How Present Communications is reducing impact through smarter production, streamlined technology and hybrid thinking
By Kieron Garlic, Founder, Present Communications Ltd
Sustainability in events isn’t a box you tick. It’s not a poster in a breakout room or a badge on a website. For those of us working in technical production, it lives in the decisions we make long before an audience walks into a venue. It’s in how we design systems, how we move equipment, how we plan crews and how we avoid unnecessary waste.
At Present Communications, sustainability has become part of our engineering mindset. If something is inefficient, over-specified or wasteful, then it is also bad engineering. Good design is sustainable design.
Cutting carbon by rethinking travel
Travel is still the biggest environmental cost in live events. Moving people and equipment around the UK racks up emissions quickly. One of the biggest shifts we’ve made is designing productions that require fewer bodies and fewer trucks on the road.
Our remote production workflows let vision mixers, directors and support teams work from our Wimbledon studio, even when the event is happening miles away. Presenters can be on site, online or in a mix of locations. The audience never sees the difference, but the carbon savings are significant.
Equipment built to last
We take a practical approach to sustainability. We don’t upgrade for the sake of it. Instead, we invest in kit that is reliable, repairable and future-proof. Cameras, encoders, switchers and flight cases are maintained and repurposed for years, not seasons.
Our warehouse runs on LED lighting, our operations are paperless, and every cable, box and panel is used until it genuinely cannot be used again. In technical production, waste often comes from poor planning or rushed last-minute decisions. Our teams work hard to avoid both.
Smaller systems, smarter systems
People often assume resilience means more equipment. In reality, it means better equipment. Our broadcast rigs are engineered to be compact, efficient and power-conscious while still delivering full redundancy.
When one intelligently designed rack can replace half a truck of legacy gear, you cut emissions before the event has even started.
And when a high quality hybrid broadcast replaces the need for hundreds of people to travel to a physical meeting, the sustainability impact is huge.
Working with partners who care
We actively choose to work with venues and agencies who take sustainability seriously. Many of our regular venues are BREEAM accredited and operate on renewable energy. Our systems are designed to integrate cleanly with their infrastructure to avoid duplicating power, networking and hardware.
We also contribute to industry conversations on sustainable event tech and help clients reimagine their internal communications so they’re more efficient without losing engagement.
Sustainability that starts with design
For us, sustainability isn’t a marketing exercise. It’s a practical responsibility. When you look closely, the most sustainable events are usually the best engineered ones. The cleanest signal path is also the most reliable. The most resilient design is often the most efficient.
When you get the engineering right, everything else follows.
And in a world where events can be both high impact and low footprint, the future of sustainable production is already here. We’re proud to be part of building it.
