Whitepaper: “Video Shouldn’t Cost the Earth” says Blackbird

Blackbird, the cloud-native video editing platform developer, has launched a carbon awareness study titled Video Shouldn’t Cost the Earth, produced in collaboration with environmental management consultancy Green Element.

The study highlights the impact the video industry has on the environment and outlines key areas where companies can take greater strides towards meeting sustainability goals.

Blackbird and Green Element hope to sound the alarm around this accelerating issue in order to change attitudes within the video industry.

The report suggests that “embracing existing cloud-native technologies will lead to immediate reductions in emissions caused by production equipment, travel, physical network infrastructure, servers with heavy processing demands, housing for such equipment and the data transfer of large media files.”

Ian McDonough, chief executive of Blackbird, added: “According to Albert, the BAFTA backed environmental organisation, Annual Report 2019-20, ‘one hour of television production generates 9.2 tonnes of CO2 equating to almost 28 square metres of lost sea ice’. This is an urgent call to action.”

With the impact of COVID-19, many more broadcasters and content producers are starting to use the cloud for editing and post-production workflows, the company suggests, adding that “while it is evident that the move to the cloud can significantly reduce the climate impact through reductions in the number of people and equipment needed on-site, not all remote technology is carbon friendly.

“Typical cloud-based solutions need extra hardware to connect to the cloud and output from it. Most use hidden virtual infrastructure within the cloud, which consumes significant amounts of energy.”

The report cites research comparing the carbon footprint of on-premise editing vs cloud-based editing vs Blackbird and claims that over a two-week sporting event, Blackbird generates up to 91% less carbon emissions than on-premise editing solutions and up to 84% less carbon emissions compared to cloud-based solutions.

Download the report, Video Shouldn’t Cost the Earth, here.