The challenge facing the organising committee at every Olympic Games is how to accommodate the competitors and officials centrally, comfortably and securely, offering them a residential base from which to prepare for their events. For London 2012, this meant providing a temporary home for a population the equivalent of a medium-sized town – 17,000 or so. They were housed in a development of some 2,800 apartments at the Athletes Village, built in regenerated, former industrial areas in east London. In addition to the residential side of the project, a wide range of amenities was also installed to provide the level of services expected by the Olympians: shops, restaurants, medical, media and leisure facilities.

Urmet had to deliver a cost-neutral solution and adhere to a price for a product that was not yet available. It has been widely recognised that the Athletes’ Village is the first major project of its kind, as no other manufacturer had previously delivered a major IP residential project.

Because Lend Lease wanted a single platform for all 12 plots (each comprising some 6 - 8 buildings, making a total of 68 blocks) – a “site-wide system” – it had to be sufficiently versatile to be able to respond to any possible changes and additions that might be required as the project progressed. All of the blocks at the complex are linked by a local area network (LAN) and each block is linked to the EMO via a virtual LAN, or VLAN. A fibre optic VLAN serves to separate the bandwidth into individual segments for services such as the air-conditioning system, door-entry, fire, comfort cooling, office network, CCTV, backup, etc.

Working with a range of other specialist providers, Urmet conducted comprehensive off-site tests of the proposed system at its factory in Turin. This involved simulating all 12 plots at the Athletes’ Village, with fifty monitors in each and complete with concierge services and internal testing. Lend Lease was invited to attend these tests so that the principal contractor could see for itself that Urmet was capable of delivering what it promised.

The system proposed by Urmet was Ipervoice. All of the configuration details were taken from the installers before the Ipervoice equipment was delivered. This meant the system could be built and programmed, all off-site. This off-site preparation was of great benefit to the individual contractors as there was airport-style security at the Olympic site. As a result, making sure the system was pre-configured and pre-tested beforehand made it less time-intensive for the installers as there was no need for them to keep going back and forth through security. Once installed, the network was then fully connected and switched on. Any cable faults were adjusted and the system was soon up and running, problem-free.
Urmet’s expertise and experience meant that installation went smoothly and without a hitch in all 68 buildings. Better still, no other providers were ever held up during the process and the project never fell behind schedule – something that was a proud characteristic of the preparations for London 2012 in general. Finally, everything was connected to the network, tested again and handover was made to Lend Lease on time and on budget, ready for release to LOCOG for the Games.

Apart from the fact that the entire Athletes’ Village operates on a single platform that can also be rolled out to any new buildings added subsequently at the site – thereby avoiding the need to replicate and extend countless different systems – the main benefits offered by the Urmet solution are its instant personalisation and dependability. The system not only includes access control but it also incorporates switchboards whereby through Ipervoice the concierge desk becomes a service centre connected to all buildings and apartments. In addition the intrusion alarm of each apartment interfaces with the system for better monitoring and continuous surveillance by the concierge. There is no limit of installable cameras, which can be monitored at all times from each apartment to monitor compound security and it provides a top-quality communications system inside and outside the apartment.

Now that the Olympics and Paralympics are over, the Village, which transformed a patch of industrial land in London’s East End at a cost of £1.1bn of taxpayers’ money, will enter a second phase of its life in the form of individual residential housing. Of the 2,818 apartments built in the village, 1,379 will become affordable housing, managed by Triathlon Homes.

Private property consortium Qatari Diar and investment group Delancey (QDD) will rent out the other part of the complex, consisting of 1,439 apartments. With regard to further expansion, an additional 2,000 properties are planned for the site in the years to come. With Urmet’s range of IP solutions, all of them can be interlinked to provide instant, single-platform control for all access and security-related requirements.