Environmental Friendly Broadcasting

1. Green Broadcasting: Caring
for the Environment
Sharad Sadhu
Director, ABU Technology
Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union
IETE Foundation Day
2 Nov 2011, New Delhi

3. Broadcasting Industry
and Environment
Is broadcasting environmental friendly?
 Studios consume large amounts of power
 Studio lighting, video monitors
 Air conditioning
 Transmission is power hungry
 Generate RF power
 More power means more coverage
 Cooling requires more power
 Receiving end
 Millions of TV, radio receivers
 Massive consumption of power
 Broadcasting is a power hungry industry

4. Impact on Environment
It is radiation every where
 Radiation from monitors
 TV sets in homes
 BBC survey finds bulk of power in home TVs
 Heat generation, radiation effect?
 RF from Txs is radiation in bulk
 Heat generation
 Cumulative effect of RF radiation
in populated areas is significant
 The Chinsurah Light Bulb

5. RF Radiation and
Human Health
Many believe that RF affects human beings
 Studies have been conducted in some countries
 In 1970s, some suggested Tx staff using RF
helmet shields
 Subject was not pursued
 “If anybody stands in front of a ST Microwave
link, his mind will be affected”
 MW link radiated power was ½ Watt

7. Green Broadcasting:
Industry Initiatives
 LED lights for studio scene lighting
 LCD, LED monitors in studios
 Reduce power consumption by 95%, radiation
 Intelligent buildings
 Natural daylight for studio buildings
 Many other carbon friendly practices
 Even paper-less offices help
 Each web-search equals boiling two cups of tea
 Energy conservation in community radio
station
http://www.cameco.org/english/publications/CAMECO-Practice-Series/

8. Major Breakthrough in
Transmission
 New technologies, efficient antennas
 Some MW Txs now operate at 88-90% AC
to RF efficiency
 But digital can cover the same areas with
10% of analogue power
 Most digital TV Txs are 20-25% efficient,
AC to RF
 Dynamic carrier control adds 30 to 50%
 Adaptive pre-correction adds more

9. Major Breakthrough in
Transmission
 Digital Txs in FM band (p-to-av. power
reduction) also have higher efficiency
 German example
 1600 FM transmitters, 5 kW power (60%)
 A DAB+ network would need only 400 (30%)
 Still 50% less power is used
 Digital broadcasting plant is
substantially more power efficient
 Consumption goes down by 40% gross
 Lower by additional measures

11. What About
Operating Cost?
 Green technology pays for itself
 Energy cost difference in analogue and
digital
 2 kW transmitter is USD $100,000 over 10 years
 Saving on 1000 transmitters = USD $100 M
 LED lighting saves energy bills to pay for
its cost in a few years

12. Cost of Ownership?
 Concept: Cost of purchase + operating
cost for say 5 years
 Value of operating efficiency needs to be
included in initial purchase cost for
tender evaluation
 More efficient equipment gets priority in
assessing ROI
 Savings on energy costs over long periods
 Many major broadcasters have set up
Green objectives for themselves
 MediaCorp-Singapore, NHK-Japan, ABC-Australia
 Tx manufacturers have set up green specifications

13. Green Footprint
 Enhancing green footprint does not only
mean saving energy costs
 It also translates into lower RF radiation
 This enhances public safety
 We should also be conscious about
disposal of equipment at end-of-life
 Only landfill option?
 Or are there more greener options
 What about 100s of million mobile
phones / computers / TVs trashed every
year?
 What about toxic effects on humans
 Industry needs to act on this

15. How Huge is
Radiated Power
 Broadcast Tx numbers:
 2004 ABU survey: 123, 000 radio + TV Txs in Asia-Pacific
 2006: Europe reported 87, 000 Txs (GE-06)
 Globally around 1 M transmitters
 RF power levels # 20 GW
 MW, LF, SW: 10 to 2000 kW
 FM: 1 to 100 kW
 TV: up to 200 kWs
 Satellites:
 3,600 satellites send down 2 to 5 kW each
 50, 000 feeder links send up 10 kW each
 How many mobile base stations – 1 M ?
 Each with 10-50 W
 3-4 Billion mobile phones, how much?

16. How Huge is
Radiated Power ..2
 Microwave links and networks
 LOS links
 All over the world
 Communication sets
 Wide spread usage
 Amateur radio
 RFIs, SRDs
 Radars
 It is simply overwhelming

18. ABU Green
Broadcasting Award
 Green broadcasting practices need to be
encouraged
 Spread message of green broadcasting
 Stakeholders made aware of their
responsibilities
 ABU has set up an annual
GREEN BROADCASTING AWARD
 Catalyse green broadcasting

20. NO RF DAY !
 What would you say to a day of no
transmissions, RF radiation?
 Just one day in a year
 Or even just one hour?
 Do you think the world would be a
peaceful place?

21. My Commitment
 Spreading message on network group
 BIG-4: Carbon Footprint Reduction by Efficient
Broadcasting
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=3098129&trk=hb_side_g

22. THANK YOU
FOR YOUR ATTENTION