15 replies to this topic

[LinkParkFn]

Found this today, and though you might be interested, it's the official newspaper of the athletes' village in Doha for the XVth Asian Games:
http://www.doha-2006.com/gis/menuroot/news...es_Village.aspx

[Rols O'Bertilsson]

And now some details about the Opening Ceremony:

Quote

DOHA, Nov 19, 2006 (AFP) - Some of Asia's top superstar entertainers including Bollywood sensation Sunidhi Chauhan and Cantopop legend Jacky Chueng will join tenor Jose Carreras at a glittering Asian Games opening ceremony.
Also on the bill will be Lebanese artist Magida El Roumi with more performers announced ahead of the extravaganza at Khalifa Stadium on December 1 in the Qatari capital Doha, organisers said.
``We are so excited to announce the leading performers who will play a major role in heralding the start of the 15th Asian Games in Doha,'' said Doha Asian Games Organising Committee deputy director Ahmed Abdulla Al Khulaifi.
``We recognised the need to bring on board inspiring Asian as well as international artists in order to encapsulate the wide range of athletes and backgrounds represented throughout the Games.''
The opening ceremony of what will be the biggest ever Asian Games has been in the planning for several years.
Australian company David Atkins Enterprise, which was responsible for the 2000 Sydney Olympics opening and closing ceremonies, was commissioned to conceive, create and produce the Doha version.
``We are eagerly awaiting what will be the culmination of several years of planning for the biggest ceremony Asia has ever known,'' said Al Khulaifi.
``More than 8,000 artists from the Middle East, Asia and around the world will have contributed their creative skills to realise Qatar's dream of making the Doha 2006 ceremonies unforgettable for generations to come.''
Hong Kong's Cheung, a movie star and pioneer of Cantopop, will perform a song specifically written for the opening ceremony.
Sunidhi Chauhan, coming off the back of a 12-stop US tour, will sing a song, Reach Out, written by Australian composers Paul Begaud and Vanessa Corish as a salute to the athletes from 45 countries taking part in the Games.
Magida El Roumi will perform a duet with Carreras to mark the arrival of the Games torch into the 50,000-seat stadium.
The Games run until December 15 with more than 400 gold medals at stake.

AFP

[rav3n]

Just 11 days for the opening ceremony, i cant wait! xD

The opening ceremony promise a lot, where i can hear that song they will perform at the opening? The australian SBS channel will transmit the whole ceremony, but i'm not sure if Eurosport will.

Anyway i read that the coverage of the games will reach latin-america too, really a further step for the future of the asian games.

China will sent youth athletes to the games, with the objective of prepare them for the 2008 olympics on Beijing and win the games for their first time.

[Colonel Iredale]

EUROSPORT WILL BROADCAST!!! I LOVE YOU!!

Sportsbusiness.com: THE ASIAN GAMES LIVE ON EUROSPORT

But not the Ceremonies?

Eurosport: TV schedule Friday 1st December

[rav3n]

''The Doha Games will have over 120 hours of live coverage on Eurosport and Eurosport 2. This coverage starts before the opening ceremony on 1 December with preliminary rounds in Football and Basketball on 28 and 30 November and will end on 15 December.''

According to the site they could show the ceremony, but the schedule of the channel on that day give me a bad feeling.

In some case, can somebody record the ceremony and put it on eMule, so everyone that doesn't have a tv channel that broadcast it can watch it? Or at least leave a link to download it (somebody could put it in some p2p program or on bittorrent, like it was on the Melbourne 2006 OC)

[LinkParkFn]

Sorry about this post, but what's Emule?

[rav3n]

http://www.emule-pro...general.cgi?l=1

A great P2P program, probably the best out on the net. Anyway you must download the files with caution, because of the virus & spyware risks.

10 days for the opening ceremony

Look of the Khalifa Stadium & the cauldron (Sports Tower).

http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/rids/20061...uBAxA9ojmPgYg--
http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/rids/20061...9xgf_3qsXh92w--
http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/rids/20061...3BL9ie4mO9FIw--
http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/rids/20061...66qWKzbZ16EQg--
http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/rids/20061...Xaed7129J2GlA--

[Durban Sandshark]

Man, this is one of those cases that makes me wish we Americans had a couple of sports channels solely devoted to international sports that don't garner mainstream coverage in the likes of ESPN and Fox Sports. A network that can cover the Commonwealth Games, the African Nations Cup, the World Cup Qualifiers, NRL and AFL, international basketball, handball, water polo, and volleyball, and the Asian Games to name several.

[BTHarner]

I see that WCSN.com will be webcasting the Games in the USA. However, there were no details on the exact schedule as of my last visit. Hopefully this bodes well for next year's Pan American Games.

[rav3n]

A little sneak preview of the ceremony...

Quote

In the run-up to the 15th Asian Games Opening Ceremony on 1 December, sneak previews of what to expect are starting to come through the two-year wall of secrecy surrounding the spectacular. The latest information to see the light of day is about the costumes to be worn.

The Doha Asian Games Organising Committee’s (DAGOC) designers and planners have been tantalising us with statements that the Opening Ceremony will be the biggest and best of any Games, but following the weekend’s announcement of some of the singers, there is more solid information to go on.

More than 1,000 global event specialists from across the world are working with DAGOC in purpose-built facilities in Doha to create the most spectacular show ever. To give an idea of the extent of the spectacle, more than 6,500 costumes are being prepared.

Costume designers have spent the past two years researching various cultures that will be part of the Doha 2006 family, before beginning to design what is reported to be an elaborate array of stunning costumes.

This extraordinary collection has been made and sourced from all over the world. Doha; Sydney; Melbourne; Shanghai; Bangkok; Cairo; US; Damascus; UK; Vietnam; Japan; Hong Kong, China; India; Bali and Korea are just some of the places where artisans have been cutting and stitching in concert with a master plan.

The lead time required to make so many, complex costumes meant that they were in production well before the performers had been auditioned. Each costume has therefore been constructed to be adjustable – just about one size fits all.

In addition to their adjustability and their theatrical impact, costumes were designed for flexibility, ease of movement and comfort for the performers – particularly dancers, aerialists and acrobats – which could give a small clue to some of the action that might be seen on the night.

Now the two years of planning and preparation are coming to an end.

All the myriad pieces of the jigsaw are coming together in gigantic preparation facilities adjacent to Khalifa Stadium. In-house administration, dance studios, rehearsal spaces, construction workshops, costume workshops, specialty compounds, cast holding area and an outdoor rehearsal arena are some of the facilities, and all operate under strict security.

The waiting is almost over and the fruits of all those labours will be revealed to the world at 18:00 on 1 December. Apart from the 50,000 people in Khalifa Stadium, a possible television audience of three billion will be looking on.

Interesting facts:

• Over 100km of fabric sourced from India, Indonesia, Thailand and Qatar
• 5,000 pairs of sandals
• 1,000m of gold fabric
• 14 boxes of hot glue sticks used to stick sequins on costumes
• 500 spools of thread used to sew costumes
• Over 1m gold sequins to adorn costumes