Printing the Olympics: The Xerox Olympic Preview

Noel Ward

The indomitable energy of the Olympics is about to converge on Salt Lake City, Utah, where the planet’s winter sports elite will compete for gold, glory and endorsements for 17 days in February. The sport, individual achievement, and several thousand dreams that make up the Games will be played out on ice rinks, snow-covered trails and tunnel-like sled runs, the highlights of which will be portrayed on TV screens, Web sites, and printed in hundreds of magazines.

But the printing of the Olympics is hardly limited to the general media. Behind the scenes Xerox is fielding nearly 3,000 printers, copiers and multifunction devices to print virtually every single document that supports the Games. Every event generates a stack of paper that records everything from technical measures of ice condition at the speed skating ovals, to the snow and weather for the Alpine downhill races at Snowbasin to the wind velocity during the shooting sessions at the biathlon. Every detail–more than 10,000 in all–is recorded for posterity.

From preliminaries through the gold medal round, every conceivable factor for each of the 17 winter sports is recorded, checked, approved, and ultimately printed in nearly 28,000 “Results Books” ranging from 24 pages (ski jumping) to 366 (men’s ice hockey). The books account for some 3.3 million pages and must be ready 24 to 72 hours after the gold is awarded in each event. The printing will be handled by three Xerox EPS 180 publishing systems, with two C.P. Bourg perfect binding systems in place to wrap specially designed preprinted color covers around the Result Books for each sport. Within two weeks of the end of the Games, some 6,000 compact discs of the results, formatted as searchable PDFs, will be produced to supplement the books.

Small printers handle the biggest load
A far larger printing load, though, is on much smaller machines. At over 100 locations including ten event venues, Xerox Document Center 480 and 432 multifunction devices, P1210 and N2125 printers, DocuColor 12 and Phaser 7700 and 1235 color printers, and WC 390 and XE90fx multifunction devices are expected to produce 10 to 12 million pages of supporting documentation and the first version of the results. Speed is of the essence. For key events, results must be printed–and available for the media–within five minutes of the conclusion of an event.

What’s interesting is that none of the devices being used are unusually advanced or rely on cutting edge technologies. Besides having lower service requirements than more sophisticated or technically advanced machines, the equipment was chosen based on ease of use. Because the Salt Lake Olympics will be staffed by some 30,000 volunteers, using the simplest, most reliable machines was the best way to help minimize user training. Additionally, it reduces service requirements, such as supplies, parts and technical support.

Details, details
While some machines are grouped at the central media center, others will do their job at more unique locations. One N2125, for instance, will do its work in the middle of a speed skating oval, while another will have a view from atop the ski jumping towers. This points to some of the technical and logistical issues Xerox’s on-site team has had to consider. Vince Shaeffer, Director of Worldwide Olympic Operations, who has headed Xerox’s team at several past Summer and Winter Games, notes the importance of preparing each machine for where it will be used. “We have to make sure a machine will be within its proper operating range, so some venues have heated tents. At other venues, altitude is an issue, so we fit those machines with high altitude kits that ensure the device will work correctly.”

Schaeffer and his key team members, some of whom have been on site for two years, have orchestrated a support organization equivalent to that for a large city. But it is the complexity and intensity of the Olympics that raises the bar for service responsiveness: machines at competition venues will run 16 hours a day and up to 24 hours a day in non-competition locations. Downtime is not an option. The technical team of over 100 people was selected from Xerox’s field service staff via a national contest and has supplemented their existing skills with specialized Olympic training. They will work 12-hour shifts on a 3-days-on, 1-day-off schedule utilizing a team concept with mobile communications and centralized dispatching. A detailed response program is in place to quickly escalate technical problems to the appropriate specialist, engineer or analyst for prompt resolution.

The presence of The Document Company in Salt Lake is the latest step in a journey that began at the 1964 Winter Games in Innsbruck, Austria, where the machine of choice was the 914 copier. Since then, Xerox has been a presence at both Summer and Winter Olympics. According to Dennis Frahmann, Director of Global Event Marketing, Xerox believes the Olympics to be one of the premier opportunities for brand and relationship building. A new print and broadcast advertising campaign will be shown throughout the Games (and at other sporting events) promoting key values the company wants to promote: Vision, Performance, Support, Value and Endurance, which it says are closely tied to the values of the Olympics.

When the torch is lit in Salt Lake, Schaeffer and his team will begin their own Olympic challenge of keeping a massive amount of technology up and running and delivering critical information to officials, media and Olympic Committee staff. And after the flame goes out and they take a well-deserved break, their reward is they get to do it all over again, in 2004 at the centennial Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece.

Noel Ward, Editor at Large at WhatTheyThink.com, participated in a Xerox-sponsored tour of the Olympic document production operations in Salt Lake City. Noel is a writer, speaker and consultant focusing on digital workflow development and implementation, technolgy needs assessments, PDF coaching and training, and content development for print and electronic media. A believer in using technology to gain efficiencies and competitive advantages, his business motto is “If you’re not the lead sled dog the view doesn’t change.”

For feedback, suggestions or comments – reach Noel at [email protected]