Preparations for the press for an event the size of the Olympic Games take many
years. To handle the ever-growing demands for information from the press, the
IOC has a specialized commission whose job it is to provide advice and to give
organizing committees the benefit of the their expertise in meeting the
expectations of all of the media. The Press Commission deals with matters
relating to written, photographic and other media, while the Radio and
Television Commission monitors the applications of the exclusive contracts
negotiated with radio and television organizations worldwide for coverage of the
Games.
With technology evolving at a rapid rate, the Olympic Games have become the
mirror of the newest, tested leading edge technology; the Games never
serve as a 'live testing ground' for new technologies, because the coverage of
the event in the form of text, images and sound, must infallibly reach
all parts of the planet.
A range of new applications has been taken up by the IOC, to the benefit of
media representatives worldwide. These include High Definition Television, which
enables images to be transmitted with extraordinary fidelity; digital sound,
which allows flawless reproduction of sound elements; computer-generated
photographs, which create images without recourse to the medium of film;
instantaneous text transmission via worldwide computer networks; and
instantaneous global transmission of text, sound, images and data using
communication satellites.
The IOC's own data processing system is based on an IBM AS400 environment. It
collects, processes and archives all the information needed to keep a complete
record of the Olympic movement. This information can be handled in any medium -
text, images and sound.
Olympic information is made available to a wide range of users, from
journalists, press agencies and television companies to researchers and the
general public. There is constant communication between the IOC system and the
international press agencies, allowing the Committee to select from over 4,000
despatches on Olympic subjects which are then used to make up the daily press
review.