Tech power India can't keep the Games website up and running-Oct 10, 2010,

Tech power India can't keep the Games website up and running

Ruhi Batra, TNN, Oct 10, 2010, 01.10am IST

NEW DELHI: The Commonwealth Games official website has gone for a toss. Far from being uploaded automatically almost in real time, the website has been painfully slow, often well behind private media sites. This has virtually shut down an important window on the Delhi Games for the wider world.

The mess is the result of an expensive piece of technology, the Timing, Scoring & Results (TSR) system, a key requirement in modern sporting events.

The system was procured by the Games OC for a stunning Rs 112 crore, which is five times more than what Melbourne paid for its TSR system at the last Commonwealth Games. Experts here say it could be bought for Rs 35 crore.

Now, after a week of complaints and with just five days to go, Infostrada, which provides comprehensive statistics and sports information services at the Games, will now launch a new website solely for the media's use.

This cock-up is seen as a huge embarrassment, especialy as India prides itself on being a technology power. But the TSR system tripped up every day in the week the Games have been on, forcing Commonwealth Games Federation boss Mike Fennell to admit on Saturday to problems with the system.

Fennell said that there were problems with the official Games website, which has failed to provide automatic updates and been virtually useless.

"There have been glitches," Fennell said. "With the help of Infostrada and Swiss Timing we are trying for an alternative solution to the problem."

Sources told TOI that the TSR system has been bought from Swiss Timing, one of the two companies that submitted a bid. The bid of the other company, MSL, was rejected on the grounds that it did not meet evaluation criteria. The Games technology team is headed by Harsh Kumar, who is a finance professional.

Insiders say that he has no one with him with any experience in handling real-time data. The failure of the Games Information System has left them all out of their depth. When contacted, Harsh Kumar insisted that there are no glitches in his system. His facile explanation was that "out of the 500 cameras, one camera wasn't working properly at Ramjas College but that isn't a venue."

The purpose of a TSR system is to enable timely dissemination of information, the lack of which has sent journalists covering these Games scrambling for information and data. Real-time data, such as medals won and timings, is crucial for the media and for regular updates on the website.

According to the experts, miscalculations in determining bandwidth output could be the reason behind the flop showing of the multicrore TSR system.

At a daily monitoring meeting on October 5, attended by all government agencies involved in the Games and officials of the Games Federation, including Fennell and Suresh Kalmadi, it was cited by some members that there was a problem across all venues and at the Main Media Centre with the updating of results, as the medals tally was not updated. However, the bigwigs are said to have assured the meeting that all problems would be sorted out soon.

USA, Japan in Commonwealth!

If you go by the Games official website, Korea, Japan, the Phillipines and even the US are participating nations! The Games are nearly a week old, but the errors are yet to be removed.

Great Britain has been listed as a participating country, even though Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales and England are fielding separate teams.