Torino - The IBC

The International Broadcast Centre (IBC) is co-located with the Main Media Centre (MMC) near the Lingotto Oval (where speed skating takes place. The IBC houses the host broadcaster, Torino Olympic Broadcast Organization (TOBO) as well as all the broadcasters from around the world. The MMC has offices for Olympic organizations and print journalists from publications also from around world.

NBC occupies the largest section of the IBC (at least 6 times bigger than any other broadcaster, with the CBC being the next largest). I'm going to give you a pictorial tour of how I get into the IBC each day.

The bus ride from the MV takes about 10-15 minutes now. Naturally, the bus drives within 100 feet of the entrance to the MMC grounds, but instead of letting us off there, it continues on a set of switchbacks that lead up to a bus parking lot that is a few hundred metres away, and three stories above the entrance level.

The Athlete's Village in Torino (there are also two in the mountains) is located across a large set of train tracks from the IBC bus mall, and there is a newly constructed elevated walkway that leads from the bus mall to the AV and under a huge red arch...



On this side, the walkway meets up with an existing covered walkway (over the roads the buses come in on) that leads to a huge building that used to be a Fiat factory, but now houses Fiat offices, and a large mall on the third floor. My accreditation does not allow me access to the AV walkway, but here is a photo from the walkway junction back across the bus mall. Notice that you can see the mountains in the background (this is the first time it has been clear enough to see them)...



Turning to the left from there, you can look down on to the Satellite Farm, and the back entrance to the IBC. You can see why they call it a farm, although this area is MUCH smaller than in previous Olympics. Satellite transmission has mostly been relegated to use as a backup in case the fibre connections fail, and there is now so much bandwidth available that fewer people are using the Sat-Farm...



As you walk across the walkway, towards the shopping mall, and on the opposite side from the Sat-Farm, there is a strange looking garden that I call the "hedge brownie farm", and hopefully you can see why from the the photo...



The Lingotto Fiat building is enormous, so much so that it has a 2.4km test track on the roof (with banked corners) that they used to use for test driving cars. The link above has a neat aerial view of the roof, but here is a photo from the walkway showing the control tower and part of the banked corners...



Also on the roof is a helicopter pad, and a glass-domed restaurant that, combined, look a little like the Starship Enterprise...



The walkway is long enough that there is a horizontal people-mover (flat escalator, like at O'Hare airport in Chicago). When the people-mover ends, you can either walk down three flights of stairs to the "mag 'n bag" scanning station at the back entrance to the IBC, or you can continue on the walkway into the shopping mall, walk across to the other side of the building and take a real escalator down to street level where you can enter the IBC from its front entrance.

Here's a photo that gives a good idea as to the size of the Lingotto Fiat building...



And finally, here is the front entrance to the IBC. The NBC area is located closest to this end. In a few days, I'll show you some pictures from inside the IBC, and maybe a few from the mall.



Ciao for now!