First look at the IBC

Still having trouble sleeping, and I am now transitioning from the day shift to the night shift, coming in and staying a little later each day.  By Thursday, I will be working from 9pm to 9am (Sochi time), which is noon to midnight EST.

Yesterday, before going home, I picked up my crew gift from OBS (Olympic Broadcasting Systems), which is the Host broadcaster (providing the video and audio feeds for most broadcasters, including NBC, although NBC also brings their own cameras and production crews for many venues).

Sochi 2014 backpack.. Each one has unique fabric inserts!

The crew gift consists of a backpack with a few items inside.  The backpacks are kind of cool, they have fabric panels in various patterns, and every backpack is unique.  Inside, I found a small stuffed polar bear, an Olympic pin, a notebook, a pen, and a broadcaster guide.

Gifts inside the backpack!

Last night, I went for a beer with the guys back at the hotel.  I had a nice tasting wheat beer, 500ml draft, for 250 rubles (which is about $9CDN).  Apparently, you can eat, and drink, a lot cheaper outside the hotel area, but the food quality is suspect.  The hotel complex has several restaurants, which are supposed to be very good, but expensive.  I'll be eating most meals at the NBC commissary which is usually very good (plus free Starbucks on site!).

This morning, I took a few shots (with my iPhone, sorry, I still haven't gotten an SD card for my camera), of the IBC (International Broadcast Centre, where I work) and the MPC (Main Press Centre), which are actually both part of one giant building.

The entrance to the IBC...

It's hard to capture the size of this building, because I can't stand back far enough to take the photo without exiting the secure area (which I will do at some point).

The entrance to the MPC...

The NBC area is, of course, the largest in the IBC, but it is also at the far end of the building, on the second floor.  Here's a few photos of my walk through the IBC.

Art installation on second floor...

Not sure if this stuff is for sale or not?

Corridor and food court...

All of the venues and studios are up and rehearsing, so we have been very busy doing Comms check-ins, and helping the control room and production staff with setting up their keypanels so that they can communicate with each other and the venues.

That's it for today, but I'll leave you with this amusing image from my orange juice bottle this morning.  Take a good look at the label, nothing like 100% fresh squeezed...

Would you drink this?