Atlanta's 1990 digital dream meets reality
July 1, 1996
Web posted at: 11:45 a.m. EDT (1545 GMT)From Correspondent David George
ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- What did members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) see on an autumn day in Tokyo in 1990 when they watched Atlanta's Olympic video? Did they get a glimpse of the future, or merely an eyeful of electronic illusion?
The 1996 Summer Olympic Games open in Atlanta in late July, almost a decade after organizing efforts began in the late '80s. Though few people took the city seriously when it launched its bid to win the Games, the city's computerized multi-media presentation touting Atlanta as an Olympic site help sell the IOC on the idea.
How closely does 1996 reality resemble that digital dream from almost a decade ago?
It really depends on where you look, because after all, technology can be tricky. Even then, it was possible to make buildings appear out of nowhere and to create startlingly realistic images of things that would not happen for years, or might never happen at all.
But things are happening in Atlanta, thanks in part to a remarkable blending of motion pictures and digital dreams by computer experts at the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Let the planning begin
At times, the team of computer experts in charge of putting the original presentation video together had little more to go on than somebody's vague idea of what a stadium, a swimming pool or a bicycle track should look like.
"And, any coincidence between that and what's actually done is just that," said Michael Sinclair with Georgia Tech. "But I think we hit pretty close."
In many cases, they did come close, because some buildings, like Georgia Tech's basketball coliseum, already existed. The Georgia Dome was under construction, so creating a virtual walk through its portals and tunnels was simply a matter of following architect's drawings. The natatorium looks pretty much like what was envisioned back in 1989, as does the velodrome at Stone Mountain.
However, the 83-thousand seat Olympic Stadium bears little resemblance to its digital counterpart. The animators got the dimensions right by flying over the site as people on the ground, who were barely visible, held up big orange discs the engineers call "witness points."(706K QuickTime movie)
"All the photographer saw were these bright orange discs," Sinclair said. "And, since the computer knew exactly where the discs were, we carefully digitized those and then came in later and put in the Olympic stadium as if it were there all along."
But some things, like the Olympic Village, just had to be faked. The plaza planned for the center of the Olympic Village was created for the cameras at a northern Atlanta shopping mall. The twin Olympic dormitories built alongside an expressway bear only passing resemblance to the grand structures envisioned in the 1989 video. And one promised feature, an underground museum with an exhibit honoring Olympic leaders, was quietly dropped from the plan.
So, six years later, does the IOC's implacable and all-powerful president think Atlanta delivered on the promises made in that 1990 video?
"Well, I don't know," said IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch. "I don't know because I don't remember the video presentation. But many things have changed. But maybe they change to improve ... the site of the different sports."
It's been full-speed ahead since the day organizers and the world heard the fateful words: "The International Olympic Committee awards the 1996 Olympic Games to ... the city of Atlanta." (187K AIFF or WAV sound)
The dream has become reality. The differences are merely in the details.
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