Sustainable Power Is Key to Greener Live Sports Production

The right balance enables positive environmental impact while meeting customer needs

Big sports events like Super Bowl XLVIII can shine a spotlight on sustainability and how TV compounds across the Las Vegas area need to become more green without compromising the power needs of a wide variety of productions. Barbara Lange, principal/ CEO, Kibo121, a boutique sustainability consultancy for the broadcast-media industry, recently spoke with Aaron Frye, director, production power, Filmwerks, about how sustainability demands are changing companies tasked with keeping TV compounds and production trucks running and on-air.

How does sustainability factor into your business?
Sustainability plays a huge role in our operations. One key way is our deployment of UPS [uninterrupted power supply], which ensures a continuous and reliable operation. Our UPS deployment is connected to the utility power, which is delivering green energy and is backed up by a big bank of batteries.

An uninterrupted power supply (UPS) can help broadcasters meet sustainability metrics.

With this setup, if there were any power interruptions — which does happen a lot more than most people know — nobody sees it. The cameras don’t see it; nobody at home sees it. The only way you know what happened is that you hear the generator start up. In milliseconds, the load gets transferred to the battery. It is all seamless.

That’s a big improvement over the traditional applications running a twin pack, two generators sharing a load. They require fuel and ongoing maintenance, which removes them from the system. By deploying the battery backup, we help reduce waste and emissions.

We started deploying this system in small steps. Eight years ago, Super Bowl 50 was the first major broadcast using UPS systems. Since then, we have grown that fleet substantially.

We hear that sustainability doesn’t always get attention when it comes to delivering a big broadcast like the Super Bowl. To what degree are broadcasters asking for sustainable solutions?
Oh yes, the broadcasters do care. They are big fans of the UPS system. Everyone that we deal with is asking for this system because of the sustainability angle, as well as providing a better operational experience. Most RFQs [request for quotations] now stipulate a UPS system.

But I imagine you still have a few generators in place?
Yes, we do, and all of our large generators still run on diesel. But, when we can, we are using HVO [hydrotreated vegetable oil] when we deploy smaller generators. There are still issues with getting clean fuel, but I expect that will evolve as it becomes more mainstream.

Some readers may not know that Filmwerks is part of Sunbelt Rentals, which has a big sustainability push. I am curious how that impacts your approach in marketing your products and services.
It has been huge for us. When we were purchased by Sunbelt Rentals, sustainability went to the next level. Sunbelt Rentals has made a huge commitment to alternative green solutions. We own what is probably the largest fleet of ESSs [energy-storage systems] in the U.S., if not the world. Sunbelt has also invested in a number of manufacturing companies. Some of them make batteries, and others make these ESSs. One big investment was with Moxion, which manufactures ESSs primarily for the motion-picture sector. Sunbelt also offers its clients a variety of electrified heavy equipment utilized in productions or in the production process.

It’s great to see these real steps to deploying sustainable solutions, but not everyone is doing it yet. What do you see as the challenges that keep some from choosing more-sustainable options?
One challenge is getting enough batteries to run a show without using a utility or a generator. At the moment, it is cost-prohibitive.

Another challenge is transportation. We are still bringing in six or seven trucks to a live production. What we save by using batteries, transportation consumes. And so, it is all about finding the right balance — having a positive impact on the environment while providing what the customer needs — at the right price.

Addressing power issues in sports production often involves a combination of adopting new technologies, optimizing existing processes, and incorporating sustainable practices to ensure efficient and reliable operations. It’s great to see innovations that allow broadcasters to adopt new techniques that deliver both a quality program and sustainability gains.