The principles of best practice and health and safety apply whether an electricity supply is permanent or temporary
We work in an industry where there are all sorts of potential hazards, and no two jobs are the same
Many of the UK’s mainstream broadcasters rely on Arena to provide multi-camera coverage
companies in this sector have been at the forefront of improving standards.
Power rangers London based Film & TV Services was founded in 1977 to provide lighting and power generation facilities for the film and TV industry. The company owns and operates a modern fleet of vehicle-mounted generators including a number of single-set units and an expanding fleet of ‘SuperSilent’ twin-synchronised units. With an in-house team of more than 45 staff including generator engineers and lighting electricians, the company
40 ECA Today May 2012
also has 30-40 freelance engineers and electricians who are employed as and when needed. Film & TV Services works with other companies in the
outside broadcast sector and Chris Pratt, the company’s technical director, says: ‘One of our closest working relationships is with Surrey-based Arena Television, one of the UK’s leading providers of outside broadcast and satellite services. We provide the power and lighting services to Arena and have worked together on events such as music concerts, major sporting events and nature programmes.’ Arena’s chief electrician, Andrew Laddams, comments:
‘Arena holds key contracts with all of the UK’s mainstream broadcasters, each of whom rely on us to provide multi- camera coverage. We are a Telegraph 1000 business and have remained in family ownership for more than 20 years.’
Room for improvement After the 2008 revisions to BS 7909 were published, there was greater pressure to ensure best practice when it came to the use of electricity in outside broadcasts. Asked why it took so long for this to happen, Laddams responds: ‘The industry has a good reported safety record as far as electrical injuries are concerned. However, after reviewing the new publication, it was felt by both companies that there were still areas that could be improved to ensure this remained the case.’ However, after speaking to a couple of well known
industry bodies they were no further forward in achieving their objective. Chris Pratt explains: ‘We were effectively told that if the installation wasn’t fixed they couldn’t help us, which
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