Environmentally harmful livestreams - does it have to be?

Whether Twitch, live concerts or even events on YouTube, they all have one thing in common. They run as a volume of data and usually across national borders as well as numerous servers. More and more people are becoming aware that these processes naturally cost energy and thus basically generate emissions. But does that automatically mean that livestreams harm the environment? In short: no. It only depends on the right solutions, intentions and, to some extent, the behaviour of the streamers.

Our infrastructure "speaks" ecologically

At 3Q, we only use electricity from renewable energy sources for all our data centres and for the entire information & communication infrastructure. This is a matter of course for us. But the "good energy" is not enough for us. That's why we are always working to reduce the power consumption of our technologies and at the same time increase the performance of the systems. In this way, we achieve ever better efficiency and always get the best out of it. After all, resource-efficient operation also means saving costs for us.

We currently use AMD Epic processors, which are significantly more power-efficient than the previous ones and can deliver more computing power at the same time. We realise our hosting with fast NVMe SSD hard drives . These are faster than conventional hard drives and at the same time require much less power. 

The runtime of all other components for our solutions is also constantly optimised. By continuously adjusting the up- and downtimes of our technology as well as, for example, efficient planning of updates, we achieve a maximum level of savings. We are currently also orienting ourselves towards the energy management system (EnMS) in accordance with ISO 50001:2018 and thus achieving an extreme reduction in CO2 emissions at the same time.

Together with streamers for the environment

When it comes to the actual use of the solutions, we advise our customers so as not to waste energy and resources. In the past, customers have been able to reduce their energy consumption. The main recommendation is to avoid any unnecessary operating time. For example, if the client uses the player's built-in countdown function, there is no need to create a separate stream.

If we think about it further, on-demand content can also be stored in a resource-saving way. We recommend choosing the optimal file size and bit rate here. This leads to less memory usage on the storage system. The content is then retrieved with minimal processing time.

Last but not least, we use re-streaming as far as it makes sense and is possible. This means that we send the live signal from a central location to several platforms and do not control them individually. Less bandwidth consumption for on-site production and drastically lower hardware costs are the result.

You see better with the future in sight

The measures we take ourselves or together with Streamer lead to a noticeable saving of processor and system power just by the sheer volume of our streams. This makes our entire solution increasingly efficient. We always keep an ear open for suggestions, new findings and economical ways. So our livestreams run with the latest technology and leave the smallest possible ecological footprint.