UPS Backup Power Source Technology

Learn how these two leading UPS back-up power source technologies are different:

Offline Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS)

Online Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS)

Why Your Digital Equipment Needs a UPS Back-up Power Source & Your Analog Equipment Doesn't

Mechanical Knobs vs Bits/Bytes

Older, analog equipment usually fared quite well following a power-outage because their mechanical switches and knobs stayed in the same positions - there was no need to reset equipment following a power anomaly. 

But with digital technology, a power drop - even for a mere second - can mean that the equipment must be completely re-configured - a time-consuming manual process. 

Think of a power drop to digital equipment as the equivalent of randomly moving all of the switches and dials on analog equipment.  These can be expensive both in terms of raw costs as well as the cost to a company’s reputation.

UPS Back-Up Power Source:  A Case Study

Take the radio broadcast industry as an example.  As stations replace their analog consoles and equipment with newer digital versions, they learned the hard way how time consuming it can be to manually re-set the many parameters following a power anomaly. 

In an industry like broadcasting, where time is money - lost time directly impacts the ability to sell ad space (and thus generate revenue).  In addition to lost revenue stream, broadcasters must consider the value of their company’s reputation. 

On-location sports broadcast trucks have learned this lesson, which is why rack mounted UPS panels are a standard back-up power source for remote broadcast trucks like those used for sporting events.