After 16 intense and emotional days, the London 2012 Olympics has flown by. A herculean effort has been made by broadcasters around the globe to ensure coverage of the Games was constantly available to their audiences and at the touch of a button. NBC’s TV footage of the Games has been deemed ‘the most-watched television event in U.S. history’ successfully attracting 219.4 million viewers. It also trounced online records, recording nearly two billion page views and 159 million video streams of Olympics coverage. While on the other side of the pond, the BBC has reported that its overall Olympics TV coverage reached 51.9 million people, with 106 million requests for Olympic video content across all online platforms, more than double the amount of requests for any other event.

So, what has the 30th Olympiad told us about our viewing habits? In a poll of 100 visitors to the RGB Networks blog looking into how they were planning to watch the Olympics, we gained some intriguing insight into the consumption habits of our readers.

One key revelation is that more of our respondents (30 percent) planned to watch the Games on a PC/laptop than on a TV (28 percent) in a remarkable break away from traditional TV viewing habits. Indeed, nearly 70 percent of our readers said the way they were watching the Games this year differed from past years. Moreover, nearly 28 percent of respondents estimated they would watch online while at work – a trend that is sure to grow given the breadth of content and streaming capabilities available online.

With nearly 16 percent watching on their mobile phones while on the move, the survey further indicates that our readers were expecting to be able to access coverage of what they wanted to see, wherever they wanted to see it. This is reflected in NBC’s two Olympic TV Everywhere mobile apps which were ranked the #1 and #2 most-downloaded apps of the week on iTunes.

Forty-two percent of our respondents stated that they would definitely supplement their viewing experience with the use of a second screen. Billed as the first ever ‘truly digital games,’ viewers harnessed the use of social media platforms in record numbers to ensure they could constantly interact with the record-breakers and comment on events as they unfolded. Looking at Twitter numbers alone, a phenomenal 150 million tweets referencing the Olympics were generated over the duration – 9.66 million tweets captured the flurry of the opening ceremony while an astonishing 80,000 tweets a minute were posted as Usain Bolt swept the 200 meter sprint!

It has been thrilling to watch London 2012 unfold as a truly multi-platform event and one that catered directly to viewer’s demands. As sure evidence of things to come, our poll shows a growing trend of multiscreen viewing across multiple platforms and notably, the use of a second screen to complement the principal viewing experience. If there is anything we can learn from the raft of spectacular athletes that flew across our screens in those captivating 16 days, video service providers need to ‘go for gold’ with the best infrastructure systems in place for the next phase of multiscreen delivery. Without a comprehensive TV Everywhere plan, providers are sure to fall behind the competition as viewer expectations continue to change.

The biggest broadcasting event of the decade – and some even predict in all of history – the London 2012 Olympics is about to descend upon video screens across the globe. An estimated four billion people will tune in for over 5,000 hours of Olympic coverage, which will be provided to viewers in approximately 200 countries. Billed as the first ‘truly’ digital Olympics, the industry has been abuzz with what infrastructure overhaul will be needed to keep up with the various new demands that the London 2012 Olympics will require. Indeed, it’s astounding to think how technology has developed since the event last took place four years ago – mobile apps were rare, tablets yet to penetrate the market and watching live TV on mobile phones without any delay or jitter seemed a distant reality.

Discussions surrounding how video consumption habits have changed since the last Olympics have dominated media reports for months. Now, it is no longer essential that we either watch events live, wait for re-runs (which are often just as awkwardly timed as live showings) or settle for just catching the highlights during the news. Consumers today have the ability to watch Olympic moments wherever and whenever they wish, on pretty much whichever video-enabled device they choose.

So we thought we would conduct a poll over the next few weeks in the lead up to the opening ceremony on July 27 to get an accurate picture of how our readers will be watching the Games – we want to know which device will be your viewing platform of choice, where you’ll choose to watch them, if this differs from the last Olympics and how (if at all) you’ll be supplementing your viewing experience with a second screen. Fill out the poll here and help us take a snapshot of how consumer viewing habits have changed over the course of the last four years!

This year marks two of the United Kingdom’s national treasures reaching their 60-year ‘diamond’ celebrations, both of which had significant impact on the world of broadcasting – Queen Elizabeth II, one of nation’s longest-reigning monarchs, and Sir David Attenborough, one of world’s longest-serving broadcasting legends.

Almost exactly 60 years ago today, in 1952 the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II was the first to be televised live on British television. There was only one channel available (the BBC) and just over two million TVs owned in the UK. Many believe that the Coronation was the catalyst required for the nation to be truly interested in television – following the broadcast, the number of households with television sets in the UK shot up to nearly 7 million by 1957.

Today, the Royal Family’s Youtube channel alone has received over 37 million video views. The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations are being broadcast live on hundreds of channels all over the globe (and on catch-up and on-demand). During the Queen’s Coronation most people had to crowd around the only television set in an entire village, while today, we have access to video content anytime, anywhere and on a growing number of devices that would likely boggle the minds of those original viewers. Bearing in mind that the first mobile phone (nicknamed ‘the Brick’ as it weighed nearly a kilogram!) was only released 29 years ago, the fact that consumers already expect high-quality video content on mobile devices today is pretty indicative of how fast video delivery technology is moving. With most large operators already offering TV Everywhere services and the majority of smaller ones following suit, it’s time for the rest to jump on board before they fall behind in an increasingly competitive video delivery marketplace.

In terms of technological advances, Sir David Attenborough, whose broadcasting achievements were recognized by the IBC’s International Honour for Excellence last year, has experienced all of these developments professionally. In fact, it was during his 60-year tenure at the BBC that the channel became the first to offer regular color programming in Europe, and his work spans black and white to HD and 3D video content.

However, while technology has certainly advanced, not all has changed in the broadcasting world. When color televisions were first released, the uptake was remarkably slow – primarily due to high prices – and as such, color programming was limited due to the lack of consumer interest. This bears quite the resemblance to what’s happened recently with 3D and Smart TVs. Furthermore, the development of color television in Europe was hindered by a continuing division on technical standards. Again, this strongly echoes the current market, with standards still not standard, and just a couple of months ago, yet a new adaptive streaming protocol—MPEG DASH—has been introduced (see our thoughts on that here).

It’s clear that in this day and age, the key for any operator looking to solidify their market position is to ensure they have a sustainable business model and to future proof against any new technological developments – an inevitability in the video delivery industry. What do you think are the biggest developments in broadcasting history over the past 60 years, and what will change for video delivery over the next 60? Leave your comments below.

At ANGA Cable today, RGB has announced the availability of our new BNP3xr for European operators. What makes this announcement so significant for this market is the product’s support for DVB-CA, a key international standard for the secure delivery of video services. By integrating encryption support into the BNP3xr, we eliminate the need for a separate scrambling device, which simplifies your network architecture and eliminates wiring and management headaches. RGB is working with all of the major conditional access vendors to ensure seamless operation.

Stop by our stand—B50—and take a look.

Broadcasters are facing many new challenges. The proliferation of HD content is placing high demand on network capacity, while emerging applications, such as digital ad insertion and dynamic content modification, only up the requirements placed on the broadcast environment. These challenges are not readily met with the video processing equipment currently deployed. Existing solutions, typically built with baseband video processing technologies, are not designed to handle today’s requirements for dynamic logo insertion, text crawls or graphic overlay applications; and addressing these applications with baseband processing equipment is very expensive.

Based on next-generation technology, RGB’s Broadcast Network Processor (BNP) offers the advanced capabilities that broadcasters require to meet the demands of today’s video delivery environment. And now, a new partnership between RGB and Trilithic further streamlines EAS for broadcast DTV. Broadcasters can now inject EAS messages directly into their ASI transport streams without the need to demux or decode. They can even target multiple transmitter sites. The integration of RGB’s BNP with Trilithic’s EASyCAST EAS System enables in-stream EAS crawl insertions with digital audio placement, along with the highest quality multiplexing, grooming and transrating available today. The BNP can also deliver static and full-motion graphics, including PiP.

To see our integrated solution for the delivery of digital emergency alert message overlays for DTV multicast, please visit us at NAB in Trilithic’s booth #C10548.

Click here to register for a free pass, courtesy of Trilithic.