Since anything really, including going to bed the same day you woke up.
So let's break things down by day...
Friday finds us up in the mountain as the afternoon is quiet waiting for a build. We visit Krasnaya Polyana which is where the mountain center [yes I know] is. Until the Olympics were awarded to Russia, this town did not exist. Nor, obviously, did the road. Or railway. Now we see where the money went.
But the funny thing is it looks like this:
From the front. From the back they are a uniform beige. It is like Las Vegas, and I'm not sure who has the larger scale.
We're here to see the client suites and ballroom. The client suites are, disappointingly, mundane. Just hotel rooms with TVs in them. Look, this is mundane:
Yeah. Paper mugs with the logo on... And in the background. Wahhey!!!
And this is the ballroom where there will be a free bar and TVs hanging from the ceiling, the walls and probably the 8 Welsh people they have hired in specially for the event. And a mezzanine floor. And everything.
And it is ready Wednesday. And a planned 40 STB will be there too; and they don't even drink.
We return to the box that is home to download the build, set it on the server and reset everyone. Only the channels don't change. Or more accurately they do, but only to an OSD saying failure 50% of the time. We track down a fix by setting an override, but don't want to deploy with overrides as they are a nightmare to handle.
is spent in the US House helping them bring the systems up. We have had a build with the ability to control the output to ignore the TV settings. And then another to force 50Hz operation, but still some channels don't work and Customer aren't too happy with having to manually set the output of the multiplexing system when you change channel. The Germans relent and have some new multi-format cards sent over. From Germany. Given the customs policies in Russia, I imagine it was an uncomfortable flight being an output-card mule. But he is the managing director of the company.
There's a total disconnect sitting in the US house in Russia watching the London Opening Ceremony as a test stream.
But much like Clint Eastwood in Coogan's Bluff we get to ask the question:
How many Olympic Parks are there in Sochi?
One.
We passed it twice.
But at least we saw Adler. In all it's glory. In detail and very slowly given we're on a bus that's lost.
The mountains are very pretty if not a little low - the peak is 2300m and it's reasonably warm. About 2C, which for our cousins is 2 Celsius. Here's what you see when you step off the bus that arrives at the base complex.
You then get a bus up to the various sites. The cable cars, of which there are many, are being tested so we can't use them. We chose the Extreme Park as it was the first bus we saw. Actually that's not correct, we saw the bus to the sliding center [yeah, noted] but that left as we approached it. We were lucky cos most of the center is underground so we would have seen the start ramp...
The hills at the Extreme Center are, well, extreme and still being modelled by men in diggers and tractors. And then covered with machine made snow. Here's a feel for the Center.
And here's a better view:
To be fair, the next day the machine had a cover on it with generic 'Chocolate' pictures on it. So perhaps Mars aren't a worldwide sponsor...
At 3:00 am in the morning, that's not tautology, that's emphasis, I return to ensure the pictures are still going. And there is no one there. Not a soul. Ho hum.
At the IBC a few folk are gathered round the foyer TV but most are in the commissary. The boxes we set to record are recording and then at exactly 4:03 there is a massive glitch in the network. Every box skips and misses 30 seconds of video. But at the time, I was only watching the one in the foyer and that wasn't funny. The network guys are still having problems with dropping packets and are still testing; well, son, I just dropped one in the foyer...
At half time, or hafftime as it is, I leave. The game is frankly shocking and no-one is going to watch this on playback. Not even Seattle fans. As I walk past the US house the TVs are playing to themselves. They seem happy.
The sign is made of solid wood, a German asks me if it's the correct number of stars (13). I tell him I am English and he apologises. The interesting thing is that the sign weighs 250Kg, for our cousins that's 250 kilograms... The US house will be re-purposed after the Olympics and become the BBC presentation centre at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. It will have another floor by then. And one final thing, it is built on a marsh; the company installing it had to sink 1m50 posts into the ground to stop it sinking. Oh yeah, it has under-floor heating which will be handy for Glasgow in July.
The system is, however, being well received still. The guide does look nice and the changes to make it more responsive are great. We still have to worry about hard use, as we don't think too many folks are using it yet and we haven't seen much DVR or VOD use. There are enough niggles to worry me and so I'll have to decide soon if I need to stay a little longer to help ensure everything runs smooth and it's not just Colleague running around.
We hadn't really expected the scale of deployment. We think there are 10 separate VLANs in use, which means 10 separate areas where the boxes are. Some in the IBC and some in the mountain and some dotted around the park, that's a lot of walking. And that assumes they haven't closed the place for a rehearsal, and that really pisses you off. And the mountain center, where there are about 60 STB, is a good 45 minutes away.
And paying for the laundry is tedious. Every time someone new, and no experience of a card reader. We were told the NSA, CIA and FKB were installing under-cover officers in the hotel, these are the ones charged with operating the card readers...
So let's break things down by day...
Friday
Friday finds us up in the mountain as the afternoon is quiet waiting for a build. We visit Krasnaya Polyana which is where the mountain center [yes I know] is. Until the Olympics were awarded to Russia, this town did not exist. Nor, obviously, did the road. Or railway. Now we see where the money went.
But the funny thing is it looks like this:
From the front. From the back they are a uniform beige. It is like Las Vegas, and I'm not sure who has the larger scale.
We're here to see the client suites and ballroom. The client suites are, disappointingly, mundane. Just hotel rooms with TVs in them. Look, this is mundane:
Yeah. Paper mugs with the logo on... And in the background. Wahhey!!!
And this is the ballroom where there will be a free bar and TVs hanging from the ceiling, the walls and probably the 8 Welsh people they have hired in specially for the event. And a mezzanine floor. And everything.
And it is ready Wednesday. And a planned 40 STB will be there too; and they don't even drink.
We return to the box that is home to download the build, set it on the server and reset everyone. Only the channels don't change. Or more accurately they do, but only to an OSD saying failure 50% of the time. We track down a fix by setting an override, but don't want to deploy with overrides as they are a nightmare to handle.
Saturday
is spent in the US House helping them bring the systems up. We have had a build with the ability to control the output to ignore the TV settings. And then another to force 50Hz operation, but still some channels don't work and Customer aren't too happy with having to manually set the output of the multiplexing system when you change channel. The Germans relent and have some new multi-format cards sent over. From Germany. Given the customs policies in Russia, I imagine it was an uncomfortable flight being an output-card mule. But he is the managing director of the company.
There's a total disconnect sitting in the US house in Russia watching the London Opening Ceremony as a test stream.
Sunday
The Mountains
Sunday we went the mountains and took pictures and everything. Thing is, to get to the mountains you can take a train or a bus. But we missed the train by 3 minutes - not bad planning as such, we didn't know when they left - so elected for the B11 bus. The badges get you free travel you see. The B11 bus though is driven by a man who knows less about where we're going than we do. As we leave the train station we get a fabulous view of the park:But much like Clint Eastwood in Coogan's Bluff we get to ask the question:
How many Olympic Parks are there in Sochi?
One.
We passed it twice.
But at least we saw Adler. In all it's glory. In detail and very slowly given we're on a bus that's lost.
The mountains are very pretty if not a little low - the peak is 2300m and it's reasonably warm. About 2C, which for our cousins is 2 Celsius. Here's what you see when you step off the bus that arrives at the base complex.
You then get a bus up to the various sites. The cable cars, of which there are many, are being tested so we can't use them. We chose the Extreme Park as it was the first bus we saw. Actually that's not correct, we saw the bus to the sliding center [yeah, noted] but that left as we approached it. We were lucky cos most of the center is underground so we would have seen the start ramp...
The hills at the Extreme Center are, well, extreme and still being modelled by men in diggers and tractors. And then covered with machine made snow. Here's a feel for the Center.
And here's a better view:
A Diversion
You had one thing to do, and...To be fair, the next day the machine had a cover on it with generic 'Chocolate' pictures on it. So perhaps Mars aren't a worldwide sponsor...
The reason we are here
Sunday is also super bowel day. One of our big challenges. We have Fox piped to the US house and all TVs set to accept NTSC [59.94] not PAL [60]. The sound is carefully balanced and the nibbles placed in bowls.At 3:00 am in the morning, that's not tautology, that's emphasis, I return to ensure the pictures are still going. And there is no one there. Not a soul. Ho hum.
At the IBC a few folk are gathered round the foyer TV but most are in the commissary. The boxes we set to record are recording and then at exactly 4:03 there is a massive glitch in the network. Every box skips and misses 30 seconds of video. But at the time, I was only watching the one in the foyer and that wasn't funny. The network guys are still having problems with dropping packets and are still testing; well, son, I just dropped one in the foyer...
At half time, or hafftime as it is, I leave. The game is frankly shocking and no-one is going to watch this on playback. Not even Seattle fans. As I walk past the US house the TVs are playing to themselves. They seem happy.
Monday
The weather is taking a turn for the better and whilst it is cold in the evening, we've even had frost, the days are clear and bright. The America House is fully open now and the wraps are off the sign outside.The sign is made of solid wood, a German asks me if it's the correct number of stars (13). I tell him I am English and he apologises. The interesting thing is that the sign weighs 250Kg, for our cousins that's 250 kilograms... The US house will be re-purposed after the Olympics and become the BBC presentation centre at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. It will have another floor by then. And one final thing, it is built on a marsh; the company installing it had to sink 1m50 posts into the ground to stop it sinking. Oh yeah, it has under-floor heating which will be handy for Glasgow in July.
Studio A
Studio A is a place of wonder, they're doing tech rehearsals now, but here are two shots of it. Remember, we're in Sochi and they had to fly this in.More builds
I mean, in the end, we're here to make sure the systems work. We've had three builds in the past 4 days and the code is getting better. But we're getting more customers and we need more, more what? Well, more.The system is, however, being well received still. The guide does look nice and the changes to make it more responsive are great. We still have to worry about hard use, as we don't think too many folks are using it yet and we haven't seen much DVR or VOD use. There are enough niggles to worry me and so I'll have to decide soon if I need to stay a little longer to help ensure everything runs smooth and it's not just Colleague running around.
We hadn't really expected the scale of deployment. We think there are 10 separate VLANs in use, which means 10 separate areas where the boxes are. Some in the IBC and some in the mountain and some dotted around the park, that's a lot of walking. And that assumes they haven't closed the place for a rehearsal, and that really pisses you off. And the mountain center, where there are about 60 STB, is a good 45 minutes away.
Random Thoughts
I keep a notebook with things I need to remember. My name, my address that kind of thing. But sometimes there are things that pass you by that you think: I gotta remember that. Like going out with trousers on. So here goes.Laundry
Whilst being highly effective and probably the most gentle hotel service I can remember, it is stupidly expensive. You can buy clothes for less than it costs to wash them... Except Olympic Branded Stuff. That is even more stupidly expensive; a not particularly nice jacket - certainly one that couldn't stand the strain of skiing for example, is over £200. Check out the Sochi 2014 on-line shop for more examples of stupid.And paying for the laundry is tedious. Every time someone new, and no experience of a card reader. We were told the NSA, CIA and FKB were installing under-cover officers in the hotel, these are the ones charged with operating the card readers...
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