Powering a major live football event broadcast

A leading broadcast network needed a reliable power solution to broadcast their biggest game of the season to the nation and the world. To power over 25 production trucks, office trailers, and five studio sets, they were in search of a power solution that would meet their needs in a short amount of time. With a two-week time limit to complete setup, they needed a reliable, consistent power source with no chance of being interrupted. Aggreko was ready to tackle this challenge.

With an event of this magnitude, every detail is scrutinized including the utility grid. With an eye on history and some past events, the broadcasters wanted to make sure that failure was not an option. Putting on large-scale events like the customer wanted to achieve cannot be left to chance. With no room for error, they chose Aggreko to help ensure their event went off without a hitch.

Although the stadium where the event was taking place had power and grid support to control the event, the customer wanted to ensure that the broadcast would continue in its entirety in the event of catastrophic power failure. This meant that Aggreko needed to develop a solution to bridge the gap between the utility grid for a continuous, reliable source of power for the duration of the event. In addition Aggreko would need to ensure continuous power for the broadcasting trailers, equipment, stadium and the lighting surrounding the half-time performance and sound.

With the customer’s redundancy requirements in mind, Aggreko created an engineered solution that highlighted the customer’s utility infrastructure and provided uninterrupted power supply (UPS) systems scattered throughout the stadium. To ensure the event continued in case an unforeseen power failure occurred. With 3.5 MW total of UPS systems, Aggreko provided the security of power the customer needed.

Aggreko’s solutions are designed to be cost-efficient keeping sustainability in mind. By utilizing their power grid and Aggreko’s UPS systems, the customer was able to save on costs and minimize their carbon footprint by eliminating running hours for the generators needed for the event. The customer also gained confidence that in the event of a power failure, Aggreko had enough energy storage to continue the broadcast for a significant time independently until either the generator or restoration of utility power took over.