From TV in a dust bowl to leading-edge tech – the veterans helping keep BFBS on the air
Picture the scene – you're 4,000 miles from home, being sweat-free is a distant memory, desert dust is a permanent feature and you know at least one person who claims to have seen someone fry an egg on a Land Rover.
On hot days in the UK, people reminisce about the much-complained-about rainy days and visit a local supermarket to stand in the frozen aisle, but in Camp Bastion, Afghanistan, when temperatures routinely got above 50° Celsius in the summer months, communal welfare areas and tented accommodation with air conditioning were the places to be.
And what better way to spend your downtime than listening to music or watching your favourite TV shows with mates, just like your family is at home – all thanks to British Forces Broadcasting Service (BFBS).
If you speak to a veteran about BFBS, the charity is often referred to as a lifeline by those who have served overseas, and their families.
A familiar way to connect back home and those that matter to you the most.
And for one veteran, his transition to life out of the military eventually led him back to BFBS in a way that, he says, feels very full circle.
From military service to TV service
Royal Air Force veteran Brad Carter and his business partner, British Army veteran Chris Clarke, founded Cerberus Tech in 2012 to seamlessly deliver video from one point on Earth to another without being restricted by satellite footprints.
They both used their military skills learned during their service to develop successful careers in civilian life as they were both communications specialists for their branch – Mr Carter joined the RAF's Tactical Communications Wing and Mr Clarke served with the Royal Corps of Signals.
In 2023, they won the contract to design and operate a bespoke multiplex package for BFBS capable of reaching some of the most remote and technically challenging environments in the world.
The men had gone from military service to providing a service on civvy street that they had enjoyed 15 years before.
And while they take great pride in the work they do for all their clients, such as Discovery and Virgin Media, and don't treat any channel differently, they say their work with BFBS hits differently.
Speaking to BFBS Forces News, Mr Carter said: "I think the difference with BFBS is that we know the value of what that end customer gets out of that.
"And it's not just another TV channel, is it?
"It's a bit of home for people that have to work in places that we wouldn't choose to go on holiday, would we, let's face it?
"So, for both of us being ex-military... we wouldn't treat it differently, but it certainly holds a bit more weight in our own hearts."
Mr Carter served with the RAF for four years and was deployed to Afghanistan at the start of 2006.
Based at Kandahar, Mr Carter was responsible for communications for most of the base and BFBS became a "lifeline home".
Armed with just a projector, a tent and BFBS equipment, Mr Carter and his friends would entertain themselves with movie nights and keep up to date with the latest news on BFBS Reports – now BFBS Forces News – to help them feel less like they were "isolated in the middle of a dust bowl".
Even as a contractor out of the military, Mr Carter often found himself working back in Camp Bastion and was reminded yet again of the value BFBS has in the lives of service personnel and their families living overseas.
He said: "You're in an [abnormal] place and it's a bit of normality that you would have sat in your living room or sat on base in the coffee shop or whatever, you know, wherever you happen to be."
Movie machine magic
Mr Clarke's first time encountering BFBS was when he deployed to Camp Slim Lines in Kosovo at the start of his British Army career.
BFBS Cinemas sent what is known today as the Movie Machine, an HGV lorry that can be transformed into a fully equipped cinema. Today the mobile cinemas are heated and air-conditioned and can show all the latest digital movies in 2D and 3D.
Of this experience, Mr Carter told his business partner it was a "big thing".
He adds: "It's just a bit of normality and it pre-dates the time of being able to watch YouTube on your iPhone or whatever, you know?"
You just get s*** done
Mr Carter prides himself on the efficiency of the service Cerberus Tech provides and recognises that it's probably his and Mr Clarke's military experience that helps.
He said: "I think the fastest service delivery ever made was less than 10 minutes from speaking to the people and [saying] go ahead.
"I think it's that typical military mentality of... you just get s*** done."
The veteran says the broadcast industry is known for working at a slow place – but not BFBS, he says.
He sees the charity as an innovative, forward-thinking company that provides the military community vital services and is very military-like in its attitude to getting stuff done.
In this full-circle journey, veterans who once relied on BFBS for a taste of home are now instrumental in ensuring that future service personnel can enjoy the same vital connection.
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