Sports Technology & Communications News from Around the World

Technology has never been so big at the Olympic Games. The impact of all that technology has been nothing short of game-changing, and one more shot to the status quo recently came in from Cisco (News - Alert), who, along with NBC Olympics, will be offering a little glimpse of what the future may look like with their new Videoscape system.

Videoscape, which recently got a demo out at CES (News - Alert) not too long ago, is a television service delivery platform that allows for multi-screen television experiences, opening up the opportunity to show the Olympics in a whole new way.

NBC Olympics will be using Cisco Videoscape to not only live-stream all six of its television channels handling the games, but also use that same Videoscape experience to bring in several hundred hours of on-demand content from the stuff that didn't make the main streaming.

That's a whole lot of Olympic content no matter how you slice it, and that's not all that will be involved. Users will get the opportunity to manipulate that content as well, with access to set-top box DVR systems, letting them pause and record live television, as well as have the option of switching back and forth from not only televisions, but tablets and smartphones as well.

Cisco will also offer up a suite of hardware, including the set-top boxes and DVRs as well as a custom-made interactive programming guide to give those involved the clearest possible view of what's going on what channel when.

This is a great opportunity for Cisco – and by extension NBC Olympics – to not only show off the sheer array of coverage going into the Olympics, but by the same token, show off the full range and power of the Videoscape system.

Cisco may well have something here that could result in the future of how television is presented, assuming it can keep costs sufficiently low to draw interest from the regular people who might want this in their homes. Cisco also managed to show this capability off a bit with the announcement that Videoscape is part of the package going into running the Pac-12 Networks.

Still, that's clearly a ways off, and with Cisco showing off just what kind of power it could have in relation to large amounts of video content, this is really only meant as a small glimpse of what television could look like, down the road.

Want to learn more about the latest in communications and technology? Then be sure to attend ITEXPO West 2012, taking place Oct. 2-5, in Austin, TX. ITEXPO (News - Alert) offers an educational program to help corporate decision makers select the right IP-based voice, video, fax and unified communications solutions to improve their operations. It's also where service providers learn how to profitably roll out the services their subscribers are clamoring for – and where resellers can learn about new growth opportunities. For more information on registering for ITEXPO click here.

Stay in touch with everything happening at ITEXPO. Follow us on Twitter.