ST. PAUL, Minn.--Plans for the Republican National Convention taking place here this week have been scaled back somewhat because of Hurricane Gustav, but wiring the convention nevertheless amounts to an impressive technical feat.
The GOP anticipates around 45,000 people arriving for the convention. And to accommodate delegates' cell phones, broadcasters' videocameras, and numerous other gadgets, the party has spent the last 16 months rewiring the Xcel Energy Center from the ground up.
"The good thing about the Xcel Center is it's a very modern building," making the process relatively painless, said Max Everett, RNC chief information officer.
Qwest Communications, the official communications provider, has laid the groundwork for wireline voice and data services in the Xcel Center. The aggregate data capacity of Qwest's network is about 50 billion bits per second--fast enough to transmit an entire HD movie in just a few seconds.
Though the eight-year-old Xcel Center is modern, as Everett said, Qwest overlaid 100 percent of the wiring in the building. Trent Clausen, Qwest's director of network operations for the RNC, said that the building's age made the transition to Qwest's network "pretty seamless."
(Credit:
GOPconvention2008.com)
Everett said the openness of the Xcel Center's arena gave crews a number of different conduits through which to run cables but made it a challenge to keep wiring out of the way. Upgrading the facility required 229 miles of copper and coaxial cable and 12 miles of high-capacity fiber-optic lines for a network spanning more than 138,000 route miles.
Ethernet-based service at a 10-Megabit or 100-Megabit level will be available to anyone who orders it anywhere within the Xcel Center or the adjacent parking lots. Qwest will be able to deliver up to a gigabyte of bandwidth via Ethernet to any point in the venue.
"We've done provisioning of services to anywhere someone wants a drop," Clausen said. "So even if somebody requests a service at a far corner of a storeroom, we have generally honored every one of those requests."
Qwest also installed video equipment at the Xcel Center with the capability to handle more than 150 simultaneous feeds.
"That's true broadcast circuitry, HD or otherwise," Clausen said.
Everett said the GOP will be streaming a much higher volume of video than it has at previous conventions, and from multiple locations, "in an effort to give people a better view of what it's like on the ground here at the convention."
Ustream.TV is the official live streaming video provider for the convention and will arrange live Web video chats so bloggers and journalists can interview Republican officials remotely. Video from the convention will be archived and available for other media outlets to repost.
Live and archived digital broadcast coverage of the event will also be available from ShadowTV, the official broadcast monitoring provider for the convention. ShadowTV will also notify the RNC whenever any convention-related news is reported by any of the more than 250 television stations that ShadowTV montors.
The convention staff is also getting special attention from Cisco Systems, which is providing the staff with a unified platform for voice, video, data, and mobile applications. The platform will not only be available at the Xcel Center, but also nearby hotels and other convention facilities like the RiverCentre. Cisco is providing core networking infrastructure switching and routing for the RNC, along with wireless access, digital signage throughout the Xcel Center, and on-site services.
The RNC also is turning to cloud computing. At previous conventions, each of the about 5,000 delegates attending the convention registered by mailing in an eight-page document that was manually typed into the RNC's system. This year, the RNC will use Salesforce.com to register the delegates, with an automated application built by Appirio.
Network security for convention attendees will be provided by Cisco, Qwest, Microsoft, and McAfee. Unisys will provide IT support such as monitoring the convention servers.
"One thing we have to keep in mind is the balance of security and keeping things open since there are a lot of volunteers who come in at the last minute," Everett said.
A number of other companies have helped the RNC bolster the technical infrastructure of its event facilities. AT&T, along with other major cellular carriers like Verizon have been upgrading their wireless coverage around the convention venues. Hewlett-Packard is equipping the Republican staff with high-speed, efficient printers, Everett said.
Once the conventions are over, the excitement will be gone, but a lot of work will remain. "There's a lot of temporary scaffolding that will all come out at the end," Everett said. Much of the infrastructure Qwest has put in place around the Xcel Center will be left in place, Clausen said.
(Credit:
Demconvention.com)
It will take more than a whoppingly huge stadium to host tens of thousands of party insiders, journalists, and bloggers who began arriving in Denver this weekend for the Democratic convention.
Even though actual news may be scarce, attendees are nevertheless hauling along laptops, cell phones, wireless cards, and innumerable other gadgets, all of which will place a severe severe strain on the city's communication infrastructure.
To handle the increased demand, the Democrats have enlisted the support of Qwest, Cisco Systems, and other companies to upgrade the technical infrastructure at the Pepsi Center and Invesco Field.
Working with two large facilities made the logistics of the convention more challenging, said Damon Jones, a spokesperson for the Democratic National Convention Committee, or DNCC. "We essentially had to duplicate a lot of the infrastructure," he said.
Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential candidate, is scheduled to accept his party's nomination at Invesco Field. It's the home of the Denver Broncos and is capable of holding around 75,000 people--far more than the Pepsi Center about a mile away.
As part of its planning process, the DNCC created a Technology Advisory Council, made up of representatives from Qwest, Microsoft, Cisco, Google, AT&T, Level3, Comcast, EchoStar, Hewlett-Packard, Symantec, as well as Denver city officials and Colorado state officials.
"We wanted to reach out to the best folks in the business on what we'd like to see as a forward-looking technology strategy on everything from how to get more people engaged to information and data security," Jones said. "The TAC has been a way for us to pull best practices from the private and public sectors."
Telecommunications
Qwest Communications is laying the groundwork for wireline voice and data services for the four-day event in Denver. The aggregate data capacity of its network is about 50 billion bits per second--fast enough to transmit an entire HD movie in just a few seconds.
"We built a brand new network because the network in place (at the Pepsi Center) could not handle the demand," said Rick Mabry, Qwest's director of network operations for the Democratic convention. "We started by building a structure in the Pepsi Center, which is essentially a main office, and went underground to feed to customers."
The upgrades required approximately 3,344 miles of single strands of fiber and 140 miles of single strands of copper and coaxial cable.
Qwest also added approximately 2,600 additional data lines and 3,400 voice grade circuits to serve both the Pepsi Center and Invesco Field. Both venues are installed with video equipment with the capacity to to handle 130 simultaneous video feeds.
Working with two large facilities made the logistics of the convention more challenging, said Damon Jones, a spokesperson for the Democratic National Convention Committee. "We essentially had to duplicate a lot of the infrastructure," he said.
Live Video
Additional groundwork was laid by Level 3, the official "Live Video and Content Delivery Services Provider" for the convention. The company installed more than five miles of fiber optic cable to connect both the Pepsi Center and Invesco Field to its network.
In addition to providing High-Definition and analog video feeds to broadcast networks at both main venues, Level 3 will provide live streaming coverage of the event at www.DemConvention.com. (CNET News is taking similar steps in cooperation with CBSNews.com.)
Network solutions
As the official "Network Solutions Provider" for the Democratic convention, Cisco is providing what it refers to as unified platforms for voice, video, data, and mobile applications for the convention staff. "As an example, DNCC's staff will be able to move among (venue locations like Invesco Field and the Hyatt Hotel at the convention center) with their Cisco IP phones as they relocate depending on their changing functions," said Cisco spokesperson Jennifer Greeson.
The company is providing wireless technology for both data and voice coverage in Denver. It is also supplying digital signage throughout the facilities and on-site support services.
Cellular networks are getting a boost as well: major carriers like AT&T and Verizon have been upgrading their wireless coverage around the convention venues.
Security
Symantec is the official "Information Security Software Provider" for the Democratic convention. In terms of security at the Democratic convention, "we are taking all of the steps that people would expect us to take," Jones said, sounding a bit like the Secret Service. "But we're not going to talk a lot about them."
A number of companies like Cisco, Qwest and Microsoft will support network security. "We've added firewalls in place, and we've got equipment in place to capture any kind of attacks," Mabry said of Qwest's network.
Once the conventions are over, all the copper laid for the event will be pulled and recycled or reused, Mabry said.
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