Ed. note: this is one of a series of articles tracing the planning for the 2007 Canada Winter Games.

Significant alterations to the Canada Games Centre are coming, beginning with the construction of a permanent wall between the two ice rinks.

'There needs to be a sound barrier here,' Chris Morrissey, general manager of the host society for the Games, said Thursday afternoon as he stood in the second-floor dividing area between the Olympic and NHL ice surfaces.

'Because on this side, we have figure skating and short-track speed skating, and on this side we have hockey and ringette.

'The music from figure skating will interrupt hockey and the whistles from hockey will interrupt speed skating,' said Morrissey.

During a tour through the facility, the general manager described what's left on the to-do list to get the multiplex ship-shape for the 2007 Canada Winter Games in February.

Construction of the wall appears to be the largest task, though there are many others.

Banners have to be hung, local sponsorship boards need to be replaced and several rooms need to be converted to serve for specific functions such as medical services.

Additional bleachers will be added to the main venues inside the centre, including seating for some 300 for the week of synchronized swimming.

The wellness and fitness area overlooking the Olympic ice needs to be emptied of the exercise equipment and turned into a broadcast centre and lounge for VIPs and media.

Morrissey acknowledges there is much left to do. But he is also confident preparations are well in hand, and on schedule.

• The Olympic and NHL ice sheets will host five events through the two weeks of the Games beginning Feb. 23 and running through to March 10.

Figure skating will go the first week on the Olympic ice while men's hockey and ringette will be next door on the NHL rink. Women's hockey will take up the NHL sheet the second week, and short-track speed skating will occupy the Olympic ice.

The new sound wall will be of standard interior construction at a cost of approximately $70,000, Linda Rapp, the city's manager of parks and recreation, explained Thursday. Rapp said the wall was in the original design but was removed during construction for budgetary reasons.

It will run down the full length of the second-floor dividing area, and tie into the existing second-floor entrance so that fans will either enter the door to the NHL side or the Olympic side.

As soon as the wall is built, an additional 600 bleacher seats will go in on each side, to add to the 250 to 300 seats currently available for each sheet.

Morrissey explained the white mesh screen on both rinks that protects fans from flying pucks will be coming down because of requests from the broadcast media. The host society is currently in discussions with the city around liability issues and the cost of taking down the mesh and putting it back up, a cost expected to be shared between the city and the broadcasters.

Local advertising on rink boards will be coming down, and replaced with advertisements of the major sponsors and suppliers.

Xerox, as the official sponsor of the figure skating event, already has its logo embedded in the ice surface, as does Bell as the official sponsor of short-track speed skating.

But the logo of the Royal Canadian Mint, the official sponsor of men's hockey, still has to be set into the NHL surface.

'And we have not sold women's hockey yet but we are negotiating with a couple of clients, with lots of interest,' Morrissey said.

• Wellness and Fitness room About two weeks before the games, the exercise equipment will be removed from the fitness room overlooking the Olympic ice and stored in the children's playroom next to the main entrance.

Two thirds of the area will be converted into a broadcast centre where TSN, CBC and APTN will set up their required video feeds, edit suites and recording areas.

A company from down south that specializes in these types of events is being paid $50,000 to wire the centre.

About a third of the area will be dedicated as a VIP and media lounge.

• Indoor soccer field and flex-field In terms of alterations required for the indoor soccer pitch, not a lot needs to be done.

Some consideration is being given to installing additional seating on the floor for the judo competitors during week one. But there'll be no room for anything extra in week two, as the artistic gymnastics will essentially require the entire floor space. The equipment for the gymnastics competition the balance beam, high bar, etc. is being supplied by Speith Anderson, through a $50,000 sponsorship donation.

It has not yet been decided what sort of changes will be made to the flexi-hall, the venue for badminton in week one and table tennis in week two, though there has been some discussions about removing the perimeter boards.

Morrissey said the host society is currently in discussion with the company that installed the boards to determine if it's structurally possible to remove just the end boards and leave the side boards as a natural barrier to the field of play.

Taking down the end boards would allow seating for an additional 300 to 400, he said.

The city will also be installing a temporary curtain in the second-storey dividing area between the two fields, mostly to ensure proper lighting conditions for badminton and table tennis players.

• Pool Banners and flags need to be installed. Window curtains to block out light for synchronized swimmers are already in place.

The diving board and starting blocks will have to be removed, and seating for 300 will be installed along the wall along the main corridor.

The week-one event, however, will only be open to the family of competitors as there is just no room for anybody else, said Morrissey.

He said the pool will remain closed through week two, when synchronized swimming is over, as the entire Canada Games Centre will be under the exclusive control of the host society.

There are two phases to the handoff for off the centre, Morrissey explained.

He said there is a period of shared use, when the host society begins installing additional bleachers for the Olympic and and NHL rinks weeks ahead of the Games, while the city continues its normal hours of operation.

The wellness and fitness centre, for instance, will be closed two weeks prior to the Feb. 23 kickoff to allow enough time to turn it into a broadcast centre.

The society, however, will take over exclusive management of the centre around Feb. 15.

'And we have to have it back and ready to go around March 12,' he said. 'It comes down a lot quicker than we put it up.'

In addition to the main venues, there are rooms required to provide for the medical teams assigned to each venue, which can vary in size depending on the sport.

Hockey and judo, for instance, take the full deal, with a doctor and nurse on site at all times, while less physical sports require less medical supervision, he said.