Crazy cameras and Australian designers: Billions tune in to London Olympics and architecture

Image: Hopkins Architects

Billions of people worldwide will tune in tonight/tomorrow morning (Friday night, GMT) to watch the London Olympics Opening Ceremony, and in the process turn their focus to the design achievements.

The main stadium, designed by Populous, is in the running for some major architectural awards, however many commentators, like Architectural Review in the UK suggest instead of the Arena, it is the Aquatics Centre by Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA) and the Velodrome by Hopkins Architects, that now vie for attention and admiration.

Interestingly, they are both for sports that Britain and Australia alike excelled in at in the Beijing Olympics and will no doubt provide the platform for another major Australia-UK rivalry.

And the cycle track was designed by Australian Ronald Webb, who is known as the “the doyen of world track design and construction”.

According to Hopkins Architects, Webb rates the London Olympic Track as his best yet (click here for a PDF on the velodrome).

As we reported recently, Populous has launched a website detailing its masterplan, architectural and design work on the venues. It tells a history of the design practices work from bid in 2003 through to the games and plans for the site’s legacy.

Crazy cameras

A special camera in the the London 2012 Opening Ceremony in London stadium will capture an image that will be 20-gigapixels in size and show individual members of the crowd identified at full zoom.

Getty Images and Fujitsu are building the camera rig, and are suggesting to those attending “to wear their Sunday best” because Fujitsu’s CELSIUS R920 workstation will be used to stitch the image together and upload it overnight so that people can start tagging themselves come Saturday.

One gigapixel consists of one billion pixels. The image of the Olympic opening ceremony will be 20 gigapixels - or 20 billion pixels.

For an example, you can check out this 40 gigapixel image captured of Dubai a few months ago. Make sure to zoom in so you get an idea of just how detailed gigapixel images really are.