Go green with alugha

So far the distribution of a video in several languages meant that this video had to be uploaded for every single language. First of all the corresponding video file has to be stored on an external or internal storage space, not to forget the backups. With an appropriate amount of data a bigger server is needed, this needs to be cooled and the relevant hardware has to be provided. A five minute video is roughly equivalent to an upload of 500 megabytes (with a h.264-format in 1080p). Related to this is of course the increased storage needs, which can increase rapidly. Consider the data traffic we talk about here. The synchronisation of whole movies or cinema trailers contributes to the pleasure of all of us, but damages our environment permanently.

What are the environmental consequences?

These days we accept the quick change of our consumer society. Of course everything gets bigger, better, quicker and more progressive. Everyone benefits from globalisation and technical progress. Or not? After all, who really knows already what happens when a video is uploaded? Let’s explain it to you.

• You upload a video in full-HD to YouTube
  
• YouTube now provides this video in 240p, 360p, 480p, 720p, 1080p
  
• The viewer can now watch it in all these resolutions
  

So let’s assume that your video has a length of 60 seconds,, the following file sizes apply for every language:

• 1080p -> 2.27 GB


• 720p -> 1.36 GB


• 480p -> 648 MB


• 360p -> 315 MB


• 244p -> 138 MB

The total storage volume therefore is for one video in only one language 531,90 MB. We provide 5 languages in our example. Therefore this one video in 5 languages needs a storage space of 2,66 GB on YouTube, which YouTube has to provide for every minute of video footage. The traffic when uploading an HD-video increases by about 50 MB per minute for every language. According to a statistic online portal Videoportals consume so far the largest amount of data on the internet. It states: “Nearly 29 percent of the European landline-download-traffic account to YouTube.” Such a high data traffic de facto also means an increased storage need. Large data centers, in which the servers are outsourced for a long time, cover this today. But servers need cooling and cooling needs energy - a lot of energy. And that in turn means an increased CO²-emission, which we have to prevent. The countries struggle already to meet their climate goals. If you consider how important video communication became over the last years, it presents itself as a real climate killer.

Surfing the green wave

How can environmentally conscious producers generate less traffic but still gain a big reach? Exactly. The number of uploaded videos has to be reduced. As you can upload audio tracks in other languages onto your video by using alugha, the uploading of a new video per language is not necessary anymore. Where once five videos created a massive storage need, this is now reduced by up to 90 percent. CO²-emission, hardware-exchange, energy consumption - and already everything is passé. Due to the reduced upload traffic and storage need you surf green so to speak. And this with increased speed. You think this is only a minor detail, not worth mentioning? Every minute up to 80 hours of video footage is uploaded to YouTube. If we still consider our example video, the traffic would be reduced to a fifth. So far we only talked about the upload of videos, but imagine, which enormous traffic the streaming of the video triggers. We want to raise awareness of this problem with our little green start-up, put the environment back in our consciousness even when talking about video consumption. Always consider, destroyed things won’t come back. Together we want to surf on the green video wave!