The main stadium at the London Olympics may be wrapped in a kilometre-long video screen in an attempt to create a defining visual image to rival Beijing's architecturally startling Bird's Nest arena.

London 2012 officials will return from China next week to begin detailed consideration of the "look of London", which has so far been defined by a graffiti-style logo which drew as much criticism as praise.

Now, after the Bird's Nest became the identifying image of the 2008 games, attention will shift to how London's centrepiece stadium will appear on billions of television sets around the world.

The stadium's architect, Rod Sheard, is advocating a kilometre-long screen that would establish the London games as the first digital Olympics. Everything from images of main events to Olympic-inspired art could be projected on to the screen and Olympic officials confirmed the idea was to be developed in the coming year.

"Sydney took the opening and closing ceremony into the air with cables, Beijing has demonstrated what is currently possible using lighting and visual imagery," said Sheard, who designed the Sydney Olympic stadium and Wembley. "The London Olympic stadium will be the beginning of digital technology. We see the stadium as the ultimate communication device."

He said records, replays, previews and live events could be projected to create a kind of "Henman Hill of the Olympics".

The London mayor, Boris Johnson, who arrived at the games on Thursday and will take the Olympic flag at Sunday's closing ceremony, has admitted to being "dazzled" by the Beijing games, but has promised "fantastic ingenuity" to match the Chinese staging. Beijing's Birds Nest stadium and bubble-wrapped water cube swimming pool have been widely acclaimed as among the most startling Olympic architecture ever, but cost more than twice the London budget of £9.3bn.

Lord Coe, who is leading preparations for the London games, said this week: "It is unlikely we will see a games of this scale and stature again. It is unlikely this will be the format for the future. It won't be in London."

But the president of the International Olympic Committee, Jacques Rogge, warned yesterday that London 2012 would have to live up to Beijing's standards. "London has and will have to deliver as well as China in the welfare of the athletes," he told the BBC. "I mean the quality of the Olympic Village, the quality of the transportation from the Village to the venues, the operation of the venues. This has to be as good because the games are for the athletes. The games are not for London, the games are not for Great Britain, the games are not for the IOC."

Sheard's idea will face intense scrutiny from cost controllers committed to keeping the stadium to its £496m budget.

A digital screen is likely to cost far more than the original idea for a 30-metre-high fabric wrap to conceal scaffolding supporting 55,000 temporary seats in the 80,000-seat venue. Sources at the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) said detailed calculations had yet to be made of what could be achieved within the budget.

Early designs showed the wrap made from a recycled polymer or even hemp and decorated with still images of Olympic athletes made up of pixelated graphics to echo London 2012's graffiti-style logo.

The wrap is essential to animate an otherwise rudimentary stadium that architect Will Alsop described as "disappointing" when it was unveiled. He was among many who complained that the design, dubbed by some the "vol-au-vent", was an anticlimax after plans were ditched that imagined the stadium's exterior like petals of a flower.

Olympic officials said yesterday that an artist or artists could be commissioned to produce ideas for the screen, which will also protect spectators and competitors from cross-winds.

"The idea of using digital technology on the wrap of the stadium is an option that is being discussed," a source at the ODA said. "It is early days. As we look more closely at the creative treatment of this element in 2009 and 2010 we would assess the need for the creative skills of an artist and that would have to fit in with the overall look of the games."

The design of the stadium will be instrumental in creating a visual identity as it is likely to feature in the backdrop to broadcasts seen on TV around the world.

Olympic officials hope other venues, including the velodrome, by Sir Michael Hopkins, and the £303m aquatics centre, designed by Zaha Hadid, will capture the imagination, as well as the distinctly London backdrops to events such as beach volleyball at Horse Guards Parade and archery at Lord's cricket ground.