The Road to Beijing is looking very short as our coverage from China of the XXIX Olympiad starts this weekend, a full three weeks before the Opening Ceremonies. Can you hear the trumpets? Can you feel that Olympic spirit? In just 20 hours I'll be flying my way to Beijing, the advance person of our team.
I pulled the lucky straw to get there way early and be a helping hand to set up the temporary NBC network & affiliate newsroom. Allen Schauffler and KING photojournalist Ken Jones, along with Stephanie Stricklen and Ken McCormick -- our crew from KGW Portland -- will join me at the end of the month to start our on-air reports. Before then, look for daily updates and pictures from Beijing that I'll post here on the web starting Sunday.
Even before we head out, there's been good news coming in. 
The ½ ton of gear we shipped via Sea in late May arrived July 1st, and even better, the second ½ ton of gear we sent on July 1st via Air cleared the ever-increasingly intense Chinese customs process and is being delivered to the NBC News facility today - all waiting for me to start unpacking.
It'll be 'fun' to once again turn a huge empty space - this time in the Beijing International Convention Center - into a bustling newsroom. NBC News runs a completely separate operation than NBC Olympics - the unit that provides all the sports/event coverage of the games.
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Unlike Salt Lake City, Athens, or Torino - the space was turned over to NBC News a bit later than usual meaning there's less time to get all that goes into a newsroom - power, computer network and TV cabling, phones, tables, chairs, and all the computers and broadcast electronics - up and running before the main crush of folks coming in from NBC News and the other NBC affiliates to broadcast arrive around August 1st. We'll be in a great location - and the live stand-ups will look out onto the Bird's Nest stadium. I can hardly wait to see how great the fireworks for opening ceremonies will look from our vantage point - and Allen will be on the air in our morning news on Friday the 8th as the ceremonies are on - should be a very cool background.
Again, starting Sunday, I'll be posting pics and updates each day leading up to the games - stuff like how things are shaping up in the city, what athletes are arriving to train, where the closest Starbuck's is to our workspace (that's highly critical information for my well-being) and how our newsroom setup is progressing (for you techno-heads). And, once the games begin, you won't have to wait to see stuff on TV - we'll blog with hourly updates on our Northwest athletes here on the web from Allen, K.J. and me in Beijing, as well as from our Olympics Exec. Producer Peter O'Connell and Olympics web producer extraordinaire Travis Pittman back in Seattle (watching 210 hours of Olympics coverage - yikes!). Now, off to the airport!
Go to the KING5/NBC Olympic Zone for complete updates on our Northwest athletes and more Olympics news
Thank you for you Olympic Coverage from a local perspective and for the behind the scenes pictures and stories. It is fascinating to hear how it all comes together to make it on the air from the Olympics! I love it. Have a safe trip and thanks for keeping us posted.