It may not apply for the ceremonies but for the Olympics here in Atlanta equipment choices, at least brands if not models, for many of the venues seemed to be driven greatly by sponsorships and partnership agreements.
A request for bid for one venue was just an equipment list including a variety of speakers from one manufacturer. When we asked if there was a system design or a layout for the speakers the response was that this was the equipment being donated by the manufacturers and we were to do what we could with it, fill in as necessary (preferably with equipment we could donate) and if there was a real problem they might be able to get the manufacturers to donate something else. For another space I was specifically requested to consider using equipment from the official partners wherever possible.
