Watching the continued coverage of the M4 siege today, it occurs to me that a sat-truck must drain an awful lot of electricity, both actually sending the signal by satellite, and all the power needed for the equipment inside it, return feeds etc.
How long can they operate for, is it normal to bring a generator along if the truck is there for a long time?
I assume the BBC are using one of these new vehicles I read about which has a camera mounted on the roof, as they now have two pictures, one of them a live shot trained on the camper van, and can mix between them.
I can't answer your question exactly, but I would imagine that the vehicles' engine would provide power in smaller OB vehicles.
When I did my stint in local radio, our radio cars had two batteries, one being a 'tech battery' and had to plug in a charging lead when we returned the car back to the garage. This battery would also charge, like the main car battery, when the car was driven. However, if the battery ran low whilst in use (ie transmitting) we could always start the car and keep going.
I have also worked on large TV OB's - and power for those is supplied by a generator truck. This provides loads of power for all the trucks, links vehicles as well as air-con etc.
IH
I Hate HTV West
Yes, they have a generator as standard.
We used the sat truck for about 8 hours for the Half-Marathon in Bristol ... and it was fine. I suppose it lasts as long as there's diesel ...
News sat-trucks and FRVs almost always have a generator on-board as standard.
It is common for the truck's engine to run on diesel, but for the generator to be entirely independent and run on petrol!
There is also often a separate 'tech' battery supply - though this is more to maintain power to the technical gear when the generator is off. It is not really possibly to run the sat uplink or microwave links gear from this, as it takes far too much power. It is more to ensure the mobile phones etc keep working.
Large OB units - like those used for sport, pop concerts etc, normally work with a separate generator (or two - important OBs often have a back up) or plug into heavy duty local power sources where available (then with a single generator for backup if required) It is also normal for these large OBs to have separate trucks for the uplinks, and often for the VT replays etc. There is also often an extra truck to carry the cameras, camera mountings, cable etc.
(This is how news can turn up with a little truck and be on-air in minutes, and large TV shows turn up with loads of trucks a day or two before an event!)
