Compression and Innovation: the cornerstones of sustainable media delivery

As the broadcast industry continues to evolve, the need for media efficiencies that enable both scalability and sustainability has never been more critical. Today’s content owners, broadcasters, telcos and production companies face intense pressure, not only to meet increasing viewer expectations for high-quality content but to do so with fewer resources, lower emissions, and greater workflow flexibility.

At Appear, we’re helping media organisations meet these evolving demands through a combined strategy of compression technology and engineering innovation. By designing for efficiency at every level, we deliver real-world sustainability benefits that help customers operate smarter, faster, and greener.

Smarter hardware design for lower energy consumption

Appear’s media processing solutions are engineered for high efficiency, significantly cutting power usage in live broadcast workflows. Our flagship X Platform is designed for high-performance media processing, modularity and flexibility, built on custom hardware to outperform generic solutions by combining multiple processors in a high-density design. Its functional completeness allows it to meet all compression and connectivity needs in a single form factor, ensuring flawless performance in any live production environment.

Supporting up to 96 channels of HD AVC/HEVC or JPEG XS encoding in just 2 rack units, the X20 Platform enables broadcasters to expand their operations while minimising rack space, cooling requirements and power consumption.

The sustainability gains are significant:

Smarter compression for sustainable media production

Compression is the engine that drives efficient media transport. As video quality increases and distribution scales globally, delivering content at lower bitrates without compromising on quality has become a defining challenge.

At Appear, we’ve made cutting-edge compression a cornerstone of our sustainability mission. Our encoders support HEVC (H.265), a highly efficient codec that delivers equivalent or better video quality at roughly half the bitrate of the older AVC (H.264) standard. This not only reduces bandwidth consumption and storage requirements, but also decreases energy use across the entire media chain, from on-prem infrastructure to cloud delivery and CDN transmission.

The benefits go beyond bitrate reduction. Our platforms are designed to maximise spatial and thermal efficiency, packing more channels into fewer units and generating a low watt-per-channel metric that directly impacts sustainability. In one benchmark, the X Platform emitted 38× fewer CO₂ emissions than a competitive UHD encoder, proof that meaningful gains in video processing can be achieved without sacrificing performance.

This principle of “elegant engineering”, combining finely tuned hardware with optimised software, drives our innovation philosophy. We focus on performance per watt, enabling customers to future-proof their workflows while meeting rising environmental and regulatory expectations.

Enabling remote production through low-latency codecs

Modern live production is increasingly decentralised. As broadcasters seek more agile and cost-effective workflows, remote production has emerged as a powerful enabler of efficiency. But it also introduces challenges, chief among them, latency and bandwidth constraints.

That’s why Appear has integrated support for JPEG XS, a low-latency, mezzanine-level codec that offers virtually lossless quality at around 8:1 compression and sub-millisecond delay. With JPEG XS built directly into our X Platform, broadcasters can contribute high-bitrate HD and UHD feeds from venues to centralised control rooms without requiring uncompressed transmission paths or bulky infrastructure.

This has profound implications for sustainability. By reducing reliance on on-site production staff and large OB vehicles, broadcasters can drastically reduce travel, shipping, and energy costs associated with live event coverage. JPEG XS makes it feasible to deliver pristine video quality while enabling remote, distributed teams to operate effectively.

In addition to JPEG XS, Appear’s support for ultra-low-latency HEVC allows end-to-end glass-to-glass delays under 150ms. This is vital for time-sensitive contribution workflows such as live sports, esports, and betting platforms where every millisecond matters.

By combining low-latency compression with compact, power-efficient hardware, Appear offers a complete platform for modern production workflows that deliver both operational agility and environmental impact reduction.

Real-world examples: Sustainability in action

Broadcasters and content providers are already experiencing the benefits of Appear’s sustainable approach.

A global esports tournament organiser transitioned to Appear’s X Platform for encoding in its remote production centres. By replacing legacy SDI hardware with HEVC-based IP solutions (SMPTE ST 2110), they increased channel density, lowered power consumption, and drastically reduced on-site equipment needs. By sending contribution feeds over IP using efficient codecs instead of deploying large crews and OB vans at each venue, they significantly curbed travel and energy use, lowering the carbon footprint of each event.

A North American sports streaming and betting platform adopted Appear’s X20 media processors to manage a growing volume of live channels while keeping energy usage in check. With 18 HD/UHD feeds encoded and 35 return feeds decoded in a single chassis, they expanded capacity without increasing their energy consumption.

These examples demonstrate how sustainable design doesn’t just benefit the planet, it also enables competitive differentiation, more resilient operations, and long-term cost savings.

These examples demonstrate how sustainable design doesn’t just benefit the planet, it also enables competitive differentiation, more resilient operations, and long-term cost savings.

Industry context: Why sustainable media processing matters

The drive toward sustainable media delivery is not just a matter of corporate responsibility, it’s increasingly a business imperative. Regulatory frameworks such as the EU Green Deal, UK’s net-zero roadmap, and various energy efficiency guidelines are placing tangible pressure on the media and entertainment sector to reduce emissions.

At the same time, many broadcasters and telcos have made public commitments to net-zero targets. Achieving these goals requires not just green intentions, but concrete actions, especially in energy-intensive domains like live video contribution and distribution.

Appear’s approach aligns perfectly with this new era. By helping customers transition from legacy workflows to more efficient, IP-based ecosystems, we provide the tools needed to reduce Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions. And because our technology is built with longevity in mind, we enable sustainability not just today, but long into the future.

Conclusion: Enabling performance and low environmental impact

In today’s fast-moving broadcast landscape, performance and sustainability must go hand in hand. Appear’s high-density solutions combine power-efficient hardware, advanced compression, and agile IP-based workflows to help media organisations scale operations, cut costs, and meet their environmental goals.

From high-profile sports broadcasters to next-gen streaming services, customers around the world are choosing Appear to build greener workflows without compromise. As demand for live content grows, and sustainability becomes a core part of business strategy, we are proud to be at the forefront, delivering the technology that makes sustainable media delivery not only possible, but a reality.