Outside broadcast firm, Cloudbass, is the proud owner of three new Volvo electric HGV tractor units, which it is using to service a Sky Sports contract. An interesting evolution in the company’s use of power is how it intends to use the e-HGV’s to not only take its sustainability credentials to a new level, but how it can also potentially use the vehicles as a redundant power supply in case of emergency while working on location.
In terms of redundancy, Steve Knee, managing director at Cloudbass, says a key bonus of the e-HGV trucks is that they carry their own power supply which can be tapped into if needed.
He explains: “What do you do if you suddenly lose onsite power completely? Well you’ve got a 384 kilowatt hour battery sat in your tractor unit that’s full of electrons. So if we can harness that to then back up the broadcast power, that will potentially run our truck for two days, and you’ve always got that redundancy.
“You never have to have a diesel generator on site. You have your shore power, but as long as you can make sure the transition is seamless, which obviously we can do, then potentially you can use the power that’s stored in your road-going vehicles to then back up the broadcast. So that’s what we’re doing.”
Battery backup
The new electric units include electric power take off, so onboard batteries can be fully charged using Cloudbass’ recently installed solar panel array at its base, then that power can be diverted as redundant power to run the OB, should other power supplies fail.
“You don’t have to take a diesel generator onto site if you’ve got shore power, UPS in the trucks that will probably last three to four hours, and then we’re going to have a battery solution in the tender as well that will provide backup and seamless coverage between different sources. So potentially on site, just between those things, we’ve probably got six hours before we have to even consider another power source,” says Knee.
He adds: “I’m far more confident running an outside broadcast off a steady state battery solution than I am running off a diesel generator, because diesel generators cough and splutter and they have fuel blockages and filter blockages and what have you. And even with a twin set, if you’re not careful, if when one set starts to go down, it will sometimes take the other one down too. So power failure does happen, but a good solid state source of power I think is much more reliable for a broadcast, so better all round.”
New level of sustainability
Onsite power, omitting diesel generators, and having that power backup potential from the batteries on the trucks themselves, is all adding up to a new level of sustainability, says Knee.
“When I did my analysis and my carbon calculator, the two areas that were really generating the carbon were crew transport and power generation. So we want to move to much more onsite power. These new electric trucks are brand new builds, they’re very power efficient, with a much lower power draw than your traditional OB truck, so that opens up the possibility of onsite power.”
Th main challenge here is around communicating with stadiums about power draw, says Knee: “We’ve got to reassure stadiums that we can draw power low enough that it doesn’t affect their normal matchday operations.”
However, he adds that in many other circumstances, there simply is not the onshore power to draw from, in which case these battery-based solutions coming out of Cloudbass provide a unique answer.
Knee explains: “If we go to more traditional broadcasts in other locations, then we’re having that problem of there won’t be any site power to draw upon at all. In Scotland we’re using our Tesla-generator solution, which is running in and out of all the BBC Alba sports contracts at the moment for Sunset+Vine. That’s now regularly delivering in Scotland week in, week out.”
Knee continues on its Tesla battery van solution for power on location: “That’s with our van-based solution. We’ve upgraded it by 50%, so we’ve got more Powerwalls in there now that will do two broadcasts on the trot. They go to site now [in Scotland] and the team switches on the battery solution and they don’t worry about shore power, they don’t worry about anything, they just run off the batteries for the entire broadcast.
“They can bounce into another match as well and do that entire broadcast,” he continues. “It’s completely monitorable from their phones so they can see exactly the curve [of power] going down, and they are very confidently doing that for BBC Scotland and Sunset+Vine. But also we’re doing Debate Night [a topical debate programme] for Mentorn Media, so they’re doing off that as well.
“We’re running silently in Scotland at the moment,” Knee concludes.
