Rio Olympics: Games CIO explains ICT and IoT

RIO DE JANEIRO – Brazilian Elly Resende is leading the orchestration of all information technology and communication infrastructure providers for the 2016 Rio Olympics and Paralympics. Less than a month from the opening ceremony of the major event, the technology director said information and communications technology deployments are following the established schedule, with 80% delivered.
Resende spoke with RCR Wireless News in a video interview during a visit to the Rio Olympics headquarters in July. With more than 25 years of experience in the telecommunication and IT sectors, the CIO conducts daily meetings to make sure all details are taken care of ahead of the games.

Resende explained that the Olympics and Paralympics aren’t the occasion to foster any brand-new technology or work as a showroom. Therefore, the ICT team tends to use the most reliable technology possible. “But we do have the concept of the ‘internet of things’ if you consider all the sensors that we have deployed for measuring and capturing the data from athletes,” he said.
He also discussed the process of assessment of all International Olympic Committee technology partners to divvy up tasks and understand if there would be any gaps. “It’s with meetings, reviews and also working as close as possible that we can manage to have everyone on board, in the same table, discussing and finding proper solutions,” he said.
The IOC officially opened the Technology Operations Centre for the Rio Olympics in November. On the occasion, Jean-Benoît Gauthier, information and technology director at the IOC, said Rio 2016 will represent significant progress in the IT systems used at the Games. TOC is the command and control center for technology, and manages technology at 144 Olympic venues.
During the actual Games, the 800-square-meter facility will monitor and control the IT systems that support the running of the Games and deliver the results from all the Olympic and Paralympic sports competitions to the world’s media in real time.
Click here for more stories about the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Editor’s note: This story is part of a series focused on the technology deployments that support the Rio Olympics. Travel costs to Rio de Janeiro were provided by Cisco.