TECHNOLOGY
GREENER DATA
“WE’RE TRYING TO MAKE THAT PART OF THE MEDIA SUPPLY CHAIN FASTER AND CLEANER”
describes as “the engine room,” including compliance, transcoding, encryption. “We’re trying to make that part of the media supply chain faster and cleaner…. We’re looking at things like repetition and latency which will slow down processes and cause the use of more energy.” If there’s a blockage, it can be impacting processing time, storage, and the ability to meet deadlines.
NEW RESOLUTIONS When it comes to delivering to the consumer, power used by end-user devices is the biggest contributor to emissions. But the higher the resolution of streamed content, the more Gigabytes it uses, and the more power is needed. 4K uses considerably more GBs than standard definition. “We need to remember that watching high
quality content with more vivid colours and higher resolution make our business model stronger, as consumers want a premium experience,” says Tomasz Witkowski. “However, let’s be aware that any unnecessary process can create a huge carbon impact if we do it wrong.” Higher grade resolution has been used as a
way of driving revenue for broadcasters; attention needs to turn from this to cost savings on energy. “What’s important is to fully understand the relationship between data formats, cost, and energy to find the optimal solution for revenue drive, cost savings and energy efficiency,” says Dee Davison, global director of Sustainability at Deluxe Media Entertainment. “The Greening of Streaming IBC Accelerator project launching this year should help demystify some of this.” The Greening of Streaming is an organisation
created to address concerns about the energy impact of the streaming sector. Its latest initiative is the LESS Accord, standing for Low Energy Sustainable Streaming. The idea is to give permission to ask out loud what many engineers
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in the industry already instinctively, privately think and to explore how we might be able to deliver services that fulfil the consumers expectations without simply overselling imperceptible quality/ value propositions, and creating inappropriate, expensive, unsustainable and unnecessary energy demands for no benefit to the viewer. A standardised measure of power would allow
consumers to choose whether to stream 4K or something lower. At the DPP, Abdul Hakim sums up the need for measurability. “Fundamentally what’s lacking at the moment is the data for people to really understand their consumption patterns.” It’s a basic. “Energy consumption needs to be baked into the way the internet works,” adds Hakim. This measurability and transparency applies
across the board. When it comes to replacing networks, storage centres, or any other kit, it’s important to understand the carbon cost of replacing, as well as accounting for any green operating credentials. Lifecycle labelling is urgently needed to understand the environmental cost of embodied carbon used to make any new product and vendors are increasingly looking at recycling models. DIMPACT, a collaborative research project
convened by Carnstone, with researchers from Bristol University and a raft of media companies, has gone some way towards the measurement of carbon footprint in the media industry. Sky is one of the founding participants. “The project has developed an online calculator to map the carbon impact of digital value chains and we are actively using the DIMPACT tool to better understand the emissions associated with digital footprint,” says Fiona Ball, Group Director of the Bigger Picture Sustainability Team at Sky. Standardisation, transparency and common
sense will come to the fore as carbon reduction becomes law. Without rules to kick people and companies into touch, changes have been slow. “Regulation will increase for all businesses, and this will force the issue,” says Davison at Deluxe.
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