SPECTACULAR: Five rings, the symbol of the Olympic movement, were then hoisted up at the middle of the stadium.. — AFP File photo

The London 2012 Games are set to reach a global audience of 4.8 billion, figures today released by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) revealed. The number is up from 4.5 billion for the Beijing 2008 Games.

The pictures and images of the Olympic Games are provided to broadcasters around the world by the Olympic Broadcasting Service (OBS), and by the end of the Games broadcasters are expected to screen more than 100,000 hours of footage. This will be eclipsed by the number of hours streamed on websites and mobile sites.

London 2012 marks a number of technological firsts, with the introduction of live 3D coverage and super high vision coverage for the first time in the history of the Games.

Consumption has also hit record heights in the host nation. Figures released by the BBC show that almost 90% of the UK population has watched coverage of the Games so far and 20 million watched Usain Bolt win the men’s 100m final on Sunday night. This audience is the second highest UK audience for an Olympic event, only behind the 23 million that watched Torvill and Dean’s Bolero ice dancing routine in 1984.

Delivering television and radio coverage to audiences around the world requires specialist facilities. The International Broadcast Centre (IBC), located in the north of the Olympic Park, accommodates more than 5,600 broadcasting staff with 52,000 square metres of studio space and 560,000 metres of cabling. During the Games 1,000 cameras will be filming.

It took just ten weeks to build the 4,500 tonne steel structure of the IBC, which is 275m long, 104m wide and 21m tall. That’s big enough to house five jumbo jets placed wing-tip to wing-tip.

The IBC is positioned next to the the Main Press Centre. This is the first time that both broadcasters and the press have been located on the same site.