Digital Camera News

Kodak, Official Olympic Imaging Sponsor, Gears Up With Kodak Image Center

February 10, 2006 – Kodak, a longtime Olympic supporter, is "the Official Imaging Sponsor" of the XX Olympic Winter Games which take place this February 10-26 in Torino, Italy. The technologies Kodak will be bringing to the games as the image sponsor include scanning and image capturing to create security badges, radiology, medical imaging storage, laser imaging systems and dental imaging as needed by medical facilities for injured athletes, and the piece de resistance: the largest digital imaging photo lab ever created.

The 20,000 square foot photo lab, called the Kodak Image Center, will be located within the Olympic Main Press Center and will serve as a press center for photographers and photojournalists. Facilities available to accredited photographers will include start to finish digital photo technologies and services, as well as for film. There will be thermal and inkjet printers for producing photos from postcard to poster size. A Kodak NexPress 2100 Plus digital color production press will be on-site, as well as some Kodak 1200i large-format inkjet printers. The center will also assist with image retrieval from memory cards and offer high-speed internet connections, allowing photographers to send large file images from their camera to their editors and producers. Kodak predicts that they will process over 3 million images from the Image Center.

Kodak is also opening a large "Olympic SuperStore" and three smaller stores throughout Torino, where Olympic fans can print, share and store their own images through Kodak Picture Maker G4 kiosks, or unload their full memory cards to Kodak picture CDs. The stores will also sell Kodak EasyShare cameras, printer docks, digital photography accessories, and yes, even film.

The Kodak medical imaging, sharing and storage systems will be available at 3 area medical facilities, and supply 20 specialists to assist medical personal in their use.

Kodak’s credential services will be in 23 locations. Each badge will be produced in 10 seconds; scanned paper credential forms will be merged with each badge holder’s photo, taken by a Kodak digital camera and printed with a Kodak printer, to create both an I.D. badge and an electronic record.

Kodak predicts that they will produce over 300,000 security badges, 60,000 visa credentials, 800 medical imaging exams and process over 3 million images.