We were just in Beijing and everywhere we saw countdown clocks to the Olympics ( three weeks btw). In the rush for gold, gold, gold, it is easy to forget the massive effort being undertook to televise the games. The Olympics are simply the most complex broadcast in the world.

I had a small role in the Sydney Olympics as I worked along side the SOBO (Sydney Olympic Broadcast Organization). This lead to me having a profound respect for the technicians behind the scenes. So at the risk of jumping the start, and also out of fear that the role of the media techs might be lost in the roar of the actual games, I wanted to pass on some stats I recently saw in the Australian newspaper(7.10.08).

This year about 13,300 production staff and they will light up the screens of an estimated 6,000,000 viewers, in more than 221 countries, (I did not even know there are 221 countries!).

Stills photography alone is daunting, Getty Images alone will have 40 photographers, with 160 cameras (over 400kg) , but it is their fibre optic network that links 31 sites that will allow any image to move from finish line to their web site in just 2 minutes.

During the 17 days of the 29th modern Olympiad the international press will use 600km of cables, 650 monitors, 30 satellite dishes, 61 OB trucks, 375 production vehicles, 1260 HD cameras and around 3000 videotape machines, so commentators in each of the 1840 commenting positions can show the world our best run, jump, swim and generally compete.