The Last Mile

Guest Post: Carbon Counting at the Super Bowl is More Fun on a Segway PT

The following post is by Katie Carpenter from Green Media Solutions. Katie works with NBC Universal and helped make Segway a part of the NBC Sports Super Bowl activities.

The word from the NBC Sports production staff down at the Tampa Stadium today is that the Segway PTs were a huge help as they needed to bounce around getting everything ready for last night’s big game broadcast. PAs and PMs (production assistants and production managers) especially have benefitted — show scripts change frequently, new interview sound bytes need to be integrated into video tape segments, producers and camera-people need major reinforcements (videotape, microphone batteries, Red Bulls) — and these are things that just can’t wait when you’re producing the SUPER BOWL.

Having won the most important and possibly terrifying production gig in television anywhere on the planet, NBC Sports producers were under a tremendous amount of pressure to create an unforgettable broadcast. The game was seen in 48.2 million households according to Nielsen, which made it so important that the 30-second commercial spots were selling for up to $3 million each. (And with the exception of Wall Street executives who received lavish bonuses last year, there are just not that many people who even HAVE $3 million any more…)

So it’s a big deal. To be able to skip the line of gas-powered golf carts and SUVs waiting in the lot, and step right onto your Segway PT, strap on your helmet and take off with that hot piece of videotape under your arm — it just saved time and aggravation. Plus, the Segway PTs don’t smell nearly as bad! Not only do they reduce air pollution, but they use so little power, they are actually reducing our dependence on foreign oil. The Segway PT runs on two lithium-ion batteries that charge up overnight (for those who are counting, they consume about 1 kWh of energy from a wall outlet for a full charge). On that, you can get up to 24 miles of traveling — that’s a lot of trips back and forth between the NBC Sports Control Room in a trailer in the parking lot and the outlying set at the far end of the NFL Experience theme park across the road. They’ve been cruising back and forth (at up to 12 mph, just about as fast as anyone else can get there) pretty much all day and night for the last ten days.

It’s been worth it — the tape packages, the interviews, the graphics and all the elements going into the Super Bowl broadcast were awesome, and the carbon calculators are happy today. They’ve been working to measure and reduce NBC’s carbon footprint for months — on Nightly News, Saturday Night Live, various series and specials — but they’re relaxing after a solid report on biodiesel usage in the broadcast generators and recycling throughout the NBC Sports campus. But nothing beats eliminating the carbon cost of two gas-powered golf carts (not to mention the SUVs that get used when the golf carts are already in use) by using Segway PTs instead. Sweet.

Now, if only they could have gotten Bruce Springsteen to ride out on a Segway PT during half-time… The Boss would have loved it!

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