The Olympics on the BBC Big Screens

The Olympics has never been so high-tech until this year.

The Olympic torch relay was brought straight to the audience through BBC Big Screen’s 100-inch diagonal LED displays all over the United Kingdom and Capital Network’s Audience digital signage software.

The collaboration among the two companies plus the London 2012 Organizing Committee and the UK’s district authorities turned the digital columns into live event sites by providing news and live coverage on the Olympics and Paralympics games.

BBC Big Screens currently displays pictures of the progress of the torch relay. The images are transmitted by an on-site BBC media truck via mobile phone system to the BBC center in London. From there, the images are sent to the Big Screens operations in Birmingham and are broadcasted live on the BBC website.

The live content is next sent to the Capital Networks Audience network for the organization and management of content and other technicalities like the audio level and data automation while also providing online content. Supplemental information, like the Olympic torch’s current position and its impending schedule and route, is then included. The output is then run on a restricted network then to all the 22 screen sites where it is played numerous times in an hour.

BBC Big Screens is used not only for the Olympics but also for the live coverage of UK’s biggest events like the Royal Jubilee, the Wimbledon Championships and the Euro 2012.