Being able to quantify the level of coherent control in a proposed device implementing a quantum information processor (QIP) is an important task for both comparing different devices and assessing a devices prospects with regards to achieving fault-t
olerant quantum control. We implement in a liquid-state nuclear magnetic resonance QIP the randomized benchmarking protocol presented by Knill et al (PRA 77: 012307 (2008)). We report an error per randomized $frac{pi}{2}$ pulse of $1.3 pm 0.1 times 10^{-4}$ with a single qubit QIP and show an experimentally relevant error model where the randomized benchmarking gives a signature fidelity decay which is not possible to interpret as a single error per gate. We explore and experimentally investigate multi-qubit extensions of this protocol and report an average error rate for one and two qubit gates of $4.7 pm 0.3 times 10^{-3}$ for a three qubit QIP. We estimate that these error rates are still not decoherence limited and thus can be improved with modifications to the control hardware and software.
