The VMAs are approaching again, and we're on the lookout for how they'll be able to outdo themselves this year in social TV. MTV is way beyond experimenting with social. They've hit 100 million plus likes and even the president of the network understands how important their social footprint is. They're also selling social to brands in big ways, and they're testing new waters in social by announcing the nominees and performers online to fuel digital sales and buzz.

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Streaming company Watchitoo (which powered the Social TV Summit stream) has launched a device to make it easier for producers to bring multiple live web streams straight to TV. "The Watchitoo Channel Encoder 1000 is a server/hardware combination that can turn a web video stream into an HDTV-quality product by treating it like an in-studio camera feed," the company explains.

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Imagine a 24-hour, record-breaking bus tour with The Flaming Lips, combined with a multicamera live webcast that never stops, and you have MTV's O Music Awards. We survived the trip, tagging along on the press bus and covering the entire experience via four different Storify's. Here's a summary of the adventure, and click into the links below for more photos, tweets and clips.

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After MTV President Stephen Friedman hinted at how excited he was for Teen Wolf's new social TV activation, we knew this project would be a big one for the network. The network announced "The Hunt," a Facebook-infused scripted social storyline for the second season of their hit scripted show, and we quickly uncovered that SocialSamba was powering it.

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At #MashCon, MTV's Dermot McCormack announced the new O Music Awards (OMAs), a 24-hour live streamed bus tour at the end of June. One of the big goals of the social media infused extravaganza would be an attempt to break Jay-Z's record for most concerts performed in 24-hours. Today, the OMAs announced that The Flaming Lips will be the band on the bus partaking in the most un-traditional awards show ever. Before the announcement, we spoke with frontrunner Wayne Coyne at MTV's Times Square office about how he uses social media and his favorite TV shows.

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If you thought MTV was going to stop at the announcement of their new Teen Wolf social TV campaign, you were wrong. In Orlando at Mashable's second annual #MashCon, Executive Vice President of Digital Media for MTV Networks Music and Logo Group Dermot McCormack just announced that the 3rd OMAs (Online Music Awards) will be coming back this summer for a 24-hour live streamed bus tour through the Mississippi Delta where 24 awards will be given....

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Remember SocialSamba? We uncovered the San Francisco/Minneapolis-based scripted social networking startup back in November after we wanted to learn more about the technology behind USA Network's Hashtag Killer platform for Psych. The "standard" we predicted the company would help create is coming true.

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A packed Beacon Theater in NYC enjoyed a fun MTV upfront that highlighted a slew of new and returning programing built for a Twitter and Facebook generation. The presentation started off highlighting that MTV both broke a Twitter record with Beyonce at the VMAs, has over 100 million viewers and 100 million Facebook likes (as we learned earlier this week from President Stephen Friedman) and has been covered as the number one social TV network.

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MTV is planning to launch an ambitious election game that incorporates real-life actions by candidates and players alike, merging journalism fact-checking with social media. "Fantasy Election 12" -- which has yet to launch -- features an incredible list of partners, ranging from Politifact and RealClearPolitics to GetGlue and Foursquare. And the Knight Foundation is funding a chunk of the project.

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MTV has launched a new social TV app in Europe that targets the "always on" generation with hundreds of hours MTV content. But besides your standard video mobile experience, the Under the Thumb app has two unique co-viewing features. The first is a remote control that allows users to play full-screen MTV video via a web browser on their computers, tablets and connected TV sets.

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