Greening the Airwaves: How The Broadcasting Industry is Pioneering Environmental Sustainability (And How You Can Too)
Sustainability has certainly become an industry buzzword, with broadcasters, production companies and digital media agencies alike, converging towards safer and more robust sustainable broadcast practices.
Similarly, environmental pressure from audiences comes at a time when climate change and global warming have reached a danger zone.
Heard of the phrase, ‘Eco-Friendly Innovation’?
This is the process by which companies adopt renewable filming measures, redesign technologies, and adjust operational processes to minimise their projects’ environmental impact while increasing the creative flair of their work.
This is a challenge for most, and something industry veterans have long tried to establish with their broadcast endeavours.
After which the question becomes, ‘How do we create more engaging content outside of what we’ve previously done?’
2 of the many factors…
While you consider what this might entail, let’s examine just two of the bigger factors that have impacted the adoption of sustainability in broadcast transmission.
#1 The 2020 pandemic
COVID-19, a global phenomenon that temporarily shut down the broadcast space, prompted broadcasters to devise new methods of capturing and distributing content with minimal movement.
REMI workflows became a mandatory feature of work and something that brands continue to implement, where possible.
While remote broadcasts were already steadily on the rise, the pandemic forced corporations to hugely accelerate this.
The good news is that solutions that benefit the environment can also benefit broadcast contributions and transmissions in immeasurable ways.
As a result, we’ve seen companies dispatch smaller teams, and re-evaluate the names they list on a call sheet.
If we can transmit content remotely, then we can shift the number of people we need onsite and get them to engage with their duties remotely, with minimal disruption to the environments in which we film.
#2 The Paris 2024 Olympic Games and the decarbonisation agenda
Equally, we’ve seen the impact of large events and sports tournaments, especially given that these broadcasts have an astronomical carbon footprint.
The International Olympic Committee’s decision to award Paris as host city for the 2024 Olympic Games was, in large part, due to its decarbonisation pledge.
One of their eight decarbonisation strategies was to deploy more responsible digital technology, with examples being:
- More than 70% of the equipment used for this year’s games was leased
- 100% of the equipment purchased will be reconditioned or reused once the tournaments end
- Active measures put in place to reduce the volume of kit
- Television screens reduced by 28%
- Printers reduced by 27%, and they’ve decreased the size of display screens in production and media zones. After all, if we regularly work from our portable devices, do we really need a 60” display screen? The Parisian committee decided to reduce the screen size from 55” inches to 32” to mitigate the excessive production of this hardware.
Working sustainably doesn’t just carry environmental benefits, it makes greater financial sense too.
“Studies have shown that remote productions can add cost savings of up to 30%. Production teams can work on multiple projects in a single day, making efficient use of the additional travel time that often comes with working onsite.” Simon Haywood, Founder of JACKSHOOT
Likewise, most production facilities are now powered by renewable energy providers, ensuring that broadcast centres remain in constant carbon cycles to offset the impact of their works.
3 ‘Green’ broadcast strategies
Over the years, we’ve seen notable development strategies to ‘Go Green,’ and incorporate sustainable technology solutions.
To name a few:
1 Virtual productions
“An important 2023 research report1 found that in the film and broadcast industries, virtual productions could reduce carbon emissions by up 50%, or more, subject to the level of investment from broadcasters, streaming platforms and independent production agencies.”
Abi Hemingway, Joint MD
Almost every industry show will have multiple partners and agencies promoting virtual production technologies, the ability to create ‘life-like’ environments without the need to source and travel to these locations.
With a reduced movement of resources, teams are consolidated in a few locations.
Virtual studio sets can adjust to the setting and scene requirements, and content turnover is far greater.
Real-time game engines, LED screens, camera tracking, and AR/VR elements engage audiences in different ways.
Interactive features in broadcast bode well with consumers and increase audience retention.
However, as with every venture, these workflows don’t come without limitations.
While travel, freight and location degradation are reduced, these technologies require large volumes of power.
We’ve also seen that virtual hardware manufacturing has larger carbon emissions than traditional broadcast technologies.
While we have offsetting schemes to mitigate these factors, traditional carbon calculators are not designed to measure these shortfalls.
So, the full environmental impact of this quality of work is still yet to be determined.
2 Cloud-based production workflows
“Have you backed it up to the cloud?” Is a phrase we hear often.
Cloud-based production suites have opened up new possibilities for broadcast.
We can now capture and distribute content just about anywhere in the world using a standard internet connection to connect to the cloud.
Cloud service providers operate large, highly efficient data centres that use less energy per unit of computing power compared to on-premises servers.
These data centres often implement advanced cooling systems, energy-efficient and optimised resource allocation.
“By sharing computing resources among many users, cloud services reduce the need for individual production companies to maintain their own power-hungry workstations. There are fewer trucks and large broadcast units brought to every project location, and financially, smaller brands and federations can afford to capture and distribute content with these workflows.” Ken Coppel, Operations Director, JACKSHOOT
On-demand scalability is something we’re very keen on here at JACKSHOOT.
Cloud resources can be scaled up or down based on actual needs, preventing the over-provisioning of hardware, which leads to more efficient use of resources, avoiding the environmental costs of unused capacity.
Additionally, we can slowly give physical storage the boot and make way for digital archiving! Storage media has a significant environmental impact we don’t often consider. The production, transportation and disposal of these materials increases broadcasts’ carbon footprint.
With digital archiving, we can access content from any location and increase the response time between download, edit, and playout.
Working digitally reduces the amount of printed materials that would contribute to deforestation and pollution. Let’s ask ourselves, “Does the call sheet really need to be printed?”
3 Offsetting carbon emissions
Sometimes the nature of the broadcast makes it difficult to implement every eco-friendly strategy on the market.
Often a compromise is required, and the environmental expense is mandatory to maintain the integrity of the broadcast.
Carbon offsetting schemes are an excellent way for corporations to support and invest in sustainability initiatives.
That’s not to say we burn what we want and pay our way out of it! But, with every contribution paid forward to the environmental economy we can fund the time and resources to design new eco-friendly strategies for these broadcasts.
An excellent initiative is WEEE Recycling – the fastest-growing waste stream in the UK.
Companies certified with a WEEE Waste Carriers License can consciously dispose of products that are faulty or no longer required.
It’s an excellent stream that tracks the movement of waste to ensure that we are efficiently recycling and working smarter with our planet’s resources.
With every new social media subscriber, JACKSHOOT pledges to donate and plant a tree with Just One Tree on their behalf.
Just One Tree is a global environmental service with a mission to restore biodiversity across the planet. They provide homes for wildlife, raise rural employment, capture water, protect the coastline and heal our oceans.
With our support, JACKSHOOT is one of many assisting this very important cause, ensuring that every venture and contributor to our business is shaping the future to go green!
JACKSHOOT – our sustainability agenda
At JACKSHOOT, our agenda is clear, to minimise the environmental impact of our broadcasts without compromising on the quality of our content.
Over the years, we have incorporated many eco-friendly measures into our broadcast practices, and equally developed and pioneered new technologies and streaming strategies to revolutionise how we deliver content.
A big development for us is our work across IP broadcasts, with a move to introduce clients and partners to new cloud-based workflows that mitigate excessive on-location builds.
Our ‘green’ technologies reduce the volume of kit transported from location to location, and they’re so small and compact, that they’re perfect for easy travel with the engineers who install them.
BKFC
A recent example of this is seen in our work with the Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship, with one remote gallery in Philadelphia, PA, USA, receiving feeds from over 20 locations around the world.
Our engineers installed JACKSHOOT’s IP transmission devices at each event location. With this small device, feeds are sent back to a single gallery for final finishing and playout.
In this approach, transmission is established without the need for satellite trucks or fibre installs, which would otherwise create greater environmental damage.
Our newly designed workflow connects global audiences and diversifies the client’s product offering, another excellent way to innovate the programme and build a presence in new territories without breaking the bank or damaging the environment.
Simply put, our mission is for the industry to reimagine its broadcast needs and invest in eco-friendly technologies—short-term investments with long-term rewards.
We promote a ‘minimal risk’ production chain, always working to the lowest environmental impact. This has opened up new creative avenues, standardised sustainability, and secured safe working environments for future generations.
We know the problem, and how to address it. Now is the time to act!
Ready to join us in making the future greener and cleaner?
P.S. Going to IBC? Join us on the Flint Green Line, a unique media industry networking event taking place in a dedicated Eurostar carriage heading to the IBC Show in September.
The Green Line sets out from London’s St. Pancras Station on Thurs, Sept. 12, offering IBC attendees low-carbon, direct travel to Amsterdam, accompanied by an afternoon of networking with fellow industry professionals interested in improving their sustainability practices.
There are still tickets left – and we’ll be on it!
1 The 2023 UN Climate Change Summit, held the 28th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP28), in which Northern Ireland’s Studio Ulster