Truly the trip to the Olympics in Sochi, Russia to watch my grandson Jason Brown represent the United States was fantastic. We loved every minute of it and believe me, I have now become an Olympics fan groupie.
Obviously, after a lifetime in lighting, your question about covering the lighting at the Olympics was something that I would do if you didn’t ask me the question. No matter what I do or where I go, I am always very sensitive to the lighting impact on whatever the situation.
Sochi, Russia is in the south of Russia on the Black Sea. It’s to Russia what the Riviera is to France.
Geographically, Sochi, Russia is a resort town on the Black Sea with beautiful mountains located 20 miles away where the snow on the mountains contrasted 60° sunshine that we experienced while we were there.
The lighting in the Sochi Airport was linear T8 fluorescents. They were actually bare tubes located within linear baffles that were for both light and sound control.
We also saw standard troffers with flat prismatic lenses. I would judge the lighting in the airport to be about 10 years behind what our new modern airport lighting looks like.
We arrived in Sochi after three flights that totaled 20 hours, and so as we left the airport to take a cab to our hotel, the Grand Hotel Zhemchuzhina, there were custom designed lights resembling the Olympic Torch, which made for a spectacular first impression of Sochi.
The Grand Hotel is a mature hotel located on the Black Sea, and our hotel room on the 7th floor overlooked the sea. It was a sight that I would compare to similar sights that you could see if you were in a hotel on Lake Shore Drive in Chicago, Miami Beach, Florida or one of the Mexican resort towns.
The rooms were small but very neat, and the bathrooms, which were a subject of much publicity, turned out to be very nice. We didn’t see any yellow water, and the towel bars were heated so that in fact we had a very comfortable experience with our room.
The hotel rate included a spectacular breakfast. Honestly, if they didn’t serve it, you didn’t need it.
Every person had to have a photographed Spectator Pass. Wherever you went from one venue to another, you needed to insert your Spectator Pass and your ticket in a dual system so that you truly felt very secure.
The three ways to get to the Olympic site were electric buses, electric trains or taxi. The trains and the buses were free during the Olympics, and the taxi cost was subject to negotiations. We felt we were fairly treated.
The buses and the trains were all brand new for the Olympics. They were all lit by LED lighting systems and in my opinion, they were very adequate.
The fixtures were contained within a linear profile extrusion that had excellent diffusion qualities so that the lighting was glare free and very adequate.
The lighting at the park was overall spectacular.
They had large light poles for overall lighting and each building was spectacularly illuminated depending on which building you were visiting.
The figure skating building, The Iceberg Skating Palace, was a blue glass that was lit internally with what appeared to be LED lighting. At night it was amazing in that the building glowed with a supplemental lighting system that was not just for the purpose of keeping the building lit while the venue events were going on.
I had the opportunity of running into Jerry Fynaardt from Musco Lighting, who was doing a lot of the specialty lighting work. The Russians negotiated with Musco Lighting for three years before giving him the contract in November 2013. As a result, everything was done on a last minute basis and according to Jerry, they had to fly things in and get things done on an emergency basis that could have been done a lot less expensively if the Russians would have made up their minds sooner.
He did say that they paid their bills promptly and that there was never an issue once the Russians understood that if they did not get things done they would not be ready.
I asked Jerry to put together a report on his activities and he promised that he would.
My feeling was that the Olympic site was amazing and that it reminded me of a world’s fair with various participating countries and international companies all having venues and facilities that were amazing.
The Visa card people bought the Olympic rights and the only credit card that you could use was Visa.
Coca Cola bought the Olympic rights as well, so that the only cold drink, apart from beer and vodka, was Coca Cola.
The Russians spent over $50B to make this Olympics feasible with the long term hope that Sochi will become an international resort attraction.
In my opinion, they did not achieve the goals they set because hotels in the mountains were not finished, roads were not completed to specifications and in my personal opinion, it may have been a political success for Chairman Putin, but it will become an economic liability for the country.
I hope that South Korea will take note of all the issues. They had a South Korean building, and that was dedicated to the 2018 Olympics.
I would recommend that anyone who can economically afford it and who has the opportunity to go to the Olympics would do so.
More to follow!