This week we send off the first batch, going via cargo ship to China (I was promised it's not the slow boat). Another load will go via air freight in late June. All the equipment will help make up our "newsroom" in Beijing for the months of July & August.
Just as in Sydney, Salt Lake City, Athens and Torino we're just a subset of the larger NBC Newsroom in China. The NBC News operation will be housed in its own separate facility in Beijing. It's a wholly separate undertaking than the NBC Olympics & Sports facilities based at the International Broadcast Center.

We will be located in the Beijing International Convention Center, just a stone's throw from the "Bird's Nest" Stadium. This will be the Olympics home for NBC Nightly News, MSNBC, Today Show staff, and all the NBC affiliates with crews in Beijing. These "temporary" newsrooms can be pretty amazing. They form out of vast empty spaces, buzz with 24/7 activity for 4-6 weeks, then disappear. Of course, we'll post plenty of pics.

Bottom line -- lists, lists, lists -- for inventory, customs and sanity. The best part so far, now that we use more and more LCD screens for computers and TV monitoring, the "weight of our freight" goes down. My back likes that part. We will set up HD video editing, signal routing and transmission, data networks and live news camera positions. More on that in another upcoming post.
There will be much more behind the scenes fun to share once we arrive in Beijing. Stay tuned.