The tech savvyne are the unsung heroes of Cup

As the vuvuzelas die down and everyone goes back to their routine, Dilbagh Gill, head of sport business and FIFA executive relationship at Mahindra Satyam, an Indian-based systems integration firm, has an interesting way of looking at the role of technology at the just concluded football bonanza.

He says technology and IT services are like the goalkeeper in football.

No one seems to remember the goals the keeper saves.

And the less you do about the technology behind the event, the back office operations that keep the pictures flowing, the networks running and the communication alive, the better — it means technology is playing its role effectively.

That could never be so true. One of the unsung heros of the FIFA World Cup 2010 is technology.

This is from the event management system that Mahindra Satyam built from the bottom up, the live streaming of matches on the Internet, the social media activities in twitter, facebook and myspace to the crisp pictures that beamed on television sets across the world and watched by millions of football enthusiasts.

For instance, can you remember those overhead pictures that gave you a birds-eye view of the pitch?

That was one of the newest innovations in broadcasting at the world cup.

The tension cable-harnessed camera dubbed the “Spidercam” was making its World Cup debut.

The Spidercam is normally suspended 20 meters above the pitch and capable of being pulled back and forth to provide live, overhead images.

This camera was used at four of the 10 tournament venues in South Africa.

The 2010 World Cup’s television coverage used a standard 30 cameras for each match, four more than during the 2006 tournament in Germany.

Twin-lens 3D cameras were also used at every game, along with “steadicams,” which are fitted to the bodies of film crewmembers, and crane-operated cameras at pitch-level.

Important matches got two additional cameras: one mounted on a helicopter and a Spidercam.

Then, the logistics and successful delivery of the event was totally hinged on technology and this is where Gill and his team were involved in.