AccuWeather Debuts Next Generation of Products and Services at NAB

At the 2008 NAB Show, AccuWeather showcased its improved FirstWarn ScreenCrawler, which automatically displays National Weather Service storm-based (polygon) warnings. FirstWarn monitors the types of weather statements, warnings, watches and advisories that it displays in its crawls, which may be in English or Spanish. The crawl also can deliver news briefs, sports scores, school closings, election returns, lottery results and more. FirstWarn ScreenCrawler also can support Web site crawls.

AccuWeather’s SelectWarn 3.0 severe weather warning system was demonstrated with new storm arrival capabilities and enhanced graphics. Patented techniques identify, analyze and present localized information down to the street-corner level for storms, floods, earthquakes and other natural disasters. SelectWarn can interface with a station’s existing weather radar for SD and HD output.

AccuWeather made the first public demonstration of the CinemaLive HD 2.0 weather display system, which combines HD animations and weather forecasting based on the Brainstorm graphics engine. CinemaLive HD offers Live-on-Every Layer Architecture, 360-degree 3D Graphics Architecture, and Microsoft’s Virtual Earth.

In addition to these products, AccuWeather announced that 65 stations across the United States are on the air or soon will be on the air with the Local AccuWeather Channel, which provides complete program content for linear, IPTV and Internet television services. With only one broadcast station per local market, the 24/7 turnkey Local AccuWeather Channel offers continuous local weather content along with regional and national forecasts, breaking and severe weather news plus magazine-style features. Air checks from both the Local AccuWeather Channel and AccuWeather’s interactive TV channel were shown in the AccuWeather booth.