FEATURE chassis, the design is such that it can be adapted to other, potentially slightly larger vehicles as they become available in pure plug-in electric form. The BBC is committed to the albert certification scheme. Made up of 300 ‘screen arts’ companies, albert exists to support the UK production and broadcast industry’s transition to environmental sustainability, working in collaboration to accelerate the adoption of best practice. This scheme allows teams to measure their efforts of mitigating their impact on the environment. Over 2,000 productions at the BBC have used Megahertz’s production carbon calculator to quantify their emissions and over 200 have carried the albert logo onscreen, meaning they have taken measurable action to reduce their environmental impact. Megahertz, based in Ely, UK, had been looking at the possibilities of building an electric OB vehicle for about 18 months before this joint project saw the light of day. The challenges of creating an all-electric vehicle were many, and included the difficulties involved in making use of the vehicle’s traction battery to generate a technical power supply.
14 | TVBEUROPE JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2019
The technical power installation must remain separate from the vehicle installation, but the same charging port as the vehicle battery can be used by employing an ‘intelligent box’ designed by Megahertz that intercepts current from the mains. The Megahertz team also had to adapt the vehicle’s inbuilt 12V system, which powers things like lights, wipers and fans, to be able to top up the technical batteries. It allows a team caught off guard at a scene with technical batteries depleted to make use of up to 30 amps available in the vehicle system to run the technical system. The evSAT offers the BBC a maximum range of 70 to 80 miles, along with five to six hours transmission time, per charge. According to the AA in 2017, the air quality in urban areas has become a crucial issue, with more than 200 cities in 10 countries across Europe now operating Low Emission Zones where the most polluting vehicles are either banned or charged an access fee. The timely launch of ev-SAT means that broadcasters will be able to freely access these areas, which are set to increase. This can only be a good thing, for the health and wellbeing of the viewers who consume the news produced by this next generation of OB vehicle. ■