Chapter 495 - 397 Security Level

"Over here, this is our fire control room. Normally, the door must be locked, because if the fire alarm system goes off at a critical moment, it could spell big trouble," he said.

"Inside there are cameras," he explained. "All cameras are connected to computers through switches and routers, allowing us to perform remote monitoring and control by transmitting the data to the fire-fighting frontier command and the public security command through our communication system."

"See that tower outside? That’s our high-altitude lookout station with ten cameras. It can cover the entire Olympic area with ultra-HD resolution!"

Lieutenant Colonel Fang Huai couldn’t help but ask a question as the presentation reached this point.

"Ultra-HD... How many pixels is that?"

The lieutenant colonel smiled proudly, "800,000 pixels!"

Fang Huai’s mouth began to twitch.

It was skewing, definitely skewing.

But remembering "evaluation for merit and awards," he managed to feign an awed expression.

"Wow, that’s really high!"

In later years, cameras would easily have thirty or fifty million pixels, not to mention the gimmicks like gimbals, wide angles, Leica, Zeiss.

Even my Nokia 5200 had 300,000 pixels, right? But that phone came out at the end of 2006, and according to Moore’s Law, with a new chip generation every 18-24 months, doubling each generation... the math works out, more or less.

Fang Huai was very accommodating, and the lieutenant colonel folded his hands behind his back.

He led them all the way, showing off the venue’s several kilometers of temporary cables, fire hydrants, alarm switches, fire extinguishers, fire doors, and safety passages.

There wasn’t much that was special about the facilities.

Actually, apart from the 145-meter-long LED screen in the center of the arena and the 500-meter long wristband screen at the top of the Bird’s Nest, there wasn’t much high-tech stuff inside.

The venue had a six-month construction halt due to the retractable roof design. They eventually removed the roof, and nearly all parts of the venue resulted from bidding processes. Moreover, because of a foreign company’s complaint, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection got involved, elongating the entire construction process.

Although the completion date was in 2008, the design concept was actually five years old by then, and some aesthetic details were even removed.

Buildings from the turn of the 21st century, by twenty years later, were almost unbearable to look at, outdated and old-fashioned. The fact that the Bird’s Nest turned out so beautiful despite the era’s limitations was no small feat.

After the lieutenant colonel had shown them nearly all the safety facilities in the surrounding outer ring of the building, they finally made it to the inner stands and the playground.

That afternoon, the venue was brimming with military presence.

In the center of the field, 2,008 soldiers were rehearsing "The Song of the Drum."

Even the 200-plus beautiful girls—national guides selected from a pool of 30,000, dressed in military training camouflage—were rehearsing at the same time on the side.

These girls were tasked with holding signs for over 200 countries. Before being finalized from the selection process, all of them went through 15 days of military training, and the subsequent posture training was even more intense.

Fang Huai had vivid memories of the opening ceremony of the 2008 Olympics.

Both major performances, "The Song of the Drum" and "Moveable Type Printing," were accomplished by soldiers.

Such disordered yet orderly movements could only be executed in the shortest time by the collective nature of military personnel.

He had seen a report that there was also a "shadow puppet show," with five-meter-tall puppets weighing over 200 pounds. To master their movements, the troupe changed their wake-up calls, lights-out calls, and mealtime songs to the tunes of Qinqiang opera.

It was a pity that the show got canceled.

In the awe-inspiring "Moveable Type Printing," there was a mistake: one of the props’ bolts fell out, and a soldier used his little finger to replace the bolt when the support structure was lowering, delaying it by a second. He supported the structure with his finger to complete the performance.

Fang Huai actually remembered the name of that soldier, Chen Zhifeng. He had thought about reminding him or even finding the soldier’s support structure to secretly sabotage it, forcing them to replace it with a new one.

But upon hearing that the soldier was later commended and awarded First Class Merit, he decided to leave the imperfection in this otherwise perfect scene.

This was, perhaps, the most perfect aspect of the imperfection.

Everything around was beautiful, filled with human beauty.

However, after the lieutenant colonel took them around, he left a remark that suddenly made the place seem less beautiful.

"I just showed you things that need to be meticulously inspected three times a day! The troops stationed here from our whole corps also perform an inspection every day!"

Cripes...

The lieutenant colonel had shown them not just firefighting equipment, but also electrical wires, cables, and distribution boxes!

They had spent an hour and a half without any inspection!

With several kilometers of temporary cables laid out haphazardly, did this mean they had to walk through the entire venue three times a day?

This was nuts...

"We guarantee to complete the task!" Fang Huai declared with his head held high.

Kidding me, this was way too easy! Let the storm come harder, striving to earn at least a third-class merit, right?

Hu Peizhou saw Fang Huai’s enthusiastic appearance and couldn’t help but laugh, "You kid, already a First Class Meritorious Service, still not satisfied? What do you want all these Military Merit Medals for?"

Fang Huai chuckled.

"The more Military Merit Medals, the more vigor in studying!"

With that, he added to the others following:

"Fair competition! I don’t mean to hog all the credit!"

He said this, but since it was a temporary unit everyone was vying for recognition based on points. If there was merit to contend for, he wouldn’t shy away.

It was just a pity that the firefighting forces wouldn’t last until 2024.

Otherwise, when military decorations began to be worn, his chest might have been replete enough to astonish others.

Soldier number 20 smacked his lips, "You take them, take them all! I have three second-class meritorious services from martial arts competitions. My dream is to earn a first-class merit before I get discharged!"