eMeS
Member
Wow!! I've just seen the lists of road closures, No Parking etc. for areas close to the Stadium! I hope those affected think it is all worth it!
Wow!! I've just seen the lists of road closures, No Parking etc. for areas close to the Stadium! I hope those affected think it is all worth it!
***A typical analogue TV broadcast transmitter has (or rather had!) a 100kW output. I'm not sure how this translates to electrical power though...
What an interesting insight to the necessary infrastructure!I live in one of the restricted areas (around the University of Birmingham), and to be honest it's not really affecting me that much (the only impact was that they blocked off one of my highly-frequented walking routes in/out of the university). ......I'll admit that broadcast isn't something I know much about, but I wouldn't have thought this uses more than a few hundred kW?***
...Anyway, enough of my slightly nerdy rambling! Here are a few pictures taken during construction of the hockey arena (can everyone agree that the angled floodlight towers look horribly like they're about to fall over?): ...
Thanks! I'd have loved to be involved from a technical point of view, but I have no idea how you actually get into doing that, and at the time they would have been looking for people, I basically had no experience in this field, so what I wrote is entirely based on walking round a few times with a friend who's also interested in this sort of thing. I think I might know someone who is involved in some capacity, so may at some point ask them about it...What an interesting insight to the necessary infrastructure!
If I'd been so inclined, I could have easily "borrowed" a 50m length of that cable*. A lorry load of pallet crates full of the stuff was delivered, then the pallets dumped a few at a time in roughly the right place by a forklift. No security at all watching these!I hope they have decent security, otherwise the copper may disappear before it gets any chance of powering the event! (Happened to the company I worked for many years ago! We were upgrading our electrical supplies over the Easter weekend, and a drum of heavyweight copper cable was stolen from our "MOD Approved Secure Site" - despite us having CCTV, barbed wired perimeter fencing etc.)
That's about 320W, so approximately 2/3 of the input power is wasted. Whether the same applies to bigger transmitters I'm not sure!If it assists you I'm a licensed radio amateur, the transceiver I have on my desk requires 23Amps @ 13.8V DC for 100 W of RF output.
Its pay day for hotels in the Birmingham area, no doubt most other hotels will have been charging similar amounts for the extra demand.Not to mention some of the bus diversions (for "security reasons") which cause considerable inconvenience to those affected, including me.
But you won't see that on the news, or hear anything about it from the games officials, who have their taxis and transport all laid on.
Some of the hotels along Broad Street are charging £300 per night for rooms that would normally be under £100, and they are all fully booked.
These are some nice pictures of the infrastructure, although I agree that the anti-terrorist barriers look rather imposing. Hopefully that should only be temporary.I'm bored, so I went and took some more pictures!
Here you can see the scale of the hockey arena. The floodlight towers which they've installed are absolutely massive!
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Here's a close up of the lights (because that's the most interesting thing as far as I'm concerned...):
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Meanwhile, some chunky anti-terrorist barriers have been installed next to the A38:
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The university's AstroTurf pitch (and one of the tennis courts; the other tennis court is underneath the seating) has been turned into a food and beverage area:
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Here's one of the power supplies (running two 3-phase lines):
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And another power supply (five 3-phase lines!):
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These are the crates the power cables were delivered in. I think it was one cable per crate...
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Here's another floodlight shot. The column closest to the camera (but not the streetlight!) is one of the normal ones lighting the hockey pitches; all the others are temporary installations (did I mention that they're enormous?! )
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For something slightly different, here's one of the parking restriction signs:
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Unfortunately I couldn't get to some other vantage points as they're inside the security fence.
Which country was that?God there are some miserable so and so's around! It is a short term issue which will go away. Just enjoy it!
Enjoying the opening show. Some top flight flag action and only one country defeated my geographical knowledge!
Vanuatu - I had it placed in the Tonga/Nuie/Cook islands area ( it is actually between Australia and Fiji) Estwatini almost did me but then I recalled it used to be called SwazilandWhich country was that?
Re Vanuatu:Vanuatu - I had it placed in the Tonga/Nuie/Cook islands area ( it is actually between Australia and Fiji) Estwatini almost did me but then I recalled it used to be called Swaziland
best flag? Seychelles or Kiribati
Probably just temporary.These are some nice pictures of the infrastructure, although I agree that the anti-terrorist barriers look rather imposing. Hopefully that should only be temporary.
Every sport is being shown, in full, on the BBC Sport website, but yes agree the lack of TV Red Button coverage is a bit poor.Shamethat we don't have extra streams on the tv as we do for the olympics. Virgin have just one HD red button channel. It's a shame because as usual, the BBC prefer to spend time talking about sport rather than actually showing it.
On an unrelated note - transport to venues/the city generally today I suspect is going to be fun with no WMR services running. On my way to the hockey, Avanti between Wolverhampton and Birmingham is already full and standing even at this time of the morning!
Thank you - that’ll probably be my route back later! Was very smooth getting to the University, they’ve put on additional shuttles from outside New St today for ticket holders.The trams are running between Wolverhampton and Birmingham today if that is of any use, although they will be terminating at Bull Street until 15:00 due to the marathon.
Thank you - that’ll probably be my route back later! Was very smooth getting to the University, they’ve put on additional shuttles from outside New St today for ticket holders.
You don't get the extra streams for the Olympics any more - the IOC's deal with Eurosport means that the BBC is limited to one red button stream (broadcast and online) and one presented stream.Shamethat we don't have extra streams on the tv as we do for the olympics. Virgin have just one HD red button channel. It's a shame because as usual, the BBC prefer to spend time talking about sport rather than actually showing it.
The turnout for the Marathons look low, I've seen more spectators at the GB Rally and Tour of Britain Cycle races that are held in low populated rural areas, has the Rail Strikes killed the crowd?From everything I've seen, local sentiment towards the Games is largely positive - though that's more at a general West Midlands level vs those just around the Alexander Stadium. A lot of those involved with the logistics are the same as for London 2012/Glasgow 2014 so there's a fair chunk of experience there, including in terms of how to appease concerns of residents.
Should be a good 10 days of sport - looking forward to it!
I've dipped in two or three times, and found it a real turn-off. Hopefully, the coverage will be more telegenic in the next few days.The turnout for the Marathons look low, I've seen more spectators at the GB Rally and Tour of Britain Cycle races that are held in low populated rural areas, has the Rail Strikes killed the crowd?
I don't know why the route was chosen but it's not showing off Birmingham .....
There were definitely lots of extra streams on Virgin for both Rio and Tokyo. It maybe that Tokyo was some form of agreement with Eurosprt/Discovery rather than the BBC.You don't get the extra streams for the Olympics any more - the IOC's deal with Eurosport means that the BBC is limited to one red button stream (broadcast and online) and one presented stream.
The extra broadcast streams for the London Olympics was always going to be a one off, with most of the capacity being donated by Sky / Virgin, freed up from reducing other services. During London 2012 that made commercial sense for them, but it doesn't for the Commonwealth games.
All of the individual sport feeds are available through the website and on smart TVs - this is already the standard way of distributing this sort of on-demand coverage at it can be done cost effectively.