Dave Priester, director of technical operations for the Roy H. Park School of Communications, called our attention to a spiffy new sustainable equipment upgrade in their master control suite. Their new Miranda Kaleido-x Multiviewer™ handles all three television production control rooms plus a couple of additional editing displays from one central location. Installing this Multiviewer™ has enabled the Office of Technical Operations to get rid of more than 20 cathode ray tube (CRT) monitors so far.
CRT monitors have long been popular in the broadcast industry because of their greater color fidelity and contrast, better resolution when displaying moving images, and better view from angles -- although improvements in LCD technology has eased many of these concerns. The high-quality images displayed on a CRT monitor have come at a price: CRTs use more than three times the energy of comparable LCD screens.
According to the U.S. Department of Energy's Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Network, when both units are "awake," a CRT consumes 150 watts, while a comparable flat-screen LCD monitor uses 50 watts. The energy-saving difference is even more dramatic when both units are "asleep": the CRT continues to draw 30 watts, while the LCD monitor "zones out" at a modest 3.5 watts.
During a fall 2005 energy audit performed by a team from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), the auditors conservatively estimated that replacing each CRT with an LCD monitor would have an annual energy savings per year of about $35 each, if the monitor is powered on continuously. Another important benefit the NYSERDA team noted was the greatly reduced amount of heat generated from the use of LCD monitors, which has a significant impact on buildings' air conditioning costs.
Obviously, losing 20 "big box" CRT units from various editing rooms has also had a dramatic impact on available elbow room, a commodity the Park School can always use. And the technology of the Multiviewer™ adds the ability to display audio metering and alarm conditions.
In addition, if users don't like the way the displays are arranged, they can be changed with relatively simple software adjustments and the configurations saved for later recall. Try that with a stack of CRTs!
Most of the excessed CRTs were salvaged through the College's arrangement with an electronics salvage company, keeping them out of the landfill. A few units were retained as spares should the 20 or so remaining CRTs in other applications die before they are finally replaced in summer 2008 with an expansion of the currently installed Multiviewer™ hardware.
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https://www.ithaca.edu/sustainability/outreach_greenthumbsup.php
