special report green broadcasting


Joop Janssen, CEO of The Vitec Group, Videocom division, feels confident in predicting that 2011 will see an even greater emphasis on environmental issues in our industry. In the UK, BSkyB will soon open its new centre, Harlequin 1, which it says will be the first carbon neutral broadcasting complex in the world. This sets a new standard for the rest of the industry to follow.


consumer perception. It is James Murdoch himself who is driving the green agenda at Sky, setting the strategy for improved energy efficiency three years ago. “It is important we get the message across to our readers, advertisers, business partners and staff that we are making good progress on an issue we, and they, care a great deal about,” he said. The first step in any environmental programme is to look at energy consumption, and make cuts where practical. Here we are lucky, as a side benefit of the migration of much broadcast equipment from specialised platforms to standard computers has led to a general decrease in power consumption anyway.


Do you have it in green? A


chieving the best environmental


performance needs to be tackled at the corporate level, because an important driver is


ground waters is also a well known environmental issue.


Joop Janssen, CEO of The Vitec Group, Videocom division.


The future looks to be LED lighting, and companies such as Litepanels now offer a range of fixtures which allow the lighting designer to achieve the required effect. LEDs turn virtually all of their energy into light, so use very low power and create little heat - hand-holding a key light is perfectly possible.


It is


One area where computers cannot help is in lighting. Good television pictures depend on good light, and traditional tungsten lighting is massively inefficient, with only 5% of its power consumption producing useful light - the remainder is heat, which requires more energy in the air conditioning system to take away. Fluorescent lighting systems have their advocates, and certainly use less power than tungsten lamps. But as they contain mercury they present their own environmental challenges in manufacture, usage and disposal. Indeed, the Environmental Protection Agency in the USA mandates that if a fluorescent tube is broken, you have to evacuate the room and call specialist hazardous waste handlers to clean up. Mercury seeping from landfills into


66 l ibe l march/april 2011 l www.ibeweb.com


important we get the message across to our readers, advertisers, business


partners and staff that we are making good progress on an issue we, and they, care a great


deal about. James Murdoch, Sky.


Broadcasters who have moved to Litepanels’ LED lighting report massive energy savings. CBS-12 in Florida, for example, moved from a 52kW lighting rig to 3kW of Litepanels when it refitted its newsroom. The decrease in air conditioning requirements saves a further 20kW of energy.


As well as immediate energy costs there is a lifecycle saving in LED lighting: a tungsten bulb for a studio lamp typically lasts between 250 and 1000 hours, whereas LEDs have a life expectancy of 50,000 hours. Even in a busy studio that is around 10 years. Lifecycle costs should be a consideration when choosing other equipment. While we are devoting a lot of research effort into new materials for Anton Bauer batteries, for example, at present all manufacturers would agree that they pose significant challenges in manufacture, recycling and disposal. The sensible choice, then, is to look for systems which, through intelligent electronics and power management, get the best possible lifetimes out of each battery, ultimately reducing the disposal problem.


That same consideration can be given to other equipment, too. At Vinten and Sachtler, for example, we are constantly refining materials and finishes to ensure that tripods have a


long life without compromising performance.


We also expect new products to be lighter without affecting rigidity. Saving a kilo or two on a tripod and head is not just about making life a little easier for the camera operator: the fuel saving every time you put it in a car or a flight case may be small but it will be measurable, and over the many years you can reasonably expect them to last, it adds up to a worthwhile trim off the carbon footprint.


That argument plays out across all accessories you need to take on the road. A lighter prompter, together with a lighter camera and a lighter battery, are savings in themselves, and may mean you can choose a lighter tripod and head.


All these specifications you can get from product data sheets, but you should also press your salesman for information on how products are made. At the Vinten factory in the UK, for example, we have invested very large sums in CNC milling machines for the big components in our pedestals and heads, as well as the precision balance components. These allow us first to plan jobs for minimum waste, then to collect all the swarf and scrap for recycling. We have also invested in waste compaction equipment so our recycling is as efficient as possible. Striving for good environmental stewardship calls for attention to details like these as well as looking at the bigger picture issues such as reducing power. The manufacturing industry is now taking it seriously, and you should feel confident when specifying a new project that you can boost your green credentials while achieving the performance you require.


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