IBC construction set to begin

By Siyabonga Africa, ITWeb junior journalist

Johannesburg, 26 Sept 2008

Construction will begin on the 2010 FIFA World Cup international broadcasting centre (IBC) early next year, with plans to complete the 30 000m²media hub by March 2010.

Situated next to the main stadium, Soccer City, at Nasrec, in the south of Johannesburg, the IBC will also be equipped with its own power source - a 1 000kva diesel generator - to ensure it is not affected by any disruptions to the national power grid.

Phumlani Moholi, 2010 FIFA World Cup local organising committee (LOC) chief IT and telecoms officer, says the IBC will be considerably smaller than the one used at the recent Olympic Games, in China, which covered an area of 72 000m².

Moholi says the IBC command centre, at Ellis Park, is ready to be connected to Telkom's fibre optic backbone. The command centre will be the centre of operations during next year's Confederations Cup, which is widely seen as a practice run for the FIFA World Cup finals, in 2010.

The Confederations Cup will only need between 2Gbps and 5Gbps capacity, while the World Cup event will use up to 40Gbps.

Telkom group executive for multinational customers Thami Magazi confirms that, for the 10 stadiums being built for 2010, FIFA requires 40GB cabling capacity, where 20GB will go live during the tournament and 20GB will be used as failover.

Power hungry

FIFA's Green Goal legacy report for the 2006 World Cup, held in Germany, says the IBC consumed more than 1.9 million kilowatts of power and 660 000 litres of diesel during four weeks. FIFA states that the German IBC also covered more than 30 000m²of land and housed 15 TV studios that operated around the clock.

According to Moholi, the IBC's R700 000 generator will be commissioned in March 2010, giving the broadcasting nerve centre enough electricity to power it for 24 hours a day, over 31 days.

"The IBC will have its own dedicated and isolated power source. The LOC and the Department of Minerals and Energy are working together on this project," he explains.

Moholi explains the generator is needed to ensure the IBC will be able to run without any disruptions that might occur on the national power grid. "If you really think about the IBC, it is a critical component in the World Cup, because without it, the rest of the world will not be able to watch the games through video feeds and such."