Maintain Master Control with Proper Heat Management – Editorial by Dave Van Hoy, ASG President

Heat kills broadcast and IT equipment. When the heat builds, it can damage the various components you need to run your station, deliver presentations in your classrooms and auditoriums, or provide access to content for your post-production needs. Most master controls don’t have an ambient temperature that supports IT or broadcast equipment, of course, so you’ll need more than the integrated fans in your equipment for proper heat management. 

Much of today’s IT equipment is designed to operate in warmer temperatures – between 78 and 80 degrees – which means less cooling is required. For most broadcast equipment, however, the optimal room temperature is 68 degrees, because of temperature-sensitive components that are different than what you’d find in a typical server or switch. 

Need to move master control to a new area of an existing building? Avoid spaces with exterior windows, which essentially act like solar heaters. Also, if you have a choice, a bigger space is always better. With a smaller space, there’s not a lot of margin for error. If the AC fails, the smaller room will get hotter faster, which means the risk of damaging your equipment gets much higher much faster. If you are stuck with a compact space, consider a self-contained rack enclosure system with integrated cooling, which can act as a primary or secondary cooling alternative. 

Remember, you need to both cool the room and remove heat from the equipment in the room. One time-tested equipment layout technique is the “hot aisle/cold aisle” layout, which uses air flow management based on your equipment’s interior cooling fans. Basically, you face multiple racks away from each other, and direct the exhausted hot air from the back of all the components to the room’s AC return vent. Studies have shown the hot aisle/cold aisle layout can increase AC efficiency by up to 20 percent, which can result in significant power savings. 

Still have questions about proper heat management for your facility? Let the experts at ASG install and design a system that will keep your equipment cool without requiring your engineering staff to wear a parka in master control.