Olympic Games committee sets restrictions on camera gear
Aerial view of the Olympic Park showing the Olympic Stadium and warm-up track in the foreground. Picture taken on 16 April 2012.
The London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games has announced that "large photographic and broadcast equipment over 30cm in length" will not be allowed in the venues during the July and August sport events
Author: Olivier Laurent
01 Jun 2012 Tags: 2012 olympic gamesRights
Speaking to BJP, a spokeswoman for London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games has confirmed that it is setting restrictions on photographic and broadcast equipment that will be allowed inside the Olympic venues.
The guidelines, first revealed by Amateur Photographer this morning, read that "large photographic and broadcast equipment over 30cm in length, including tripods and monopods" will be restricted. Locog adds: "You cannot use photographic or broadcast equipment for commercial purposes unless you hold media accreditation."
However, in a conversation with BJP, the spokeswoman says that contrary to prohibited items, large photographic equipment could be accepted in certain venues. "Some venues will be more flexible," she tells BJP. "For example, if you're attending an event in Green Park, there'll be more space for spectators so security might allow you to get in with larger equipment. But, that won't be the case at the Olympic Stadium," where large lenses and tripods could interfere with other spectators's view of the sporting events.
The spokeswoman warned, however, that ticket holders will not be able to leave their gear with security - so "it's probably best not to come with large photographic equipment."
Also restricted are large flags, banners, poles, oversized hats, large golf-style umbrellas, excessive amounts of food, balls, rackets, frisbees or similar objects or projectiles, noisemakers such as hunting horns, air horns, klaxons, drums, vuvuzelas and whistles, any objects or clothing bearing political statements or overt commercial identification intended for "ambush marketing", and flags of countries not participating
in the Games.
In the prohibited list, Locog says that personal/private wireless access points and 3G hubs won't be allowed in the venues, adding that "smart devices such as Android phones, iPhone and tablets [will be] permitted inside venues, but must not be used as wireless access points to connect multiple devices."
The restriction would prevent, for example, photographers to connect wireless-ready cameras and SD cards with their iPhone to transmit their images.
More soon...
Comments
LOCOG are set to announce that anyone caught cheering and shouting outside the allocated times for cheering and shouting will be ejected from the venue and held in custody for the duration of the corporate games.
The more I hear about the Olympic organising committee, the more I am glad I didn't get tickets. Companies who are working with them, can't even say they are unless they pay tens of thousands for the privilege.
"smart devices such as Android phones, iPhone and tablets [will be] permitted inside venues, but must not be used as wireless access points to connect multiple devices."
And they plan to police this how, exactly?
Free Tibet t-shirts will not be allowed, because "clothing bearing political statements" and "and flags of countries not participating
in the Games" are prohibited. But Unfree Tibet can be shown, because it takes part, as a whole, right? Has the Committe already published the permitted maximum IQ and the required minimum income of their members?
Sounds like these games are going to be a lot of fun for the spectators. Sounds like North Korea. Applaud when told. Cry when ordered.
It's amazing how people with iPhones and tablets are always allowed into events because they are certainly 'won't' record images.
I can make a very long list of equipment you can take in. Make your own. It is the same everywhere anyway. In the Millenium Stadium they do the same all year round, for exactly the same reasons, and I hope large silly hats get banned from Ascot and Wimbledon especially as well.
And if desperate you can cheat by leaving your long lens off the body until you get in. And there are teleconverters.
30cm long gets you a broadcast Video machine body in, and seperated from it, a suitable lens for it, and how on earth anyone can stop you from using wi-fi and a phone is a mystery- they cannot.
Why bother taking photographs when the tele is in every instance better able to show you the events. ? Like the London Pageant on the river. How long a lens does a full-frame Nikon or Canon need to do it justice?
Well, at least 600mm and the Olympic Stadium is the same sort of problem.
Just get accreditation and they'll probably feed you as well.
What would James Bond do?
i canot believe it unless you are sitting on the field you need a good size lens, how stupid willit get i got tickets so i could take pictures i mite as well stop at home and watch the games on tv. very sad
Yes, stuff the games!
These blasted games are responsible for police snapper paranoia and mean that anyone in London holding a camera will be pounced on as a suspected terrorist.
These blasted games are responsible for guided missile batteries being mounted atop of blocks of flats etc. Has anyone worked out where the missiles will land after being set off?
These blasted games are responsible for a massive upsurge in a particularly nasty British trait - the tinpot hitler!
So, stuff the games and boycott the lot.
Feel for the G4S security staff
It's not the photographers or the committee that I feel empathy and sympathy for; it's the poor souls that will be manning the various check points and baggage searches that will be now inevitably turning people away.
Think of the flack that they will have to defend themselves against when Joe Bloggs and his family from the US / South Africa / Germany (etc) turn up to watch a.n. event, an event for which they bought expensive tickets in good faith many months before and are told that the rules have changed & they can't bring in the gear and no, they can't leave it with security either.
Not shoes I'd care to be in.
I'm almost surprised they don't ban equipment from anyone other than the 'official photographic sponor brand'.
When those silly committees are giving this kind of restrictions I think it is time that to boycot those games...
so this means that Sir Chris Hoy will not be able to wave a Scottish Flag when he wins, Dai Green will not be able to carry a Welsh flag when he wins etc etc. Stupid!!! Hoy is British and a proud Scot, Dai is a proud Welshman, representing Britain. Why should they be banned from displaying BOTH flags with pride!!
It is scandalous........and they call it sport...and sponsored by Coke and Big Macs.
How is it going to be recorded? Memory?
Glad not to be part of it. The event has outlived its time. It has become an expensive PR campaign for the host country. The select few will make a great deal of money, at the expense of the majority.
The more they pronounce the more like the Gestapo
they get. What will the next edict be - 'passing of wind is forbidden',?
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