Let me just say this: The Super Bowl isn’t just a “big screen” experience; it’s a BIG SCREEN experience. “Biggest Game, Smallest Screen” just doesn’t seem like a grabber for Best Buy ads.

So when I saw a promo for the NBC Sports website during the game on Sunday, I had mixed emotions. Sure, it seemed to be a cool idea to have stats and video and social networks at my fingertips, but jeez, do I really have to go get my iPad? It’s not like I could just say “Here, Weego” and have it brought to me.

Besides, I bought a screen that’s the size of Montana (this Montana, not this one) just so I could drink in the whole experience of big-time events like the Super Bowl. I want everything about my Super Bowl to be larger than life: The game, the excitement, and—well, maybe not this guy.

The NFL hasn’t asked me my opinion, but here it is: If you don’t have access to the Super Bowl anywhere else, than great, stream it online. But as far as all the cool interactive and social features, let’s find a way to bring it all to the big screen.

I would love to bring up on-demand replays, multiple camera angles, real-time stats, and twitter feeds on my TV, where they can be shared with everyone else at my Super Bowl party. And while you’re at it, throw in the option to remove all the graphic clutter on the screen if I’m in the mood to be fully immersed in the game. Don’t stop there, make the game even more thrilling by enabling me and my friends to use our smart-phones to vote on play-calling and replay challenges.

So come on, NFL. You’ve got a great idea for engaging fans with all these great extras. Just think of how much better it would be if we could all enjoy it on the TV.

As always, the demos were the talk of the show. How DO I get my wife to let me spring for that quarter-inch thick, 55-inch OLED display? Definitely NOT by buying the robotic window cleaner as an anniversary gift. It seemed like the only thing missing was a Hawaii Chair demo.

Several themes stuck out, but the one that I heard loud and clear was the need for people to find new and better ways to discover content. Remote controls are giving way to multi-platform interfaces, gesture control and in our case, voice-controlled navigation to any set-top box or connected device.

For one thing, there’s entirely too much to see from too many sources for traditional navigation to be effective. For another, there’s a frustration with the limitations of existing remote controls and set-top boxes. Sometimes you can have a different navigation experience on every TV within a single home.

Viewers want to manage all of their video and apps across all of their devices from one central interface that’s the same on every set-top. One of the hot storylines to come out at CES was how ActiveVideo has chosen to partner with Cisco to deliver that type of experience to every STB, from the oldest ones in the field to generations that are still coming to market.

So if CES is any indication, keep your eye on the navigation space in the months to come. You’ll see new ways for viewers to spend less time finding more to watch.

Now, if only someone could find a more efficient way to navigate CES…

Man, you’d think that the Xbox was the first multitasking set-top box ever to infiltrate American homes, based on the excitement over the latest update to Xbox Live. Xbox now offers loads of OTT and some cable content in addition to a top-notch gaming experience, and that’s great… but it’s still just some cable.

There’s a buzz about Xbox Live being the final nail in the coffin of cable set-top boxes. But guess what: Cable STBs are in way more homes than Xboxes. I believe the latest research on just how many STBs are out there reported “bazillions.” Don’t quote me on that, but I think it’s pretty accurate. And those STBs are in it for the long haul.

Sometimes it seems as though it’s “open season” on the cable beast, but the tricky thing is that NONE of these aftermarket set-top boxes, including Xbox Live, offers the breadth and depth of first-rate content that cable does. And that doesn’t appear likely to change for several years at least.

That doesn’t mean that cable isn’t paying attention to Xbox Live and its predecessors. On the contrary, the cable folks are not only keeping up with the Joneses—in many cases, they’re surpassing them with bleeding edge features.

So, while the Xbox tries to be the OTT Trojan horse in American homes, the sleeping giant of home entertainment is the cable STB. And that STB is capable of things that consumers are just beginning to realize: social gaming, T-commerce, and app experiences like live broadcast streaming, PC-to-TV mirroring, VOD & DVR playlists, advanced touch-screen navigation, and more. Tie any digital STB into the cloud and you can basically do anything…including the next hot feature: voice control.

So while the Xbox is adding some TV content to what is essentially a gaming experience, cable boxes are adding interactive features and gaming to a premium TV experience. Which would you prefer when you want to watch TV?

At SCTE Cable-Tec Expo, Cox Communications president Pat Esser talked about how cable isn’t leading “the revolution,” its customers are.

Just to clarify, Pat wasn’t speaking of Occupy Wall Street. He was speaking of the video revolution. And unlike Gil Scott-Heron’s revolution, this one will indeed be televised.

Cable operators have made impressive moves this year to better address the emerging desires of subscribers, who not only want better VOD interfaces and more VOD content, but also over-the-top and Web-based content. As evidenced by the popularity of smartphones and tablets, subscribers would also love apps on television, though the set-top box has proven to be a hurdle to that kind of innovation in the past.

It’s clear that cable operators acutely understand the rapid, seismic shifts that are occurring in terms of how we all consume media. Netflix, Hulu, Microsoft, Sony, Google, Apple—all of these very large and very well-known companies are looking to take a healthy bite out of cable’s dominance, which can no longer be assumed in this fast-changing media world.

Operators, wisely, not only want to serve subscribers’ needs, but also to anticipate their future needs—and even create demand for things that subscribers never would have imagined. And there’s no better way to do that than to deliver enhanced navigation and intriguing TV apps via the cloud.

Why? Because the cloud is fast and flexible. In the cloud, operators can use standard Web dev tools (like HTML5) to prototype and publish applications much faster than they ever could before. They no longer need to worry about which cable set-top box can support which application, because EVERY digital cable box can support apps and interfaces delivered from the cloud. And operators can quickly develop and test new features as consumer preferences change.

So I say, “Viva el Esser revolución!” And I also say, “Más! Más!”

Cisco Systems is the big dog on the networking block for a reason: They always seem to know which way the winds are blowing.

With the pending acquisition of Motorola Mobility by Google, Cisco CEO John Chambers sees a huge (and getting huger) opportunity for the company’s video business. Multichannel News reported that Chambers said, “There are only two real players that can bring entertainment video in a major way” to pay-TV operators… “All of a sudden, you have major service providers saying, ‘Cisco, we see you now even more important in terms of the partnership and the direction on it.’”

This might look like some standard chest-thumping in the boring-to-some (but not to me) set-top box market, but let’s look closer. Chambers also said, “It’s really the architecture that we’re committed to, as this moves into the cloud with our Videoscape capability. Our service provider customers asked us to partner with them as they move from traditional set-top boxes, to IP set-top boxes, to the cloud, which again, is enabled by our Videoscape solutions.”

Cisco is putting a lot of resources behind Videoscape, and it’s just what cable operators need right now (and what cable subscribers want). Follow that link and check out what Cisco is talking about. It’s spot on.

This week at the SCTE Cable-Tec Expo, FierceCable reported that Cisco’s booth was focused on “products that shuttle content to tablets and mobile phones, and deliver interactive video and applications to the TV.” Cisco told FC that it’s seeing a “huge amount” of interest in “set-tops and gateway devices that allow operators to deliver a hybrid of live TV and Web applications to subscribers.” Again, spot on.

This comes on the heels of last month’s announcement that Cisco intends to acquire BNI Video, which supplies service providers with video back-office and content delivery network analytic capabilities. Analysts viewed the announcement as another big boost for the Videoscape platform. Spot. On.

So Cisco, you big dog, keep barking, because cable operators will be biting. You’re barking up the right tree.