This year saw the mammoth job of putting on the Commonwealth Games when it came to Manchester. A showcase for the UK at many levels, it was a chance to demonstrate to the world that we can host a global sports event consisting of 5250 athletes from 72 countries, and that the UK has the potential to host similar events such as the Olympic Games and the World Cup. In particular, it offered East Manchester the chance to up its profile and status.

The games helped to create 5000 new, permanent jobs in the area, which was one of the goals of SportCity, the public and private regeneration programme under the auspices of New East Manchester; a partnership of Manchester City Council, English Partnerships, North West Development Agency and the communities of East Manchester. Costing £2 billion over ten years, it aims to make East Manchester an attractive place to live and work, and maximise its contribution to the local and national economy. The Commonwealth Games played a big role in the programme.

On top of that pressure, the fact that 2002 happened to be the Queen’s Jubilee, meant that this Games had to be the best of the best, and the pride of a nation was at stake. It was an epic task to pull the event together, which was handed to M2002, a management company established to deliver the games, led by Manchester City Council. The multi-sport facilities alone represented a £105 million investment, however television and sponsorship revenue was over a record £30 million for the event.

Not all ran smoothly, however, as Atlantic, the company which was to provide communications for the event, consisting of connecting athletes, officials and volunteers at 17 venues, providing results services to media and global audiences via a hosted website, and enabling results and scoreboards to be displayed on standard TV sets, went into receivership three weeks before work was about to begin.

The show had to go on whatever happened, and luckily BT was able to step in and save the day. There were a few competitors, however many were not bidding for all packages, and BT’s proposal was more comprehensive and added more value. It had the organisational capacity for the project, was able to project manage effectively in a technical environment where 200 staff from other suppliers and sponsors were working full-time, and was able to provide delivery and installation on time. Without the six solutions provided - results and information to the media, wire services and the public via the website would not have been able to take place, office technology - accreditations and logistics would not have been possible and the likelihood that the Games would have been cancelled was high, creating a tragedy for both the Games and Manchester’s reputation, and losses into the millions of pounds.

Instead, the Games were able to go ahead and BT provided WAN, LAN, mobile, web hosting, cabling and CATV solutions.

The benefits to both M2002 and the UK were tremendous, and the Games were given credit around the world for its impressiveness and technological offerings. BT was able to face all challenges including implementing the solutions in only three months, meeting almost impossible timescales as delay was unacceptable. A website was created that could handle two million hits a day, and the 1,000,000 spectators were able to see the results and scoreboards on standard TV sets across the venues.  These were just a few of the benefits made possible by BT’s involvement.

The event ended up a grand success. Just for example, pubs and restaurants in Manchester reported a threefold increase in takings during the Games, and it is estimated some 300,000 more visitors will come to the city each year as a result of its increased profile. Future events will create a significant return on the £105 million investment in the facilities. In addition to the estimated £3.5 million value of the BT contract, future business could also be accrued from global events held in the UK and potentially from elsewhere in the world, as the supplier to the 2006 Commonwealth Games visited and met the BT team, and may invite BT to become involved in that event.

At the closing ceremony M2002 chairman Charles Allen said: “I can't tell you how proud I am of my team, who have created the biggest and most successful multi-sport event ever held in Britain.”  We’d like to think that BT also helped to make it that way.

TECH

Under a contract estimated at £3.5 million, BT was able to provide all of the six communications solutions, with some aid from outside companies, for the 2002 Commonwealth Games. The solutions had to be implemented in under three months and consisted of:

WAN - Voice : Megastreams, long line extensions, AC15 signalling equipment, ISDN30 (30 channel links, switches, PSTN, featurelines, payphones, telephone handsets, project management.

WAN - Data: LES100, Megastream, ISDN2, 1GB, Internet access (BTNet Flex Silver), Project management.

LAN: Technical services, national field force, project management.

Mobile package: Enhanced GSM service, SIM only or inclusive handsets, network provision, SMS software package options and hardware, 24x7 support, Mobile Extension, project management.

Web hosting: Cardiff web hosting services and staff, 24x7 on-site helpdesk and technical service support, project management.

CATV: IBC to venue fibre, CATV equipment.

Many areas of BT worked together to make this a success. BIS was responsible for design and installation of all LAN networks, BT Complete delivered the solution, BT Retail and BT Wholesale provided various support service and BT Ignite provided the web application. Support was also garnered from O2 for the mobile solution, Phillips and Cisco for switches, and Scientific-Atlanta provided the CATV package, with BT structured Cabling (Unisys).

The completed solutions provided WAN and LAN communications between all venues and externally, by voice and data, for athletes, officials press and volunteers. The mobile package provided handsets for officials and volunteers to enable co-ordination between venues at special rates, and standard rate lines for the athletes, officials, press and spectators.

Web hosting was set up to market the Games with ‘edge-catching’ sites around the world, and web-based results were managed, providing 24x7 global news and information. And lastly, CATV was set up to enable results and scores to be flashed up on standard TV sets in all venues to keep spectators and athletes up to date with news.