IBC2022 Tech Papers: Sustainability in the delivery of outside broadcasts

Abstract

The need to move towards zero carbon business practices is an imperative for all industries in order to mitigate the effects of climate change. The correct and most elegant solution can only be achieved by understanding the problem and then implementing the most sustainable methods to achievethe greatest impact.

This paper explores the use of remote production techniques within television production and concludes that it is not the best approach in the stated goal of a reduction or elimination of carbon emissions, whilst at the same time maintaining the highest editorial, production and technical standards in the outside broadcast production of live events.

Introduction

The last 10 years has seen a steady move to investigate and implement remote production as a new way of delivering outside broadcasts. Perceived originally as a more cost-effective form of production, the transition has been accelerated by a need to create physical distance through the 2020-22 global covid-19 pandemic, where traditional technical standards have been abandoned in a race to keep television on air.

With the increase of understanding in the westernworld of the need to tackle climate change, as is highlighted by the move to electric vehicles encouraged at a governmental level ‘DfT(1)’, the justification for remote production has shifted once again from cost saving, to social distancing and now to carbon reduction.

In this never-ending march to make the Emperor’s new clothes, it is entirely possible that the real benefits of remote production are being oversold to the detriment of the newly appointed goal of carbon reduction and that a new approach,which is developed from the ground up to solve the problem, is needed. This paper explores this idea, with key insights as to how best to approach the need to reduce the carbon footprint of outside broadcast television productions.