Here in the FH London office, we’ve reached Olympic fever pitch (especially after Super Saturday!).
However, we’ve been advised against streaming events on our PCs and tablets in order to keep our network running at optimum efficiency, and we’re not alone in that. As the Telegraph reported last week, companies across the globe are banning live streaming of Olympic events in order to lessen the impact of the massive strain on corporate networks.
Instead, we’re watching the Games on designated screens around each floor, or down in our reception area which is home to a large wall projection. And I must say, watching it together with my colleagues, there is an infectious air of camaraderie for Team GB. At this point, you must take into consideration that I am a reformed Olympic philistine who has been swept up in the furore…
However, with London being widely described as the first digital and social Olympics, it’s not just corporate bandwidth which is taking a battering. Transmission during the men’s cycling road race was jammed, with the commentator resorting to estimating the cyclists’ times on his own watch. Thus the blame game ensued, with the BBC placing the fault at the hands of the OBS (Olympic Broadcasting Service) for the lack of data, and the OBS in turn blaming the overzealous tweeting efforts of spectators.
It’s not just issues in the UK which are hitting the headlines, either. Following NBC’s earlier announcement to livestream all events, viewers have since complained of sub-quality video which has been freezing, or annoyingly running with a stop/start effect. NBC’s response? “The network has enough bandwidth to transmit all the streaming video” – alluding to the fact that the problems stem from bandwidth provided by cable operators, or the actual computers or devices used by the viewer.
It’s evident that the London Games is setting a huge digital learning curve ahead of Rio in 2016. However, one of the key take-homes surely has to be that the respective industries need to join together and be prepared for the unrivalled demand on broadcasting, networking and bandwidth capabilities. Inevitably, evolving digital advancements mean that viewers are only going to have more and more ways to watch, consume and interact with major global events such as the Olympics. It hardly seems fair to blame them when things go wrong…
