With a superb view of the city and of the mountains behind where the skiing competitions take place, the facility is aimed at journalists covering general (rather than the simply sporting) aspects of the Olympic Games. Journalists can deliver pieces live to news programmes being televised thousands of miles away in Europe. Here, Daniela Relph reporting for the BBC1's Ten O'Clock News on security aspects; see picture).

With freelance engineer Mark Adelsheim and editor Hippolito Leotta, Ian starts work early (at 0600 local) and finishes at midnight. But he is used to long days: after the 11 September attack on the World Trade Centre, he worked more than four days in a row with only snatches of sleep.

Thomas Larsen, of Swedish Television (SVT), has been a valued member of the EBU Olympic operations team for more than 25 years. He has missed only one Olympic Games - Sarajevo - since Montreal in 1976, and has particularly fond memories of Barcelona. In Salt Lake City, as Despatch Supervisor, he heads a team of eight people responsible for multilateral and unilateral transmissions to Europe. After the Games, he will be assisting Estonian Television on the 2002 Eurovision Song Contest, which will take place in the Estonian capital of Tallinn in May.