By Jiho Choi

Along with the Seoul Summer Olympics in 1988 and the World Cup Japan and Korea in 2002, the IAAF World Athletics Championships 2011 Daegu, Korea has the honor of hosting all three of the world’s greatest sports events. Daegu’s hosting of the 2011 International Athletics Championships positions the Republic of Korea as one of the few countries to have hosted all three events. The Organizing Committee has been waiting for the opening day of the grand competitions with every preparation made for the 1,945-strong representatives from 202 nations. The number of athletes and countries is the biggest in the history of the IAAF.



Sitting on an area of 140,179.9㎡ with 66,422 seats, the stately main stadium was officially approved by the IAAF on April 23, 2011, whose inspection team rated the stadium, along with all the facilities, as “International Class-1." The stadium, fully equipped with the most up-to-date facilities, awaits the races of the competitors and the rousing cheers of the spectators.

◆ Mondo Tracks : the Helper of Setting New Records

The newly laid blue tracks, alias Magic tracks, are expected to help produce many good records. The material is branded Super Flex Super X, a product of cutting-edge technology to obtain the optimal coefficient of the track’s friction and elasticity. The Mondo tracks were used at the international athletics championships continuously from 1995 (Yeteborg, Sweden) to 2005 (Helsinki, Finland), and at the Summer Olympics from 1976 (Montreal, Canada) through 2008 (Beijing, China) for nine successive events with only one exception in Seoul in 1988.

The Super Flex Super X, introduced in Korea for the first time, will surely meet expectations by improving the athletes’ concentration and by relieving the eye strain of the spectators and TV audiences with its fresh colors.



◆Brighter Stadium and Score Boards with Superb Definition

The original lighting intensity in the stadium was 1,200 luces, enough to meet the FIFA standards for night soccer games. The Committee increased the illumination intensity to 2,250 luces, sufficiently exceeding the IAAF standard of 1,800 luces, thus securing a brilliant athletics arena as bright as day. For this, they replaced 54 white lighting gadgets on the outer pillars of the stadium and reinforced the lighting facilities along the roof tops of the stadium. The night stadium lives up to the City’s catch phrase ‘Colorful Daegu’ with this state-of-the-art lighting. Under this lighting, the spectators and TV viewers will be able to see every fine movement of the athletes, arousing their interest even more.

The scoreboards of 24.24mX9.6m are another source of pride. The screen can be divided into six sections to relay different scenes at the same time. With other auxiliary and temporary boards, the four score boards in all will pick up and vividly show every action of the sports heroes doing their best.

◆Sound Facilities :Orchestral Level

The upgrading of the facilities cost the Daegu City government 4.2 billion won. Two audio-mixers, 206 amplifiers, and 242 loudspeakers along with tone controllers were added to the existing facilities to produce a good timbre, upgrading the acoustic effects from 0.49 to 0.66, the internationally required level.

A five-zone amplifier system and line-arrayed microphone layouts were introduced to reduce the acoustic loss and achieve the highest sound effects. These systems will enable spectators to listen to the well-controlled sounds evenly and clearly from any place in the stadium. With these wonderful facilities, Daegu Stadium will serve as a popular multi-purpose meeting place for years to come.

◆The Technology of Korean Broadcasting System (KBS)

The broadcasting services at the stadium will send out the scenes and results of the races with professional commentary to 70 billion global watchers. Supported by the stadium’s state-of-the-art systems, KBS will superbly carry out the important missions with world media.

KBS as the host country’s representative broadcaster, working from the International Broadcasting Center (IBC) from two control sections located in the first (2,500㎡) and second basement (4,300㎡).

All the scenes and images taken by cameras in the field are sent to IBC which transmits them via satellite all over the world. All these processes are performed under the supervision of KBS. KBS reinforced its equipment including an order-product track trailer procured from Germany for 15 billion won. The multi-functional truck with about 30 deferent mounted cameras can perform assigned roles to catch and control high speed, slow motion, and a dozen other technical duties. These efforts will surely impress people around the globe.

English translated by Eunji Park

Reviewed by Heedal Kim, Thomas Raudenbush(LIKE)

 

 

 

 

 

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