andin Horten, NT had to install mini-IRSUsin these locations.
5 PSTN signalling system
In the Norwegian PSTN the CCITT #7signalling system is used. The standardimplementation has been to use Tele-phone User Part (TUP), but in order toserve the extensive use of EURO-ISDN,NT had to implement ISDN User Part(ISUP) between the exchanges in theOlympic Network.
6 Synchronization of the
network
The synchronizing sources are Oslo F1and Gjøvik FS-II. To secure the synchro-nization, NT had to establish a prioritychain (see Figure 4). The priority was asfollowing:
Priority 1: Oslo F1 to IBC and/orHåkons Hall
Priority 2: Gjøvik FS-II to IBC and/orHåkons Hall
Priority 3: Oslo F1 to IBC and/orHåkons Hall
Priority 4: Gjøvik FS-II to IBC and/orHåkons Hall.
7 Call charging in the
PSTN
Charging in the Olympic Network wasbased upon real-time charging instead ofthe tax pulse charging normally used in
the PSTN. The new system is namedSENTAKS, and offers a flexibility supe-rior to the older charging system. In aSENTAKS solution the data is storedcentralized, covering a geographicalregion or more. Data may now be pro-cessed on the basis of specific tariffs forspecific customers or other “algorithms”.Production of detailed bills or specificbills is also easier in this new system.
8 The Wide Area Centrex
An advantage of the S12 exchanges withthe new software package N4E was thecapability of networked centrex solutions(WACs). This feature was used duringthe Olympics covering the S-12 switchesin IBC, Håkons Hall, Lillehammer,Gjøvik and Hamar.
In Lillehammer S-12 the capacity had tobe reinforced by installing an additionalIRSU to serve Olympic Network custom-ers in premises outside the Olympicvenues.
9 International
communication
International traffic was routed via theinternational switches in Oslo, which are:
- Oslo AKE- Oslo Dig1 (East)- Oslo Dig2 (Centre).
Oslo AKE mainly dispatched overseastraffic to South America, China and Afri-can countries. In addition, most of thetraffic with destinations in eastern Euro-pean countries was dispatched via thisswitch because of the lack of CCITT #7capabilities both in the AKE switch itselfand the counterpart at the destination.
10 ISDN
ISDN was offered as an integrated ser-vice on the S12 exchanges and IRSUs.ISDN may be divided into two sub-groups:
1 ISDN based on TUP-signalling, alsoknow as “switched 64 kb/s”
2 ISDN with ISUP-signalling.
ISDN based on TUP was available to thefollowing countries (Figure 5):
Australia, Belgium, Denmark, Finland,France, Italy, Netherlands, GreatBritain (BT), Switzerland, Sweden,Germany, USA (AT&T/ MCI/ Sprint),Canada, Hong Kong, Japan (KDD),Singapore, Spain and Austria.
O-F1 GK FSII
Håkons HallIBC
1,3
2,4 1,3
2,4
1,3 = Synchronization priority
Figure 4 Priority chain
JapanITJ/KDD/
IDC
Luxembourg
Finland
Hong Kong
Belgium
KoreaDACOM/KT
Austria
Canada
SwedenTelia/TELE2
ItalyNetherlands
Australia
Singapore
Ireland
France
UKBT/MCL
Germany
DenmarkKolding/
Copenhagen/Albertslund
Spain
Switzerland
USAMCI/SPRINT
AT&T
OsloU1/U2
Figure 5 Availability of ISDN based on TUP
37
Special considerations had to be taken toUSA because they use 56 kb/s (DS0).
The following services used switched64 kb/s:- Videophone (up to 128 kb/s)
- Data communication
- Telefax group IV
- File transfer PCs to PC-networks
- Surveillance (video)
- High quality audio (7 kHz)
- Telephony (3.1 kHz).
ISDN based on ISUP was possible to thefollowing countries:
Sweden, France, Germany, USA(AT&T), Great Britain (BT) and Japan(KDD).
NT used NT-1s from Ericsson to termi-nate the ISDN-lines. Terminal adapters(TAs) were supplied by IBM and Philips.
Many NT customers brought their ownterminal adapters to use on NT’s ISDNlines. To help these customers to inter-face to our ISDN lines, NT establishedan ISDN test team. This test team tookcare of all problems related to interfaceof customer owned TAs at each venuewhen necessary.
Total number of ISDN lines used duringthe Olympics was 400.
11 ISDN Attendant Console
(ICAT)
In a Centrex group comprising severalextensions the use of an attendant con-sole may be mandatory. NT, togetherwith Ericsson and Walladata, developedan ISDN based attendant console namedICAT.
Two different types of attendant consoleswere offered to our customers, theAscom Crystal and the ICAT. TheAscom Crystal was a low-cost choicewith limited use.
The ICAT hardware was based on anindustry standard 486-PC (IBM compat-ible) equipped with an ISDN plug-incard. The software was developed to rununder Microsoft Windows 3.1. By usingWindows, we achieved a graphical userinterface that should give easy access toall facilities in the software, and in addi-tion, it should be easy to use for nontrained operators (the last statementproved to be partly wrong).
NRK Orto’94 Police
Paramedics
Press in media villages
OL-officials at: 10 sportsvenues, MPC, IBC, MAC
IOC Hotel
LOOC
SponsorsPress
NorwegianTelecom
Olympicvillage
Broadcasting Companies
PABXnetwork
Centrex
Figure 6 Members in the PABX network
IBC S12 Håkons Hall
Kvitfjell
Hafjell
Hunderfossen
MPC
LOOC Adm.
Abbortjern
Kanthaugen
Hamar Speedskating
Hamar FigureskatingGjøvik Ishall
Hafjelltoppen
Jorekstad
IBC
SOPP Lundebekken
SOPP Storhove
Sørlia
IOC Hotel
Transport
Snekkerstua
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= PSTN ISDN 2B+D
= Analogue PSTN lines
= PABX node
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Figure 7 The Olympic Network
38
To serve both foreign and Norwegianoperators, the ICAT software andMicrosoft Windows were supplied in anEnglish or a Norwegian version.
It was possible to equip ICAT with aheadset and an external speaker, andthese components were also supplied toeach customer. In total, fourteen ICATswere used during the Olympics.
12 The Olympic Network
As previously mentioned, the OlympicNetwork (ON) comprised two differentparties, LOOC/TBK and NT. LOOC/TBK supplied the PABX network andNT the Centrex solution. To understandthe network concept it is necessary toknow the difference between the custom-ers placed in the PABX network, andthose placed in a Centrex solution. Theonly possible members in the PABX net-work were (Figure 6):
- LOOC (administration, sports venuesand volunteers)
- NRK ORTO ’94
- Police
- Paramedics
- IOC hotel
- Press/media in the media villages.
Members in the Centrex solution:
- Press/media
- Olympic villages
- Broadcasting companies
- Sponsors
- Norwegian Telecom
- Others allowed to connect to ON.
12.1 Why an Olympic Network
The idea of ON was to have a user-friendly network covering the wholeOlympic region and to offer a 5-digit Pri-vate Numbering Plan (PNP) common for
all members (Figure 7). The elegance ofthe network gave all the users the impres-sion of similar functionality whether aPABX or Centrex extension was usedand a very flexible and effective solution.Another fundamental function was theuse of common attendants, which gavethe possibility to dispatch calls on to thenetwork in a manner not previously seen.All members of the network were listedin LOOC’s Olympic Telephone register,and the major parts of these users werealso a part of the TESS attendant servicesystem used by LOOC. This gave easyaccess to all customers in the Olympicregion.
12.2 Interfaces used in the
Olympic Network
- Between PABX and PSTN:2 Mb/s DDI/DDO with CAS.
- Between PABXes:2 Mb/s leased lines.
- Extensions in the PABXes:Digital attendant lines, analogue exten-sions and system internal digital exten-sions.
- Centrex extensions:ISDN attendant lines, analogue exten-sions and in some extent ISDN exten-sions(only on demand).
13 Routing
The main principle used for routing ofcalls was to obtain a minimum of con-gestion in the PSTN and to avoid loopsituations in the PABX network. Thesolution was to establish alternative rout-ing only in the PABX network (onlyvalid for PABX-Ctx-PABX communica-tion, not the PSTN itself).
- DDI to the PABX network wasdirectly terminated without any possi-bilities for alternative routing in thePSTN network.
- Outgoing calls from the PABXes tothe Centrex/PSTN was routed directly
to the PABX direct outgoing line asfirst choice, and a second choice eithervia the IBC PABX node or the LOOCAdm. PABX node.
- Traffic between subscribers in thePABX network was routed in the fol-lowing manner:
1 First choice via trunks in the PABXnetwork
2 Second choice via alternative trunksin the PABX network (not valid forall nodes in the network)
3 Last choice via PNP in ON.
- Alternative routing in PNP ON wasonly used from the originatingexchange. The reason for this was toavoid unnecessary use of trunks beforethe call was routed to the PNP ON.
14 Charging
Charging in Centrex and the rest of thePSTN was based upon real-time charginginstead of the tax pulse type chargingpreviously used in the PSTN. Chargingrates for ON is shown in Figure 8.
ToFrom
ON outside mediavillages Media villages Public network
ON outside media villages
Media villages
Public network
Public rates
Publlic rates+ 30%
Public rates
Free
Free
Public rates
Free
Free
Public rates
Figure 8 Charging rates for ON
This article describes the whole pro-cess starting with the collection ofplanning data, the preparation of pre-liminary and final plans, implementa-tion, and finally, the operation of thenetworks for mobile communicationsduring the XVII Olympic WinterGames in Lillehammer, February1994. The Norwegian TelecomOlympic Project (TOP) signed a con-tract with the Lillehammer OlympicOrganizing Committee (LOOC) forthe delivery of mobile services, com-prising services inside as well as out-side the governmental telecommunica-tions monopoly. Mobile data commu-nication is also mentioned, even if thiswas not part of the contract.
1 Preliminary plans
When Lillehammer on the 15th ofSeptember 1988 was awarded the XVIIWinter Olympic Games, to be held in1994, a preliminary planning project wasimmediately established to work out rec-ommendations regarding the participa-tion of Norwegian Telecom in thisrespect. A group of four engineers wasgiven the task to look into the field ofmobile services.
By April 1989 the preliminary plans andrecommendations were presented to themanagement of the Norwegian Telecom.
1.1 NMT-450
NMT-450 is a Nordic cellular system,giving radio coverage over great areas,but suffering of a capital lack of capacityin several areas of heavy traffic demandwithin the Nordic countries.
The recommendation was to expand thecapacity of this system to the maximumextent possible, without introducingexpensive changes in the structure of thiscellular network. In other words, therewould be no introduction of somethinglike a small cell structure for this system,inside or outside the activity area of theOlympic games. It was recommended notto enhance the coverage of this system inthe mountainous part of the accommoda-tion area, as these areas already werereasonably well covered, and a furtherenhancement would prevent the limitedfrequency sources to be used in the areasof more heavy traffic demand. Besides, itwould not be desirable to make this sys-tem more attractive compared to theNMT-900, than was already the case.Temporary expansions of the trafficcapacity were to be implemented by use
of already available transportable basestations (trailers).
1.2 NMT-900
NMT-900 is a Nordic cellular system,also being used in Switzerland and theNetherlands. At that point of time, thissystem was established throughout theNordic countries, providing good trafficcapacity in heavy traffic areas to reducethe congestion in the NMT-450 system,but suffering from some lack of radiocoverage compared to the NMT-450 net-work. It would be necessary to improvethe image of the 900-system to obtain afurther relief of the 450-system conges-tion. The convenient size of the 900-sys-tem terminal equipment and the tendencyof diminishing cost of this hand-portableequipment was, however, considered tocontribute to a heavy growth in the num-ber of mobile subscribers. This type ofequipment would also be convenient tobring along with other hand luggage forpeople visiting the Olympic area duringthe Games.
The NMT-900 system was considered‘the main traffic machine’ for cellularservices for the period before and duringthe Olympic Games, as this networkcould be dimensioned according to thetraffic demand without severe problemsregarding frequency sources (availableradio channels). To get the subscribersand potential subscribers to have thesame confidence in the 900-system, thecoverage and capacity of the system hadto be properly established early in theremaining time before the OlympicGames. A secondary effect of this strat-egy would be the tendency to get newsubscribers to choose the 900 systeminstead of the congested 450 system. Asa consequence of this strategy, it was re-commended to establish base stations forthe 900 system in some mountainousparts (tourist and recreation areas) of theaccommodation area. Temporary expan-sions of the capacity should be done byexisting transportable base stations (trail-ers).
1.3 GSM
This European system was supposed tobe implemented in several capitals inWestern Europe and their main airportsas a first phase in 1991. This servicewould be offered during the OlympicGames in Albertville 1992. At the timeof the preliminary planning, it was diffi-cult to foresee if the GSM subscriber ter-minals would be offered as hand portable
equipment at reasonable prices as earlyas in 1994, but it was supposed that leas-ing of terminals would be offered fromboth Norwegian and foreign (European)companies.
A forced implementation of the GSMsystem was recommended for the areasin question for the 1994 Olympic Games.The capacity should be dimensioned inreasonable accordance with the expectedtraffic demand. As the GSM system wasexpected to be implemented all over Nor-way during the years 1991–1997, therewould be no problem to redistribute anyexcessive equipment after the end of theGames.
2 Contract of delivery
The contractional discussions for mobiletelephone and paging services with theLillehammer Olympic Organizing Com-mittee were based on the recommenda-tions from the preliminary planninggroup.
The Norwegian Telecom offered toimplement the necessary networks formobile communications comprising theassociated switches, transmission sys-tems and base stations for good capacityand radio coverage within the OlympicArea before and during the 1994 Games,and also to take care of the administra-tion of special subscriptions. Delivery ofsubscriber terminals was not included aspart of the offer.
The services were offered as follows:
2.1 Mobile telephone
(Cellular service)
NMT-450 and NMT-900 are Nordic cel-lular systems. Transmission systems,trunks and base stations will providegood capacity and radio coverage withingreat parts of the Olympic Area before aswell as during the 1994 Games. The ser-vices will be offered in accordance withnormal public standards.
GSM is a pan-European digital cellularservice.
2.2 Paging services
– as public services
The Norwegian Telecom undertakes toimplement paging networks for numeri-cal as well as alphanumerical paging.The network structure, including basestations, will provide good capacity andradio coverage within great parts of theOlympic Area before as well as duringthe 1994 Olympic Games. The services
39
Mobile communication
B Y S T E I N A R S A N D B U , H A R A L D F A G E R M O E N A N D P E R K O L B J Ø R N B J Ø R S E T H
will be offered according to normal pub-lic standard.
For the alphanumeric paging system,redundant radio coverage will be provid-ed in important parts of the centralOlympic Area. Pagers will not be pro-vided by the Norwegian Telecom.
A paging system conforming to the newEuropean standard, ERMES, is supposedto be implemented within parts of theOlympic Area during the Games. Thisservice will provide the same function-ality as the offered alphanumeric pagingsystem, including some additional func-tions. Pagers will not be provided. (Dueto late implementation of this systemthroughout Europe, no implementationwas done for the 1994 Olympic Games.)
2.3 Alphanumeric paging
– as non-public system
An internal paging system for LOOC isoffered by using the same system as forthe public alphanumeric paging system.Figure 1 describes the principle of thissolution. LOOC will have to providepagers from other parties, and will haveto bear all associated costs.
This system is established by severalradio base stations, connected to the net-
work controller in Trondheim by leasedlines in a star structure. The coveragearea is extending from Ringebu as thenorthern area, along the main roads E 6and road No. 4 south to Oslo, includingthe city of Oslo. Figure 2 shows the cov-erage area for this Tele-mobil system asper January 1, 1994.
The system will conform to the POC-SAG 1200 standard.
Access to the network controller is offer-ed by the DATAPAK service as well asvia the PSTN. The long-distance part ofthe leased lines will be secured by doublerouting.
40
LOOC'sINFO '94
Public SwitchedTelephone Network
Paging Network Controller
........
Datapak
LOOCTransport '94
INFO '94 INFO '94
LOOC'sData-
NetworkX25
LOOC LOOC
Radio Base Stations
Figure 1 Principle of internal paging system for LOOC
Figure 2 Coverage area for Tele-mobil’s alphanumeric paging service
Each Olympic arena, except the GjøvikOlympic Cavern Hall, will be covered bytwo separate and independent radio basestations. This redundant coverage willalso be established for IBC, MPC, Haf-jell media, Storhove media and theOlympic Village Skårsetlia.
The reliability of the network controllerin Trondheim is at a high level.
3 Project organization
When the Norwegian Telecom OlympicProject (TOP) was officially established,a joint working group was formed be-tween this project and the main Telecomadministration, to take care of the plan-ning of cellular systems and other mobileradio networks associated with the 1994Olympic Games. The group was calledOlympic mobile, and the members wereappointed from the following depart-ments:
- The Norwegian Telecom Olympic Pro-ject (TOP)
- The Department of Radio Communi-cation, Norwegian Telecom/EasternRegion
- The Telecom Administration of Gjøvikarea
- The Telecom Administration of Hamararea
- The Technical Centre for Mobile Ser-vices, Fåberg
- The Department of Mobile Services,Norwegian Telecom Headquarters
- The Department of Switching,Norwegian Telecom Headquarters.
During the period of heavy technicalactivity, engineers and technicians fromRegion Oslo of Norwegian Telecomwere included in the group to optimizethe co-ordination of re-using second-hand base station equipment from thatregion.
When, after some time, Tele-mobil wasestablished as a separate division withinNorwegian Telecom, and then as a Limit-ed Company as per January 1, 1993,Tele-mobil AS took over the responsibil-ity of the planning activity, done by theOlympic mobile group. The premiseswere stated by TOP, as they had signed acontract with LOOC. After some clarifi-cation, Tele-mobil AS accepted thepremises as stated, and a formal contractwas signed between TOP and Tele-mobilAS for operation of the mobile networksduring the 1994 Olympic Games.
4 Implementation
programme
4.1 Cellular services
Already at the stage of preliminary plan-ning, a model for dimensioning of thethree different cellular systems wasestablished, based on prognoses forexpected amount of people of differentcategories coming to the Olympic Regionduring the Games. Qualified guessingwas done to assume the percentage ofmobile telephone subscribers within thevarious categories of people, and howmuch traffic one subscriber within eachdifferent category would generate duringbusy hour.
Based on these assumptions and data, thetotal traffic demand within the area ofOlympic activity was calculated for eachof the cellular services. Then, a certainpart of this total traffic demand was asso-ciated with each of the Olympic arenas,based on the programme schedule for theOlympic activities at these arenas. In thisrespect, we tried to assume whether anactivity would be most popular for spect-ators from Central Europe or from theNordic countries. The dimensioningmodel was established as a work-sheetsystem for quick updating as new andmore reliable information gradually wasobtained.
As there was very little experience torefer to for mobile communication duringsuch events as the Olympic WinterGames, two members of the Olympicmobile group went to Falun, Sweden, inthe spring of 1993, to collect any experi-ence done during the World SkiingChampionships. During some of the pre-Olympic test arrangements throughout1993, some experience was also gained.
For the main roads leading into theOlympic Region and for the accommoda-tion area outside the Olympic Region, theprognoses already existing for NMT-900and GSM were laid down as a basis forfurther planning. These prognoses wereconsidered as being prognoses for NMT-900 only. In addition, expansions sched-uled for 1994 were rescheduled for 1993,to bring up the extra capacity at an earlystage. Starting from these plan data, fur-ther dimensioning was based on qualifiedjudgement of the ongoing developmentof traffic demand.
During summer/autumn 1993, it wasdecided to establish coverage for NMT-900 as well as GSM hand-portable tele-phone sets on the main road, E 6, from
Oslo to Lillehammer. For this purpose,the following 4 base stations were estab-lished along this route:
- Prøysen- Veslenga- Andelva- Hovinmoen.
Repositioning of two base stations to thesites Skedsmo and Lindeberg was al-ready ordered, also to improve the cover-age of this route. Hence, a much awaitedand necessary improvement of the cover-age of E 6 was initialized and had to befinished before the start of the 1994Winter Olympic Games.
4.2 Numeric paging
This service was implemented accordingto normal plans, regardless of theOlympic Games, but the constructionprogram for coverage of the main road E6 through the valley of Gudbrandsdalen,was speeded up. A repeater was put up tocover the Gjøvik Olympic Cavern Hall.
4.3 Alphanumeric paging
The implementation of this service wasdone at a later stage than the initial plan-ning of the services for the OlympicGames. LOOC showed special interestfor this service and signed a special con-tract with TOP to use it for Info ’94 andfor administration of its transportationfleet. For this purpose, Norwegian Tele-com undertook to improve the radio cov-erage along some roads and to establishindoor/redundant coverage at the areas ofthe arenas. For this purpose, transmitterswere put up at the following locations:
- Ringebu
- Tandelykkja(As part of normal coverage)
- Åsletten
- IBC
- Håkons hall(back up for IBC)
- Østhagan(Grua, Road 4)
- Kråkhugukampen(Road 250)
- Gjøvik Olympic Cavern Hall(Repeater, constructed by Tele-mobil).
The area surrounding the lake of Mjøsawas covered by transmitters already inservice in Lillehammer (Korpeberget),Gjøvik (Bergstoppen), at Bangsberget
41
and in Hamar. The transmitters atKråkhugukampen and in Håkons hallwere put up just before the OlympicGames to cover road No. 250 and toestablish a back-up for the transmitter atIBC. The governmental department offrequency administration was very con-cerned about possible interference withvarious electronic equipment at IBC, andtherefore advised us that the transmitterat this site could possibly have to be shutdown at short notice. However, thisnever turned out to be a problem.
4.4 M-TEL
During the autumn of 1993, Tele-mobilsigned a contract with the Americancompany M-TEL, for temporary provi-sion of radio coverage for their 900 MHzpaging system within the OlympicRegion down to Oslo. Equipment for thispurpose was put into spare space in thetransmitters for alphanumeric paging atseveral sites. This system utilized thesame paging controller and same leasedlines as the system for alphanumeric pag-ing. Separate antennas of the same typeas for NMT-900 were put up for this pag-ing system. In this way, M-TEL transmit-ters were put in service at the followingsites:
- Ringebu- Tandelykkja- Åsletten- Korpeberget- IBC- Håkons Hall- Bangsberget- Hamar tele- Bergstoppen- Mistberget- Tryvann- Røverkollen- Toåsen.
Additionally, a transmitter was put up inthe Gjøvik Olympic Cavern Hall, con-nected by separate leased lines to thetransmitter controller in Gjøvik.
Even though the M-TEL transmittersproduced a rather high power output intothe antennas, the resulting radio coveragewas beyond all our expectations. Whenthe transmitter at Mistberget was finallyput into service, continuous coveragewas a fact from the central Olympic areasouth to Oslo.
The company SKY-TEL, doing themarketing for M-TEL, established theirown office in the central part of Lille-hammer during the Games.
4.5 Mobile data
Mobile data communication was not apart of the contract between LOOC andTOP. However, radio coverage for theMobitex system was established fromOslo up to the central parts of theOlympic area by a forced constructionprogramme. In addition, the old Mobitexbase station (160 MHz) at Sprinklerfjell(Fredrikstad) was replaced by the newMobitex system using 400 MHz band.Hence, base stations were put into ser-vice at the following sites before theOlympic games started:
- Åsletten- Korpeberget- Bangsberget- Mistberget- Bjørnåsen- Sprinklerfjell- Høyås.
5 Installation phase
5.1 Planned installation
of base stations
A great part of the extra capacity for theNMT-900 network was put up by reusingsecond-hand equipment from Oslo, asthis equipment was replaced by newequipment, more suitable for a small cellnetwork structure.
As far as possible, the same personnelwas used for dismantling of the equip-ment in Oslo and for reinstallation withinthe Olympic area. This idea of workorganization proved to be very effective.
All planned construction and expansionof radio base station capacity were ful-filled before the opening of the OlympicGames.
5.2 Planned installation of
mobile telephone switches
The installation of an additional MobileTelephone Exchange (MTX) at Hamarwas done for the purpose of reliabilityand because the capacity of the existingMTX, according to the expansion pro-gramme, was about to be fully utilized asfar as number of connected base stationswas concerned. This extra MTX wasplanned to be reinstalled at another siteafter the Games. However, already in1992, this extra MTX was so badly need-ed in the area of Oslo and Drammen, thata new evaluation of the need at Hamarconcluded that it should be dismantledand reinstalled in the Oslo/Drammenregion during the spring of 1993.
To take care of the system reliability atHamar, plans were made for reroutingthe mobile telephone traffic onto anotherMTX.
5.3 Installation outside the
planned programme
TOP and Tele-mobil agreed duringDecember 1993, that a base station forextra capacity in the NMT-900 systemshould be put up within the city of Lille-hammer. This was finally done byputting up a base station for NMT-900and GSM at the Technical Centre forMobile Services at Fåberg. By doing this,the system capacity was expanded for thenorthern part of Lillehammer city, andthe radio coverage was improved alongthe E 6 up beyond Fåberg towards Øyer.The base station was put into servicebefore the Games started.
During a test arrangement in the HamarOlympic Amphitheatre, we receivedcomplaints of bad coverage for NMT-900 in some office areas underneath theamphitheatre. A mobile base stationequipped with 8 channels was put up tosolve this problem. This mobile base sta-tion remained at that site during all of theOlympic Games, giving the necessarycoverage, but with a capacity whichshould have been doubled.
During the period just before theOlympic Games and partly after theopening of the Games, some complaintsand strong demands for improvementswere set forth. This was concerning thefollowing areas:
The air-raid shelter at IBC
The American TV company CBS had agreat deal of their personnel and techni-cal equipment installed in the air-raidshelter at IBC, where the NMT-900 cov-erage for obvious reasons was very bad.After request from LOOC, an activerepeater was installed for NMT-900 andGSM coverage inside the shelter. Thiswas done just before the Olympic Gameswere started.
Olympic village Skårsetlia
Complaints were received about badindoor coverage in the service buildingof this village. Measurements showedextraordinary high attenuation from out-door to indoor position. Hence, it wasdecided to put up a separate base station,which was installed in the room for tech-nical equipment. This was done beforethe Games were opened.
42
Main Press Centre – MPC
In spite of short distance from the basestation at IBC, the coverage inside MPCproved to be very bad, except for the topfloor. Measurements showed reasonablyhigh field strength, but with a rapidlyvarying pattern as the mobile telephonewas moved inside the building. In otherwords, a complicated multipath fieldstrength pattern made it very difficult touse cellular telephones. The problem wassolved by installing an active repeaterconnected to a “feeding” antenna on topof the roof and an antenna installed ineach of the two difficult floor levels.Measurements as well as installationwere done during two days of the firstweek of the Olympic Games.
Brøttum
LOOC complained via NTOP that anarea at Brøttum was badly covered. Nosolution was established as the signalstrength was considered to be too low fora repeater. This seemed to be a problemfor only a few persons within LOOC.
5.4 Capacity adjustments
Already two days before the officialopening of the Games, questions aboutexpansion of the NMT-900 capacity inthe central part of Lillehammer wereraised by the management of Tele-mobilAS. Therefore, an expansion of the basestation at Lillehammer tele was put intoservice the day before the official open-ing. The concentration of people in thecentre of Lillehammer city and their useof NMT-900 resulted in a very high traf-fic demand at this base station. The samehappened at the Abbortjern base station,which covered the cross-country skiarena, Birkebeineren. High trafficdemand was also expected at Hafjell.Expansions can be summarized chrono-logically as follows:
11.02.94 Lillehammer tele NMT-900expanded from 64 to 80 chan-nels
16.02.94 Abbortjern NMT-900 expand-ed from 44 to 48 channels
17.02.94 Abbortjern NMT-900 expand-ed from 48 to 61 channels
20.02.94 Lillehammer tele NMT-900expanded from 80 to 96 chan-nels
21.02.94 Åsletten NMT-900 expandedfrom 64 to 80 channels, byusing equipment from Ringebu
base station and frequencies from Fåvangbase station.
Figure 3 shows the capacity for NMT-450, NMT-900 and GSM as it was estab-lished at the various arenas/areas.
Expansions could be made on shortnotice because equipment, equipmentspace, power supply of relevant voltageand transmission capacity was available,and because Tele-mobil had availableengineers and technicians at the OlympicNetwork Operations Centre (NOC) andat the Technical Centre for Mobile Ser-vices, Fåberg. Easy communication be-tween TOP and Tele-mobil was equallyimportant, enabling quick decisions to betaken.
6 Quality Evaluation
Project
A quality project was established forevaluation and possible optimization ofthe NMT-900 network as far as call qual-ity and utilization of the frequencyresources are concerned. The evaluationconcentrated on the Olympic RegionHamar – Gjøvik – Lillehammer –Ringebu, including main roads fromOslo, emphasizing the E 6 main road.
Initially, all parameters for the concernedbase stations were examined and com-pared to theoretical values. Necessarycorrections were done. In addition, prac-tical tests were carried out. Weekly rou-tines for measuring a set of qualityparameters were established, as forinstance call breakdown, successful han-dover, congestion in measuring channel,
etc. Further on, a car, specially equippedfor network analysis, was leased togetherwith a driver/operator from the SwedishTelia Mobitel. This was driven aroundthroughout the Olympic Region to verifyradio coverage and network operation.The result indicated that some parametershad to be changed, and that the main roadE 6 still suffered from low field strengthat some few locations.
When all planned radio base stationswere put into service and new adjust-ments had been made, a new networkanalysis was carried out by the leasedSwedish test-wagon throughout theOlympic area including the main roadE 6 from Oslo to Ringebu. After someminor adjustments, the network seemedto be as optimized as possible, given theavailable number and locations of theradio base stations.
At an early stage of the quality project,routines for automatic measurements andchecking of all radio channel equipmentand associated leased lines at least once aweek, were established at the MobileNetwork Control Centre in Hamar.
In early January 1994, terminals for anautomatic traffic testing system (TVP-M)were distributed at important locationswithin the central Olympic area, likearenas, the Main Press Centre and thecity centre of Lillehammer. By this sys-tem, the degree of service was tested aswell as the quality within certain limits.
As from February 1, these tests wereintensified. The degree of service wastested from the PSTN into the cellular
43
Lillehammer Abbortjern Hafj./Hund. Kvitfjell Gjøvik Hamar0
50
100
150
200
250
300
Channels
NMT-450
NMT-900
GSM
Figure 3 Channel capacity
7 Operation during the
Olympic Games
By signing the contract with TOP, Tele-mobil accepted to participate with quali-fied personnel in the Olympic NetworkOperations Centre (NOC). By being col-located with personnel responsible forother parts of the telecommunication net-works, Tele-mobil had a good opportu-nity to be quickly updated regarding pos-sible network problems.
As NMT-900 had been deemed the maintraffic machine of cellular services, theattention was focused on this servicetogether with the alphanumeric pagingsystem, which was also part of the con-tract with LOOC.
At the NOC, Tele-mobil installed termi-nals for monitoring and operation of allthe cellular services as well as thealphanumeric paging system within theOlympic area. For NMT and GSM,advanced control systems were used; asfor the alphanumeric paging system, astandard terminal was connected to thepaging controller in Trondheim.
This centre was attended continuously byone of four experienced engineers fromTele-mobil. In addition, Tele-mobilsregional Mobile Network Control Centrein Hamar was attended from 0600 hoursuntil 2200 hours throughout the week.Two experienced engineers were addedto the 5 engineers usually operating atthis centre. The corresponding centre inOslo as well as the paging controller inTrondheim, was also attended for thesame period every day, but without addi-tional engineers.
Tele-mobils centre for subscriber ser-vices (164) was attended 24 hours a day,being able to clarify all questions regard-ing subscription at any time.
All NMT-900 base stations within theOlympic area were monitored 24 hours aday from NOC. This centre also tookover the monitoring of the NMT- andGSM-networks for the centres in Hamarand Oslo, as well as the paging controllerin Trondheim for the period 2200 till0600.
The Tele-mobil engineers at NOC alsohad the possibility to call out engineersfor service at the radio base stations with-in the Olympic area 24 hours a day.
44
Time
Number of successful call per hour (x100)
0
20
40
60
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160
02.00 04.00 06.00 08.00 10.00 12.00 14.00 16.00 18.00 20.00 22.00 24.00
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Aug 92 Jan 93 Jun Jan 94
Traffic
Traffic-capacity (5%)
0
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Traffic Traffic-capacity (5%)
Week 1 Week 57.Feb 12.Feb 17.Feb 20.Feb
network and vice versa, as well as trafficmeasurements within the cellular net-work. As from February 5, these testswere followed up by daily meetings,where the latest findings as well as pos-sible improvements were discussed andanalyzed.
Looking back at this activity, we canconclude that the quality project by itsintense checking activity, succeeded inmaintaining the NMT-900 network closeto its optimum shape, contributing toreasonably good degree of service evenduring periods of heavy traffic demand.
Figure 4 Traffic in the Olympic region
Figure 5 Traffic on NMT-900 in Lillehammer
Figure 6 Traffic capacity on NMT-900 in Lillehammer
At NOC the traffic demand at each radiobase station was registered continuously,enabling traffic statistics to be producedfor every hour during the OlympicGames.
8 Some key numbers
2.6 million mobile telephone calls wereset up during the 16 days of the 1994Winter Olympic Games, i.e. an averageof 160,000 calls every day. The maxi-mum traffic demand was registered theday before the official opening.
During the hour from midnight until0100, the traffic demand was three timesthe normal demand during daytime busyhour.
In total, 296 radio channels in the NMT-900 system covered the city of Lilleham-mer. This was three times the normalcapacity. In addition, 100 channels ofGSM and 60 channels of NMT-450 wereavailable for traffic. This capacity en-abled a call intensity of 15,000 per hour.Figure 4 shows that this was sufficient.
Figures 5 – 7 show the development ofthe traffic in the NMT-900 system in thecity of Lillehammer for the time periodfrom August 1992 until February 28,1994.
Figure 8 shows the number of ‘NMT-900guest subscribers’ roaming into theOlympic region during the period 18 –25 February 1994.
Figure 9 shows the number of ‘GSMguest subscribers’ roaming into theOlympic Region during the period 7 –22 February 1994.
It should also be mentioned that very fewsubscriber complaints were registered forthe mobile services during the 1994Winter Olympic Games. At NOC anaverage of one complaint per day wasregistered, taking all of Tele-mobils ser-vices into account.
45
0
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100
150
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Traffic Traffic-capacity (5%)
7. Feb 12. Feb 17. Feb 22. Feb 27. Feb
0
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800
1000
1200
1400
1600
1800
18.Feb 19.Feb 20.Feb 21.Feb 22.Feb 23.Feb 24.Feb 25.Feb
Swiss
Danish
Baltic
Netherlander
FinnishSwedish
Faroise, Icelandic
200
0
50
100
150
200
250Sweden
Finland
Switzerland
Portugal
Luxembourg
Denmark
England
Germany
France
Italy
Hungary
07.F
eb
08.F
eb
09.F
eb
10.F
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11.F
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12.F
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Figure 7 Traffic on NMT-900 in Lillehammer
Figure 8 Guests in the Olympic region
Figure 9 Roamers in the Olympic region
46
Datacom
B Y H J A L M A R A H A N S S E N
Standard data communication servicessuch as X.25, X.28 and leased lines(several data rates from 2.4 kbit/s upto 2 Mbit/s) were the backbones of theOlympics. To serve data communica-tion needs such as leased lines, Norwe-gian Telecom (NT) introduced a newnetwork concept and a brand newtechnical equipment for the XVII Win-ter Olympic Games. The solution wasbased on the DXX concept from Mar-tis OY of Finland. The new networksolution was easy to reconfigure andwas also very stable and reliable. Datarates in the network spanned from lowspeed data (2400 bit/s) up to 2 Mbit/s,all routed through DXX access nodesand the DXX cluster node. Such amixed solution also gave us an easyoverview and maintenance of the net-work and few types of equipment tohandle.
1 The planning phase
To plan the network for the leased lineservices, NT had to take into accountestimates from LOOC’s and NT’s ownexperiences from such networks. Severalcalculations were made as a result of sev-eral (five) updated estimates fromLOOC. The last calculation was merelycorrect compared to what we met duringthe Olympics, but slight modificationshad to be made.
2 The network concept
2.1 The telex service
When visiting Albertville in ’92 weexperienced that equipment like the telexmachines were very rare, but of course, afew were in service. NT thought that thesituation for the telex service would beeven worse in ’94, and this proved to be
correct. NT did not make any new invest-ments in the telex services for theOlympics because our investigations inthe Olympic region showed a situationwhere most of the telex lines weredisconnected because of the introductionof the telefax machines. Because of this,a high capacity telex network alreadyexisted in the area, and we found thisuseful for the Olympics in its presentstate.
During the Olympics approx. three telexmachines were operating. The telex net-work is shown in Figure 1.
2.2 The X.21 service
In Norway the X.21 service is named“Datex”, a service that has decreased inuse over the last years and still seems todecrease. Consequently, NT found itwise not to make any new investments toupgrade this service because the sparecapacity in the Olympic region was suffi-cient to supply this service anyway. Adecision that proved to be very wise.
2.3 The X.25 and X.28/V.24
services
Our estimates concluded in an extensiveuse of X.25, but this proved to be wrong.Only a few subscribers used this net-work, and the X.25 service is obviouslynot of major importance for events suchas the Winter Olympic Games. The net-work concept is shown in Figure 2.
2.4 Leased lines
Two types of leased lineswere supplied, an analogueand a digital type. The ana-logue one was in accordancewith CCITT M.1040 fordomestic use, and for interna-tional use in accordance with
M.1020. These circuits were estab-lished via the PCM-muldexes and willnot be further discussed in this chapter.
Digital leased lines were established viathe DXX network, and served data ratesfrom 2.4 kbit/s up to 2 Mbit/s, both syn-chronous and asynchronous circuits. TheDXX network design was a star configu-
ration built around a DXX clus-ter node at IBC (see Figure 3).The digital leased line servicewas a very popular one, but asexpected we observed thatseveral users preferred ISDN,and the reason might be obvi-ous: it is cheap, it is secure
Holmenkollen ParkHotel
Hamar MediaHamarfigure skating
Hamarspeed skating
3 3
GJØVIK
Gjøvikhockey venue
3
HAMAR
5/105
3
4/72
Fornebuairport
1
Venues in theOlympic region
SubscriberTT-systems
Note 1
3/54
IBC4/96
Fagernes1
TT-system
1
Gardermoen
Leirin airport
LILLEHAMMER OSLO/MC
SubscriberTT-systems
Truncks/TT-systemsto other domestic/foreignexchanges/switchingnodes
Small venues in
Lillehammer City
Number of 50 Bauds channelsNumber of TT-systems
4/72
NOTE 1:
Substation
Main station
1
Figure 1 Telex network
47
Figure 2 X.25 and X.28/V.24 network concept
and the same connection may be used fora normal telephone conversation.
2.5 The DXX-system
DXX components were supplied by thecompany Martis OY in Finland. The sys-tem itself is a static switched system witha functionality previously not seen in sucha network. It also enabled an easy installa-tion of subscribers and a very good main-tenance and supervision system.
The main system components are:
- A cluster node with a maximumcapacity of 512 Mbit/s (8 * 64 Mbit/s).The internal data bus rate is 2 Mbit/s.
- Several access nodes each with amaximum capacity of 64 Mbit/s(32 * 2 Mbit/s). The internal data busrate is 64 kbit/s.
The cluster node at IBC, comprising 5subracks was, so to speak, the hub in theDXX network. Each single DXX accessnode was connected to the cluster nodewith a number of 2 Mbit/s G.703 circuits.The number of 2 Mbit/s circuits peraccess node was a result of the maximumtraffic load (number of leased lines andtheir data rate). In addition we also estab-lished the routing between the accessnodes and the cluster node according tothe spread routing principle to have atleast 50% of the capacity available if themain transmission route failed. Such asolution of course occupied many 2Mbit/s circuits in the transmission net-work, but we did not have any otherchoice because of the type of traffic dis-patched through the DXX-network andthe demands concerning reliability of ournetwork.
2.6 DXX network topography
See Figure 3.
- Point-to-point communication
For example the timing/result servicefor LOOC, data rate 128 kbit/s.
- Point-to-multipoint communication
Bankomats (cash withdrawal) andPOS-terminals for VISA/NOR-bank.
- The X.25 service was available oneach venue via the DXX-network.
2.7 The access nodes
An access node is the type of equipmentthat was installed at each venue and insome user premises. The access node isequipped with several so-called data
interfaces, and the freedom of choosing aproper interface is quite big. The follow-ing list shows the interfaces delivered:
- V.35 (ISO 2593), synchronous.VCM222 with VDM240 and 4 inter-faces per unit.
- V.36 (ISO 4902), synchronous.VCM222 with VDM241 and 4 inter-faces per unit.
- V.24/V.28 (ISO 2110),synchronous/asynchronous. VCM223with VDS242 and 4 interfaces per unit.
- X.21/V.24 (ISO 4903), synchronous.VCM223 with XDM244 and 4 inter-faces per unit.
- G.703 (co-/contra directional,64 kbit/s). VCM223 with GCL243 and4 interfaces per unit.
- G.703 (2 Mbit/s). One interface perunit.
Transit node
Subscriber node
O/D
EAST PSE
Gk02
WEST PSE
Br
Br
North PSE
Td Td
OSLO PSE
O/MC
O/MC
Hm01 Hm02 Lsm02 Sb01 IBC01Gk01 Lsm01
O/D
Subscriber nodeincluding X.28 PAD
48
LOW SPEED DATA HIGH SPEED DATADIGITAL DIGITAL
Venue 4,8kb/s 9,6kb/s 19,2 kb/s Sum DATAPAK 64 kb/s 2 Mb/s
Hunderfossen 3 5 2 10 3 6
Kvitfjell 4 7 2 13 6 7Hafjell 2 5 2 9 6 7
Abbortjern 4 9 4 17 3 11
Kanthaugen 5 7 4 16 3 11
Håkons Hall 1 7 2 10 4 8
Lillehammer LOOC 5 30 35 1 11 2Hamar Speed Skating 4 7 2 13 6 8
Hamar Figure Skating 4 9 4 17 6 10Gjøvik Ice Hockey 1 5 4 10 4 7
MPC 1 17 2 20 15 17
IBC 15 71 6 92 5 22 4Domestic/International 12 70 6 88 31 6
Lillehammer City 7 24 2 33 24
IBCHunderfossen
Kvitfjell alpin
Hafjell 1
X28Trunk
MastemyrIBM-Oslo
3
2*2MB10*2MB 2*2MB 2*2MB
2*2MB
2*2MB
2*2MB
2
4*2MB
LOOC1*2MB
IOC
LOOC
Jorekstad
Sørlia
Hafjelltoppen
Snekkerstua media
1*2MB
1*2MB
1*2MB
2*2MB
2*2MB
2*2MB
1*2MB
Vormstuen
MPC
1*2MB
2*2MB
1*2MB
14*2MB
DXX 2
1
FLEXIMUX NOS. DXX
TP4/III-MININODE
SBM2048M
Trunk
X28
Domestic OSLOinternational
ØKERN
Norwegian Telecom Gjøvik(Spare X.25 capacity)
Abbortjernbiathlon Kanthaugen Håkons Hall
Hamar Speed Skating
Hamar Figure Skating
Gjøvik Ice Hockey
NT transmissoncentre
Lillehammer
Olympic VillageHamar
Korpeberget
4*2MB2*2MB
TP4/III-NODE
DXX1
DXX1
DXX1
DXX1
DXX1
DXX1
DXX1
2*2MB 2*2MB 2*2MB
DXX1
DXX1
DXX1
DXX1
DXX3
DXX2
TP4/IIIM
DXX9
X28
TP4/III
DXX1
TP4/IIIM
TP4/III
Figure 3 DXX network topography
49
As seen from the list of avail-able interfaces, all these,except one, are equipped withfour interfaces per unit. Oneunit could either consist of asingle card or a double card(two cards mounted on thesame front cover). Anyway, ifone card failed, the maximumof four users were disturbedby this. Another Martis spe-ciality is the way they builttheir interface cards. Bystudying the list of interfaceswe find that in practice onlythree major types exist. Theingenuity is that small add-onboards installed on eitherVCM222 or VCM223 givesthe proper interface, exceptthe 2 Mbit/s G.703 interface.
The total number of accessnodes was approx. 40 units(double racks), and approx.40 mini-nodes (SBM 2048A),not all of them in use becausesome were spare nodes.
2.8 Modems
The new modems had of course newfunctions giving NT a possibility tosupervise these types of digital lines pre-viously never possible. In practice, NTwas able to supervise the communicationlink from V.xx interface to V.xx inter-face, and this without disturbing an on-going communication thanks to theimplementation of CCITT V.110 frame(modified version) and the use of sparebits in timeslot 0.
In the new modems the Adaptive EchoCanceller technique was implemented, afunction that made it possible to transmitdata up to 384 kbit/s on a two-wire line.Data rates higher than 384 kbit/s wastransmitted on four-wire lines. Becausemany customers used the 64 kbit/s datarate, much money was saved both in thetransmission part and the internal net-work cabling systems at the venues.
The following list shows the modemsused:
- Two-wire modems:
SBM-64A 64 kbit/s max.Two-wire (strappable tofour-wire).
SBM-384A 384 kbit/s max.Two-wire (strappable tofour-wire).
- Four-wire modems:
SBM-768A 768 kbit/s max.Four-wire.
SBM-2048A (Also named MINI-node).Four-wire (four lowspeed data interfaces andone 2.048 Mbit/s inter-face).
A = Advanced (remote supervision andremote parameter setting).
As a rarity, the French and Japanese useX.21/V.24 to transmit high speed data.
When installing a 64 kbit/s for a custom-er, and if we though this line could besubjected to change to a higher data rate(e.g. 128 kbit/s), we installed a 384 kbit/smodem instead of a 64 kbit/s modem.One of our major clients, LOOC Data-com, ordered many 64 kbit/s circuits toeach single venue, in fact two or more.On these lines we expected a data ratechange and installed 348 kbit/s modems.Days before the Games started, the orderfor a 128 kbit/s data rate arrived. Nor-mally, a change like this would havemade a great impact in our organization
because of the work effort of effectingthis type of order, especially concerningthe time frame. Because of our prepara-tions, upgrading from 64 kbit/s to 128kbit/s for almost 30 links was only a 30minutes job to do, which is fabulous forthese types of connections in a publicdata network like NT’s.
2.9 The subscriber premises
A subscriber installation was quite asimple task with this new equipmentcompared to earlier procedures. Whenthe venue internal lines were finished amodem was installed on each side of thecommunication link (point-point). Thenall definitions concerning the type ofcommunication, i.e. the data rate, use ofthe V.- interface and other communica-tion parameters were set from the DXXnetwork control terminal at IBC. All nec-essary tests could be initiated from thisterminal, which also was the case inpractice. Possible test loop was digital-digital and analogue-analogue as withstandard modems. Besides, a completetransmission test could be done by usingspare bits in timeslot 0 in the V.110 dataframe if enabled. Normally the V.110frame was enabled, giving NT a lot of
Figure 4 DXX control/maintenance network
Spare X.25
Nymosvingen 2Lillehammer
DXX-access nodes
DXX-clusternode
DXX accessnode, fullyreduntant
X.25
DXX accessnode, fullyreduntant
Norwegian TelecomEthernet
OS/2v.1.31client
Main computer
SQL-databaseMirrored SQL-database
Norwegian Telecom
IBC
INTEL
OS/2v.1.31client
Spare computer
SQL-databaseMirrored SQL-databaseINTEL
SCSI
Back-upharddiscs
Back-uptape
V.24 async.interface
Ethernet TCP/IPDXX control/maintenance llinkSpare X.25Spare for X.25 connection
50
important data to supervise the networkquality and information to hand out to thecustomer if any problems arose (statisti-cal data).
2.10 DXX network control
See Figure 4.
The overall network control of the DXXsystem was based on a single control site.At the control site a powerful PCequipped with the OS/2 operating systemwas running the Martis NMS software(Network Management Software), andusing a standard SQL database. The maincontrol PC was connected to NT’s LANvia an Ethernet connection and runningthe TCP/IP communication protocol.Such a protocol also enabled communi-cation with all other resources in theLAN. To have a complete back-up of thedatabase (including all routing informa-tion and all subscriber information forthe complete DXX network), thedatabase was locally mirrored on a hard-disk on site. Besides this, an automaticfile transfer of all the data from the SQLbase was done every two hours to themain server at Nymosvingen 2. It wasmandatory to have a secure storing ofdata on another safe location in case of afire at IBC. After the file transfer wasdone, a tape back-up was made atNymosvingen 2. If the main DXX con-trol PC should fail, the spare control PCwould automatically fetch the data storedat Nymosvingen 2, restore these and startthe process towards the DXX network.The only manual operation in this pro-cess was to change the interface cable onthe IBC access node (the X.25 interfaceconnection). Each control PC had its ownX.25 cable run to the DXX access nodeused for DXX network control/manage-ment, but only the active PC was physi-cally connected, and the same goes forthe V.24 cables.
Both the main control PC and the spareone were equipped with an X.25 inter-face, a V.24 interface and an Ethernet IIinterface.
Control of the DXX cluster node wasdone via a control interface on an accessnode at IBC. The same access node wasof course also used for connection of cus-tomers at IBC. If this access node shouldfail, then the control of the DXX networkcould be performed via another DXXaccess node at IBC, but now via a V.24interface.
The X.25 data rate was 64 kbit/s.
2.11 Supervision and
maintenance
All of the low speed data rates weresupervised by using the CCITT V.110modified frame. This enabled access tospare CRC-bits (Cyclic RedundancyCheck) in TS0 (timeslot zero). Via thesespare bits we could perform end-to-endsupervision on each single digital leasedline, in fact including the V.xx and X.yyinterface on the modem installed in thecustomer premise.
Performance data might be stored for upto three months if necessary. Before andduring the Olympics we used these datafor fault correction if a customer reporteda fault or an error with their digital leasedlines. The pooling time from the DXXcluster node to each single access nodewas approx. 500 ms. The time used, inthe worst case, from an error occurredthe first time until it was registered byNT’s DXX operator would not be longerthan 30 seconds (with approx. 60 DXXaccess nodes in the network).
Four types of pay phones were usedfor the Olympics. Two special models,the indoor card operated telephone set(the Press terminal) and an outdoorversion were developed and producedmainly for the Olympics. Coin operat-ed pay phones were the standardmodel GN Elmi AY-4 and a Schlum-berger PF-08 outdoor card operatedtelephone (only prepaid smartcards).
The new in- and outdoor card oper-ated telephone sets handled both pre-paid telephone cards (smartcardswithout µµprocessor) and credit cards(e.g. VISA).
The Press terminal was mainly design-ed as a tool for journalists in the presscentres, offering extended features foroperation, connection and help.
1 The planning phase
There were three items of great import-ance:
1 Public pay phones outside Olympicvenues
2 Public pay phones inside the Olympicvenues
3 Press terminals in the Main PressCentre and in the Sub Media Centres.
The location of each single card- andcoin-phone inside an Olympic venue wasfound in co-operation with LOOC. Loca-tions outside the venues were done byNorwegian Telecom (NT) alone.
In order to secure further income, someterminals outside the Olympic venueswere defined as permanent and others astemporary installations.
The total number of Press terminals atthe Main Press Centre (MPC) and theSub Media Centres (SMC) was decidedby LOOC, and these terminals were rent-ed from NT. The rental included termi-nals, installation, maintenance and userinstruction on-site.
2 The network concept
The total network concept is shown inFigure 1. The telephone functions includ-ing the use of the IN node is described inlater chapters.
2.1 Supervision
Maintenance is normally very importantfor this kind of public pay phones, soalso for the Olympics. Integration of alltypes of public pay phones in the same
supervision system was mandatory inorder to have a complete networkoverview. Schlumberger PF-08 and GNELMI AY-4 were already defined in theDOSAT software. To integrate ABBindoor and outdoor card phones, we usedthe AY-4 definition.
A total of six terminals could presenttheir operation and maintenance datasimultaneously. This was possiblebecause six modems were installed in amodem pool, and given the same tele-phone number defined as a commonPBX-group in the public switch. Datawas sent from each single terminal on adaily basis according to a predefinedscheme. This scheme stated exactly wheneach terminal should call the DOSATdatabase. This was necessary in order forall the installed terminals to give at leastone report daily.
2.2 The antifraud and power
feeding units
All terminals took advantage of theantifraud device. This device is a singlecard performing receipt and restoring ofthe 16 kHz tax-pulses from the S-12exchange, and then sending these tax-pulses to the pay phone. Inside the
antifraud card a counter is started at thevery moment the tax-pulse is sent to thepay phone. This counter supervises thetime in which the antifraud devicereceives the correct pulse train from thepay phone. If no pulse is received beforethe counter elapses, the call will be dis-connected immediately. If the properpulse is received within the counter’stime frame, the call is continued.
NT encountered some problems for the16 kHz levels from/to the ABB terminals(because these were mainly used inside avenue and a very short distance from theswitching node). Because of the high lev-els to/from the terminals some crosstalkexisted, and the input circuits on both theterminals and the antifraud cards wereoverloaded. This was solved by decreas-ing the input sensitivity and the outputlevels on the antifraud cards. These mod-ifications were simply done by changingresistor values already pinpointed in thecard’s documentation. This is a commonproblem when operating pay phones withsuch short line lengths.
Schlumberger and GN ELMI terminalsgot their power feeding from the tele-phone line itself as usual. Remote powerfeeding for the ABB terminals was nec-
51
Pay phones
B Y H J A L M A R A H A N S S E N
FS-IIS-12RSU
S-12Subsc.
exchange
Modempool
DOSATWorkstation Indoor card
phone ABB
Outdoor cardphone ABB
Sclumbergeroutdoor card
phone
GN ELMIOutdoor
coin phone
GJØVIK
PSTN
OLYMPIC AREAOSLO LILLEHAMMER
Antifraudand power
feeding
Antifraudand power
feeding
Antifraudand power
feeding
IN-Node
DOSATdatabase
Figure 1 Network concept
Figure 2 Power feeding
Photo 1 The Press terminal
essary because they use too much powerto be fed from the telephone line as nor-mal (see Figure 2). This feeding is alsoused to charge the built-in batteries in theABB terminals to secure 14 hours of con-tinuous operation in case of a power fail-ure. To use this feeding system 48 VDCwas sent from the exchange to the termi-nal on specific pairs. In the terminal enda power filter was installed.
For the Press terminal, local power feed-ing was available, too, in a form of amains operated power supply delivering12 VDC, 700 mA.
3 The press terminal
In the planning phase NT soon realizedthat a specific type of telephone set hadto be purchased for the Olympics (seePhoto 1). In order to get a marketoverview, NT visited Telecom ’91 inGeneva and contacted several pay phonemanufacturers. When all the informationwas processed and all of NT’s ownrequirements were incorporated we had afirm basis for our own specification forthis type of telephone set.
After an international bid the equipmentwas ordered from the Norwegian com-pany ABB Contec.
3.1 Main advantages of the
press terminal
It is always a problem to serve new userswith a non-familiar telephone system or anew terminal. One major item whenspecifying this terminal was to overcomesuch problems, and give the user easyaccess to our network and services. NTput a lot of effort in the use of PC com-munication (modems) with this Press ter-minal. When using a PC connected to theEXT connector in front of the Press ter-minal, the user only inserts his valid pre-paid card in the card reader. The rest ofthe communication is performed from thePC as usual if connected to a direct tele-phone line.
Another feature is the possibility tochoose help in one of six languages,where the default language is Norwegian.
When used with a VISA card, the lan-guage selection is done automatically onthe basis of the country code in the VISAcard. This means that all display mes-sages are given in the proper language aswritten text (if the language is not amongthe six installed languages, English willbe used). All speech messages from theIN node will also be given in the samelanguage.
3.2 Telephony functions
- Full featured numeric keypad in-cluding * and #
- Special functions keyboard includingnew line key, card change key, pro-gramming and sending of abbreviatedtelephone numbers, volume adjust-ment, function key and register recallkey
- Language keys; Norwegian, English,French, Italian, Spanish and German
- Graphic display; 4 lines and 40characters per line
- Auxiliary RJ-11 connector to interfacetelephone line equipment
- Two card readers, one for smartcardsand one for magnetic stripe cards (ISO7815, track 2)
- DB-9 female connector for softwareupgrade via RS-232C computer inter-face
- Inlet for local power feeding includinga fuse
- Headset connector (RJ-45)
- Telephone receiver equipped withelectret microphone to avoid electro-
52
Antifraud andpower feeding
Power supply-48 VDC
S12exchange
Powerfeedfilter
1-pair 2-pairs
Cardphone
Main equipment room A single workdesk
Power feeding for S-12 Exch. and antifraud electronics
Power feeding for cardphones
Speechwires
Tel
enor
magnetic interference from sourceslike hearing aid coils and other “noise”sources
- Spare handset connector (RJ-45)
- Telephone line and remote powerinterface connector (RJ-11)
- Built-in back-up battery for 14 hoursof full operation
- Built-in modem for reporting, generalcommunication and remote softwareupgrading
- Buzzer for card change alarm.
3.3 Programming functions
- Three programming methods: Remotesoftware upgrade, directly connectedcomputer programming or RAM-cardprogramming
- On-site programming
- Quick updating of special numbers
- Built-in software to check debitingfunctions (16 kHz received and trans-mitted).
3.4 Supervisory and mainte-
nance functions
- Centralized supervision
- Daily report
- Immediate report upon specific intern-al errors.
3.5 User functions
- Use of prepaid telephone cards
- Use of 800-services and emergencycalls (free of charge)
- Use of credit cards such as VISA andAmEx
- Direct connection of laptop modems,telefaxes and similar telephone lineequipment.
3.6 Accessories
See Figure 3.
- Headset:
The headset with boom microphoneand microphone switch was used tohave a hands-free operation of thePress terminal, or used in a noisy envi-ronment. The headset was model 808from GN Elmi equipped with an elec-tret microphone and a dynamic loud-speaker.
53
- Telephone receivertype CCITT:
This was modified bychanging the dynamicmicrophone to anelectret microphone.A total of 50 unitswere modified. This handset wasintended for use with older versions ofacoustical modems, which some of ourcustomers did use. Because of theshape of the telephone receiver on thePress terminal this could not be usedwith these modems.
- Software (see Figure 4):
The Press terminal is designed arounda Siemens SAB 80C537 µController,and the software is stored on severaldifferent stores.
4 The outdoor cardphone
The outdoor card operated telephone usesthe same electronics as the Press termi-nal, but slightly modified to withstanddifferent environmental conditions. Inaddition, some services used in the Pressterminal are removed in this outdoor ver-sion. Because of this, the description ofthe Press terminal also applies for theoutdoor version with slight modifica-tions.
VELG SPRÅK
CHOOSE LANGUAGE
N BK F I E D
1 2 3
4 5 6
7 8 9+-
0*R F
P O
BK
To Cardphone
Input8-47000 Ohms
TransmitAudioadaptor
To Cardphone
Multiadapter
ModemTandy
Modem
- Audio adapter:
Audio adapter covering XLR -, DIN-,6.3 mm jack- and 3.5 mm jack stand-ards to interface with tape recorders orother type of high level audio sources.The design is a semi-balanced systemto enable proper balancing towards themicrophone- and loudspeaker circuitsin the Press terminal. The adapter isalso equipped with a monitor outletand a rocker switch to send from theaudio source or the telephone receiverhandset. During transmission from anaudio source, monitoring could bedone via the telephone receiver loud-speaker.
- Multi adapter:
Multi adapter covering Tandy model100/200 and RJ-45 (USA and Norwe-gian standard and most other stand-ards). The multi adapter is equippedwith a DIN-connector for attachingTandy computers, an RJ-45 (4-pole) tocover most of the modems in themarket, and an RJ-11 (also calledISDN or ISO 8877) to interface to thePSTN or EXT connector on the pressterminal. We also included bananasockets to simplify interfacing to oldertypes of connectors.
Figure 3 The Press terminal
4.1 Telephony functions
- Full featured numeric keypad in-cluding 0–9, *, #, new line key, cardchange key, card change key, languagechange (only Norwegian and English)volume adjustment and register recallkey
- Graphic display; 2 lines and 20characters per line
- Two cardreaders; one for smartcardsand one for magnetic stripe cards (ISO7815, track 2)
- Telephone receiver equipped withelectret microphone
- Built-in back-up battery for 14 hoursof full operation
- Built-in modem for reporting, generalcommunication and remote softwareupgrading
- Buzzer for card change alarm.
4.2 Programming functions
- Two programming methods: Remotesoftware upgrading or RAM-card pro-gramming
- On-site programming
- Quick updating of special numbers
- Built-in software to check debitingfunctions (16 kHz received and trans-mitted).
4.3 Supervisory and mainte-
nance functions
- Centralized supervision
- Daily report
- Immediate report upon specific intern-al errors.
4.4 User functions
- Use of prepaid telephone cards
- Use of 800-services and emergencycalls (free of charge)
- Use of credit cards such as VISA andAmEx.
5 Prepaid card
The following types of Schlumbergerprepaid card were used:
Prepaid cards:
- F-256: 22, 65 or 150 units- F-1024: 500 units (max. 1000 units).
Prepaid card type F-256 could be used inboth the ABB terminals and in theSchlumberger terminal.
Prepaid card type F-1024 could only beused in the ABB terminals because theSchlumberger terminal was not upgradedto handle this type of card. Such anupgrade involves a change of software,which means changing the PROM.
6 VISA/IN communication
For the first time ever, because of theOlympics, general credit cards could beused in Norwegian pay phones. BecauseVISA was a TOP3 sponsor, only VISAcards could be used to serve the Olym-pics, although the ABB terminals can
54
Figure 4 Press terminal software
Voicefrequency
alarm
Lineinterface
Connectionboard
16 kHzfilter
16 kHzdriver
16 kHzdetec-tor 16 kHz
osc.
16 kHzfilter/driver
DTMFreceiver/
transmitter
ModemV 22 bis
I/Opart
Telephonepart
Telephonecontroller+pusk keys
0-9*
and R
+ -
Main boardHandset
67-mod
Headset
Line driver
ControllerSAB 80C537
Controller part
Magneticstripe card
reader
Telecardreader
Display
10 functionkeys:
Language,P,S,F,BK
Loadcircuit Reg.
circuit
TTL
RS 232C
+5V Sw+5V+V PP
Battery6V, 3 Ah
External power supply7 - 16 V DC
RS232 serial port(PC/printer connection)
Handset
handle other types of credit cards. Suchcards are AmEx and Master Card or oth-ers that comply with ISO 7815 specifica-tion and the use of track two of the mag-netic stripe.
The overall system to enable use ofVISA is shown in Figure 5.
A description of the communication be-tween the telephone terminal and the INnode is shown in Figure 6.
To implement this service, NT had tofind solutions to a lot of problems, like:
- How to overcome the antifraud card?
- How to overcome charging problemsrelated to the correct area code andcharge rate?
- How to identify the terminal?
To overcome the antifraud card we simp-ly removed charging in the specificdirection 613XXXXX that was the “areacode” to the IN node. Charging prob-lems were solved by establishing specific613XXXXX-numbers for each singlecounty where the card terminals wereinstalled. In total, we made 15 differentcall numbers to identify the county andthe route to the IN node.
Identification of the terminal was doneby updating the IN node with the termi-nals A-number and to transfer this num-ber to the IN node during the establishingphase of the call. If the A-number in theIN node was missing, it would be impos-sible to establish a call.
One problem when using VISA for PC-communication was the lack of blinddialling features of the modems. Blinddialling means that the modem can dial atelephone number without having adialling tone, which the IN-node does nothave. When using VISA under such con-ditions, the dialling can be done in twoways: Either by normal dialling from thePress terminal, or by changing modeminternal result code from X4 to X0,which is quite simple if you know how todo it. The last solution was widely usedto overcome this problem.
7 Overall figures
- ABB indoor card phones: 1300
- ABB outdoor card phones: 130
- SCHLUMBERGERoutdoor card phones: 20
- GN ELMI outdoorcoin phones: 100
55
Figure 5 Overall system to enable use of VISA
Figure 6 Description of communication between the telephone terminal and the IN node
FS-II
S-12Subsc.
exchange
PSTN
OSLO LILLEHAMMER
IN-Node
Transmission Transmission
Cardphone
Credit card calling Prepaid card calling
Antifraudand power
feeding
Charging is done inthe IN-node
IN-node Cardphone
Trigging of the IN-node as aresult of the B-number analysis
IN-node asks for card account number
Cardphone transmit the storedcard account numbeer
Ongoing conversation
(1)
(2)
IN-node returns an OK-message ifthe account is OK. If not, the call will
be rejected. The user will get themessage "Dial number, end with#" ifthe account is OK. This message isgiven both as a speech messageand a written text in the display of
the cardphone
User dialles the B-number andthe IN-node establishes the call
(1) The IN-node checksif the cardphone
telephone number (A-number) is defined inthe IN-node register
(2) After the VISA-cardis swiped through thereader, a call will be
established to the IN-node as a result of theA-number analysis. Thecard account number is
stored in thecardphones memory
56
Network operations and maintenance
B Y H A N S - K R I S T I A N R I N G V O L D
This article describes the organisation,manning, installations and supportsystems established by the NorwegianTelecom Olympic Project to fulfil theobligations of operations and mainte-nance of networks and services for theXVII Winter Olympic Games in Lille-hammer in February 1994. For thefirst time the technical managementand supervision for all networks andservices was performed from one cen-tral location – the Network OperationsCentre. This also included the servicesfor transmission of pictures and soundfor the Broadcasters, and the in-housecommunications for the LillehammerOlympic Organising Committee(LOOC) with a common Fault Com-plaint Service.
1 Introduction – opera-
tions and maintenance
concept
In order to serve every customer andmeet all demands for the Olympics, Nor-wegian Telecom had technical installa-tions at 31 Olympic venues and sites. Inaddition, new installations and expan-sions were needed at numerous existingTelecom sites. Efficient operations and
good control of all networks and serviceswere of course very important. It wasearly decided to centralise operation andcontrol and establish a Network Opera-tions Centre (NOC) for the Olympics.The International Broadcasting Centre(IBC) was the focal point for all commu-nication networks, not only the tele-vision- and radio signals. This site hadnaturally much more equipment than anyother site, and for obvious reasons theNOC was located here. The NOC co-ordinated all operations and maintenanceactivities for all sites. The best skilledtechnicians and engineers were located atthe IBC/NOC. They were consultantsand assisted the other sites. However, allsites were manned with fully qualifiedpersonnel. The manning at the sites wasmuch more extensive than it would beunder normal conditions. The manning isfurther described in chapter 2.
The Lillehammer Olympic OrganisingCommittee (LOOC) was responsible forall private networks. The contract forinstallation and operation of these net-works was awarded to TBK, also part ofthe Norwegian Telecom Group. Theoperations were managed in close co-operation with the operational manage-ment of the public networks in a separatepart of the NOC and with common fault
reporting centre. The NOC is describedin chapter 3 and the fault complaint ser-vice in chapter 4.
Norwegian Telecom was responsible fortransmission of television pictures andcommentator sound (radio and tele-vision) from the venues to the IBC andfrom the IBC to all the world via satel-lites. This service was very important andthe operation and surveillance were per-formed in close co-operation with thehost broadcaster, NRK ORTO ’94. TheirMaster Control Room was located nextto the NOC with direct access.
Operational agreements were negotiatedand signed with involved regions andcentral units of Norwegian Telecom.These agreements established the man-ning and working hours for all installa-tions involved. The NOC had to establishcontact with a number of operationalauthorities and their centres both in Nor-way and internationally.
The Olympic Project assumed responsi-bility for the network operations Septem-ber 1, 1993. Most networks and serviceswere fully operational until March 20,1994, when the Paralympic Games wereover.
Figure 1 depicts the different aspects ofoperations and control and the centrallocation of the NOC at the IBC withclose co-operation with NRK ORTO ’94and LOOC.
2 Manning
2.1 General
The Project Director with his staff (Tech-nical Manager, Marketing Manager,Financial Manager and AdministrationManager) had the overall responsibilityfor the operational organisation. At allsport venues, the International Broadcast-ing Centre (IBC) and the Main PressCentre (MPC) Norwegian Telecom had atriad management with Venue Manager,Manager Customer Services and Man-ager Technical Services. The manningfor the technical services is described inchapter 2.2. The other categories are notfurther described, but the total figures arelisted in Table 1 (including technicaloperations).
73 persons were hired, 548 wereemployed on short term contracts of vari-able length, from 3 weeks to over 7months.
Figure 2 depicts the operational organisa-tion.
Olympic
Venues and Sites (31)
ORTO-94
HostBroadcaster
NetworkOperations
Center
Lillehammer´94
Privatenetworks
LOOC (TBK) IBC(InternationalBroadcasting
Centre)
"Olympic-related"
Sites and Installations"The rest of the world"
Figure 1 Overview of network operations for the Olympics
57
Project Director
Project Management
Manager marketing
operations
Olympic Business
Office
Venue manager
Customerservices
Techn.services
Manager technical
operations
Network Operations
Centre
Figure 2 Operational organisation
Technical services 415
Customer services 128
Management and administration 45
Logistic support 18
Visitors programme 15
Total number of persons 621
Technical managers 24
Network surveillance 10
Fault report reception 13
Routing/distribution 10
Power supply techn./engineers 5
Transmission network techn./engineers 75
Public data network techn./engineers 25
Video-/audio codec techn./engineers 20
Mobile communications techn./engineers 10
Cable-TV network techn./engineers 10
Switching techn./engineers 35
Computer-/PC-/LAN operations 10
Lines/cables installations and repair 75
Equipment installations 35
Satellite up-link techn./engineers 30
Emergency microwave operations 16
Miscellaneous 12
Total 415
Table 1 Personnel employed or hired byNorwegian Telecom’s Olympic Projectfor operations (all categories)
Table 2 Technical personnel for network operations
at 5 sites stayed until March 20, 1994 totake care of the network operations forthe Paralympics.
2.4 Training
The following subjects were consideredmost important in the training of person-nel for network operations:
- Knowledge of Norwegian Telecom’sinvolvement and responsibilities
- Knowledge of networks, services andoperations concept
- Knowledge of own venue, its equip-ment and interfaces with other partners
- Knowledge of new equipment
- General knowledge of the OlympicGames.
The training was accomplished in con-nection with the test competitions at thevenues in February – March and October– November 1993. This was done be-cause the personnel should get to knowsome of the other partners at the venuesand get an idea about the whole concept.2 – 3 days at the venue, and a 2 dayclassroom course was compulsory for all.Specialist equipment courses were 2 – 6days.
Most of the instructors were from theproject team, but Norwegian TelecomTraining Department, LOOC and equip-ment suppliers were involved as well.
2.5 Exercise
Test competitions at the venues wereindividual events and were therefore notideal for Norwegian Telecom to test per-sonnel and systems. There was a require-
2.2 Technical services
The Network Operations Centre (NOC)co-ordinated the technical operations andmaintenance activities at all venues. Themanager of the NOC was placed underthe manager technical operations (seeFigure 2). The total number of persons intechnical services were 415. Table 2shows the different categories.
There were 15 manned Olympic venuesand sites. The manning at each site var-ied between 6 and 93. The NOC had thehighest manning, and together with thecollocated IBC technical room 160 per-sons were employed on short term con-tract plus approximately 55 hired per-sons.
A total of approximately 70 persons werehired for technical operations. All thepersonnel for satellite up-link operationswere hired, partly from the equipmentsuppliers. The personnel for the emer-gency microwave operations were hired(internally). The rest of the hired person-nel came from different equipment sup-pliers, the main part from Alcatel Tele-com Norway. Tele-Mobil was respon-sible for the manning of their control andsupervisory functions at the NOC.
2.3 Recruitment process
The main objective in the recruitmentprocess was to get a well motivated staff.It was decided to send an invitation to allemployees in Norwegian Telecom toapply for temporary engagement in theOlympic project. If engaged, the person-nel would be granted a leave of absencefrom their normal jobs. 1,500 applica-tions were received for the 550 jobs.Some personnel categories were specialor the resources in Norwegian Telecomwas limited, and the remaining 70 per-sons were hired (see chapter 2.2).
Interviews were done with the applicantsfor managing positions. The rest wereselected after reference checks. Candi-dates were asked to indicate in theirapplications the time span they wishedtheir contracts to cover, and this, togetherwith conversations with their superiors,determined the term of the contracts.They varied between 3 weeks and 7months. The first group, consisting of 12persons, started at the NOC/IBC August16, 1993. By December 1 the total man-ning at NOC/IBC was approximately 70.For the other venues it started in Decem-ber 1993 and the last arrived February 9,1994. Most of the personnel were dis-missed on March 1, 1994, but 46 persons
58
ment for a large-scale test and such anexercise was accomplished in November1993.
The main purpose was to test plans andsystems and train the personnel to man-age difficult and unforeseen situations.The exercise took place in parallel withtest competitions at some of the venues.These venues had live traffic and televi-sion transmissions in addition to the test,and this was a special challenge. Theexercise lasted for 48 hours and 36scenarios were accomplished. 325 per-sons were involved. LOOC, NRK ORTO’94, police, fire brigade and media partic-ipated in addition to Norwegian Tele-com.
3 Network Operations
Centre (NOC)
3.1 Organisation
The NOC was located at the InternationalBroadcasting Centre (IBC) and theorganisation was established to have acommon utilisation of the well qualifiedengineers and technicians both at theNOC and at the technical rooms at theIBC. The Managers of the NOC and theTechnical Services had a very close co-operation. The different personnel cate-gories were organised in 5 groups and anassistant manager handled the personneladministration in each group. The 5assistant managers worked shifts andmanned the position as ‘Manager on
duty’ twenty-four hours a day from Jan-uary 24, 1994.
The organisation is shown in Figure 3.
3.2 Main tasks
The NOC had control of all networks andservices for the Olympics and co-ordinat-ed operations and maintenance activities.The main tasks were:
- Alarm supervision- Receipt and distribution of fault reports- Co-ordination of maintenance activities- Expert support to venues- Monitor video transmissions- Monitor traffic flow and quality- Network routing/distribution.
Manager
Techn.
Operations
Venue
Manager
IBC
Manager
Cust. Serv.
IBC
Manager
NOC
Manager
Techn.Serv.
IBC
Manager
Reg. Oper.
Centre
SatelliteMobile
comm.
Emergency
microwave
Switching
Fault Repor tingService
NetworkSurveillance
Comp/PC/LANOperations
TrafficManagement
OrderDistr ibution
SubscriberNetworkRouting
Lines/cablesInstall./repair
Card-/coinphones
TransmissionNetworks
CODEC/VANDA
Public DataNetworks
Mobile comm.Base stations
Cable TelevisionNetworks
TransmissionNetworksRouting/distrb.
Fibre opticCables
Power supplyVentilation
Microwave
EquipmentInstallations
Assistant managers (5)
(NTS) (TeleMobil) (DN.DN-B)
Project Director
Project Management
Figure 3 NOC/IBC organisation
59
3.3 Control room
Most of the NOC functions were per-formed from a 190 m2 control room atthe IBC. A false floor was laid in 3 levels(17.5, 35 and 70 cm) to obtain free sightfor everybody in the whole room to a bigwall screen at the front wall (see chapter3.6). Figure 4 depicts the floor plan ofthe control room. The text in the figuredescribes the functions, but some addi-tional information is given below:
Level 1: Supervision and control of pub-lic networks and servicesthrough general alarm- andcommand system and specificsupport systems
Monitoring of video transmis-sions from the venues (contri-bution) and out to satellite up-link stations (distribution)
Wall-screen with alarm statusand other vital information
Level 2: Fault Reporting Centre (14594)with support personnel
Manager on duty
Level 3: Operation and control ofLOOC’s in-house networks andservices performed by TBKpersonnel.
Figure 5 shows a picture taken in thecontrol room.
3.4 Functions outside control
room
The following functions were performedfrom offices at the IBC outside the con-trol room:
- Network routing/distribution: Subscriber networks and transmissionnetworks (incl. international networks)
- Operations of computers, PCs andLANs
- Traffic management
- Support groups/consultants on:
- ISDN
- fibre optic cables
- cable television networks
- microwaves
- power supplies and cooling/ven-tilation.
There was a close contact between thissupport personnel and the control room.
The personnel for emergency microwaveoperations was not located at the IBC.They had a separate base location anddedicated 4-wire communication with theNOC control room.
3.5 Internal communications
Good communications for exchange ofdata and messages between the NOC andthe venues were vital for the operations.A data network was established to allvenues and sites. The network used rout-
ers and bridges and had interconnectionswith Norwegian Telecom’s ordinary net-works for this purpose. All applicationsinstalled at servers locally, at regionalcomputers or at central main-frame com-puters, were in principle available fromany terminal connected to the network.Access rights were assigned to each userat application level.
The VPN/Centrex Olympic Network wasused for telephone and telefax. Dedicated4-wire lines routed to be independent of
Subscriber netw.booking
Subscriber netw.administration
CableTV
Operat.Admin.
Operat.Admin.
PABX PABX Trunkedradiontw.
Faultsdistribut.
Switchingengineer
Manageron duty
Fax,printers etc
Documentation etc
Supervisioron duty
Fax,
prin
ters
etc
Level 2(+35 cm)
Level 3(+70 cm)
LOOC/TBK
Leve
l 0(f
loor
)
Leve
l 0(f
loor
)
win
dow
Pla
tform
for
visi
tiors
(le
vel 2
)
wall screen(4.8 x 1.8)50 monitors
(contribution)30 monitors(distribution)
Networksupervisionalarm contr.
Networksupervisionalarm contr.
SDHnetwork
Publicdata
(DXX)
Mobilecomm.
Digitalswitching/
ISDN
Digitalswitching/
ISDN
Card-/coin-phones
14594 14594 14594 14594 14594
Fax Additional terminals, PC's, documentation etc
Videosupervision
Level 1(+17.5 cm)
Satelliteuplink stn.
control
NR
K O
RT
O 9
4 M
CR
(Mas
ter
Con
trol
Roo
m)
Figure 4 Network Operations Centre – control room, floor plan
60
the Olympic networks and equipmentwere used as back-up for voice commu-nication. The central unit was installed inthe NOC control room and remote unitsat the technical rooms at the venues,satellite up-link stations and various ope-rational centres. This was a very fast andsimple way to establish contact, and itwas used even under normal conditions.
The project management used trunkedradio network as back-up communicationto the venue managers and other key per-sonnel. The LOOC (TBK) system with adedicated user group was used.
3.6 Support systems for
networks and services
This chapter describes the support sys-tems specific to networks and services.The general alarm- and command systemis described in chapter 4.
3.6.1 Switching
The Olympic digital switching networkconsisted of 2 Alcatel S-12 switches and38 remote subscriber units (IRSU) withISDN-, VPN/CENTREX- and IN-func-tionality. The VPN, Olympic Network(ON), comprised in addition all LOOCPABXes and the public switches in Lille-hammer, Gjøvik and Hamar.
The main operational tool was terminalsand printers in the NOC connected to theswitches via modem lines. These termi-
nals and printers were used to send ordi-nary man-machine commands andreceive status- and alarm print-outs. Allsubscriber definitions were also done thisway.
Workstation with access to the TMN-based TMOS-system was established inthe NOC, but could not be used for S-12because of problems with the new S-12software (N4). It was however used forthe AXE toll exchange in Gjøvik.
A support system based on signallingsystem number 7 (SS#7) called S-MANwas used to monitor telephone trafficboth nationally and internationally. Theresults were presented as matrixes andwere also displayed at the wall screen.
A traffic route tester (TVP) was used togenerate test calls and analyse testresults. Daily reports were presented tothe management.
A large number of card-phones wereused all over the Olympic region, espe-cially in press centres. Operation andcontrol of these were performed fromNOC by a dedicated support system(DOSAT) installed on a UNIX server.Coin-phones were less used, but werehandled by the same system.
The traffic analyses made before theOlympics had many uncertain factors.Good traffic measurements and meansfor traffic management were therefore
important. Norwegian Telecom’s systemfor this purpose (MEAS) was modified tohandle 15 minute intervals. Specialinstallations were made to collect datafrom the two Olympic switches, the ONswitches in Lillehammer, Gjøvik andHamar, the toll exchange in Gjøvik, and5 switches in Oslo i.a. the IN-node andthe two international exchanges. AUNIX-server and database was installedat NOC, and reports were generatedevery 15 minutes. Re-routing wasaccomplished when serious congestionproblems were detected.
3.6.2 Mobile communications
Mobile services offered for the Olympicswere: NMT 450/900, GSM, numeric pag-ing and alphanumeric paging. Tele-Mobilwas responsible for the operations of theservices and manned the control- andsupervision function at the NOC.Olympic Project employed personnelwas responsible for the maintenance ofthe base station equipment.
The support system (STRAX-MOBIL)had a graphical presentation of alarm sta-tus in the mobile networks with switches,lines and base station. A UNIX work-station at NOC was connected to a serverat Hamar. Another support system for thepaging systems switch (in Trondheim)was installed on a MS-DOS PC at theNOC.
Traffic analyses were performed con-tinuously. Traffic reports were generatedevery hour and actions were taken imme-diately to increase channel capacity whencongestion occurred.
3.6.3 Transmission networks
Most of the transmission networks werebased on fibre optic cables with two sep-arate routes to all sites and automaticswitching between main and back-up.The only microwaves used was IBC –Kvitfjell (7+1 * 140 Mbit/s) and ana-logue microwaves for cable television.
All network components had alarms andcontrols connected to the alarm- andcommand system. The only additionalsupport system accessible from the NOCwas for the SDH line system (2.5 Gbit/sand 622 kbit/s). The support system hadconfiguration/control- and alarm subsys-tems and was installed on a PC in thecontrol room of the NOC. A manualswitch was used to connect the PC toseparate sections of the network.
Figure 5 Control room – interior
Tel
enor
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3.6.4 Video/audio
The transmissions of television picturesand commentator sound (radio and tele-vision) from the venues to the IBC andfrom the IBC to the whole world was avery important part of the operations.Back-up communication lines and equip-ment were used to a great extent, butimmediate actions should be taken if amalfunction occurred.
Alarm outputs from coders and decoderswere connected to the alarm- and com-mand system. The video transmissionswere visually monitored both at the tech-nical room at the venues and at the IBC.At the IBC, 9 inch monitors wereinstalled in separate racks for incoming(contribution) and outgoing (distribution)lines. 48 monitors were used to monitorthe 90 contribution lines by manualswitching between morning- and after-noon competitions. A special controldesk with built-in instrumentation, inter-com to NRK ORTO ’94 and switches forselection of video signal from the NRKORTO ’94 matrixes was used. Anyinput- or output video signal could bebrought to this control desk for controland measurements.
The video distribution lines were moni-tored by the engineer on duty at the satel-lite up-link stations control at the NOC.30 monitors were used, one for each line.Audio transmissions were not monitoredcontinuously (except for alarms), butmonitoring and measurements could beeasily performed both at the venues andat the IBC when needed.
3.6.5 Satellite
Satellites were used for all televisiontransmissions from the Olympics exceptfor dedicated lines on microwave to Swe-den and Finland. Satellite up-link stationswere established in containers at 2 differ-ent locations in Lillehammer and one inOslo. Norwegian Telecom’s fixed instal-lations in both the Oslo and Stavangerareas were also used.
A control desk for satellite up-link sta-tions control was established at the NOCcontrol room. All satellite up-link opera-tions were co-ordinated from this deskincluding booking of occasional trans-missions. An alarm- and control systemfor the up-link stations was installed on aPC. Dedicated communication lines (4-wire) were established to all stations. Thevideo distribution lines were surveyed on30 monitors in front of the desk (seechapter 3.5.4).
3.6.6 Public data communications
The following services were offered forthe Olympics: DATAPAK (X.25),DATEX (X.21) and DIGITAL (digitalleased lines with speeds from 2,400 bit/sto 2 Mbit/s). The DIGITAL service wasby far the most used. The new DXX-sys-tem from Martis was used for all speedsand also for access to DATAPAK. TheDXX-system had a sub-system for opera-tions and control based on a powerfulOS/2 PC connected to the systems clusternode at the IBC. Configuration, controland alarm supervision was performedfrom this PC in the NOC control room,and a graphical picture of the networkwith alarm status was shown on the wallscreen.
3.6.7 Cable television network
Norwegian Telecom was responsible forthe cable television network betweenvenues (D1-network). Operations weremainly performed by personnel at theNOC/IBC. A PC-based support systemused for similar installations in Bergenwas used.
3.6.8 Power supplies, cooling and
ventilation
Equipment at all venues had alarm out-puts to the alarm- and command system.These alarms were presented in a sepa-rate window of the screen at the surveil-lance terminal. All technicians and en-
gineers were located at the NOC andturned out for maintenance and repair.The 48 V rectifiers had dial-up modems.Configuration and control could be per-formed from a PC at the NOC.
3.6.9 Network filing systems
– data bases
These systems were needed to issueorders and to keep track of routing andchanges. Existing Norwegian Telecomsystems installed on IBM-mainframecomputers were used for both subscriber-and transmission networks. TBK wasresponsible for the local cabling systemsat all venues except the two Olympic vil-lages. They had their own data base forregistration of cables and connections.
Public telephone subscribers were storedin TELSIS by the Olympic BusinessOffice (OBO), and the orders were sent toNOC for subscriber definitions in theexchanges. The sub-system for lines,TELSIS-LK, was used for the interfacecables between the main distributionframes in TBK- and Norwegian Telecomtechnical rooms at all venues and the sub-scriber networks at the Olympic villages.
Users of public data services, video andaudio were registered in a subscriber sys-tem called MARIUS by the OBO. Orderswere distributed to NOC and copied tothe network systems called INSA andINTRA. The routing was found and theorders were forwarded for execution.
Controller
Control PC
4 x HGworkstn
4 x VGAor video
4 (of 8)inputs
Wall-screen 6x3total size 4.8x1.8 m
direct input to6 sub-screens
(VGA/video)
Figure 6 Wall screen
62
Network information from INSA/INTRAcould be represented graphically by theuse of a program called DIMAN. Anapplication in INSA was used to analysealarms received from the alarm- andcommand system . A graphic picture ofthe network with a red indication of thefaulty section or station could in that waybe displayed on the surveillance terminaland the wall screen.
3.7 Wall screen
The main purpose of using a wall screenwas that vital information should bevisible for everybody in the NOC controlroom. The screen was 4.8 m long and1.8 m high, and was installed at the frontwall of the control room. Figure 6 depictsthe principle of the system.
The system was delivered by a Frenchcompany, SYNELEC. The screen wasbuilt by 18 sub-screens, each 80 cmwide, 60 cm high and 160 cm deep. The
pictures were projected on the flat screenfrom the rear with very narrow stripesbetween each sub-screen. A softwareoperated controller made it possible todisplay up to 4 out of 8 input signalssimultaneously. The size of each of the 4images was independently adjustable toany size within the complete screen. Pic-tures could be frozen, inverted etc. andall parameters were adjustable in soft-ware.
The input signals to the controller couldbe up to 4 pictures from graphical highdefinition workstations and up to 4 VGA(PC) or video (RGB) pictures. In addi-tion, up to 6 VGA/video pictures couldbe sent directly to 6 separate sub-screensoutside the controller. The size of thesepictures was fixed to the size of the sub-screen and they could be overlaid byimages from the controller.
Systems with graphical presentation ofnetworks are best suited for wall screen
displays. DXX-support system andSTRAX MOBIL were such systems thatgave the alarm status of the networks andchange of colours with degradation ormalfunction. Both these were shown onthe wall screen. The system for control oftraffic parameters in the switching net-works, S-MAN, was shown with separatepictures for national- and internationaltraffic. It used tables and matrixes andchange of colours in rows/columns withdegradation. Transmission networkswere shown graphically by the use ofINSA/DIMAN.
An electronic log system was used andthe 5 last events was shown on the wallscreen. This was very useful in order tokeep everybody in the control roomupdated with the latest information. Theinternational television signal was shownon one of the sub-screens. The screenwas also used for presentations ofvideos/slides and demonstrations for visi-tors.
IBC
concentrator
ND-100
IBC
ND-100
Gjøvik
HAAI
HMOL
GKI
HMI
DEHM
SNEK
TRA LMP SKAA IOC KANH ABBS KVIU HAFJJOR SOPL MPC IBC2
IBC1
IBC3 IBC4 NYMO OBO
MOAJ
LOOC SKIS HAT1 HAT2 HUNF
Figure 7 Alarm collection network
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4 Network surveillance
– alarms
Norwegian Telecom’s ordinary systemfor alarm- and command handling, AK,was used. The system consists of anAUTRONICA System-S alarm collectionnetwork with a concentrator connected toan ND-100 mini-computer. The softwarehas been developed by Norwegian Tele-com and has been in use for many years.The computer is connected to other AK-computers for transfer of alarms andcommands from/to other regions.
Figure 7 depicts the data collection net-work with concentrator at the IBC and 29remote units at Olympic venues and sites.Some of the remote units had up to 4sub-units as shown in the figure. All linesfrom the concentrator to the first level ofremote units were duplicated. The pri-mary line was routed through the ordi-nary networks, independent of theOlympic networks and equipment. Thetotal number of alarms was 2,450 and thenumber of commands was 70.
Since all Olympic operations were sur-veyed from the NOC, alarms were col-lected and commands sent to a number ofinstallations outside the Olympic venues.Figure 8 depicts the AK-computers serv-ing these alarms/commands and the con-nections. All AK-computers in Norwe-gian Telecom are connected in a com-mon network called ALFNET (‘alarmdistribution network’) through dedicatedcommunication computers. ALFNETwas used as back-up for the dedicatedlines shown in Figure 8.
The following types of alarms were used:
- Environmental:Fire (smoke detection), temperature,humidity, ventilation, intrusion
- Power:Mains (230 V), 48 V, rectifier
- Digital switching:Summary alarms from exchanges
- Transmission-, public data-, cable tele-vision networks:Equipment alarms from all types ofequipment
- Protection switches:Information of position.
The protection switches were automati-cally operated, but could be switched byforce to certain positions by commandsfrom the NOC. The command part of thesystem was not used apart from this.
5 Fault complaint service
5.1 General
Norwegian Telecom had the overallresponsibility for the operation of thefault complaint service. The service cov-ered cable television, security systemsand all telephone, data and mobile ser-vices for the Olympics, both public (Nor-wegian Telecom) and in-house(LOOC/TBK). An exception was INFO’94 and LOOC’s data network which wasserved by the Help Desk at each venue.The operation of the fault complaint ser-vice for the LOOC/TBK in-house net-works was part of the LOOC/NorwegianTelecom delivery agreement and a de-scription of the service was printed in 7languages (Norwegian, English, French,Italian, Spanish, German and Japanese).
The telephone number for the servicewas 14594. Since the number to the faultcomplaint service in the ordinary tele-phone network in Norway is 145, and a5-digit number was needed in theOlympic Network, the number gave itselfby adding the ‘Olympic year’ to the ordi-nary number. Subscribers who tried tocall 14594 on the national network endedup at the ordinary fault reception centre,
and the call could be transferred to theOlympic NOC/fault reporting centre.
5.2 Fault reporting centre
The fault reporting centre was estab-lished inside the control room at theNOC, see floor plan in Figure 3. Theintention behind this location was thatthe operators at the fault reporting centreshould be updated with the status of net-works and services at all times.
The centre opened for the public serviceson September 1, 1993 with normal officehours. The service opened for LOOC onJanuary 2, 1994. Until February 8 it wasmanned from 0700 to 0200 hours. FromFebruary 8 until March 1, 1994, the faultreporting centre was manned twenty-fourhours a day. There was room for 5 simul-taneous operators and they were obligedto answer in Norwegian, English andFrench at any time.
14594 had a call storage device withmessage. The answering phones wereequipped with short time tape recordersthat could be started manually by theoperator. The purpose was that the opera-tor could get ‘a second chance’ to get theright number, address, etc.
Figure 8 Alarm/command system – connection to units outside Olympic venues
communicationcomputer
OlympicNOC
OlympicNOC
Hamar Oslo Bergen
Gjøvik Hamar Kongsvinger Oslo
backup communication
alarm/commandcomputer
Stavanger
primary communication
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5.3 Fault distribution
– follow-up
Norwegian Telecom’s system for regis-tration and distribution of faults, TREF,was used. Faults were registered underthe different services, and each fault wasgiven a reference number (‘troubleticket’) and became one report in the sys-tem. The reports were distributed elec-tronically for follow-up/repair. Thereports could be sent to all venues. Faultreports on in-house networks and ser-vices were transferred to TBK personnelin the control room. The subscriber whoreported a fault was notified when theproblem was corrected, or given informa-tion, no later than one hour after his com-plaint, about the progress and the antici-pated correction time.
3 persons in the control room wereassigned to give support to the faultreception operators:
- Fault distributor for lines/cables
- Operator on support-/control systemfor card- and coin-phones
- Switching engineer, expert on Olympicnetwork services.
In addition, all experts in the controlroom were available for support whenneeded.
6 Plans and procedures
Plans and procedures were prepared todescribe operations both under normalconditions and in case of emergency.This was important since most of the per-sonnel were engaged for a short time,and the plans were quite detailed. Theinformation was compiled in two sepa-rate books, one unclassified (OperationsPlan) and one confidential (ContingencyPlan). The plans were tested during anexercise in November 1993 (see chapter2.5) and corrected before the final edi-tion.
6.1 Operations Plan
The Operations Plan contained one gen-eral part and one part for each venue. Thegeneral part described the managementorganisation (with names, telephone-,mobile- and pager numbers), meetings,reports, spare parts etc. and proceduresfor fault handling, alert and information.The venue part contained the venue/sitespecific information such as completevenue organisation and work schedules.
6.2 Contingency Plan
The confidential Contingency Plan hadseparate sections for each venue. Thevenues had only the section concerningtheir own venue. The project manage-ment and the operational management atthe NOC had complete plans. The planshould be enforced in case of breakdownon both the primary- and secondary com-munication systems. It stated the priorityof services and customers and describedin detail the restoration by use of emer-gency microwaves and other back-upcommunications.
7 Experiences
The centralised operations with the NOCand the collocation of TBK, Tele-Mobil,NTS (satellite up-link operations) andNorwegian Telecom in one control roomworked very well. Everyone in the con-trol room, including the operators at thefault reporting centre, was always up-dated with information on the wallscreen. The NOC had good control ofnetworks and services and sent frequentstatus reports to the project management.
It was a great advantage to have the faultreporting centre located in the controlroom with the possibility of direct con-tact with system experts. One commonnumber to report faults for all servicesmade it easier for the subscribers.
The exercise in November 1993 gaveuseful experiences for the operations dur-ing the Games.
We all know that in order to succeedin communication business, excellenttechnical solutions are important, butit is the fulfilment of the customers’total requirements that makes it acomplete success. The services offeredhave to be according to customersrequirements, the sales personnel mustbe skilled and professional, the pricelevel has to be acceptable, and lastly,deliveries have be according to agree-ments.
Very early in the process we realizedthat our knowledge of the customers,their requirements and needs, was verylimited. When the Norwegian TelecomOlympic Project was established in1989 the work with the requirementanalyses started in co-operation withthe Lillehammer Olympic OrganizingCommittee (LOOC) and later NRKORTO ’94, the host broadcaster.
When we had obtained a generalunderstanding of the needs, and afterthe overall service and product strat-egy was decided, the work started todescribe in detail the services to beoffered from NT and at what pricesand conditions. We also had to estab-lish an organization that was able tocommunicate our telecommunicationsolutions to all groups of “OlympicCustomers”, and of course, we had tobe able to understand correctly thereturned orders from all our interna-tional customers. Routines and com-
puter systems had to be developed tohandle orders, technical implementa-tions and invoicing.
This article describes the main phasesin the sales process, how the work wasorganized, general description of ser-vices, prices and conditions.
1 Requirement analysis
The analysis of total needs for telecom-munication services for the Olympicswas made in co-operation between NTand LOOC. LOOC had the responsibilityfor all user groups inside their own orga-nization, and they were also responsiblefor telecommunication services to NRKORTO ’94, the police, the InternationalOlympic Committee (IOC), health care,media villages, etc. NT was responsiblefor deliveries to LOOC, the media cus-tomers (press and broadcasting), spon-sors, the Olympic villages, and of courseall establishments outside the venues.The analysis was a continuing work,started in 1989 and completed in thesummer 1992. During this period, 5 ver-sions of the document were distributed,due to changes in needs.
The analysis described the telecommuni-cation services each user and user grouprequired at each venue or site. The resultof this analysis was used to plan all tech-nical investments and developing oftelecommunication infrastructure andsolutions. But it was also very useful to
the sales organisation to estimate thetotal deliveries in order to plan all thesales and marketing activities.
Another important part of the analyseswas to collect information from similararrangements. In the early phase of theproject, experiences from Calgary wereused to estimate the needs, and later, aclose collaboration with France TelecomOlympic Project was established.Because of the short period of time (twoyears) between the Olympic Games inAlbertville and Lillehammer, we esti-mated the needs for telecommunicationsnot to be too diverging. Some of the ser-vices had different technical solutions,and the availability and price levels hadof course influence on the choice madeby the customers. These factors weretaken into consideration, and we devel-oped a table of figures comparing theAlbertville figures with the result of therequirement analysis we had carried outtogether with LOOC. We also had to cor-rect for additional countries that partici-pated in the Lillehammer Games. As theOlympics were approaching, we realizedthat some of the needs were underesti-mated. This was first of all internationalvideo circuits and telephone services out-side Olympic venues and sites, but alsoISDN was underestimated. Generally, theestimated figures were very close to theservices we installed and delivered. Onesurprising factor was, however, all theorders from customers close up to thestart of the Games. This was not in accor-
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International sales and marketing
B Y B I R G E R G B A R L I
1992 1993 19941992
Specific. and follow-upof support system committee
Product leaflets and otherpresentation material
Routines for handlingorders, invoices, etc
Questionnaire &Rate Card
Service offersand prices
Production ofRequirement analysis
OlympicCommittees
Press
Distribution ofQuestionnaire &
Rate CardRightholders
Establishmentand operation ofbooking office
Establishmentand operation of
080
Follow-up of customers
- specific. of solutions
- contract negotiations
- order handling
DMDM
OperationTeleservice
centre:- sales- booking- order handling- hire- payment- etc
analysis & planning presentation customer influence & follow-up operation phase
activ
ities
phas
e
Figure 1 Sales process – NT Olympic Project
dance with France Telecom’s experi-ences. We were told that in France, 95per cent of the total orders (includingdeliveries from Telecom Service Cen-tres) were received before January 1.
2 Sales process – activi-
ties and organization
It was very important to inform the cus-tomers as early as possible that NT wasresponsible for telecommunication ser-vices and what kind of services wereoffered. This also included having todescribe the services correctly (as theywould be delivered two years later!), anddecide the price level and strategy. “AGuide to Telecommunication Service”was developed as the first and generaldescription of services and prices offer-ed. This description was later supplied by“Product Description” leaflets, contain-ing more specific information on the ser-vices and equipment. These documentswere distributed to the customers andhanded out in presentation meetings.
“One stop shopping” was defined as acritical factor in order to succeed in thehandling of all international customers.First of all, the different Telecom compa-nies within the Norwegian TelecomGroup decided that Norwegian TelecomOlympic Project should co-ordinate allthe sales and marketing activities withinthe company group on behalf of TBK,
TeleMobil, Norwegian Telecom andpartly Norwegian Telecom International.LOOC, NRK ORTO ’94 and NT agreedto establish a common booking office forbroadcasters. It was the first time in anyOlympics that such an agreement hadbeen made. The broadcasters were verysatisfied with this solution. The officewas situated in Oslo, in the officesbelonging to NRK ORTO ’94.
These three organizations developed acommon description of all services andproducts offered to the broadcasters.“Description and Rate Card” includingcommon ordering forms called “Ques-tionnaires” were worked out. These doc-uments were distributed to all rightholderbroadcasting companies in May 1992.
For press companies, a common bookingoffice was established in the press sec-tion of LOOC, and likewise for theOlympic Committees. The Rate Card andQuestionnaires for these categories weredistributed in February and March 1993.These documents were based on the doc-uments for broadcasters but adjusted forpress and Olympic Committees.
In addition to the more general de-scription in the documents mentionedabove, “product leaflets” were develop-ed. Due to the fact that some of the speci-fications were changed during the pro-cess, these documents included detailedand updated information. Lots of cus-
tomers also needed specific informationon the equipment in order to make inter-face to own equipment or to train theirown employees.
When the customers returned the orderforms to the common booking office oraddress, the form was split and sent tothe responsible supplier. In the Norwe-gian Telecom Olympic Project all orderswere registered in a computer system(TOPKIS) with all information necessaryto implement or install the services.
When the first orders and basic in-formation about the customer werereceived and entered into the system, theprocess of “influencing” the customerstarted. If the customer’s orders did notcorrespond with our expectations, theAccount Manager took necessary actionsto ensure that the understanding of ourservices offered was correct. NT did alsoparticipate in meetings with the largestmedia companies, Olympic Committeesand sponsors arranged by LOOC. Animportant part of this were the OBACmeetings with the rightholders twice ayear from 1991. In addition to the formalmeetings, “post” and “pre” meetingswere arranged to discuss agreements anddeliveries of telecom services. In theplanning phase of any Olympic Games, itis very important to work hard to con-vince the broadcasters and the main pressagencies that the services offered willsatisfy the need for telecommunicationservices, and of course convince themabout price level and conditions. We hadsome disagreements in the early planningphase, but with a few exceptions theprices were never changed. NT also suc-ceeded in the work towards the Norwe-gian Government to avoid VAT on inter-national telecommunication services,which was strongly demanded by thebroadcasters.
It was a major challenge for NorwegianTelecom to handle all the internationalcustomers in a professional way withinthe time limits and available resources. Asales organization was established with aSales Manager, 9 Account Managers anda secretary. The customers were seg-mented into different groups: Broadcast-ing, International Press, Olympic Com-mittees, Sponsors, National Press andOrganizations. In this way the AccountManagers gathered experience and knowl-edge within one of the customer segments.Most of the contact between an AccountManager and an international customerwas of course by use of telefax and tele-phone. All the major companies visited
66
Figure 2 Participants in the OBAC meeting
Lillehammer during the planning process,and meetings were held to discuss specialcustomer demands and implementationdetails. English was defined as a “projectlanguage”, but we really did have somelanguage problems, especially with cus-tomers in Japan, but none of these prob-lems caused any serious disagreementsaccording to completion of deliveries. Inaddition to meetings, discussions andtelephone calls, two Direct Mails weredistributed to the customers in 1993. Themain message was to remind them of theprogressive increase of prices in the timeleading up to the Games and also todescribe the latest changes in, or addi-tional, services offered.
The sales team worked very closely withthe Olympic Business Office (OBO). Asopposed to NT’s ordinary organization, itwas only the Account Managers that haddirect contact with the customers. Theidea was to have only one “access point”to our organization to avoid misunder-standings and multiple handling of cus-tomers. Based on forms printed out fromthe customer data base (TOPKIS) OBOwas able to implement necessary infor-mation in all other computer systems toestablish the services, including invoic-ing systems. As described later in thisarticle, all of the services had to be paidbefore any deliveries could be made. Theterms of payment are described later inthis article, but they imply that the firstinvoice had to be issued at the time ofordering. The invoices were produced byOBO, verified and distributed to the cus-tomers by the Account Manager. Theinvoicing and payment process was com-plicated and probably the most time con-suming part in the process. This was alsodue to the fact that we did not have “stateof the art” or flexible invoicing systems.
OBO handled a total of 14 computer sys-tems in order to register the implementa-tion of all the different telecommunica-tion services. One month before theGames started, 12 people were workingat the Olympic Business Office. As men-tioned above, they worked in very closeco-operation with the sales team, espe-cially because of changes in orders closeup to the Games.
3 Telecommunication
services
This section gives a short summary of themain telecommunication services offeredby NT for the Olympic Games at Lille-hammer. All services were offered at a
price based on three weeks rental and thepossibility for additional weeks.
3.1 Telephone services
NT and LOOC established a specialOlympic Network (ON) in the regioncovering all Olympic venues and siteswhere telephone services were de-manded. Basic elements in the OlympicNetwork were PBXes delivered by TBKand Centrex services implemented inNT’s Olympic switches forming a hybridVirtual Private Network (VPN). In addi-tion, Centrex was delivered as part of theOlympic Network through NT’s publicswitches in Lillehammer, Gjøvik andHamar. This was to cover all needs out-side the Olympic venues. The agreementwith LOOC regulated which customercould be connected to the ON.
The Olympic Network users were offereda 5-digit number plan with no trafficcharges on telephone calls within the net-work. Calls out of the network werecharged according to normal traffic char-ges. A switchboard operated by LOOCwas installed at each venue. All lineswere enabled for direct dialling out anddirect dialling in. The customers werealso offered two types of switchboards,ICAT (based on a PC) and a simpleswitchboard solution by use of ASCOM.
Main Centrex services offered in theOlympic Network:
- Call Transfer- Call Hold- Call Waiting- Call Forwarding- Fixed Destination Call- Three Party Services.
Additional services could be ordered, andadjustments to special customer demandscould be made upon request. Our experi-ences after the Games are that most ofthe customers only needed basic servicesfor their operations. Because of the lim-ited time to train personnel, only a fewcustomers were using the additional ser-vices offered. But NT decided very earlyin the process to implement “state of theart” services in the Olympic Network,reflecting the services to be offered in thenear future.
In addition to the Olympic Network, ordi-nary subscription was offered at all sites.
3.2 ISDN
Euro-ISDN was introduced for the firsttime in Norway as a commercial offerduring the Olympics. Only Basic access
(2B+D) was offered due to the fact thatthe PBXes installed were not equippedwith Euro-ISDN interface. It alsoappeared that very few of the customerrequested 30B+D. The ISDN serviceswere primarily used for data communica-tion and transfer of pictures. But NT alsodelivered ISDN for 7 kHz high qualitysound for commentary use and ISDN formonitoring of venues and buildings.ISDN applications like EuroFile (filetransfer), videophone and Fax Gr. 4 weredemonstrated at our Telecom ServiceCentres at IBC and MPC.
3.3 Leased Circuits and
Data Communication
Leased analogue circuits were offered asClass T telephone-type circuits accordingto CCITT M.1040 for national installa-tions and CCITT M.1020 for interna-tional circuits.
Leased digital circuits were offered withtransfer rates from 2.4 kbit/s to 2 Mbit/sfor national use and for international con-nections 64 kbit/s, nX 64 kbit/s and2 Mbit/s.
Other services offered like Datapak(X.25), Datex (X.21) and Telemax 400(X.400) were requested on a very limitedscale.
3.4 Mobile communication
services
Major investments and installations weremade before the Olympics to satisfy thedemand of mobile telephone services.Three different automatic cellular sys-tems were offered: NMT 450, NMT 900and GSM. Two types of NMT 900mobile telephone sets were offered forrental: TBK Fighter and TBK VIP. Theequipment was offered as a “package”including subscription for three weeks.
Two types of paging services were alsooffered: Paging Numbers and PagingText. Paging Text was the most popularservice, and it was also possible to sendtext messages by help of INFO ’94,LOOC’s Information system, available atall Olympic sites.
3.5 Broadcasting services
NT had the responsibility for all transferof video and audio signals from allvenues to IBC, from sites outside venuesto IBC and international transmissionsfrom IBC.
VANDA, a one way transmission of avideo signal and two associated 15 kHz
67
Number NT own Totalordered needs
Audio occasional3.4 kHz 16 1615 kHz 4 4Coordination circuits 4 4
Total 24 0 24
Audio international3.4 kHz 60 607.0 kHz 9 915 kHz 13 132 x 15 kHz 1 1Coordination circuits 68 68
Total 151 0 151
Audio national3.4 kHz 157 50 2077 kHz 232 36 26815 kHz 36 10 462 x 15 kHz 21 21Coordination circuits 189 189
Total 635 96 731
Data communicat. servicesX.25, 2.4 kbit 2 2X.25, 9.6 kbit 2 32 34X.25, 64 kbit 1 1X.28, user ID 3 3X.21, 9.6 kbit 1 1
Total 9 32 41
ISDNISDN, Attendant services 28 282B+D 229 60 289
Total 257 60 317
Leased int’l digit. circuits64 kbit 10 10128 kbit 6 6512 kbit 2 22 Mbit 6 6
Total 24 0 24
Leased int’l anal. circuitsM1020 - Eur 21 21M1040 - Eur 1 1
Total 22 0 22
Leased nat’l anal. circuits 94 94
Leased nat’l digit. circuits2.4 kbit 1 119.2 kbit 3 39.6 kbit 3 364 kbit 4 4128 kbit 3 32 Mbit 12 12N x 64 kbit 160 160Not specified 71 71DDI/DDO 29 29
Total 380 0 380
Paging services 945 98 1043
Mobile telephone services 1033 46 1079
Olympic Network 3686 224 3910
Public network 1100 1100
VANDA international 27 27
VANDA national 95 26 121
audio channels, was offered in the fol-lowing video formats:
- PAL 625/50- NTSC 525/60- Digital Component Video- 34 Mb/s (DCT-coded video).
In addition, HDTV was offered uponrequest. However, HDTV transmissionswere solved by offering rental of fibrecircuits with the customers’ own equip-ment connected.
Occasional VANDA for transmissionfrom outside the venues to IBC wasoffered by renting of mobile satellitebuses. The service could be bookedthrough our booking office at IBC. It wasalso possible to book capacity for inter-national VANDA transmission from IBCand MPC based on the “first come – firstserve” principal.
Commentary and co-ordination circuitswere offered with the following qualities:
- Audio 3.4 kHz w/3.4 kHz feedback
- Audio 7 kHz w/3.4 kHz feedback
- Audio 15 kHz w/3.4 kHz feedback
- Audio 2 x 15 kHz w/3.4 kHz feedback
- 4-wire co-ordination circuits.
Occasional Audio International was alsooffered at the quality of 3.4, 7 and 15kHz.
4 Prices – terms
and conditions
The telecommunication services offeredwere based on a minimum of three weeksrental. The rental period could beextended by ordering additional week(s).Some elements that were evaluated whenthe price level was set were:
- Price level in the Olympic Games inCalgary, Albertville and Barcelona
- Ordinary telecommunication prices inNorway
- Cost of development and constructions.
The development costs were fairly high,but it was very difficult to exceed theprice levels set by telecom companiesresponsible for past Olympic Games.
Terms of payment were adapted andadjusted from Albertville 92 and themain principles were as follows:
The charges for the products and servicesoffered were subject to price increases
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Table 1 Services delivered
according to the date of validation of theorder as follows:
- 10 per cent discount on catalogueprices for orders placed before January1, 1993
- Catalogue prices given for theOlympic Games for orders placedbefore July 1, 1993
- 20 per cent surcharge on catalogueprices for orders placed between July1, 1993 and December 31, 1993
- 40 per cent surcharge on catalogueprices on orders placed after December31, 1993.
On receipt of an order, the customershould pay 20 per cent of the charges forthe services featured in the order confir-mation, within 30 days at the latest. Noagreements were considered valid untilthe amount due was paid. The balance(80 per cent of the total amount) plusdeposit on terminal equipment and pre-payment of traffic were charged in Octo-ber and November 93. Immediate pay-ment was required if the order wasplaced after October 1, 1993.
Prepayment on traffic was balanced andthe remaining deposit, if applicable, wasreimbursed after the expiry under thecondition that all sums owing to NT werepaid. In the event of damage or loss ofequipment, NT deducted from the depo-sit the sum necessary to cover expenses.
If the customer at any time cancelled hisorder/request, the amount due for pay-ment at the date of cancellation was keptby NT to cover expenses.
Due to the principle of no deliveriesbefore payment, the amount due to NTafter the Games was less than 0.2 percent of total income.
5 Delivery of services
After implementation of all services inthe different computer systems at theOlympic Business Office, orders wererouted to DSOL (Surveillance and Oper-ating Centre for the Olympics) for instal-lation and implementation. Circuits andconfigurations were tested by installationpersonnel and completion messages weresent back to DSOL. The Account Man-agers were also involved in the qualitycontrol of configurations and physicalinstallations to ensure the best possibledelivery. After all, it was the AccountManagers and service personnel whowould welcome the customers to thevenues, and if any mistakes were made,
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ANP Stichting Algemeen Nederlands Presbureau, Den Haag:“We also want to extend to you our congratulations for a splen-did job done and thank you for your co-operation.”
M.L. Weydert, Associated Press, USA:“... I’ve been coordinating the setup of our Olympic facilitiessince 1984 and can say, without exception, that Lillehammerwas the best ever! To those of us who were there, the 1994Winter Olympics were almost magical. Not only have they givenus pleasant memories that will stay with us for a long time tocome, they have set a standard by which we will judge futureGames.”
The Sankei Shimbun, Japan:“Thank you so much for your cooperation. We could succeed incovering the XVII Olympic Games. We were very happy toknow the power of high technology by Norwegian TelecomOlympic Project. Please say hallow to your all staff and come toJapan for next Olympic Games in Nagano.”
Allsport UK, London:“Many thanks for all the services provided during the OlympicGames, and the support that your team gave to Allsport in Lille-hammer. The telecommunication facilities were excellent, andwe, as a sports photo agency, had a very successful operationbecause your facilities worked so well. So thanks again.”
Bayerischer Rundfunk, Munich:“I can confirm that these Games have been one of the mostsuccessful ones ever. Especially the very friendly, alwayscheerful atmosphere attributed to this success. You and yourstaff made work in and around the IBC so much easier. Pleaseaccept our sincere thanks for the excellent work you have ren-dered to ARD and ZDF.”
Deutsche Presseagentur GmbH, Hamburg:“The cordial welcome we received, the perfect organisation, thetechnical support we received previous to and during theGames – all of these aspects contributed to make our stay inNorway most enjoyable. This was reflected in our products toour clients, too. It was a great pleasure to cooperate with you.”
Knight-Ridder Inc., Miami, Florida:“Thank you again for your kindness and professionalism beforeand during the wonderful Olympic Games in Norway. You andyour countryment should feel proud of the great accomplish-ment. It was the best Olympics ever.”
FLT Press, Stockholm:“Thanks for a formidable OL and a by all means perfect service.From now on in Sweden we don’t talk in national terms when itcomes to i.e. Olympic medals – we talk in Nordic terms andconsequently we count Nordic gold medals. We did win a lot inLillehammer ...”
Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, China:“We are impressed by your excellent telecommunications ser-vice and equipment and we will cherish such nice impressionfor quite some time to come, perhaps until the next sportingevent which offers state-of-the-art service and equipment, asgood as we used in Lillehammer. Thank you very much for yourcooperation and help.”
Sportinformation AG, Zürich:“At this moment, we want to thank you very, very much for theperfect service from you personally and from Norwegian Tele-com.”
Commercial Communication Studios GmbH, Frankfurt/Main:“... I want to thank you once again for all the effort, flexibility anddedication you put into your work with us. It really was an abso-lute pleasure to be working with you.”
Axel Springer Verlag AG, Hamburg:“We have had a nice time in Lillehammer. Everything was wellorganized. Thank you very much for your help that we couldcover the Olympic Games with success.”
Fédération Francaise de Ski, France:“Thank you very much for your so much appreciated and helpfulcooperation. These XVII Olympic Winter Games were a hugesuccess and all the French officials, athletes and coaches willkeep wonderful memories of them.”
AT&T, USA:“It was a pleasure dealing with you during the LillehammerGames. I hope the USA can do as good a job as Norway!”
APC:“I would like to thank you very much for all your kind assistanceand cooperations during the time of preparations and the timeof the Games itself ... We are really proud that we could enjoyand experience working with you and your company. Thanksagain on behalf of all the APC marketing agency.”
Figure 3 Some of the statements made by our international customers after the Games
these people were responsible on behalfof Norwegian Telecom.
The very first customer arrived in Lille-hammer in August 1993, and the com-pany was of course CBS. Only a few oth-ers started their work at the venuesbefore 15 January 1994. Due to the factthat many of our customers ordered addi-tional services or changed orders, NT hada huge amount of work to be done veryclose to the day of the Opening Cere-mony. Most of the customers arrived be-tween January 25 and February 10. Themost hectic time in the Telecom ServiceCentres was between 10 days before theopening of the Games and three daysafter the Games had started.
Table 1 is a summary of telecommunica-tion services delivered by NT for theXVII Olympic Winter Games.
6 Conclusion
With regard to sales, NT really did suc-ceed in offering the services requested,and the total income was higher than esti-mated. The question was: Did we suc-ceed in fulfilling the customers’ demandsand expectations for telecommunicationservices?
In May 1994 Norsk Gallup carried out aCustomer Satisfaction Monitoringinvolving 300 Olympic customers askingvarious questions relating to NT’s total
involvement in the Olympics. Theanswers were analysed by Norsk Gallup,and the result was nothing but sensa-tional. The total score, on a scale of up to100, was 10 points better in many of thecustomer relationships than otherresearch shows for general deliveries inthis market in Norway.
From March to August 1994, the NTOlympic Project received letters fromover 60 international customers. Figure 3shows some of the statements.
A small company, in a global view, hastaken a considerable step forward in theprocess to state the position in the Inter-national Telecommunication market.
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People came in their thousands to watch the Olympic Games
??
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The VI Olympic Winter Games, Oslo 1952
In connection with the articles on the XVII Olympic Winter Games in 1994 wewould like to present to you a retrospective glance at the VI Olympic WinterGames in Oslo in 1952. The articles are abridged versions of two articles publish-ed in Tekniske Meddelelser (the former name of Telektronikk) No. 10–12, Octo-ber–December 1952, and give us an idea of the organizing of the Games with their72 international telephone connections, the 2 AM/FM radio connections used fortraffic to New York and reversed to Tokyo, and the facsimile service via radio toHamburg and New York, whereby a photo could be transmitted in the course of afew minutes.
we benefited from experienced press rep-resentatives who had covered OlympicGames before and knew the demands.
All venues (except Norefjell) are locatedinside the City of Oslo boundaries. Thus,it was the responsibility of Oslo RegionalTelecommunications Administration toestablish lines and cables for broadcast-ing, telegraph and telephone, as well asmanagement of all the telephone installa-tions at the various sites.
The cable and line installations in theOslo area were extensive. No furthercomments should be required, but Iwould like to quote a passage from anobservation made by the Director of theOslo Regional TelecommunicationsAdministration in the NTA bulletin Verkog Virke:
“It was our duty to carry out all instal-lations of the telephone switchboard atthe Hotel Viking, with a separate longdistance switchboard in combinationwith the hotel switchboard. Further-more, we installed the switchboards atBislet, Holmenkollen, Jordal, andDælenenga and in the accommodationquarters at Sogn, Ullevål and Ila. Wealso installed telephone boxes and tele-phones on the press stands at the vari-ous venues. We initiated the work acouple of years ago, but received neworders until the last minute. Luckily,we had installed plenty of cableseverywhere and this turned out to benecessary.
The biggest outdoor task was to layunderground cables from Slemdal toMidtstua with extensions to Rødkleivaand the bob track. As we had ample
time on our hands and accordinglycould work efficiently, we did not feelthe work pressure too heavily – untilthe last days before the opening of theGames”.
I must mention that NTA’s maintenancecentre installed all teleprinters at theHotel Viking, in the press offices and atthe sports venues.
The telephone situation in Oslo wasstrained, and we particularly feared asevere strain on the information desk.Therefore, a switchboard with an infor-mation desk was installed for the Gamesin the Hotel Viking with opening hours0700 – 2200. This switchboard did notgive information on sports results; still,three operators were busy answering mis-cellaneous inquiries. The press com-mittee kept the desk updated.
Besides, the press committee publishedan “Olympic address and telephonebook”. The preface says that it was in-tended as an aid to all persons who insome way work within the framework ofthe VI Olympic Games, in order to avoidbothering each other with unnecessaryquestions and telephone calls.
Oslo’s international telephone
connections
During the Winter Games we had twodirect telephone connections Oslo – NewYork by radio, compared to one before theGames. Furthermore, we were connectedto Tokyo by radio. Otherwise, all interna-tional telephone connections from Oslowere routed via Denmark or Sweden.
The dimensions of the preparation andcoverage of the VI Olympic Games werehardly foreseen by anybody at the outset.Several committees were establishedwell in advance to take care of the vary-ing tasks. One of them was the Telecom-munication Committee, or TC for short,with representatives from the municipal-ity of Oslo, the Norwegian BroadcastingCorporation, the press and the Norwe-gian Telecommunications Administration(NTA).
In this paper the term telecommunica-tions covers telegraph, telephone andbroadcasting. However, the TC also hadother responsibilities, e.g. public addresssystems for the various sports venues.
Comparatively few spectators can bepresent at the actual arenas, so it wasconsidered an important task to keep thepublic – at home and abroad – adequatelyinformed at any time by radio or text andpictures from broadcasting and press. Weknew that foreign broadcasting and presswould make great demands, so our inter-national connections were important.
In the following I will concentrate onNTA’s work before and during theGames. The NTA is responsible for theoperation of broadcasting stations andchannels, while the Broadcasting Corpo-ration takes care of the studio work.
The TC first met in January 1949, and atregular intervals since. The committeedealt with the individual sports venues,and agreed on the extent of telecommuni-cations needed in each case: the numberof cable pairs or lines for broadcasting,telegraph and telephones, the number ofbroadcasting booths, etc. In this respect,
Telecommunications for the VI Olympic Winter Games, Oslo 1952
B Y J R I N G S T A D , S E N I O R E N G I N E E R
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We had two telephone cables throughSkagerrak to Denmark. Some connec-tions were routed to Denmark and someto other countries in Europe.
Already before World War II earthcables were laid to the Swedish border atKornsjø, connecting us to the Swedishcable network. This cable routing carriesto many connections to Sweden and alsoadditional connections to other countries.
Expanding the number of connections isexpensive, and plans to be implementedmust be built on future demands. Onecannot expect foreign administrations toagree to costly expansions being usedonly for a couple of weeks.
The question of connections to andacross Denmark and Sweden was dis-cussed at a Nordic telegraph and tele-phone conference in Oslo in the autumnof 1949. At that meeting the NTA putforward proposals for expansions to becompleted before the start of the WinterGames.
In this connection I would like to men-tion the understanding and accommodat-ing attitude on the Danish and Swedishpart. Without the good support from ourtwo neighbouring countries during thepreparations as well as during the traffichandling, the result would not have beenthe success it turned out to be.
The increase in number of internationalconnections was based on further exploit-ation of existing cables. Some of the
pairs are lightly coil loaded. This makesit possible to use a carrier channel oneach quad in addition to the low fre-quency circuits. In this way, 31 new tele-phone circuits were established.
As of January 1, 1951, Oslo had 41 inter-national telephone circuits, but at thestart of the Olympic Games, 74 were atour disposal, e.g. Stockholm: an increasefrom 10 to 17, Helsinki: 1 to 3, Copen-hagen: 7 to 13, London: 5 to 7, Paris: 1 to2, Hamburg: 2 to 4, Zürich: 0 to 1, etc.
However, all these new lines requiredroom for operators, and the Oslo longdistance switchboard was already con-gested. This was a major problem. It wassolved by introducing long distancedialling to Oslo, so that for example longdistance operators in Drammen coulddial subscribers in Oslo directly. Thus,trunk lines are connected directly to theautomatic exchange in Oslo, and bothspace and operators are saved for thelong distance switchboard. On the otherhand, it required new equipment for theautomatic exchanges, and Oslo Tele-phone Administration (OTA) was forcedto step up the construction of a plannedlocal tandem exchange.
Telephoto
Telephoto, or picture telegrams, aretransmitted on ordinary telephone lines.In principle, it is done in two ways:
1 The pictures are handed in at the localtelecom and are rated there. The rate
depends on the size of the picture andthe method of transmission.
In this country we have only one pub-lic telephoto station (in Oslo). On theoccasion of the Winter Games, the oldequipment was replaced by a construc-tion of the very latest technology. Ifthe pictures were delivered at otherlocal telecoms, they had to be sent toOslo by mail.
2 Newspapers, news agencies and otherinterested parties buy their own tele-photo equipment. They hire lines fromthe NTA on a periodic basis and set upthe transmission themselves.
Newspapers and agencies often havetheir own mobile transmitters to takewith them to the location of the events.From there they transmit the picturesto the stationary receiver at home.
Today, reporting by pictures is an im-portant part of the news service. In fact,we were afraid that the extent of tele-photo transmission would reach suchdimensions that it would congest othertraffic. We expected many foreign corre-spondents to bring their own telephototransmitters, which turned out to be thecase. No less than 24 telephoto transmit-ters were placed at Hotel Viking and theywere in frequent use.
It was also possible to transmit picturesdirectly from Holmenkollen and fromNorefjell. The transmitters at these loca-tions were placed in crew trucks belong-ing to the Oslo Electricity Board. Thesevehicles also served as dark rooms fordeveloping films.
The transmission of pictures to the USAposed a problem. Earlier, they had beentransmitted via London or other townswhich had telephoto connections to USA.But such a relay system caused delay andreduced the quality.
Therefore, it was necessary to establishdirect telephoto connection to New Yorkvia radio. This was arranged at the begin-ning of this year, with the Norwegiantransmitter being placed at Jeløy Radio.This mostly worked very well, but radioconnections over such distances arebound to be unstable and re-transmis-sions could not be avoided. Still, the traf-fic ran smoothly and many pictures weresent to the USA by this route.
Telegraph service
Before I deal with the telegraph serviceduring the Olympic Games, I would like
Figure 1 International telephone connections
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to mention the general development inthis field concerning lines as well asequipment. The general public is probab-ly not aware of the development in thisfield over the last few years.
The telegraph service in this country willbe 100 years old in 1955. In the first yearand for many years on, a network of sin-gle wire telegraph lines were constructedthroughout the country. Construction oflong distance telephone lines begantowards the turn of the century. Gradu-ally, methods were developed for simul-taneous transmission of telegraph andtelephone traffic through one telephoneline. Through the years many methodshave been employed. The last step in thisdevelopment is the voice frequencytelegraphy. This system employs a tele-phone connection on which up to 24 tele-graph connections can be established. Icannot go into technical details in thispaper, but in principle, the system isbased on a different frequency for eachindividual telegraph channel.
In this country we established the firstvoice frequency telegraph system in1939. It was followed by a strong expan-sion during and after the war, so thattoday we have a network of voice fre-quency channels throughout the country– from Oslo to Kirkenes, to the Southcoast, to the West coast and abroad. Icould mention that before the war we had3–4 telegraph connections on the distan-ce Oslo – Trondheim. Today we have 30.
This development has resulted in analmost complete closing down of thelarge network of single wire telegraphlines.
As long as the number of telegraph con-nections was small, it was necessary toemploy telegraph apparatus that coulddeal with heavy traffic in a short time. Inthe years before the war we usedSiemens rapid telegraph on the lines withheavy traffic. It could handle 600 lettersor characters per minute. In the thirties,teleprinters were taken into service, andthey gradually displaced the Morse appa-ratus. Siemens rapid telegraph is nowabandoned and only a very few Morseapparatuses are now in use.
After the war, the NTA re-assumed thework with subscriber telegraphy, or telex(teleprinter exchange) which is the desig-nation internationally, whereby the sub-scriber hires a teleprinter and a line to thenearest telex exchange. In this way heobtains direct connection to other telexsubscribers.
In this as well as other countriesthere is a strong interest in telex,which has had a tremendous boomduring the last years. Figure 2 illus-trates the Norwegian telex ex-changes and the Norwegian telexnetwork.
Figure 3 shows the internationaltelegraph network during theGames. In the upper left-hand cor-ner we see the available telegraphchannels to Gothenburg, Stockholm,Copenhagen, and Hamburg. Fromthe three latter towns the channelsare connected further on to othertowns in Europe. The numbers inbrackets are telex lines. The othernumbers state the total number.
Several newspapers and agenciestook out telex subscriptions duringthe Winter Games, and sent theirmaterial by the telex network totheir home offices from theteleprinters in their rooms at theHotel Viking.
In addition, they had the opportu-nity to use teleprinters installed infive small booths at the receptiondesk in the hotel. The journaliststhen paid according to the time theyoccupied the lines. They couldeither operate the teleprinter them-selves, or they could hire an operatorfrom the NTA.
Figure 2 Norwegian telex exchanges and the domestic telexnetwork
Figure 3 International telegraph connections
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Figure 4 International radio telegraph connections
Figure 5 Teleprinter at Holmenkollen Figure 6 Long distance switchboard at Hotel Viking
heavy traffic volume by this kind of con-nection. Figure 3 shows which townssuch leased lines were directed to.
Under such circumstances the old andwell known procedure of delivering presstelegrams to the NTA for dispatch re-cedes into the background, even if it isstill used.
To complete the picture, I include asketch (Figure 4) showing the radio tele-graph circuits attended to by the OsloRadio Exchange.
The press service wished to have sportsresults from Bislet and Holmenkollen toits office at Hotel Viking via teleprinter.Some news agencies and newspapersrequested the same arrangement. Thiswas done by installing a distributionexchange in the telegraph building inOslo. In this way a transmission frome.g. Bislet was received simultaneouslyby all teleprinters connected to the distri-bution exchange.
Telephone service at
Hotel Viking and at the
sports venues
Hotel Viking was the main centre for for-eign journalists and broadcasting reporters.There was hustle and bustle in this newhotel. It was an advantage that the hotelwas newly built, because that made it pos-sible to take into account that its first taskwas to house press and broadcasting per-sonnel during the Winter Games.
At the outset it was clear that we couldexpect a heavy trunk traffic from thehotel – mainly to other countries. Since itwould amount to many times the normaltraffic, special measures had to be taken.It was decided to set up a long distanceswitchboard with six operator desks inthe hotel. For comparison, it may bementioned that a town like Namsos hassix operator desks. The arrangement isoutlined in Figure 7.
Normally, a long distance connection tothe hotel would be set up by Oslo longdistance switchboard through the auto-matic equipment in the Oslo area, andtransferred to the hotel room by the inter-nal hotel PMBX. An expansion of theswitchboard to make it handle such extraheavy traffic would be costly.
The long distance switchboard at thehotel operated some of the internationallines directly. As can be seen from Fig-ure 7, the operators had direct connectionwith the rooms without going through thehotel switchboard. In this way the opera-tion was easy and efficient.
It was of course only a small number oflines that could be operated directly fromHotel Viking. The remaining connectionswere established via a number of linesbetween Oslo long distance switchboardand the Viking long distance switch-board.
Next to the long distance room on theground floor was a booking and informa-
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The big news agencies went yet anotherstep. They hired their own telegraphchannel, which was at their disposalaround the clock. In this way they couldat any time send correspondence fromthe hotel room to the main offices inLondon, Paris, etc. They could handle a
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tion desk. If desired, the call could alsobe made from one of the eight telephonebooths near the reception desk.
Separate lines were set up for telephototransmission from the operator desks inthe hotel to the rooms equipped with tele-photo apparatus.
Figure 7 also shows the network from thelong distance switchboard to the sportsvenues. As already mentioned, switch-boards were installed at Holmenkollen,Bislet and Jordal Amphitheatre, whichhad direct circuits to the Oslo and Vikinglong distance switchboard. Rødkleivaand the bob track were connected to theHolmenkollen switchboard. The switch-board at Dælenenga had no direct lines tolong distance switchboards. Just a fewice hockey matches were played here,and the traffic was not heavy.
The network of direct lines is shown inFigure 7 and the long distance switch-board at Hotel Viking was an importantpart of the set-up. It made it possible tohandle the traffic without going throughthe automatic telephone network. Other-wise, the automatic exchanges wouldhave been subjected to heavy overload.
Broadcasting
I will only deal with the line connectionsand not the preparations and arrange-ments for broadcasting at the sportsvenues and in the main centre. The pro-gramme director said that this was thelargest task ever undertaken by the Nor-wegian Broadcasting Corporation.
A large number of lines were laid fromthe venues to the main centre atMarienlyst. Here, the individual lineswere routed to either recording or directtransmission. As more than 30 nationsparticipated in the Winter Games, therewere many different descriptions of thesame event.
By direct transmission the lines wererouted to the long distance switchboardand onward by special lines to the receiv-ing country. Recordings were routed thesame way at hours booked in advance.
Figure 9 illustrates the broadcasting net-work at disposal for international trans-mission. They were special lines able totransmit a far broader frequency bandthan ordinary telephone lines, which wasessential to obtain the required quality.
As will be seen, a total of ten internation-al programmes could be transmittedsimultaneously.
Two of the lines were routed to the shortwave transmitters at Lambertseter andFredrikstad, and the remaining eight toHelsinki, Stockholm, Copenhagen,Berlin, Hilversum, and Hamburg (3).From some of these locations the lineswere connected if needed to e.g. Paris,Rome, London, etc.
It should be mentioned that broadcastingpersonnel required a conference line inaddition to the programme line as long asdirect transmission took place.
Norefjell
Norefjell was the venue for the giantslalom and downhill for men and women.
Holmen-kollen
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Oslo Telephone Administration
Oslo tlong distance switchboard
Figure 7 Connections between long distance switchboard and sports arenas
Figure 8 Telephone counter at Hotel Viking
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It is located on the west side of Krøderenlake, approx. 120 km from Oslo. Thenearest long distance switchboard isKrødsherad, some 5 km from the bottomof the tracks. It was obvious that thissmall rural station with a few trunk linesand a simple operator desk could notcope with the expected traffic. The sta-tion was also located too far from thetrack. We had no choice but to build. Thecommittee designed the building andarranged for the installation, and it wascompleted at the beginning of 1951.
On the ground floor was the NTA’sreception desk with admittance only forreporters, as well as 12 telephone boxes.Telegrams could also be handed in here.
Behind the desk were two rooms, onewith five operator desks and one for tech-nical equipment. On the same floor wasthe cafeteria, with a good view to thetracks. The telephones installed in thecafeteria were heavily utilised.
The offices for the games administrationwere located on the first floor. Thebroadcasting equipment was also locatedon this floor, consisting of 10 completerecorders, among other things. Telephotocould be transmitted from Norefjell fromfour crew vehicles hired from the OsloElectricity Board. So, that was the build-ing with its contents, but lines had to beprovided.
The NTA decided to establish two doub-le copper telephone lines from Krøds-
herad to Hokksund, and then on to ductcables to Oslo. These lines were previ-ously planned by the Administration, andthey were now brought forward in orderto be ready for the Winter Games. TheOlympic Committee paid for the requiredlines from Krødsherad long distanceswitchboard to the Norefjell building.
The new quadded cable could now carry8 voice frequency telephone circuits.Further, a few one channel systems wereestablished so that a total of 16 telephonecircuits were at our disposal from theNorefjell building directly to the longdistance switchboard in Oslo. One of thecircuits was earmarked for the Broadcast-ing Corporation, which also set up threeshort wave circuits from Norefjell toOslo. A couple of Oslo newspapers hadtheir own short wave transmitters. To agreat extent this relieved the load on theregular lines.
But lines were also needed on the actualslopes. We were asked to lay under-ground cables from the telecommunica-tion building to the start of the downhilland slalom. The cable had lines forbroadcasting, electronic timekeeping,police, medical service, loudspeaker ser-vice, ski lift and two military quarters.There were several branching points,such as Vågehalsen and Fossumjuvet.
The police was well prepared for heavytraffic, among other things by havingtelephone lines from their transportation
office at Kroa to the parking lots andmain cross-roads.
We were rather tense on the opening dayat Norefjell. We did not know what traf-fic load to expect. The station chief latersaid that already from the first competi-tion the traffic was handled almost with-out waiting time and to everybody’s sat-isfaction.
From the newspapers we remember thetremendous amount of work done tocover the competitions at Norefjell.While the snow was pouring downeverywhere else in the country, it wasvery sparse where we needed it most. Butthe efforts were highly successful.
According to the programme, the compe-titions at Norefjell were to last for threedays. They were extended to four days.Considering the short period of time, itwas a large and costly arrangement –maybe too much so.
It was actually foreseen that conditionsmight be so difficult that it would beimpossible to go through with the com-petitions at Norefjell. Contingency planswere made to move the giant slalom anddownhill race to Voss. All the equipmentwas therefore made ready to be movedon short notice. Luckily, that was notnecessary.
Traffic carried
In the article “An important service”, thenewspaper Aftenposten wrote on March29, 1952:
“When more than 500 foreign journal-ists, broadcasting reporters and pressphotographers want to transmit to theirhome offices without delay, insuffi-cient connections or weak operationlead to irritants that may be detrimen-tal to the total arrangement. Now,weeks after the completion of theGames, we are glad to say that wehave heard almost solely praise of thispart of the arrangement.
The service was perhaps best west-wards and to Sweden. This traffic wascarried so to speak on the minute. Thetraffic to Finland was subject to a hardstrain on Wednesday February 20,when Hakulinen won the 50 km crosscountry competition. Every decentFinnish newspaper was then supposedto cover this triumph on a full page.Even if we borrowed five extra circuitsfrom Stockholm, several Finnishreporters had to wait up to one hour forconnection to their home offices.
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Figure 9 Lines for international broadcasting
The traffic to America went smoothly,especially because there happened tobe a very good short wave transmis-sion during the critical days. AJapanese reporter kept up a conversa-tion to Tokyo for 44 consecutive min-utes. The occasion was the speedskaters Sugawara from Japan and Hjal-lis from Norway starting in the samepair.”
The Oslo Regional TelecommunicationsAdministration managed the traffic andprovided operators. The organisation inOslo is such that the local telephoneoperation is managed by a telephonedirector and the telegraph and long dis-tance telephone by a regional director. Itwas mainly telegraph and long distancetelephone traffic that was carried fromHotel Viking and the sports venues. Itwas no easy task, because at the sametime we had an increased load on theordinary traffic because of the numerousvisitors.
During the Olympic Games we had toplace 45 long distance telephone opera-tors and 20 telegraph operators at HotelViking and the sports venues, and theyhad to be replaced at their ordinary workplaces. Both operators and technical per-sonnel carried out their assignmentswholeheartedly. They received muchpraise both during and after the Games.
Domestic news service
The Norwegian News Agency (NTB)plays an important role in distributingnews to the Norwegian newspapers. Theagency receives news from all over theworld via radio, teleprinter, telegram andtelephone. NTB has its own teleprinterexchange in Oslo. The Oslo-based news-papers and some newspapers in nearbytowns are connected to this exchange. Bytransmitting from NTB some or all theconnected teleprinters can receivesimultaneously.
NTB also distributes news to the pressvia Jeløy Radio. A so-called Hellteleprinter is used. Newspapers nation-wide equipped with the Hell teleprintercan receive the messages in printed form.Some newspapers are telex subscribersand can receive information in this way –often from political news agencies inOslo.
The telephone and press telegrams whichonly a few years ago were dominatingthe distribution of news, have now strongcompetition from the teleprinter.
Domestic broadcasting channel
network
Figure 10 shows a sketch of the networkof the Norwegian broadcasting channels.The letter K designates a transmitter andF a repeater. All transmitters (except forRøros, Odda and Lista) receive the pro-gramme via the long distance telephonenetwork.
On the previous pages I have tried to out-line the tasks facing the NTA before andduring the Olympic Winter Games. Itwas a difficult undertaking and mucheffort was made to solve the problems aswell as possible. The personnel made anadmirable achievement and some personsdeserve to be mentioned by name. How-ever, this is difficult to embark on.
It was impossible in advance to estimatethe extent of the traffic. Certainly, thePress Committee had made inquiries atthe news agencies and newspapers aboutestimated traffic and which hours of theday they expected to use telegraph andlong distance telephone. Still, manyunexpected factors could be introduced.For example, if one nation won a medal,
especially a gold one, this resulted inheavy traffic to that country. By andlarge, the installations were properlydimensioned.
Luckily, we were spared large failuresand damage to the line network, even ifwe had some uneasy moments in thebeginning. A couple of days before theopening ceremonies a cable to Denmarkwas damaged. A cable ship was ready athand at a harbour in Jutland, but a repairwould be an awkward set-back. But thecable stood the strain without interrup-tion of traffic.
A few days after completion of the Win-ter Games the second cable to Denmarkfailed. We must conclude that fortunefavoured us.
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Figure 10 The domestic broadcasting channel network
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In 1947 it was decided that Oslo was tohost the VI Olympic Winter Games. Toprepare for this occasion, Oslo Tele-phone Administration (OTA) sent repre-sentatives to St. Moritz to study thetelecommunication requirements for theOlympic Winter Games in 1948, mainlyto study the telephone and cable require-ments for press, broadcasting, competi-tors and Games management.
The local conditions in St. Moritz differ-ed on essential points from the conditionsin Oslo. Especially, in St. Moritz thelocation of sports venues, accommoda-tion facilities for the press, broadcastingand athletes were very compressed. Still,a number of telecommunication prob-lems were relevant and worth studying.OTA had experience from many largesummer and winter sports events, but notone with so many simultaneous events
during a short period of time. At the out-set it was realised that the arrangementwould put a heavy strain on the Norwe-gian Telecommunications Administration(NTA) due to scarcity of cables and otherimportant material after the war.
Due to the general lack of spare cablepairs, in particular to the sports venues, itwas obvious that we would have toinstall switchboards at the arenas as wellas at the accommodation facilities for theathletes and the press. This was neces-sary to satisfy demands for communica-tion on short notice. Experience showsthat improvisations within short time lim-its are needed, even with the most carefulpreparations and discussions with theparties involved.
Location vs. communication to
sports venues and accommoda-
tion areas
Holmenkollen (ski jump, cross
country, and relay)
Holmenkollen is situated approx. 9.5 kmfrom the centre of Oslo and the presshotel. The nearest telephone exchange(Slemdal) is located some 3 km from theski jump. We had already 50 pair twincable from Slemdal to Holmenkollen;however, it was already in use for otherurgent purposes. To make sure newdemands were met, a new 160 pair cablewas needed to the ski jump. The cablewas laid from a cable cabinet at Midt-stua, some 1.5 km from Holmenkollen.In addition to the existing cable fromSlemdal to Midtstua an extra 200 paircable was required. For practical reasonsa switchboard was installed at Holmen-kollen in order to serve Rødkleiva andthe bob track as well as Holmenkollen.This was one of the reasons for the largedemand for lines between Midtstua andHolmenkollen, because all local connec-tions were carried by this link.
Rødkleiva (slalom)
From the outset, there was no telephoneconnection to Rødkleiva. Hence, it wasnecessary to lay a 60 pair cable from acable distributor at Frognerseteren tohalf-way up the slope (approximately
1.7 km). Furthermore, internal connec-tions within the slope area was needed.To this end, 30 pairs were laid from half-way up the slope to the start, 50 pairsfrom the middle of the track down to thefinish and 80 pairs across the track to themain stand. The cost of these cables wasdefrayed by the organising committee, asthey were valuable for after-use. To rein-force the cable connection between Midt-stua and Frognerseteren, a 100 pair cablewas laid.
The bob track at Frognerseteren
For the bob track, a 50 pair cable waslaid from Midtstua to Frognerseteren(approx. 2 km). As the cable routemainly runs along the track, two distribu-tion points in and out were installed, oneto the finish and one to half-way alongthe track. This was done to ensure reli-able connection to the emergency tele-phones along the track, and at the sametime provide telephones for the press andbroadcasting at these locations.
Between the cable distributor at Frogner-seteren and the start of the bob track a 20pair cable was required at one point inorder to obtain 50 pairs all the way.
An additional temporary cable was laidfrom the start of the bob track to the offi-cials’ tower with connections for trackofficials, police, and broadcasting. Sometemporary parallel manual telephone setswere installed for the traffic police atsome car parks in the area.
Bislett, Jordal, Dælenenga
A 100 pair cable was already installed toBislett, and no further capacity was need-ed. Previously, we only had a couple oftelephones at Jordal and Dælenenga, soconsiderable expansion was needed here;100 pairs were laid to Jordal and 20 pairsto Dælenenga.
Kadettangen, Sandvika
Kadettangen is located some 20 km fromOslo. From the parallell exchange atSandvika, 800 m from the rink, 20 con-nections were provided. A 20 pair cablehad to be laid in the snow for a distanceof 400 m. Only three matches were to be
Plans by Oslo Telephone Administration in connection with the VI Olympic Winter
Games, Oslo 1952
B Y J S M I D T T U N , E N G I N E E R
Figure 1 Ullevål accommodation facilities. The cableshad to be laid on the outside of the walls and through theair vents to every room that was to be fitted with tele-phone
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played here, and as this was decided atthe last moment, it was the only way toobtain the connection. The cable wasretrieved as soon as the matches werecompleted.
Marienlyst, Drammen
A couple of ice hockey matches wereplayed at this location. As the TelephoneAdministration building was locatednearby, no extra provision was needed.
Other plans, Norwegian Broad-
casting Corporation (NRK)
In addition to the lines to the sportsvenues, a 200 pair cable was laid fromFagerborg exchange to the BroadcastingCentre (approx. 1.5 km) in order tostrengthen existing installations.
Accommodation facilities at Sogn,
Ullevål, and Ila
The athletes were mainly staying at theabove locations. The buildings wereintended for students’ hostel, staff atUllevål hospital and an old people’shome. Common to all buildings was thattheir intended use did not warrant a greatnumber of telephone installations. Thegreatly increased number required duringthe Olympic Games posed some difficul-ties. At Ullevål the lines had to be placedon the outside of the walls and throughthe air vents. The buildings are located inan area where the cable network wasalready highly loaded and where it wasdifficult to lay new cables. Furthermore,as the decision to use these buildings wastaken at a late stage, the work had to becarried out in a short time.
Telephone arrangement
In the planning of equipment and installa-tions at the various locations, the PressCommittee estimated that most of themain news agencies would be representedat the main venues. In addition, some 500journalists would have official Olympicstatus. It was assumed that the news agen-cies and the large newspapers, especiallyin Norway and Sweden, would requiretheir own equipment at the sports venues.
The following news agencies were repre-sented at the Games:
1 NTB Norsk Telegrambyrå N
2 AFP Agence France Press F
3 ANR Algemaine Niederl. Reisebureau NL
4 AP Associated Press USA
5 DPA Deutsche Pressagentur D
6 KNS Kyodo News Service Jap.
7 Reuter Eng.
8 TT Tidningarnas Telegrambureau S
9 UP United Press USA
10 INS International News Service USA
11 Polish News Agency Pol.
12 Finska Notisbyråen Fin.
The following countries were representedby newspaper correspondents: Denmark,England, Finland, France, Greece, Italy,Japan, Canada, Netherlands, Norway,Poland, Romania, Spain, Switzerland,Sweden, Germany, Hungary, USA, Aus-tria.
As the automatic telephone network inOslo normally carries a heavy load, wefeared long delays during the Games.Consequently, we made provisions fordirect lines from the arenas to HotelViking, and that connections to the tollswitchboard could be obtained throughdirect lines.
The telephone switchboards at the venueswere amply fitted with cords, speciallines to Hotel Viking and the long dis-tance manual switchboard as well as pub-lic exchange lines. Thus, we intended toprovide newspapers and news agencieswith connections from the stands via theswitchboards. It turned out that the jour-nalists were worried about delays in com-munication to their rooms at Hotel Vikingby using the switchboards. Therefore,most of them booked direct manual linesbetween the venues and their editorialoffices at Hotel Viking, or – in the case ofthe Oslo newspapers – other offices in thecity. This created problems, because con-siderably more cable pairs were used forthis purpose than was planned. Theswitchboards were CB types. It seemsthat a better solution would have beenmagneto boards and inductor apparatus,which would have enabled a connectionfrom e.g. a stand at Bislet to a room atHotel Viking to be connected as long as itwas needed for another call. The opera-tors would not have to cut off the connec-tion before a new booking was placed andthe line was not in use at that moment.
Plans for Holmenkollen, ski jump
On the north stand, in front of the press,was an operator room for booking trunkcalls and handing in telegrams. Thisroom also included five telephone booths
Figure 2 Cable lay-out at Holmenkollen for ski jump andcross-country. The continuous lines show the provisionalcables for the Games, while the dotted lines show the per-manent set-up for the track officials
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for journalists who did not have a tele-phone at their work place. Booking oftelephone calls was written on a specialorder form which was transportedthrough a shaft down to the switchboardwhich was located directly below. Here,two teleprinters transmitted the telegramsto the telegraph station.
When a trunk connection was establish-ed, the operator informed the receptionwhich booth the call was established to.The reception had an assistant who
would fetch the journalist who had book-ed the call. Six press assistants were busypassing on such messages. The conversa-tion time and charge was noted in theorder form which was sent to HotelViking to be added to other bills for thejournalist concerned. This arrangementwas used for all the venues.
The press service had a teleprinter (telex)in the south tower for sending all officialresults to Hotel Viking.
At the press stand four foreign newsagencies and the organising committeehad direct lines to their rooms at HotelViking and to NTB, and six domesticnewspapers had direct lines to their edi-torial offices in Oslo. Another two newsagencies and two newspapers at thestands had telephones connected to theswitchboard, as well as four lines fortransmitting pictures. The police had onedirect line and one set, and the Broad-casting Corporation had one set connect-ed to the switchboard.
Each competition lasted approx. twohours. The service time for the operatorswas considerably longer, as they had tobe at their places well before the start ofthe event. This was necessary because ofcrowded transportation facilities and inorder to test the connections.
Personnel concerned with fault correc-tion and installation had a strenuous anddemanding task of every day installingand testing all sets and disconnectingthem at the end of the day. This workwas made considerably easier by placingthe telephone sets in specially construct-ed boxes for easy transportation. In suchboxes the sets are well protected againstsnow and rain and are easy to install andreconnect every day.
The location of the press was the samefor all cross country competitions. Hol-menkollen switchboard was used. Thepress was located at the bottom of thesouth stand at the ski jump. 90 pairs wereterminated here in strips underneath thestand. The direct lines could then becrossconnected in the cabinet in the northtower. Ten telephone booths wereinstalled at the side of the stand. Twooperators received booking of trunk callssitting at a table beside the booths. By aseparate telephone set the bookings weretransferred to the exchange operators,who could inform back which booth thecall was connected to. This set-up isshown in Figure 6. The equipment wassatisfactorily dimensioned and the trafficwas effected quickly and without prob-lems.
For information on interim times a num-ber of direct manual connections wereestablished from various locations of thetrack to the stand for the referees at thesouth tower. These reporting stationswere partly located at trackless places farinto the wood. With permission fromsubscribers their telephone lines wereused for the connections needed. Largecrowds could be assembled at the report-ing stations. To avoid disturbance from
Figure 3 Reception desk and telephone booths at the north tower
Figure 4 Holmenkollen switchboard. In the upper left-hand corner we see the shaftthrough which the order forms were transmitted
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cheers and jubilation, pilots’ helmetswith incorporated telephones andlaryngophones were provided. The setswere constructed in such a way that theoperators could choose between ordinarymicrophone or laryngophone. All in all,there were ten reporting stations, two forthe 17 km event, four for 50 km and fourfor the relay.
The press telephones were the same asfor the ski jumping events, with additionof three telephone lines to the switch-board.
Incoming and outgoing trunk connec-tions were set up in the same manner asfor the cross country events at Hol-menkollen, but the 6 telephone boothswere employed for booking purposes. Onthe first day the service was marred bythe great rush of journalists and specta-tors. A crush arose which prevented thejournalists reaching the telephone boothsduring the men’s slalom event. Duringthe women’s slalom event measures weretaken to avoid this problem, and the traf-fic was carried without a hitch.
A quick and satisfactory service in theslalom is a demanding task. During theshort time each competitor is in the track,many things can happen that requireimmediate information and instruction tovarious locations. Additionally, a ratherextensive set-up is required for the publicaddress system. Due to the high power inthe public address system this cannot betransmitted through the telephone cablesbecause of crosstalk.
Bislett had a switchboard similar to thatof Holmenkollen, with two operators, 14exchange lines and 14 lines to HotelViking. They included one booking line(eight for trunk calls, one of which wasreserved for bookings). The switchboardalso had a direct line to the telegram tele-phone for transmitting telegrams. Thepress service had a teleprinter givingresults from the competition to HotelViking and to some newspapers connect-ed to the distribution central. Six foreignnews agencies had direct lines from thepress stand to Hotel Viking. Four Oslonewspapers and NTB had direct lines totheir editorial offices. Five newspapershad telephones at the stand connected tothe switchboard. In addition to these tele-phones some automatic telephones wereestablished to medical services, restau-rants, and others. These telephoneswould also be needed after the Games.
As the tariff for a telephone at the pressstand was the same whether it was used
at one event or all,we have no specifi-cation of how thetraffic was distri-buted for the variousevents.
The telecommunica-tion side of traffichandling at Bislettwas satisfactory, aswell as the over-allarrangement. Even ifthe passage betweenthe press stand andthe press cafeteriawith telephonebooths was narrow,the entry was quickand easy. Some crushwas only experiencedat the closing cere-monies due to theunusually large num-ber of pressrepresentatives pre-sent. All booked callswere effected, andamong them severalcalls to Tokyo.
Jordal amphi-
theatre
Jordal amphitheatrewas used for at leasttwo ice hockey games every day, at 1700and 1900 hours. The switchboard herewas about half the size of those at Hol-menkollen and Bislett. It had one operat-
Figure 5 Press telephone at the stand. The telephones were spread out across thestand to prevent journalists disturbing each other
Figure 6 Telephone in a portable case with a hoop for suspen-sion of the case
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or, five lines to Hotel Viking including aline for booking, seven lines to Oslo longdistance switchboard (including one linefor booking and ten exchange lines).
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Figure 7 Telephone booths with operators sitting at a table in front
for thepress. Also,two boothswereinstalled atthe standwith con-nection tothe switch-board.These werereserved forthe pressassistants
for information on booked and incomingtrunk calls for journalists.
For outgoing telegrams there was a directconnection from the reception to the tele-gram telephone.
Besides these telephones there were fourautomatic telephones and 14 parallel tele-phones for administrative purposes. Thetraffic carried here was very variable
according to the importance of theevents. The interest increased as thegame of ice hockey became known to theNorwegian public. This affected the for-eign traffic to a small degree, butincreased the domestic traffic.
Accommodation facilities at Sogn,
Ullevål, and Ila
As already mentioned, these buildingswere planned with a minimum of tele-phone installations. Therefore, the set-upfor the Olympic Games had to be veryrestricted because of difficulties in layingnew lines. The switchboards at Sogn andUllevål were dimensioned for tenexchange lines and 60 extension lines,and six exchange lines and 24 extensionlines at Ila. Besides the required tele-phones to shops and administrativeoffices, one telephone on each floor wasinstalled where possible, preferably tothe head of each nation staying there. A
Figure 8 Sketch of the 50 km cross country track withreporting stations
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Figure 9 Reporting stations along the cross country tracks. The helmet has incorpo-rated telephone in the ear pads and a laryngophone in the chin strap
Four foreign news agencies, two Oslonewspapers and NTB had direct lines toHotel Viking and their own editorialoffices. One foreign newspaper had atelephone connected to the switchboard.In order to report results, the press ser-vice had a direct line from a booth at thestand to Hotel Viking. As shown in Fig-ure 14 the reception contained ten tele-phones to the switchboard as a service
small number of telephone booths werealso provided in connection with theswitchboard.
The arrangement was rather on thescanty side. At times it was difficult forthe athletes to get through if their groupofficial was not present. A paging systemwould have been of great help, especiallybecause of the heavy incoming traffic.
However, with the available equipmentthe traffic was handled in a very satis-factory manner, and we had no seriouscomplaints.
In the beginning the operators had somelanguage problems, but this obstacle wassoon overcome.
Hotel Viking
The hotel was newly built and was onlyjust completed for the Winter Games.With minor changes it was fitted out witha view to housing a substantial part ofpress and broadcasting personnel with alltheir equipment at the hotel. Also, it pro-vided offices for the Organising Commit-tee, accommodation office, ticket office,the transport section, the press directorand the head of the telecommunicationscommittee.
It is obvious that such an arrangementhad to be very extensive in order to com-ply with the requirements for connectionsand equipment.
All guest rooms had a telephone connectedto the switchboard. Four operators served20 exchange lines and 400 extensions.
The hotel administration was providedwith its own switchboard with five ex-change lines and 50 extensions. Theswitchboard was only for outgoing calls,and had no operator.
The organising committee also had itsown switchboard with 10 exchange linesand 15 extensions. It was connected to thehotel switchboard through four tie lines.
Heavy trunk traffic was expected to andfrom the hotel, commonly called the“press hotel”. To avoid delays, part of theOslo long distance switchboard was actu-ally moved to the hotel. To this end spe-cial switchboards for six operators wereinstalled. They were equipped with a fewdirect international trunk lines, but most(30 lines) were connected to multiplefields at Oslo long distance switchboard.As the switchboard was to be connectedto all guest rooms, the multiple from thehotel switchboard was also installed inthe long distance switchboards. These
had another 21 connections to the switch-boards at the venues, six connections tothe hotel switchboard, 30 lines for tele-photo and 8 lines tobooths near the oper-ator desk. Theswitchboards hadseven external lines.
Outside the switch-board room was theoperator desk forbooking of long dis-tance calls for theeight telephonebooths.
For booking of longdistance calls fromthe guest rooms,connection to thehotel exchange wasobtained by unhook-ing the handset. Byasking for “Olympiclong distance” theconnection wastransferred via a tieline to the long dis-tance switchboardwhere the bookingwas recorded. Whenthe call camethrough, the switch-board could routedirectly to the localsubscriber withoutgoing through thehotel switchboard.
Booking a picture transmission tookplace in the same way as a long distancecall. The long distance switchboard
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Figure 10 Track officials on their stand during slalom eventsat Rødkleiva
Figure 11 Telephones for the news agencies at the veranda at Frognerseteren restaurant
ordered a telephoto line and set up theconnection on the subscriber’s telephotoline via a bypass cord. He could now talkto the other parts directly from his man-ual set and transmit the picture. Aftercompleting the transmission the sub-scriber would give notice via his ordinarylocal set. All in all, 14 telephoto lineswere employed during the Games.
The trunk traffic increased steadily froma few days before the opening of theGames and culminating a few daysbefore the close of the Games. Duringthe last days there was practically no traf-fic. During the days of heaviest trafficthere were not sufficient lines betweenHotel Viking and Oslo long distanceswitchboard. As a relief measure thelines from the trunk exchange to Bislett
were linked by cords to the tie lines toViking. In this way Viking obtainedsome additional connection lines.
Relatively few long distance call werebooked from the desk to the eight tele-phone booths. The reason must be that allrooms were provided with telephones.Paging of journalists receiving long dis-tance calls was effected by a publicaddress system operated from the desk.
The traffic handling at Hotel Viking wasmainly smooth without much delay. Theonly problem was that the switchboardfor the Organising Committee was toosmall, so that the hotel switchboard hadto handle calls that normally should becarried by the other switchboard.
Information Office for the VI
Olympic Winter Games
The directory enquiry service at OTAusually carries a very heavy load. Duringthe Games it was feared that the officewould be totally overloaded by enquiriesfor telephone numbers of the variousoffices and institutions connected withthe Games.
Therefore, we established a special infor-mation office for the Games in collabora-tion with the Press Committee. OTAdefrayed the cost of the telephone set-upand provided three operators for the ser-vice. Administration of the office wasplaced under the press director. He alsoprovided the attendants, consisting ofnine operators.
The office was opened just over a monthbefore the start of the Games, and at thebeginning it was attended by one opera-tor during normal office hours. The traf-fic was light until approximately a fort-night before the opening of the Games,when the opening hours had to be ex-tended to 0800 – 2300 hrs. But only dur-ing the actual Games did the trafficincrease to an extent that required threeoperators on the two first shifts between0800 – 1800 hours.
The information material was partly col-lected in advance and partly as needarose. It included questions about thecompeting countries’ active and officialmembers, press, radio and film personneland their addresses. To support this ser-vice, the press director had in advanceedited an Olympic telephone cataloguecontaining such data. Further, it containedeverything concerning the events, pro-grammes with alterations, detailed infor-mation on communication possibilitieswithin Oslo as well as to and from other
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Figure 13 The switchboard at Bislet with a hatchway to the operator desk. The set forthe telegram telephone is seen in the background
Figure 12 Operator set with operators and press assistants (with arm bands) waitingfor bookings
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countries. It also contained updated infor-mation on weather and snow conditionsand moreover everything that could be ofinterest in connection with the Games.
The only thing it did not report was theresults of sports events. If such a task hadbeen allocated to the office, the scantylines would have been blocked.
According to statements from the pressdirector’s office most of the enquiriesconcerned tickets, accommodation, tele-phone numbers to the venues, addresses,access possibilities, times and dates ofthe various events, training hours, tele-phone numbers to the committees andofficials, starting sequence, and personalinformation about the athletes.
It was said that the office satisfied a greatdemand and that it relieved the switch-board of the Organising Committee to agreat degree.
Charges for the various tele-
phone arrangements
The installations and establishments de-scribed here were so comprehensive thatthe preparations had to begin at a veryearly date, and long before we had a clearidea of how the costs would be covered.
However, the NTA could not commencesuch an undertaking without havingsecured settlement of expenses. Asorganiser of the Games, the City of Oslohad to grant the amount estimated by theOTA. Even if the city was credited withthe value of after-use of the cables, it hadto pay for all installations. This amountedto several hundred thousand kroner.
The Organising Committee was the solesubscriber for all installations. Expensesfor installations as well as call chargeswere calculated at normal rates.
It seemed reasonable that the press shouldpay for some of the work and installationscarried out in order to render the press aneffective and good service. If the individ-ual agencies and newspapers were to haveordered their own services, the chargewould have been very complicated andcostly. A panel was selected to assess faircharges for the various events. However,it turned out that if the Organising Com-mittee was to have somewhere near fullcoverage of its expenses, the chargeswould have seemed exorbitant. Thecharges had to be reduced to a reasonablelevel and let the Committee bear the dif-ference. The charges stipulated were:
1 telephone in a room atthe Press Hotel kr 120for the duration
Additional for oneextra telephone kr 60for the duration
Use of telephonebooths at the arenas,per journalist kr 60for the duration
Telephone in a coveredroom at the stand duringski jumping competitionin Holmenkollen kr 1,000
Telephone in the standat Bislett or Jordal kr 500for the duration
Telephone in the standduring cross countrycompetition kr 400
Telephone in the standduring women’s andmen’s slalom kr 400
All local calls were free of charge. Forother services normal tariffs wereapplied. Many calls were booked withreversed charges.
Conclusion
In planning the local traffic demand itwas difficult to rely on comparison withsimilar arrangements elsewhere because
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Figure 14 Telephones for the press at Jordal amphitheatre
geographical conditions and existingtelecommunications networks were dif-ferent. Also, the means of transmittingnews was subject to changes. The tend-ency is to use telephone or teleprinter,while telegrams are only used when otherpossibilities are lacking. By and by, asthe telex network is developed, it is pos-sible that news communication will beeffected by teleprinters.
The plans for the various venues wereadequate. All booked calls were effectedquickly and without much delay.
Summing up, it can be said that mostarrangements were adequately dimen-sioned, and all demands for equipmentwere complied with. Certainly, consider-ation to the telegram service from thearenas could have been less than planned,as this was in little demand, perhapsbecause of the ample telephone service,which reduced the demand for the tele-gram service.
When the telecommunication service waseffected as efficiently as was expressedin the newspapers and in various lettersof thanks from different sources, it is firstof all due to the individual efforts of allpersonnel involved. A special honour isdue to all workers and installers whowere on call day and night in order tomake the installations ready every dayand at the right time.
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