Skycomp is the Official Technology Support for the 2022 Canada Summer Games and week 1 has zoomed by! We’ve been crazy busy with all the action packed events that come with the Games.
Pre-Games Setup
Although the Games began on August 6th, our Techs were out prior to showtime to make sure all the venues were equipped for action! With over 18 venues to setup with technical support, which included making sure referee’s, merch stands, and Niagara College’s Broadcast trucks etc. had their hands on top of line internet access and more.
Our team was out running cables, installing access points, network switches, firewalls and checking every connection to make sure they were up to speed and working correctly. As anticipation grew, so did the needs of technical support. Our team faced many obstacles, whether that be last minute venue setup changes, more hardware needed, etc. But that was no match for us as we were well prepared to face anything that was thrown our way!
One of the major roles our technical support falls into is online streaming of the games. Since it’s taking place in the Niagara Region, a lot of families and friends from outside the area are relying on living this experience through online streaming. The Niagara College Broadcasting department is the lead broadcaster for the Games. They are covering multiple games/sports at once. Not to mention, when it came to Wrestling they were streaming each mat individually, meaning 6 streams at once just for one event! Exciting isn’t it?! Of course another major role for our involvement is Cybersecurity and making sure there are no vulnerabilities for hacking and having secure networks!
So where does Skycomp come in with streaming?
We are left with the task of making sure these streams make it online. A huge portion of our pre-games setup was dedicated to equipping the multiple Broadcast trailers with internet switches so they could take their production live to the internet! If you want to check out the live sports coverage click HERE.
What’s the NOC?
NOC stands for Network Operations Centre. This is our little hub working out of the Canada Games Park Venue. It’s our main support hub and the heart of the Games Technical Support. We have at least two techs stationed at the NOC at all times during the Games operation to keep an eye on all the venue signals and issues. On top that, we have our other techs scattered around the region at multiple venues to handle any physical issues that need to be resolved.
Week One Recap
This past week was nothing less than action packed excitement! We had multiple techs on location at various venues to make sure everything was running smoothly. A lot of thought and prep went into the technical side of the Games and our hard work has definitely payed off as there hasn’t been any major obstacles we’ve run into. There has been a few setbacks along the way but nothing our team couldn’t take care of!
Week One was filled with various sports ranging from Baseball, Basketball, Box Lacrosse, Wrestling, Beach Volleyball, Mountain Biking and much more! Ontario is currently leading in the medal standings with a total of 105 medals! 46 of them being Gold. Second in the ranking is British Columbia with a total of 75 and taking third place so far is Quebec with a total of 71.
On Satuday August 13th we had our infamous trading card booth setup for the Men and Women’s Basketball Finals at the Meridian Centre. Our Booth was handing out custom made Canada Games Basketball Trading Cards to spectators, teams, and families all evening and in the end, handed out 300+ cards! People were able to come get a photo holding a basketball in front of a Skycomp x Canada Games backdrop and have it printed on to a custom trading card.