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What 'Load-In' and 'Power Budget' Mean on an Outside Broadcast

Daniel Whitcombe

5 min read

Two phrases shape every location feed we set up: the load-in window and the power budget. Daniel Whitcombe explains what each one covers and why they decide whether a feed stays on air.

What 'Load-In' and 'Power Budget' Mean on an Outside Broadcast

Two phrases that decide a location day

Anyone who has stood in a muddy field at seven in the morning with a lorry of equipment knows that two phrases run the day: the load-in and the power budget. They sound administrative, yet they decide whether cameras are live at the agreed time or whether we are still pulling cable when the first act walks on.

I am Daniel Whitcombe, the signal engineer at zoryli, and in this piece I want to explain both terms in plain words, the way I would to a producer or an event organiser who has never had to think about them. Outside Broadcast Support, for us, means a temporary feed setup on location, and these two ideas sit underneath all of it: cabling, power and remote monitoring.

What load-in actually covers

Load-in is the period during which equipment is brought onto a site, placed, connected and made ready. It is not simply the time the van is parked. It includes access to the venue, the route from the vehicle to the working position, any lift or stair that has to be used, and the hours when the site manager allows crews inside.

A good load-in window is agreed in writing before the day. If the venue only opens at noon and the feed is due at two, there are two hours to unload, run cable, power up, test and fix whatever fails. Most problems we see in autumn come from windows that were assumed rather than confirmed, often because another contractor holds the same door.

  • Access times for people and vehicles
  • Route from unloading point to working position
  • Who else is loading in at the same time
  • Time left for testing before the feed is due

Reading the power budget

A power budget is a simple tally of how much electricity our equipment will draw, set against how much the site can safely supply. Every camera, monitor, switcher and encoder lists its consumption, and we add them up with some margin. The result tells us whether a single socket will do or whether we need a separate, properly protected supply.

Venues are often generous with promises and vague with detail. A hall may say it has plenty of power, when what it means is a shared circuit already feeding catering and lighting. Asking which circuit, what rating and who else is on it is not fussy. It is the question that prevents a trip at the worst possible moment, and it takes five minutes on a site visit or a phone call.

Why the two are linked

Load-in and power budget look like separate topics, but they pull on each other. A long cable run saves a generator but costs load-in time. A distant power point may force a longer route, which means more cable to lay, tape down and protect where the public will walk. Each choice moves hours around.

When we plan a temporary feed, we draw both on one sheet: where the equipment sits, where the supply comes from, and how long the setup needs. If the numbers do not agree, something changes before the day, not during it. Moving a camera position or asking for an earlier access slot is cheap in a planning email and expensive on site with a broadcaster waiting.

Backup power and remote monitoring

Once the feed is running, the power budget has a second job. It tells us what a backup needs to carry. A small battery unit that keeps the encoder and the main monitor alive for a few minutes is worth far more than a large one that cannot be moved. The aim is time to switch over, not hours of autonomy.

Remote monitoring ties in here. Because the signal is watched from our base as well as on site, a drop in supply or a failing link shows up as a warning before the picture suffers. We would rather see a quiet alert and act on it than discover a fault from a producer's message. Calm handling comes from having looked at the numbers earlier.

Questions to put to a venue

If you are organising an event and expect a feed to leave it, a few questions to the venue save a great deal of worry. None of them needs technical language, and a clear answer to each tells us most of what we need before we visit.

Written answers are better than remembered ones, because staff change between a site visit and the day itself. We keep a short note for every location, and we ask organisers to confirm the same points with their venue contact. That habit turns an uncertain morning into an ordinary one, which is exactly what a good outside broadcast should feel like to everyone except the people running it.

  • Which circuit will our equipment use, and what is its rating
  • What time can we enter, and who lets us in
  • Is there a protected route for cables across public areas
  • Who is the contact if power or access changes on the day

Load-in and power budget are small phrases with large consequences. One tells us when we can work, the other tells us what we can safely run. Agreed early and written down, they remove most of the surprises from a location day, and the feed that reaches the broadcaster is steady because the unglamorous groundwork was done weeks before anyone pressed a button.

Written by

Daniel Whitcombe

Signal Engineer

Daniel designs and monitors the signal paths behind every zoryli feed. He keeps the backup routes ready.

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