NOAA’s National Weather Service (NWS) Mission Systems and Technology Office has announced that it is working with SpectraRep to evaluate how broadcast television datacasting could serve as a resilient and redundant pathway for delivering NOAA Weather Radio audio and data to transmitters and digital devices.

More specifically, as part of a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA), NOAA/NWS and SpectraRep, LLC will assess whether existing digital television broadcast infrastructure can enhance the distribution of NWR content, particularly during periods when other networks may be disrupted.

The project will also examine opportunities to expand endpoint delivery options to reach modern digital and mobile platforms without altering or replacing existing NOAA Weather Radio services.

“NOAA/NWS is looking forward to collaborating with SpectraRep, LLC to evaluate innovative approaches for delivering NOAA Weather Radio content via datacasting and other pathways for modernizing access to NOAA Weather Radio content,” says George Jungbluth, Director for NWS Mission Systems and Technology Office.

For more than 50 years, NOAA Weather Radio has been a critical component of the nation’s public warning infrastructure, providing continuous forecasts, watches, warnings, and emergency information to communities, emergency managers, and partner organizations.

Television datacasting uses a small portion of a digital TV broadcast signal to securely transmit data as a one-way service that is unseen by television viewers and the general public. Digital television datacasting is designed for very high availability—exceeding 99.9% annually nationwide—making it a potential candidate for improving continuity of operations during emergencies, NOAA said.

As part of the research, SpectraRep, will also work with NOAA/NWS to better understand the current NOAA Weather Radio workflow, including how content is generated and transmitted.

Using NOAA/NWS content and technical expertise, SpectraRep, LLC will configure a demonstration showing how live NOAA Weather Radio content can be securely transported through a local television broadcast partner and delivered to a NOAA endpoint(s), such as a NOAA Weather Radio transmitter.

SpectraRep, LLC will also share access and seek feedback on their AlertNowM mobile solution which can tap into multiple transport paths—including radio, broadcast datacasting, and internet sources—on a single mobile platform.

The results will be used to develop strategies for strengthening NOAA Weather Radio’s resiliency and expanding access for digital audiences nationwide, NOAA said.

MELVILLE, N.Y.—Chyron has released Weather 2.3, the latest edition of Chyron’s weather visualization suite for broadcasters and meteorologists.

The release includes new features and improvements focused on providing users with greater flexibility and customization options, high-quality weather visuals to support storytelling, streamlined workflow integration with automation tools and virtual sets, and enhanced data processing to deliver accurate and air-ready assets.

“Ease of use and efficiency have always been our main focus”, said Michael Harter, product manager of Chyron Weather. “We continuously work with customers to ensure they get the most out of the solution, and this close relationship enables us to get valuable insights that fuel the development process. It’s due to that synergy that we keep enhancing Chyron Weather with best-in-class features that make our clients’ daily operations more efficient.”

Chyron Weather 2.3 delivers broadcast-quality weather visuals via modern FFmpeg video encoding and dual SDI output to integrate weather graphics and lower thirds seamlessly into virtual and hybrid sets. Dual DVI outputs allow viewing of the main playlist and the virtual overlay in two separate DVI displays. This release includes new SDI output resolutions such as UHD, 4K DCI, and 2K DCI. There is also a new Virtual Globe playlist option, which offers seamless 3D globe weather visuals designed for virtual environments.

A key pillar of the release is providing users with greater flexibility and customization capabilities. Chyron Weather 2.3 introduces the ability to tailor shortcuts with the modes and tools operators need for their everyday work, as well as the possibility to create weather content in custom resolutions and aspect ratios, such as square and portrait, that can be further utilized on different social media platforms and websites to keep the audience engaged and informed.

Streamlined automation is another enhancement included. Weather’s integration within third-party workflows is now deeper, allowing external automation tools and virtual sets to both read from and control a new set of capabilities of the Weather Presenter playlist. Camera positions, timing, and content visibility can be pre-defined and aligned to ensure better consistency and reliability while saving time by reducing manual inputs.

Finally, Chyron Weather 2.3 incorporates a series of improvements to simplify data intake and processing. This includes the capacity to integrate with PostgreSQL databases, expanding the available data sources; and enhanced file pattern configuration for time-referenced nodes, enabling the correct intake of files, even when they don’t match the recommended naming convention. Additionally, this release includes support for newer MySQL authentication methods to strengthen security and reliability, as well as enhanced support for third-party map data providers.

For the latest updates on Chyron Weather and more details on its features and enhancements, visit chyron.com.

BALTIMORE—CBS Stations has announced that it will launch its 10th cutting-edge Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality (AR/VR) technology-driven studio at CBS Baltimore (WJZ-TV), on Monday, Feb. 23 at 12:00 PM, ET.

The station group is billing the deployment of the new studio as a “first of its kind in the region” that will use AR/VR to “transform the way Baltimoreans engage with news.”

“The launch of our AR/VR studio marks the beginning of an exciting new era for CBS Baltimore and how we serve our viewers,” said Tanya Black, vice president and news director of CBS Baltimore. “This technology allows us to meet our audience where they are and bring them closer to the stories that matter most.”

The launch follows the inhouse development of innovative AR/VR technologies for CBS stations in the Bay Area and the subsequent rollout of those solutions to other CBS owned-and-operated stations that has been extensively covered by TV Tech. The AR/VR system is currently available at CBS Stations in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, the Bay Area, Denver, Texas, Miami and Atlanta. More AR/VR studios are expected to launch nationwide throughout 2026.

“By combining trusted local journalism with innovative technology, we’re creating more immersive and engaging ways to help our community understand the stories that impact their daily lives, from severe weather to the sports teams they love,” said Kathy Hostetter, president and general manager of CBS Baltimore. “We’re proud to help move the region forward with storytelling that is as dynamic as Baltimore itself.”

The AR/VR studio allows CBS Baltimore to use AR/VR weather coverage that turns complex forecasts into immersive, hyper-local visuals, allowing viewers to see and understand the real-world impact of conditions like flooding, snowfall differences and shifting microclimates – all led by the station’s veteran weather experts: Steve Sosna, Cutter Martin, Rachael Jay, Marty Bass and Tim Williams.

The AR/VR sports coverage also opens the door to more dynamic sports analysis and visual storytelling, led by CBS Baltimore’s on-air sports team, sports director Alex Glaze and sports reporter Grace Grill, the station reported.

HUNTSVILLE, Ala.—Baron Weather, a weather intelligence and visualization solutions provider for broadcast, digital and enterprise media, has elevated Steve Bray to vice president, media, and Cherie Smyly to director, media sales and partnerships.

“Steve and Cherie bring deep industry knowledge and a clear understanding of how weather communication is evolving,” Baron Weather president and CEO Bob Dreisewerd said. “Their leadership reflects our focus on listening to customers, adapting to new media realities, and delivering solutions that help organizations communicate weather clearly and effectively across every platform.”

In his new role, Bray will lead Baron’s media strategy across broadcast and digital platforms, sales, and guide product direction to ensure the company’s solutions align with real-world newsroom workflows, audience engagement needs and evolving technologies, the company said.

During his tenure with Baron, Bray has played a key role in shaping its media product strategy, including development of the Baron Lynx Weather Display System, content-generation tools and user education programs. He will continue to lead the company’s Client Experience team.

Bray has experience in news management and meteorology roles, Baron said, bringing a deep understanding of newsroom operations, deadlines and communications challenges, the company said. His new role will be to serve as a bridge between product development, media customers, client support and emerging technologies while supporting strategic relationships at the station and corporate levels, the company said.

Smyly is a 30-year media and weather industry veteran who has led such large-scale client implementations as group-wide weather systems and full radar deployments, the company said, with a strong focus on customer-centered, long-term partnerships. In her expanded role, she’ll lead Baron’s media sales and partnership strategy across traditional and digital channels, supporting revenue-driven weather solutions and continued market growth.

Smyly has a long track record of building and sustaining partnerships with TV stations, media groups and local businesses, Baron said. She has also been an early advocate for the growing digital meteorologist and independent media market, the company said, helping to identify new opportunities.

The promotions are part of a broader leadership transition following the retirement of Chief Revenue Officer and President of Broadcast Mike Mougey set for later this year, the company said.

“Mike’s leadership has had a lasting impact on Baron and the broader weather industry,” Dreisewerd said. “As he prepares for retirement, we’re grateful for the foundation he helped build and the legacy that he leaves. This transition reflects the strength of our team and the depth of experience within Baron and allows us to move forward with clarity, continuity, and a long-term view of the industry.”

For more information, visit Baron Weather’s website.

With tornado season in full force, and hurricane season just on the horizon, National Weather Services (NWS) offices across the country are managing a series of required updates for their radio stations.

NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards (NWR) is a nationwide network of radio stations broadcasting continuous weather information directly from the nearest NWS office.

According to the NWS website, beginning this spring, NWR stations have been taken out of service for 2-3 days for a “necessary scheduled system update.” This process is ongoing.

NOAA Public Affairs Specialist Erica Grow Cei said these staggered updates are required, prescheduled and are being done to every single weather forecast station in the country, sometimes with multiple transmitters down at one time. According to a NWS statement out of Birmingham, Ala., this downtime will be used to update NWS offices’ Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System, or AWIPS.

In total, 122 weather forecast offices are responsible for more than 1,000 NWR transmitters, covering all 50 states in addition to Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and the U.S. Pacific territories.

One veteran broadcast consulting engineer active in national broadcast technology issues thinks it’s “a bad time of year to be doing this.”

“NOAA/NWS still does not publish their alerts via IPAWS/CAP; their spokesperson may be unaware that when these transmitters are off the air, there would never be an EAS alert on radio, television or cable systems in the areas, should there be a transmitter off-air during these upgrades coinciding with a storm," Alan Jurison, a member of the NAB Radio Technology Committee and a former senior operations engineer for iHeartMedia told TV Tech sister brand Radio World. “The majority of actual EAS alerts that are aired come from NOAA Weather Radio. While NOAA/NWS published notices about these outages to other sources, the broadcast community should have been better warned.

Jurison called for the NOAA/NWS to complete the IPAWS/CAP link.

“The alerting and broadcast communities have been waiting for decades,” he said. “It would improve alert quality as well as redundancy when NOAA Weather Radio stations are off the air. Until redundant alerts can be sent to EAS Participants via IPAWS/CAP, these NOAA Weather Radio outages should be postponed to periods where no significant weather is expected for several days.”

Grow Cei was not able to confirm exactly when these updates started or when they’re scheduled to finish; however, NOAA on its website said the updates will be done on a rolling basis across the country through June 2025.

Radio World first heard reports of these updates from engineers in Southern Florida. Previously, from April 21 to April 23, the National Weather Service said NWR transmitters serving West Central and Southwest Florida would be off the air. The NWS Tampa Bay office communicated that news over social media, although Grow Cei says there are multiple ways NOAA disseminates information about scheduled maintenance and severe weather.

She said news is often communicated through public information statements posted on individual NWS websites, in addition to regular check-ins with “core partners” such as local emergency management offices.

Grow Cei said NOAA also uses the communications platform Slack to notify its partners in advance.

On Tuesday, May 20, Grow Cei said Marquette, Mich., is the only location she knows of where NWR transmitters are down.

“If you don’t own a NOAA weather radio, then you won’t notice a difference. But we do encourage everyone to get one,” she said. “That is the only thing that is currently out of service in Marquette, Mich. This upgrade doesn’t change a forecast office’s ability to get out these warnings.”

Radio World, however, has seen notices of other scheduled transmitter outages this week, including in Birmingham, which has severe weather in its forecast. These temporary outages have raised concerns as the U.S. continues to face natural disasters this month. Just this past weekend, Kentucky and Missouri were heavily impacted by tornadoes, with at least 25 deaths reported.

NWR requires a special radio receiver or scanner capable of picking up the signal. Broadcasts are found in the VHF public service band at these seven frequencies (MHz): 162.400, 162.425, 162.450, 162.475, 162.500, 162.525 and 162.550.

While these updates are taking place, Grow Cei said there are other ways to receive life-saving weather information. These include text alerts, wireless emergency alerts and information via the NWS website and social media accounts.

“We always encourage people to have multiple ways to receive weather alerts,” she said. “NOAA shouldn’t be your only way.”

To learn if your NWR station has been scheduled for updates, click here and then on the office in your area to visit its website.

A number of meteorologists have announced their departures from local TV stations owned by Allen Media Broadcasting in recent days, after the station group announced a partnership with The Weather Channel that would replace local weather personnel with TWC forecasters based from its Atlanta headquarters.

As part of the Allen Media Group owned by media personality Byron Allen, AMB owns and operates 28 TV stations nationwide, covering all four commercial networks. AMG acquired The Weather Channel, part of The Weather Group, in a deal worth $300 million in 2018 and the “groundbreaking format” has been in Beta for several years, according to AMG.

“The new format will dramatically improve reporting capabilities, especially in high-stakes weather situations,” AMB said on Saturday. “This initiative aims to transform the way local weather is reported—ensuring the most accurate, timely, and engaging forecasts for communities across the country.”

AMB announced the move on a Saturday—not a typical day to issue such news releases—most likely in response to the number of news personalities who informed their viewers about their pending departures on Friday.

A person familiar with the matter told CNN that the new arrangement “will impact at least 50 meteorologists,” and that some of them will be offered new positions at the The Weather Channel.

On Friday, WTHI-TV news anchor Patrece Dayton and chief meteorologist Kevin Orpur announced their departure from the station in Terre Haute, Indiana. “For those of you who don’t know, both of our positions are being eliminated here at WTHI-TV,” Dayton said. “The television business in general is changing nationwide and budget cuts are happening everywhere.”

Christina Burkhart, meteorologist with ABC affiliate WJRT-TV in Flint, Michigan, put the number of layoffs at 100, announcing on her Facebook page: “Allen Media is laying off all local meteorologists company-wide. This is nearly 100 meteorologists at just over 20 stations across the country.

“Mid-Michigan friends, it breaks my heart to say ABC12 is on this list. Please keep these local meteorologists in your thoughts as they navigate big changes in the coming weeks, and their stations as they learn how to provide coverage without them.

“Weather forecasts will be sent from the weather channel in Atlanta. These will be pre-recorded by regional meteorologists recording hits for each Allen station. Live severe weather coverage will also come from them.”

Spencer Dayton, meteorologist with Gray Media-owned CBS station WVLT Knoxville, Tennessee, panned the new move.

“I don’t think this is a good move and I don’t see it being successful,” he said in a Facebook post. “It may save money in the short term, but takes away value and credibility in the long term. I personally know some in this group that were let go. They are wonderful people, employees and meteorologists.

“WEATHER is the number one reason most people watch a local newscast. These folks are more valuable than some companies realize and I am certain they will land on their feet,” Dayton continued. “I’m employed by Gray Media and we are still hiring, so there are no signs of us doing anything like that anytime soon.”

The new partnership comes after AMG announced a restructuring plan last May that impacted about 12% of its workforce, about 2,500 employees.

NEW ORLEANS—AccuWeather has acquired TOA Systems, a provider of lightning-detection hardware and one of the few global lightning networks in existence, the company said.

The deal was announced at the American Meteorological Society’s Annual Meeting in New Orleans. Terms were not disclosed.

As a result of the deal, AccuWeather has launched the new AccuWeather Lightning Network, which will enhance its global lightning detection capabilities by combining AccuWeather's proven accuracy in weather forecasting with TOA’s state-of-the-art hardware network to keep people safer and businesses, property and assets better protected, State College, Pennsylvania-based AccuWeather said.

The deal was closed in December and is AccuWeather’s 16th acquisition since its founding 63 years ago.

The two companies said the integration of TOA’s advanced lightning detection systems with AccuWeather’s proprietary forecasting technology and machine learning expertise will create a comprehensive, one-of-a-kind global lightning detection network that will help businesses, governments and the public, helping them better manage risks and better understand the impact of lightning.

“We are genuinely thrilled about this meaningful and powerful opportunity to not only advance our lightning forecast expertise, but also to provide a critical, life-saving dataset, and cutting-edge lightning sensing technology to AccuWeather clients and users worldwide," AccuWeather CEO and board member Steven R. Smith said. “The integration of AccuWeather’s expertise in machine learning and weather forecasting with TOA’s advanced hardware will dramatically enhance decision-making processes for industries and individuals at risk from lightning strikes.”

Lightning is a significant weather hazard in the U.S., striking the ground more than 200 million times (over 2 billion times globally) last year. On average, lightning causes 20 to 30 fatalities and over 200 injuries annually in the U.S. Globally, the toll is even larger, with some estimates of more than 10,000 lives lost each year due to lightning.

The acquisition will enable AccuWeather to offer real-time lightning detection services that further enhance safety and preparedness, the company said.

AccuWeather also noted that a typical lightning bolt carries around 300 million volts and 30,000 amps of electricity, making it extremely powerful compared to household current, which is around 120 volts and 15 amps; essentially, an average lightning bolt packs a punch of about 1 billion joules of energy. In addition, lightning strikes have a substantial economic impact, causing an estimated $1 billion in total economic loss each year in the U.S. due to property damage, forest fire spread, and infrastructure disruptions.

Lightning-related fires, electrical surges, and damage to infrastructure, such as power lines and buildings, contribute significantly to these costs. The agricultural sector bears a considerable share of the financial burden, with lightning-induced wildfires and damage to crops and livestock leading to losses that extend beyond the immediate destruction.

Additionally, power outages resulting from lightning strikes disrupt businesses, leading to economic losses in productivity. The cost to insurance companies also rises, driving up premiums for affected homeowners and businesses (Insurance Information Institute, 2020).

The new global lightning detection network will be integrated into AccuWeather’s suite of digital platforms, including AccuWeather.com and mobile apps, making it easily accessible to users. The AccuWeather Lightning Network will also provide real-time lightning alerts, detailed risk analysis, and safety recommendations tailored to specific locations designed for enterprise and business clients. AccuWeather Lightning Network data will also be available via AccuWeather's APIs and Data Marketplaces.

More information is available at AccuWeather.com.

CINCINNATI—Sinclair-owned WKRC-TV here has upgraded its weather alerting platform to Max Alert Live from The Weather Co.

Sinclair has made the Max Alert Live tool available to more than 70 of its stations around the country, The Weather Co. said. The move is meant to help WKRC maintain its trusted place in informing viewers about severe weather, it said.

"When severe weather strikes, our viewers depend on us to deliver urgent updates that keep their families safe," WKRC chief meteorologist John Gumm said. "With Max Alert Live, I can see storms coming with an incredible level of granularity and quickly communicate those threats in a flexible manner. I can automatically broadcast and visualize county-by-county storm threats without disrupting programming."

Data and graphics from Max Alert Live help pinpoint the path, timing and intensity of storms down the to neighborhood level as much as six hours before they strike, The Weather Co. said.

The cloud-based solution enables broadcasters to access and manage alerts from anywhere with an internet connection. Max Alert Live automatically renders alerts, allowing stations like WKRC to inform viewers with customizable graphics, maps and crawls. It also enables delivery of targeted storm warnings and alerts.

Crawls and graphics can match a station’s current on-air look and dynamically adapt to changing weather conditions and urgency, the company said. Broadcasters can tailor trigger conditions, frequency, maps, graphics and text via an easy-to-use interface. They can also integrate already created graphics within an existing Max account.

Max Alert Live allows critical radar maps, customized alert crawls and live county-by-county warning graphics to be overlaid on regular broadcasts without disturbing live shows, as well as across OTT, web, mobile and social channels, the company said.

The tool supports hyperlocal, customized alerts with high-resolution live radar maps, The Weather Co. said. Direct integration with National Weather Service data enables automatic weather watches and warnings to scroll across the bottom of the screen, it said.

The solution also supports school closing alerts from BTi and enables manual alerts for sports scores and news headlines, it said.

More information is available on the company’s website.

NEW YORK—NBCUniversal Local has added several new weather products to the mobile apps of its NBC- and Telemundo-owned stations that feature customization tools, a streamlined layout and a new design that delivers faster and easier access to local weather data, information and forecasts.

As part of the upgrade, the English- and Spanish-language weather sections are now available across all 35 NBC- and Telemundo-owned stations’ apps for iOS and Android.

“Serving our communities with the most extensive and accurate weather coverage, in English and Spanish is our mission, so we’re proud to unveil this new experience that serves all users how they want, and when they want, to keep them informed and safe,” NBCU Local Executive Vice President of Multiplatform Lora Dennis said. “This redesign was an extensive effort that relied on significant research and data, the expertise of our meteorologists and weather experts around the nation, and most importantly, our users, who provided considerable feedback.”

The app’s new design prioritizes personalization, NBCU Local said, with customization features that let users curate how content modules are organized and presented. It also provides more control over the display of radar features, such as layers and overlays. Advanced settings help users more easily manage weather alerts and notifications, including new options for adding locations or accessing recent ones.

The streamlined layout and intuitive design help users to quickly access the most relevant and essential data and information—such as current conditions and forecasts—and navigate to different features. The enhanced display also uses larger fonts to increase legibility and employs easy-to-understand icons, NBCU Local said.

The new version of the weather product will be automatically installed for users with updates enabled. Users without automatic updates must manually update the app to access the new features.

Once the update is complete, a highlighted “new” setting will appear in the app settings. Users can tap there to view a walkthrough introducing the updated weather experience, highlighting its key features and providing customization guidance.

NBCU Local’s stations serve 30 U.S. markets and Puerto Rico, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth, San Francisco, Houston, Washington, Philadelphia, Boston and Miami.

DENVER—AccuWeather has selected Comcast Technology Solutions’ (CTS’) Managed Channel Origination (MCO) to create, manage and distribute linear TV, on-demand video and over-the-top (OTT) channels to North American audiences. 

CTS’ Managed Channel Origination provides a fully managed 24x7 service. Its aim is to improve operational efficiency, reduce capital expenses and future-proof the ability of users to monetize viewing experiences at scale, the company said.

It offers media companies and broadcasters a platform for a unified video workflow from acquisition to delivery, it said.

The AccuWeather Network and AccuWeather NOW, with AccuWeather's Superior Accuracy forecasts, provide viewers the latest in breaking weather and videos and delivers stories illuminating the potential impact of forecasted weather on sports, health, travel and other everyday activities. It offers social weather content from popular platforms and long-form storytelling of major weather events and environmental wonders around the world.

“AccuWeather is synonymous with providing timely, accurate, and enlightening weather information that impacts the lives of millions of viewers,” said CTS senior vice president and general manager of Streaming, Broadcast & Advertising Bart Spriester. “We’re very proud that they have entrusted our Managed Channel Origination service to economically streamline their ability to reach and monetize audiences at scale. Our commitment with MCO is to help companies reduce capital costs and improve operational efficiency through a unique combination of capabilities that only Comcast Technology Solutions can bring to bear.”

Comcast Technology Solutions has provided Managed Channel Origination for hundreds of channels from its U.S facilities to serve North American audiences. Last year, the company extended its MCO capabilities to EMEA by leveraging Sky’s master control video and metadata platforms coupled with the CTS portfolio of solutions, it said.

Managed Channel Origination provides media companies a unified workflow with 24x7 service level agreements (SLAs). It enables organizations to acquire, prepare, create, package and deliver linear TV and OTT channels, it said.

More information is available on the CTS website. 

OTTAWA—Ross Video has announced the introduction of Raiden, a data-driven weather graphics software that combines data gathering, processing, and visualization tools to transform how broadcasters create weather and climate content with more immersive real-time weather content.

The first release of Raiden brings weather graphics to the XPression toolbox and seamlessly integrates with existing production workflows through an intuitive web-based tool. That allows meteorologists to collaborate with producers and designers to prepare weather and climate content anywhere, the company reported. 

Tailored for the demands of the modern newsroom environment, Raiden facilitates collaboration across departments. 

The Icelandic National Broadcasting Service (RUV) was the first adopter of the Raiden system in their newsroom. “Raiden has transformed our approach to weather storytelling by removing the limitations of our old system,” said their head of production, Gisli Berg. “Our news and weather teams now collaborate more effectively to produce higher-quality content. And the ability to access and prepare content from anywhere has made the team’s job easier."  

“Raiden is the latest addition to the innovative lineup of Ross Graphics solutions that already includes our XPression Real-Time Motion Graphics system, our PIERO Sports Analysis toolset and our Voyager Unreal-based Engine with the Lucid Control System,” added Boromy Ung, senior director - product management and business development - graphics at Ross Video. “With Raiden, we strengthen an already robust ecosystem of products designed for the newsroom. It’s another example of our commitment to advancing our solutions to empower customers to create the most captivating content and maintain their competitive edge in the broadcasting industry.”

Raiden’s powerful toolset enables meteorologists and content creators to produce captivating weather narratives. The Ross described the most notable features as follows: 

• Powerful data aggregation: Raiden seamlessly acquires, processes, and visualizes preferred weather data from a wide range of sources for the XPression graphics engine. 
• An intuitive story creation tool: A user-friendly web-based Interface enables users to quickly build or update a weather story and rundown from anywhere for live production 
• Integrated graphics system: An XPression Plugin with DataLinq™ enables broadcasters to design and operate news and weather content from a single graphics engine. 

To learn more about Raiden, visit www.rossvideo.com/raiden. 

NEW YORK—Veteran TV news executive Wendy Fisher has been named vice president of weather strategy for CBS News and Stations.

Fisher, who had a 30 plus year career in newsgathering at ABC, will helm a newly formed national weather unit working closely with all CBS news programs and the more than 60 meteorologists and weather production teams across CBS News and Stations and CMV. 

CBS said that this central weather team will be the coordinating force behind bringing local and national teams together, using state-of-the-art augmented and virtual reality to tell the critical weather stories each day. Fisher starts on April 22 and will be based in New York.

“Wendy Fisher knows how to cover stories with impact and how to lead teams to become reporting centers for excellence,” said Adrienne Roark, president of content development and integration for CBS News and Stations and CBS Media Ventures. “Every piece of research we’ve seen for decades points to weather as one of the biggest drivers in audience engagement. From life-impacting to life-threatening weather, audiences turn to us for community connection, context and clarity during these extreme events. Wendy is exceptionally well positioned to help build our new unified weather leadership team as we move to transform the coverage and super-serve audiences with this essential and urgent reporting every day.”

CBS News and Stations’ weather unit will transform its on-air look by utilizing augmented reality and other new technology pioneered in CBS’ San Francisco station. Fisher will work with Scott Warren, president and general manager of KPIX, as they roll out new features that will provide deeper and more comprehensive reporting across all CBS News and Stations programs and platforms.

“Weather is one of the top stories audiences look for on a daily basis and I am excited to join an organization investing in bringing together the strongest reporting teams, storytellers and technology to bring depth and innovation to weather coverage,” said Fisher. “I’m thrilled to lead this ground-breaking CBS News and Stations initiative.”

Fisher joins CBS News and Stations after a more than 30-year career in newsgathering at ABC News. From 2020 to 2023, Fisher served as senior vice president of global newsgathering, where she managed coverage of local, national and international news stories, such as the war in Ukraine, mass shootings, major weather events and natural disasters. Fisher was also integral to ABC News’ coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic, protests following the murder of George Floyd, political campaigns and terrorist attacks.

Fisher began her career at ABC News in 1989. She has served as vice president of newsgathering, executive editor, national editor and assignment editor. She also mentored and coached on- and off-camera staffers during her career. Fisher currently serves as a lecturer in advanced reporting in the Department of Arts, Culture and Media at Rutgers University.

Fisher graduated from Amherst College and received her master’s in French Studies from New York University.

MELVILLE, N.Y.—Chyron has introduced the new Chyron Weather 2.0 platform, which the company said leverages more than 20 years of industry expertise and innovations derived from acquisitions to simplify data-driven weather visualization from end to end. 

Chyron Weather is designed to provide visually rich map-based graphics, custom forecast elements, dynamic global analysis, and realistic 3D panoramas, with exceptionally intuitive graphic design and live presentation. In addition, the platform offers new features including an elegant dark-look UI, CAMIO newsroom integration, secure data retrieval, and support for the latest Windows versions, the company said. 

"Chyron Weather 2.0 provides a complete, easy-to-use toolset to tell the weather story. Specialized tools support every aspect of setting up data flows and connectivity, graphic design, on-air presentation, real-time playout, and render management," said Michael Harter, weather product manager at Chyron. "Smart custom-created elements enable the user to focus on the weather program with maximum flexibility and efficiency while still covering the basics. Fully data-driven high-end weather graphics ensure that the latest forecast can get to air in an instant. With intuitive interfaces even new users can start building engaging weather presentations in no time."

The data-provider-agnostic platform, Chyron Weather 2.0 facilitates the creation of rich weather visualizations from any unique stack of public meteorological data sources or private weather data providers and utilizes powerful visual scripting tools to shape them as needed to suit specific presentation requirements. 

Accessible design tools make it easy to customize the look of weather visualizations or create dynamic custom forecast graphics/charts based on select data. With a central hub for managing real-time playout and rapid rendering across multiple servers, Chyron Weather intelligently delivers content across on-air, web, and social media channels through simple automated workflows, Chyron reported. 

Chyron Weather's Presenter interface is also embracing the Chyron dark look and user experience, thus bringing more cohesiveness and alignment with the Chyron portfolio. The straightforward building-block interface gives users simple, recognizable tools for preparing and presenting live to air. After dragging and dropping various scene types into the playlist interface, users can assemble a show and use a timeline-based editor to apply keyframe custom animations and forecast effects over weather graphics with precision. Finally, users can take the show live on-air with predictable trigger control or automated playout timing, the company said. 

LOUISVILLE, Ky.—Climavision and The Weather Company, an IBM Business, are working together to offer television broadcasters a subscription to X-band radar, offering stations a less costly alternative to installing and integrating their own radars.

With a direct interface into The Weather Company’s Max product suite, Climavision’s service gives broadcasters the advantages of a station-owned radar, the company said. 

Climavision’s radars are located in the gaps where NEXRAD radars are not. Most NEXRAD radars reside in large urban areas, meaning many communities fall within these gaps and go underserved, it said. 

Earlier this year, Climavision installed three new radars in central North Carolina to close one of the country’s most notable gaps. The move brought unprecedented low-altitude coverage to an area that’s home to more than 3 million people, it said.

Gray TV’s WBTV was the first television station to access the new system, delivering a new level of weather to viewers in the 21st-largest television market.

 “Viewers trust us with their family’s safety during severe weather, so we owe them the best information we can possibly provide,” said Molly Kelleher, news director at WBTV. 

“Climavision’s radar-as-a-service fills in a critical gap in NEXRAD coverage near Charlotte, so we get a much more complete picture of dangerous weather—when and where it’s happening. That could make a lifesaving difference for our viewers or even our own crews in the field.” 

The Weather Company makes Climavision’s service seamless for meteorologists and for viewers. The data from Climavision’s network can be incorporated directly into a client’s Rapid Radar Service data feed, meaning it can be displayed on-air right alongside NEXRAD data. The Weather Company’s Max system can also highlight the Climavision feed to inform viewers of the added value the station is delivering, the company said.

Climavision radar data also can be integrated into other applications through an API. That means clients who use The Weather Company’s proprietary Max Mobile weather app can seamlessly integrate the Climavision feed with NEXRAD radar data for mobile users as well, it said.

The company continues to add radars. Currently, it has radars in North Carolina, Texas, Louisiana and Tennessee. It plans to have 35 online by the end of the year and ultimately will scale the network to more than 200, it said.

More information is available the websites of Climavision and The Weather Company.

New data from free ad-supported national streaming service VUit reveal election coverage, weather and climate-related stories were the biggest drivers of out-of-market viewers to local streaming newscasts this year. 

The VUit platform, which seeks to become the “Netflix of live, local and free” TV, carries more than 250 local station newscasts, representing 78% of the nation’s DMAs. It has witnessed viewers continuing to tune in. This year, viewers have spent more time watch than in 2021 as they look for perspective on stories outside of their current hometown, VUit said.

Coverage of Hurricane Ian that struck Florida in September is an example of the strong interest in weather and climate events seen this year. During the second half of the year, WSVN-TV in Miami and WSNN-TV in Sarasota, Fla., ranked in the top 10 stations streamed on the platform. WSVN-TV launched on the platform in April and has seen a 4,736% increase in viewership since then, it said.

Between Oct. 15 and Nov. 15, interest among out-of-market viewers in politics spiked for markets covering the biggest swing states or featuring the highest profile races, it said.

For example, political coverage on stations in Philadelphia, one of the markets where Dr. Oz and John Fetterman were competing for a Senate seat, ranked No. 1 on the platform. Other markets in the national spotlight, including Atlanta, Phoenix, Tallahassee, Fla., and Tampa, Fla., ranked in the top 10 during the election season, it said.

Ad dollars on the platform followed the interest in local political coverage in the three months leading up to the election, registering an increase of 51%, VUit said. (Ad dollars are split between the platform and local stations.)

“While 2023 will be an off-election year, we think political news will still be important to viewers in local elections.  Hyperlocal events are a huge growth opportunity, as local stations can provide additional content to their viewers than what is available on their airwaves,” said VUit CEO Jack Perry.

“We see large increases in viewership where big news is unfolding, and the long-tail of viewership after these events provides unique opportunities for the stations on our platform to engage these viewers.  With continued churn in the SVOD space, VUit provides local broadcasters and content creators with brand-safe opportunities for viewers that they cannot get elsewhere.”

KTSF-TV in San Francisco for the second year continued to occupy the top spot among VUit-streamed stations. The station, offers programming in various Asian languages, and attracts viewers from around the country, it said. 

The top 10 most watched local news stations on VUit include:

• KTSF-TV, San Francisco
• WFMZ-TV, Allentown, Pa.
• WWTV, Cadillac, Mich.
• WSAZ-TV, Huntington, W.V.
• WKYT, Lexington, Ky.
• WBRC, Birmingham, Ala.
• KTUU, Anchorage, Alaska
• WSNN-TV, Sarasota, Fla.
• KTVK-TV. Phoenix
• WVUE-DT, New Orleans

More information is available on the company’s website.

NEW YORK—Flowics has launched several new additions to its Data Connectors catalog, broadening the assortment of native integrations of live external data that can directly populate broadcast graphics created with its cloud-based engine.

Data Connectors integrate data from external third-party data providers into Flowics Graphics, making it possible to integrate live external data, such as sports statistics, betting data, weather information, financial data and cryptocurrency performance, into broadcast graphics without requiring the time and expense of developing a custom solution or entering data manually, the company said.

Rather, data flows seamlessly from third parties into Flowics Graphics and to designated cloud-based graphics files as directed, which enables users with little graphics knowledge to create live graphics displaying information audiences value, it said.

Among the connectors currently available are BetMGM, Sportradar, Stats Perform and The Weather Channel. The latest additions to the company’s Data Connector catalog include:

• Apex Legends, free-to-play battle royale-hero shooter game, published by Electronic Arts
• CoinStats, provider of financial information for Crypto assets
• Matsport, MSO and RTRT.me timing and race tracking providers
• OpenWeather, an open API for global weather data
• Polygon.io, provider of financial and stock market data
• PUBG, online multiplayer battle royale game developed and published by PUBG Studios
• Rouvy, a virtual cycling app

The architecture of Data Connectors enables integration of on-site data sources through the Flowics Middleware. This flexibility helps users who deal with data sources available only in a local area network instead of on the internet, the company said.

Data Connectors are add-ons to a Flowics Graphics subscription. Flowics subscribers that want to incorporate third-party data can choose as many connectors as they need, it said.

More information is available on the company’s website.

ATLANTA, Ga.—Byron Allen’s Allen Media Group television network The Weather Channel has launched The Weather Channel en Español, the first 24/7 Spanish-language free-streaming weather news network in the United States. 

The Weather Channel en Español makes its debut on the 40th anniversary of the launch of The Weather Channel television network. It has launched with such major sponsors as Ford, Geico, General Motors, Toyota, Verizon, Walmart and others. 

“The Hispanic marketplace is indexing extremely well with streaming services and is severely underserved,” said Byron Allen, founder, chairman and CEO of The Weather Channel parent company, Allen Media Group. “Our launch of The Weather Channel en Español is historic, and is a recognition of the continued and significant growth of the U.S. Hispanic population and the constant need to keep the entire public informed and safe as multi-billion dollar weather disasters are on the rise – especially in communities where Spanish is spoken as both the primary and secondary language in millions of households throughout America.”

The Weather Channel en Español features a variety of Spanish language weather content, including locally specific forecasting, that will help viewers understand the variation behind weather events, climate science, and its human impact. 

Also, the new free-streaming network will utilize the full resources of The Weather Channel, including the network's multiple Emmy award-winning immersive mixed reality (IMR) technology.  

The first on-camera meteorologists to join The Weather Channel en Español are Albert Martinez, Henry Golac, Milmar Ramirez, Jessica Fernandez, Abel Hernandez and Lorena Lim. 

The Weather Channel en Español is a free streaming service and available across over-the-top streaming platforms and all mobile devices. The content is focused on the U.S., the Caribbean and Latin America. The Weather Channel en Español is also accessible via The Weather Channel app. 

NEW YORK and ATLANTA—CBS News is teaming up with The Weather Channel to offer enhanced weather news and information to its viewers, the two companies announced today. 

The Weather Channel will provide its Emmy Award-winning Immersive Mixed Reality (IMR) technology to give CBS News viewers a "Virtual View" into American communities' weather conditions. Originating from TWC’s Atlanta studios, its IMR technology allows viewers to visualize future weather forecasts—to see how snow, rain, floods or tornadoes can affect a community before the conditions arrive. The partnership also draws upon live reporting from meteorologists Stephanie Abrams, Jim Cantore and Mike Bettes, as well as the entire Weather Channel meteorological and newsgathering team.

(Read: How The Weather Channel Virtually Destroyed its Studio)

The Weather Channel's reports will be featured during CBS News' award-winning morning and evening newscasts, "CBS Mornings," "CBS Saturday Morning" and "CBS Evening News with Norah O'Donnell." CBS News' 24/7 digital streaming news service will also showcase regular reports from The Weather Channel. 

The CBS News investigative team and the Weather Channel's meteorological and newsgathering teams will also partner on special investigative climate reports.

"By bringing together CBS News and the Weather Channel's weather teams and virtual view technology, we will not only be able to forecast the weather but show viewers what it's really going to look like," said Neeraj Khemlani, president and co-head of CBS News and Stations. "This is a holistic partnership that brings together the scale of both companies' reporting teams, technologies and audiences. In addition to the virtual forecasts and live reporting, we will also collaborate on field reporting and pair our investigative teams to expand our environmental investigative efforts. Together we will deliver deeper coverage of one of the most important stories of our time — the impact of the climate on the communities we live in."

"This year, the Weather Channel celebrates its 40th anniversary, and there's never been a more important time to provide viewers cutting-edge visual presentations and compelling storytelling about our weather," said Byron Allen, founder, chairman and CEO of the Weather Channel's parent company, Allen Media Group."This new collaboration is designed to offer the CBS News audience the most innovative weather reporting, as well as greater reach for the Weather Channel's brand. CBS News and the Weather Channel will work closely together to explore and investigate issues related to climate and our environment."

NEW YORK—In a rare look at some of the major trends in audiences for streaming local newscasts, VUit has released its end of year data, showing that viewing has tripled on streaming platform and that Hurricane Ida, tornadoes, floods and fires have been driving viewers to local market newscasts streamed on VUit.

The platform, which carries more than 200 local station newscasts covering 83% of the nation’s DMAs, reports that it has seen its viewership minutes triple in the past year, as viewers have turned to the platform with an increased appetite for a local lens into major news and cultural events of interest to them outside of their current hometown. 

According to VUit’s 2021 year end data, news stories about the weather and climate-related events were the biggest drivers for viewers to stream local newscasts on its platform this year.  Seven of the top nine most watched news events on VUit were weather related with Hurricane Ida driving the largest lift of any specific weather event to local station newscasts, followed by the multi-state tornado event December 10th, with other winter storms, and West Coast fires also being of great interest to viewers to tune into newsstreams outside of their current hometown.  

Beyond hard news, high school sports and high school graduations streamed on VUit were highly appealing to audiences across the country.  For example, WYMT-TV in Kentucky attracted viewers from close to 60 markets for their broadcast of high school sports events while Linn Mar High School’s graduation stream from KCRG reached well beyond Iowa to viewers in 65 markets.  

The most watched television station on VUit this year is KTSF-TV out of San Francisco.  The broadcaster, in existence for more than four decades, provides local programming to viewers in a variety of Asian languages. Outside of San Francisco, the station attracts a significant proportion of viewers from several top markets, led by Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Seattle-Tacoma, San Diego, Monterey-Salinas, and Portland, Oregon.  

The other most watched stations on the platform include:

• WFMZ – Philadelphia – Maranatha Broadcasting 
• WWTV - Traverse City – Heritage Broadcasting   
• WAFB - Baton Rouge – Gray Television 
• WVUE - New Orleans – Gray Television  
• WKYT – Lexington – Gray Television  
• WSAZ – Charleston/Huntington – Gray Television   
• WLUC – Marquette – Gray Television   
• KTUU – Anchorage – Gray Television   
• WJRT – Flint/Saginaw/Bay City – Gray Television

The most popular news stories on VUit were primarily weather and climate-related (not in ranked order except for Hurricane Ida and the Multi-State Tornado event, which are #1 and #2 respectively):  

• Hurricane Ida in August (WVUE-TV, WAFB-TV, WLBT-TB, WLOX-TV & KPLC-TV)
• Multi-State Tornado Event (WAVE-TV, KAIT-TV, WBKO-TV)
• Georgia Senate runoff election in January (WGCL-TV)
• Winter Storm Orlena late January/early February (WFMZ-TV)
• Extreme winter weather in Texas in February (KWTX-TV & KFDA-TV)
• Extreme weather in Alabama in March (WALA-TV, WAFF-TV, & WVRC-TV)
• Iditarod Sled Dog Race in March (KTUU-TV)
• Flooding in Louisiana in May (WVUE-TV)
• Schroeder Fire in Rapid City, SD in March (KEVN-TV) 

The most popular pieces of content on the platform outside of hard news were high school sports and high school graduations, including:  

• High school basketball from Kentucky  on March 22, March 23, March 26, and March 27 (WYMT)
• Michigan High School All-Star Softball game July 14th  (WWTV)
• Freddy Awards (high school performing arts awards) (WFMZ)
• Chinese New Year (KTSF)
• Linn Mar High School Graduation (KCRG)
• Kennedy High School Graduation (KCRG)
• Friday Night Lights (High School Football—Thursday Edition) (KCRG)
• High School Girls Basketball March 25th and March 27th (WYMT)
• Jefferson High School Graduation (KCRG)
• Washington High School Graduation (KCRG)
• Onaway Speedway Steer the World 100 July 10th (WWTV)
• Traverse City Fireworks (WWTV)

The local sports/cultural events that drove the most out-of-market viewership on the platform are:

• Iditarod Sled Dog race reached viewers in 178 markets. (KTUU)
• Linn Mar High School Graduation reached viewers in 65 markets. (KCRG)
• High school basketball from Kentucky reached viewers in 59 markets. (WYMT)
• Michigan High School All-Star softball reached viewers in 58 markets. (WWTV)
• Kennedy High School Graduation reached viewers in 53 markets. (KCRG)
• The cities with the most viewers logging onto VUit for local news content include San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose, Philadelphia, Traverse City-Cadillac, Wilkes Barre-Scranton-Hztn, Sacramento-Stockton-Modesto, New York, Lexington, Flint-Saginaw-Bay City, Marquette, and Charleston-Huntington.

The VUit streaming platform has brokered carriage deals with such broadcasting groups as Hearst Television, Cox Media Group, Citadel Communications, Morris Network, and News Press & Gazette.  Gray Television is also an investor. VUit is available on all major streaming platforms and devices, including mobile and desktop web, iOS and Android devices, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, AppleTV, and more.

NEW YORK—As the holiday travel season kicks off with this week’s busy Thanksgiving holiday, Fox Weather has added features and information from FlightAware that will help users access some innovative travel and weather information on the Fox Weather app. 

FlightAware is a digital aviation company that operates the world’s largest flight tracking and data platform. 

Fox Weather’s partnership with FlightAware will combine FlightAware’s commercial flight tracking with Fox Weather’s radar forecasting to give travelers extensive information to see how the weather might affect their trip. 

FlightAware will also help Fox Weather provide viewers with information on which airports/airlines are dealing with the most cancellations/delays across the country.

The features were launched this week in the runup to the busy Thanksgiving holiday.

“Combining FlightAware’s extensive air travel data with live flight tracking and Fox Weather’s 3D radar, Fox Weather consumers will see stunning, real-time visuals of aircraft travel and up-to-date information as we head into a busy holiday travel season,” said Fox Weather president Sharri Berg in an exclusive statement to TV Tech.

The companies noted that the weather travel features are unique to Fox Weather and that no one else in the industry is currently combining real-time flight tracking and weather radar. 

As part of the partnership, the companies said Fox Weather will now be able to track in real time the location of planes currently in the air as it relates to storms.

FlightAware will show where commercial flights are currently located across the country and combine Fox Weather’s 2D and 3D radars to showcase how weather across the country might be impacting those flights.

In terms of airport delays and cancellations, Fox Weather will be able to utilize FlightAware data to give viewers information on delays and cancellations at airports that might be impacted by extreme weather events. 

Using this data, Fox Weather will also be able to let viewers know which airlines are having the most delays/cancellations at specific airports across the country.

An example of how Fox Weather has begun incorporating FlightAware into its live covering on the Fox Weather app is available here. 

NEW YORK—The news weather space that has long been central to the success of local newscasts, got even more competitive today, with the launch of Fox Weather. 

At launch, the new platform was available at foxweather.com and through the Fox Weather app for iOS and Android, as well as internet-connected TVs via Fox Now, the Fox News app, and Tubi.

The company has tried to position Fox Weather as a streaming service that will change the way people consume weather news with a suite of weather products featuring local, regional and national reporting, in addition to live programming. 

The streaming service will build on Fox News Channel’s expansive newsgathering units and resources from the Fox Television Stations. It has about 120 meteorologists and will use a number of new technologies, including an immersive mobile 3D radar to forecast the weather and the Fox FutureView tool that allows users to plan several months ahead with advanced weather forecasts.

"Viewers can expect to see a friendly, welcoming face bring them their weather forecast,” Fox Weather meteorologist Britta Merwin told Fox News Digital. We are going to take weather and science, which can be complicated, and make it easy to understand. Our Fox Weather community will get their forecast in the palm of their hand, making weather very personal and helpful,"

NEW YORK—Fox News Media’s new ad-supported streaming (AVOD) weather service Fox Weather has announced that it will launch on Monday, October 25th.

As its original linear network Fox News Channel celebrates its 25th anniversary this week, the company also announced that veteran WABC-TV meteorologist Amy Freeze has joined Fox Weather as an anchor.

“We have been working towards this moment for the last nine months and are thrilled to debut Fox Weather with our talented and innovative team, including Amy Freeze whose versatility and decades of experience are a great addition,” said Fox News Media president, Sharri Berg. 

Fox Weather is a free service that will be available at foxweather.com and through the Fox Weather app for iOS and Android. Fox Weather will also be available on internet-connected TVs via Fox Now, the Fox News app, and Tubi. 

Since announcing the streaming service in December 2020, Fox Weather has hired key talent from the weather industry, including top executives, storm chasers, correspondents and anchors, the latter of whom are all seasoned meteorologists, the company said.  

A five-time Emmy award-winning meteorologist and television host, Freeze joins Fox Weather from the ABC owned and operated station WABC-TV in New York. 

Since 2011, she has been part of the station’s Eyewitness News Weather Team, where she also hosted the popular Eyewitness News Saturday and Sunday morning shows. 

Previously, Freeze was the first female chief meteorologist in Chicago, Illinois while working at the local Fox owned and operated station WFLD-TV. 

Prior to that, she served as a meteorologist for the NBC owned station WCAU-TV in Philadelphia as well as a meteorologist and morning show co-host for the ABC owned station KMGH-TV in Denver, Colorado. Additionally, Freeze worked at the Fox Portland, Oregon affiliate KPTV-TV on the local morning news program Good Day Oregon. 

Throughout her television career, Freeze’s coverage has received numerous accolades, including Emmy awards for Best Weathercaster and Outstanding Host, as well as for her 2007-2008 weather special, “Surviving Severe Weather.” 

WASHINGTON—NextGen TV, the evolution of broadcast TV powered by the ATSC 3.0 standard, will have wide-ranging impacts on how TV is delivered and viewed by consumers, but according to John Lawson, executive director of the AWARN Alliance, perhaps no broadcast element has a bigger upside with NextGen TV than weather.

The AWARN Alliance discussed what things will look like with ATSC 3.0 in this week’s webinar “NextGen TV and the Future of TV Weather.”

THE BASICS OF ADVANCED EMERGENCY ALERTING

The ATSC 3.0 standard is built with a multitude of layers that offer different types of services, but as ATSC President Madeleine Noland outlined in the webinar, the most relevant to weather broadcast is its Advanced Emergency Alerting layer. 

One of the key AEA features includes what Noland called the receiver “wake-up,” a bootstrap component of the layer that enables monitoring for alerts even when a receiver is in stand-by mode. If a relevant alert is sent out, the monitor will wake-up and broadcast the alert.

There is also the AEA table, which determines the key information that is needed to properly disseminate alerts. This includes data like where the alert is for, allowing for geo-targeting; the timing of the alert, severity, and more. Noland called the AEA table “the heart and soul of the system.”

Other elements that the AEA layer provides is the delivery of rich media, including interactive content for recipients.

PUTTING IT TO USE

It’s not enough to just have the tool, the right people need to know how to properly use it. The groundwork for this certainly seems to be in place based off of the panelists’ presentations during AWARN’s webinar.

Veronica Johnson, morning lead meteorologist with WJLA in D.C. and a fellow of the American Meteorological Society, discussed how broadcasters can improve upon their role as a trusted source of weather and other emergency information with NextGen TV.

Many people get their alerts from either broadcast TV or radio stations, which come in the form of on-air announcements or text crawls and texts/push alerts to mobile devices. However, these alerts are typically delivered to a very broad audience, where everyone might not be impacted—a source of frustration for many Johnson has found, especially when it interrupts “Jeopardy.” 

The ability to focus alerts via AEA’s geo-targeting capabilities is expected to remedy that. Johnson takes it a step further and says that dedicated, area-specific weather channels could be developed to provide 24/7 information.

Johnson also highlighted how alerts via AEA can be delivered to more devices beyond just the TV or smartphone. Gaming devices are a potential source for receiving alerts, as are cars, which could receive information on road closures or other incidents impacting someone’s commute.

Johnson says she sees “zero negatives” and all positives with the launch of NextGen TV, and believes that it will become the second most important tool for weather broadcasters, behind radar.

A ‘BACKBONE OF WEATHER INNOVATION’

The weather industry itself is also utilizing NextGen TV technology. FACETs (Forecasting a Continuum of Environmental Threats) has been working with broadcasters since 2016 to determine how its technology can be incorporated to better serve broadcasters and their viewers. “The more we learn as researchers, the more we are excited about what we  can provide broadcasters,” said Kodi Berry, Ph.D, FACETs program lead at NOAA National Severe Storms Laboratory.

The Weather Company has found that NextGen TV tech gives a boost to a number of its features, including its Weather InSight program, which uses AI to provide hyper-local and hyper-focused information. Rodney Thompson, senior strategist, Digital B2B/B2C weather products for The Weather Company, said that NextGen TV creates a better experience for delivering weather information.

“ATSC 3.0 can be the backbone of weather and weather innovation,” said Mark Taylor, a technologist with MyRadar and a strategic advisor to the AWARN Alliance. However, when asked if the weather industry is expected to wait for broadcasters to utilize the NextGen TV tech he put it bluntly. “No, but hopefully we can do it together.”

ATSC 3.0 deployments are already underway across the country, ready to serve viewers that have ATSC 3.0-compatible TV models—Sony, Samsung and LG are currently offering NextGen TV capable models. Noland reports that ATSC 3.0 is expected to reach 50% of the U.S. TV households in the first quarter of 2021, then 75% by the fall of 2021.

WASHINGTON—AWARN Alliance plans to stress that NextGen TV, based on the new ATSC 3.0 standard, can be just as big of an evolution for the weather industry as it is expected to be for broadcasters during an upcoming webinar—or “weathernar” as they are choosing to describe it.

“NextGen TV and the Future of TV Weather” will take place on Nov. 12 and focus on how ATSC 3.0 is a powerful tool for improving public safety, including the processes of emergency alerting and sharing information.

ATSC President Madeleine Noland will be on hand to kick-off the session with an introduction of the ATSC 3.0 standard. Panelists will then discuss how the new standard can help with the delivery of vital weather information. Panelists will be from the National Severe Storm Laboratory, which has built a next-generation severe weather forecast and warning framework; The Weather Company, set to share details on its smart automation powered by AI; and other weather enterprise entrepreneurs who are working with ATSC 3.0.

The webinar will begin at 2 p.m. ET on Nov. 12. Registration or more information is available online. 

DALLAS—KXAS, the NBC station for the Dallas-Fort Worth area, issued an apology for it failing to immediately interrupt the broadcast of Sunday Night Football between the Dallas Cowboys and the Philadelphia Eagles with a Tornado Warning.

After meteorologists issued a Tornado Warning for Dallas County on Oct. 20, KXAS delayed interrupting the game for six minutes.

“When it comes to dealing with severe weather, we know that seconds matter,” the station said in its statement. “We should have broken into football programming sooner. We apologize and want you to know that we’re doing everything in our power to make sure this does not happen again.”

KSAX meteorologists were livestreaming weather coverage on its website throughout the evening and alerted the football audience to the livestream throughout the game, the station said.

However, that did not stop criticism from some.

The tornado ultimately impacted more than 17 miles across the Dallas County area, destroying homes and businesses, with three people hospitalized but no reports of fatalities.

The year 2017 will go down in the record books as one of the most deadly — and expensive — years ever in terms of damage caused by natural disasters.

In one of the most active hurricane seasons ever, Harvey, Irma and Maria left a trail of wreckage in their respective wakes. Fires ripped through California, killing people and devouring more than 1.3 million acres, according to the state’s Department of Forestry. The bill in the U.S. alone is more than $300 billion, according to federal estimates.

In all this mayhem, viewers turned faithfully to one source with resources to provide visual updates and predictions: local TV weather.

Investors are paying attention, and stations are beginning to not only change the way they report the weather, but making investments in new digital strategies to deliver better weather news, faster. Just this month, comedian and entrepreneur Byron Allen acquired The Weather Channel in March for $300 million from Blackstone Group, Bain Capital and Comcast NBCUniversal, further affirming weather’s importance as a content draw across TV, digital and mobile platforms.

At a time when consumers want on-demand weather on a myriad of devices, local TV stations are doubling down on their weather investments. New technology, such as augmented reality, drones and sophisticated mobile apps, creates new ways to cover weather and deliver information. On social media, meteorologists can deliver live updates and intimate videos. It all plays to stations’ real edge in weather: market ties and beloved personalities.

“Local meteorologists have the weather knowledge,” Rodney Thompson, The Weather Co.’s VP of systems and software operations, said. “If it is sunny and nice, I can get that information many places. But when I need it broken down, I trust a hyper-local source.”

The Forecast: More Digital, Mobile and Social

As mobile devices become go-to sources for weather, local broadcasters say digital doesn’t cannibalize their audience, but rather creates new touch points. “Digital is a gift. It allows us to connect with viewers in ways traditional TV never allowed us to do,” Pete Delkus, chief meteorologist for Tegna-owned ABC affiliate WFAA in Dallas-Fort Worth, said. “So many people just want short bursts of information.” Delkus hosts a weekly Facebook Live session on Friday mornings previewing weekend weather from his home, giving viewers a peek into his off-screen life.

In Portland, Ore., Meredith-owned Fox affiliate KPTV chief meteorologist Mark Nelsen pens a weather blog and hosts a weather-themed podcast. “We do these things to peel back the curtain and share the process behind the forecasting,” KPTV executive news director Corey Hansen said. “We need to give our viewers options to get weather anywhere they want it.”

[Read: Driving Station Workflows in the Field]

Social media is a critical distribution channel, particularly during extreme weather. Univision said about 60% of its digital audience comes through social. “We go heavily with events and regular updates on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. … People are riveted by it,” digital managing editor Selymar Colon said. The stations often simply post live radar images and webcams, drawing large audiences, according to Colon.

In Los Angeles, social media even influences coverage of natural events. Before social, KNBC VP of news Todd Mokhtari said, stations typically reported earthquakes that registered a 4.0 or higher on the Richter scale. Now, he said, even small trembles prompt residents to post on social media, and KNBC will report a tremor as low as 2.5. Information may come from a news crawl or a push notification, or, for stronger shakes, live on-air. “If one person felt it, they all want to hear about it,” Mokhtari said.

During extreme conditions like tornadoes, Griffin Communications-owned CBS affiliate KWTV Oklahoma City dedicates a meteorologist to updating all social accounts. “Social allows us to have a two-way conversation with viewers and to provide them the most up-to-date weather and safety information no matter where they are,” chief meteorologist David Payne said. “We can spend an unlimited amount of time talking about the forecast and answering viewer questions in real time.”

In the last six months, CBS owned-and-operated TV stations have ramped up digital video production for both extreme weather and for more light-hearted fare, like a look inside the weather office. “These aren’t things you’d see on the broadcast side, but we can do on digital,” CBS Television Stations senior VP of news David Friend said. “It takes us beyond the realm of regular newscasts and breaks out of that straight jacket.”

Online and on mobile apps, station executives said live radar is a popular draw. “Even if we’re not on the air with news, it will give you a live sweep that includes where you work and where you live,” Ric Harris, president and GM of NBC-owned Philadelphia stations WCAU and WWSI, said.

On the TV screen, graphic innovations are improving forecasting as well. Outlets including ABC’s KABC Los Angeles, Tegna’s WFAA and Univision’s central weather operation, have introduced augmented reality graphics, which rise up from the studio floor and can simulate hard-to-visualize dangers, like flooding and tornadoes. “It is amazing new technology. It is eye candy to some degree, but also valuable info that you can’t get on your phone,” WFAA’s Delkus said.

Univision used similar imaging to depict Hurricane Harvey and Northeast snowstorms. “Our chief meteorologist can explain things not just by saying it or showing video, but also with graphics,” Colon said.

At Hearst Television, new graphics alert viewers to major upcoming weather events, like a yellow caution or a red animated image for severe weather. “We’re trying to do a better job of laying out to the audience to call their attention to things that will make them safe,” Hearst senior VP of news Barbara Maushard said.

“We could have the fanciest trucks and radar, but at the end of the day, it’s about communicating with folks at home … the technology is extremely important and you have to be able to communicate to the people at home and bring it home to the people,” WFAA’s Delkus said.

The 2017 Hurricane Season

Last year’s hurricane season tested TV stations’ ability and resolve. When Hurricane Harvey lashed Houston with heavy rain and flooding, local broadcasters struggled to stay on the air and cover the market.

ABC-owned KTRK used boats equipped with Dejero cell-sat technology to report live, show emergency conditions and assist stranded viewers. The station deployed a drone to survey conditions overhead until the station’s helicopter could resume flying, and simulcasted its TV broadcast on Facebook Live.

Also in Houston, Tegna-owned CBS affiliate KHOU leaned on its corporate cousin WFAA. After KHOU’s building flooded, knocking it off the air, WFAA stepped in as the temporary Houston affiliate and newsroom. Its ex-tended coverage was simulcast in Houston and streamed on Facebook Live.

“We became the Houston news operation,” WFAA’s Delkus said.

Weeks later, as Floridians braced for Hurricane Irma, broadcasters across that state activated disaster plans. With stations in Tampa, West Palm Beach and Orlando, Hearst Television held daily, group-wide calls to coordinate resources and coverage. Reporters from 11 different markets were sent to the state to assist.

WPBF, Hearst’s West Palm Beach ABC affiliate, launched into hurricane mode first, with more than two days of extended coverage. When the storm turned away from the Southeast coast, Hearst’s team pivoted, sending teams to Tampa and Orlando, although its crews avoided the Florida Keys.

NBC affiliate WESH Orlando’s weather team forecasted the storm would shift westward and travel up the central part of the state, which shaped its plans. “We have great tools and great people who understand markets and have watched storms for years,” Hearst’s Maushard said.

At Fox’s TV station group, new drones allow the stations to cover weather disasters sooner and from fresh perspectives. WTVT Tampa used its drone to capture lake flooding after Hurricane Irma, while WAGA Atlanta’s surveyed tornado damage. Nearly all of Fox’s markets now have drones, which have flown more than 600 missions to date and are manned by highly-trained pilots.

When Hurricane Maria made landfall on Puerto Rico Sept. 20 and devastated the island, Univision deployed reporters from its TV stations and digital team across 78 towns, and also connected about 100 families with their relatives on the mainland. With all three hurricanes, Univision stations leaned heavily on their digital assets, including live updates on station websites, YouTube and Facebook.

Western Wildfires

As fires burned across California, broadcasters across the state worked desperately to cover the fast-moving blazes and keep viewers informed and safe. In Los Angeles, stations used their own radars, as well as National Weather Service radar, to track smoke, fire conditions and wind patterns.

To cover the Los Angeles-area fires and their aftermath, KABC dispatched its drone to fly over Ventura neighborhoods devastated by the Thomas fire and broadcast live images. The station’s helicopter deployed its augmented reality mapping system to show before-and-after pictures, including dramatic images of the Montecito mudslide.

Advanced weather vehicles, some equipped with mobile radar, also assisted in difficult conditions. KNBC Los Angeles’ Storm Ranger sports utility vehicle, built by Accelerated Media Technologies, is equipped with radar that has a range up to 90 miles and can distinguish between smoke and smog. “You can put a radar truck someplace outside of L.A. and see a fire before anyone knows it is happening,” AMT president Tom Jennings said.

For KNBC executives, the Storm Ranger provided more coverage and security. “We need to be within 30 miles of a fire and we can pick up the smoke very accurately, and then we are not worried about truck and crew being near danger,” KNBC’s Mokhtari said. Meteorologists also traveled in a Jeep equipped with sophisticated weather tools and cameras, providing “a new tool to get meteorologists involved in fire coverage since so much of it is driven by weather,” Mokhtari added.

Similarly, in Sacramento, Hearst-owned NBC affiliate KCRA relied heavily on its weather technology to track air quality, smoke, fires and even mudslides. “The technology allows them to be engaged from a weather perspective,” Maushard said.

Sophisticated vehicles can help in smaller markets, too. In Montana, remote locations and mountains often make it difficult for stations cover fires. Accelerated Media Technologies is building a new Ford Explorer for Sinclair Broadcast Group-owned NBC affiliate KECI equipped with IP LiveU, combined with a Viasat Ka Band satellite that will allow the station to travel closer to fires and broadcast live. “The coverage wasn’t done before because the technology wasn’t available yet,” Jennings said. “Now they will be able to get high-resolution images and informations out of the mountains.”

Winter 2018 Nor’easters

Across the Northeast in March, storms blanketed the region under wet, heavy snow. After one storm, CBS O&O WCBS New York deployed its drone to survey damage in Westchester County, where downed power lines and trees “looked like Lincoln Logs,” Friend said, adding, “The drones were an incredible news gathering tool.” Anchor Chris Wragge set out in WCBS’ “Mobile2” vehicle and reported exclusively for digital outlets, a shift in strategy.

“It is an example of the importance we put on the digital portion of our coverage,” Friend said.

With varied conditions across the New York market, WCBS also relied on its user-generated content assets, including the Weather Watcher Network and Social Snow Patrol. All CBS O&Os have a select group of local weather aficionados who report conditions and share photos and video.

“That’s another way to drill down and make coverage as local and personal,” Friend explained.

In Philadelphia, NBC’s WCAU deployed its Storm Ranger vehicle to track storm conditions, one feature of its wall-to-wall storm coverage. With Storm Ranger’s mobile radar, “We were able to see different micro-climates, like where the snow was more intense and where it was beginning to taper off,” president/GM Harris said.

In Boston, no stranger to extreme winter weather, TV stations have relied on their well-crafted advanced preparations. At Hearst’s WCVB, Maushard said: “They were on with extended coverage in advance and that is more important than anything. They were aggressive early and they had people in place.”

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OTTAWA—TV meteorologists operate around the clock, continually creating content for the 24/7 real-time weather cycle on multiple platforms. In doing so, these ‘Mets’ (as they call themselves) have to rapidly sort through viewer-submitted photos and videos on social media, with an eye to grabbing and distributing the very best footage before anyone else.

That’s just the start: Factor in advances such as augmented reality where real-time graphics are overlaid on broadcast video (such as The Weather Channel “creating” a tornado in its studio); 2D/360 images where the Met can rotate the viewer inside a single camera view; and the detailed experimental content being streamed online from NOAA’s GOES-16 satellite (which is still in test mode), and today’s TV meteorologists are busier than ever before. By the way, most don’t have the budget to hire extra staff to help them cope.

Like most weather graphics packages, Baron’s Lynx is tightly integrated with social media.

THE METS’ WISH LIST
Not surprisingly, vendors of weather graphics platforms such as AccuWeather, Baron, ChyronHego, The Weather Company (formerly WSI; now owned by IBM), and Vizrt are doing their best to provision all of these new options. The Weather Company has even integrated IBM’s Watson augmented intelligence platform (the super computer that won TV’s “Jeopardy” against two human contestants) into its presentation products, to speed up content processing while reducing the human workload.

Yet this is still not enough for bleeding-edge Mets such as Brad Panovich, chief meteorologist at WCNC-TV, the NBC affiliate in Charlotte, N.C.

“The time it takes for presentation software to ingest and process viewer social media videos for air is their biggest downside,” said Panovich. “It doesn’t work efficiently in real-time—especially for 1080p—and it really lapses during extreme weather situations. So I use an HDMI convertor to bring my laptop into our presentation system as a video feed, and access submitted content from my Twitter ‘TweetDeck’ and my Facebook page.”

Panovich makes his “hack” work by plugging his laptop in at WCNC’s video wall and changing the feeds directly while he’s live on air. “It’s just basically throwing my laptop’s screen up on air, in real-time,” he said.

Eric Sorensen, senior meteorologist at WQAD-TV, the ABC affiliate in Moline/The Qaud Cities, Ill., is another forward-thinking Met who wishes weather presentation technology could do everything he wants it to do. Specifically, “today’s technology is great for pushing content out to our viewers on social media, but we really need these systems to turn social media into a two-way street,” he said. “What we need is to be able to know, from every viewer that’s out there, what’s happening in that storm. I really hope that the weather presentation vendors, whose products continue to progress, find a way to bring that viewer feedback into our broadcasts in real-time—without us having to do it ourselves.”

Eric Sorensen

SOCIAL MEDIA PUSH
As dedicated Mets, Panovich and Sorensen are demanding as much as they can from modern technology to serve their viewers better while besting their competition at the same time. In response, vendors are doing their best to meet these needs in a variety of ways.

At AccuWeather, for instance, “our new StormDirector+ and StoryTeller has the ability to search social media by keywords and hashtags,” said Bill Boss, director of product development for the State College, Pa.-based company. “This gives our customers a quick way to search for trending photos and videos in real-time and instantly get them on the air making viewers’ real-time feedback and submissions part of the story.”

Meanwhile, Baron’s Lynx graphics and storm tracking package focuses on providing customizable forecasting tools that make their Mets “the experts that viewers trust and can count on,” said Mike Mougey, vice president of sales for the Huntsville, Ala.-based company. “We believe very strongly that providing context and content in an easily accessible format will set stations apart on the local level.”

ChyronHego’s Metacast weather graphics suite accelerates the ingest of viewer-generated content for air by connecting Metacast to a broadcast client’s social media platforms. This connection, plus “the ability to include uploaded content as media files within a broadcaster’s weather graphics production system, are key elements of advanced, real-time weather presentation,” said Karl Eggestad, sales director for ChyronHego Metacast.

With its use of IBM’s Watson augmented intelligence, The Weather Company has been able to incorporate machine-based curation into its Max Engage with Watson platform. “Your meteorological staff first ‘tells’ Watson what hyper local weather elements your viewers care about and then the system locates and provides them on your weather platform automatically,” said Rodney Thompson, systems and software operations leader for the Atlanta-based company.

Vizrt’s multiplatform suite of weather graphics work seamlessly with all forms of viewer-generated content, according to James Monroe, manager of weather sales for Vizrt Americas. “We work with all forms of social media and any online sources broadcasters choose,” he said. “Our Viz platform lets you designate reliable viewers as ‘Trusted Suppliers,’ so their high value content go directly into your graphics system for immediate playout, making you first to air.”

With virtual reality on the horizon, the push for TV weather packages that provide quicker, better and more impressive graphics will only gather momentum. “For instance, I can easily imagine producing VR weather video for viewers to access online in real-time, tailored to their specific markets,” said Michael Potts, vice president of design for The Weather Channel. “Anything that TV meteorologists can do to make the weather more real and more informative to our audiences, we will do.”

LOS ANGELES—The weather report is a linchpin of local broadcasting, and weather graphics play an important role in allowing broadcasters to stay fresh, attract viewers and keep them coming back. TV Technology spoke with four major providers of weather graphics—AccuWeather, ChyronHego and Vizrt, and The Weather Company—to find out what broadcasters are asking for and what trends are coming to the fore.

WHITHER 4K?

Bill Boss, accuWeather’s director of product development In 2014, The Weather Channel announced “ambitious plans to fully convert to 4K content acquisition, production and distribution by 2018.” Two years later, The Weather Company and other providers are still waiting for broadcasters to ask for 4K. “Our solution can support 4K,” says Bill Dow, senior vice president/general manager of media for The Weather Company, an IBM subsidiary and provider of weather graphics based in Andover, Mass. “But we haven’t been hearing that our customers are ready to jump to 4K. It’s a large expense for their infrastructure.”

ChyronHego Metacast sales director Karl Eggestad echoes Dow’s assessment, noting that, although Metacast is 4K-ready, nobody in the U.S. is asking for it yet. He and Bill Boss, AccuWeather’s director of product development, display systems and services, believe that 4K weather graphics will come to the fore over the next 18 months.

Eduardo Mancz, vice president of operations for Vizrt Americas, agrees that the lack of 4K infrastructure is what’s hampering the transition, although he does note that the company has a handful of customers doing 4K trials. “There is a limitation and complication at the physical layer,” Mancz said. “4K is a proven technology [but] the challenge for broadcasters is to carry all the infrastructure for 4K, and the solution is IP.”

AR COMES INTO FOCUS

The Weather company recently debuted a new iPad application for Max connect. Similar to 4K, most broadcasters aren’t quite ready to embrace augmented reality, but some weather graphics providers want to be there when the time is right. “Our Max Reality product launched with augmented reality capability in 2015,” says Dow. “Now we’ve expanded it to a complete virtual set that can really grab younger viewers by creating the high-end, rich visualization they’re used to.” Although Dow can’t go public with their names, several customers are using the initial version of Max Reality’s AR component, he says.

“As is normal with new technology, the station groups are being cautious about how they adopt it,” he adds, explaining the slow adoption. “They want to make sure they understand how to use it and the value behind it.” To make it easier, Max Reality’s virtual set capability is integrated with a station’s everyday workflow, something that the old generation of virtual sets didn’t offer. “Now the entire weather presentation can be a virtual set plus AR,” Dow said.

Vizrt Americas has an augmented reality project in California that will be made public in a few weeks, according to Mancz. He points out that whether or not to use AR is, “ultimately more of an editorial than a technical decision.” Eggestad says ChyronHego offers augmented reality through its partner HybridTV.com. “We are getting requests for it,” he said. “In a few months we’ll be able to offer AR through Metacast. It’s a matter of finding display methods that make sense with weather.” Boss says AccuWeather also has a path towards AR. “The two hurdles are that it’s expensive and hard to understand how to use every day,” he said. “We want to make sure anything we do here is easy for the user and something they can use every day.”

IMPROVING WORKFLOWS

ChyronHego has enhanced weather graphics workflow by integrating the weather desk with the rest of the news operation. “Metacast is now part of the ChyronHego CAMIO universe,” Eggestad says. “Metacast sits as an intelligent device on this massive CAMIO infrastructure, which means it can be operated not just by the meteorologist but also by the journalists, editors, producers and control operators. And it can be called up from any device in the universe. That all creates huge efficiencies.”

AccuWeather’s new StormDirector Plus weather graphics system works on a touchscreen, greenscreen or videowall, giving broadcasters more flexibility, according to Boss. “This helps the broadcaster be interactive and get hyper-local,” he said. StormDirector also integrates with social media. “Whether the station pushes it out or gets information in, they can put it in the air,” Boss said. “It engages the viewers to get their content on the air.”

Vizrt just released Vizrt Weather Alerts, a one-box solution similar to its flagship Viz Weather. “This solution combines the graphics, maps and social media that allows the station to access free or paid data sources,” Mancz said. “We’re taking advantage of powerful technology to do something smaller, specifically for alerts.” The Weather Company’s new iPad application for Max Connect “lets the presenter control the show in a very intuitive way and continue to face the audience during the entire presentation,” said Dow.

Not quite ready for 4K and augmented reality, broadcast stations want integrated, flexible solutions, and that’s what weather graphics companies are giving them.

HUNSTVILLE, ALA.—Baron, a provider of meteorological hardware, software and data, has announced that Steve Bray has been added to the broadcast team in the position of director of broadcast meteorology. Bray will work with Baron’s broadcast clients to produce and highlight engaging weather content for audiences.

Steve Bray

Bray joins Baron from WISH-TV in Indianapolis, where he served as CW-affiliated station’s news director. Bray held multiple positions at WISH-TV, including meteorologist, chief meteorologist, news and weather operations manager, and science and technology editor.

At Baron, Bray will develop strategies with the broadcast team to expand customer service offerings, as well as continue his studies on the evolution of the broadcast television industry.

OTTAWA—The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is predicting that the 2015 Atlantic hurricane season will be “below-normal” in terms of storm activity. But weathercasters who cover North America’s Atlantic and Gulf coasts are taking no chances and are marshaling the latest in high-tech graphics for this year’s hurricane season, guided by an emphasis on clear, concise weather predictions.

Dr. Forbes shows real-time data using augmented reality, pulling data from Max Reality.

AUGMENTED REALITY
The Weather Channel is taking its viewers inside 3D models of this year’s hurricanes, using WSI’s “Max Reality” augmented reality software that allows the network to create realistic, miniature 3D weather systems that appear to exist in real-time within TWC’s studios. The weatherperson can walk around and interact with the AR graphic; apparently taming a tornado into a manageable in-studio companion.

TWC’s AR system uses Ncam Technologies’ Ncam Live tracking cameras to monitor the on-air talent’s location in real-time. “Our system mounts an Ncam Camera Bar onto each camera,” said Nic Hatch, CEO for Ncam, a U.K.-based provider of camera tracking technology. “The Camera Bar uses a stereoscopic lens system, plus a number of on-board sensors, to track the camera’s location and field of view in 3D.” The Ncam Camera Bars feed this locational data to the WSI Max Reality software to ensure that the 3D graphic is properly placed and framed within the live shot. Ncam does this without requiring visible markers in TWC’s studio, making it possible for WSI 3D graphics to “exist” within the studio space.

“Augmented reality takes the viewer right inside the weather to give them a more accurate picture of what is happening,” said Freddy Flaxman, senior vice president and chief operating officer for TWC. “Using the Ncam tracking system and WSI’s Max Reality, we will be able to give audience an unprecedented look inside hurricanes.”

“Our goal is to provide a unique on-air experience to help hold the audience longer,” said Bill Dow, GM/vice president of WSI’s Media Division. “64 percent of people within our research group told us that they would watch the weather longer if AR was coming up in the next segment.”

THE ‘HURRICANE INDEX’
WZVN-7, the ABC affiliate in Naples, Fla. has deployed the latest version of Baron’s Hurricane Index during this year’s hurricane season. “We use the Baron Omni graphics display system for our television broadcasts,” said John Patrick, WZVN’s chief meteorologist. Adding the new Baron Hurricane Index will give WZVN “a color-coded graphic that takes into consideration sea surface temps, wind shear, dust concentration and a few other factors to determine favorable areas for tropical development,” he said. “This, coupled with other tropical products, enable us to share our knowledge of tropical weather with viewers in a way that is easy for them to understand.”

WOFL-35, a Fox O&O in Orlando, Fla., also relies on Baron weather graphics. “The new Saharan Dust Concentrations graphic makes it easy for people to see how the heat, dry air, and dust that comes to us from the west of Africa can generate hurricanes,” said Glenn Richards, WOFL’s chief meterologist. “Baron’s 3D KML [key markup language] satellite weather photo files, which overlay on top of Google Earth, also allows us to show our viewers what is happening in a very clear yet detailed fashion.”

Is Your Weatherperson Truly Qualified?

WJZY Chief Meteorologist Rob Eicher is the current chairman of the AMS Board of Broadcast Meteorology. When it comes to TV weather forecasters, WJZY Chief Meteorologist Rob Eicher is truly qualified, with peer-reviewed certifications from the American Meteorological Society (AMS) and the National Weather Association (NWA). Earning AMS and NWA certifications requires TV meteorologists to have their weather knowledge and on-air presentations evaluated by AMS/NWA-accredited broadcasters. Such is Eicher’s commitment to excellence in TV weathercasting, including keeping up with the latest in weather forecasting techniques and technology, that he has risen to become Chairman of the AMS Board of Broadcast Meteorology.

“The AMS and NWA processes make it possible for TV stations to certify and promote the fact that their meteorologists truly know what they are talking about,” said Eicher. “But these certifications are completely voluntary, as are any other qualifications achieved by TV meteorologists. And that’s a problem, according to Eicher. “There are no mandatory qualifications to do weather on TV,” he said. “Anyone can claim to be a meteorologist, and do so without any knowledge at all.” TV stations who have certified meteorologists are easy to spot: Their weatherpeople have the letters “AMS” and “NMA” after their names; such as WZVN’s John Patrick and WOFL’s Glenn Richards. “I’m extremely proud to have earned the AMS Certification and NWA Seal of Approval, the two highest standards of excellence for broadcast meteorologists,” said Patrick. “[I am also proud] that WZVN displays the WeatheRate seal, which TV stations earn when they are proven most accurate in their market." Savvy TV stations know the marketing value of having properly certified meteorologists on staff. This is why WOFL’s web page describes Richards as receiving his B.S. degree in meteorology from Northern Illinois University, and then working as chief meteorologist at WLFI-CBS and WFTV-ABC “until making the change to WOFL-Fox as the Chief Meteorologist in 2003.” So while it is true that anyone can do the weather at your station, it makes sound business sense to use trained, AMS/NWA-certified meteorologists than someone who has just come out of broadcast school, or has been hired primarily for their looks. “You need a license to cut someone’s hair, yet there is no requirement of any kind for someone to provide potentially lifesaving information during a weather emergency,” Eicher observed. “I think the value of the AMS/NWA certification programs is that they fill the void [for TV station owners] between not having any credentials and not necessarily wanting a legal requirement to be a meteorologist.” - James Careless

These satellite photos are due to improve substantially in 2016, after the launch and activation of NOAA’s new GOES-R (Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite- R Series) satellite. “Right now, the photos we receive from the current GOES satellite are one pixel per 4 kilometers,” said Rob Eicher, chief meteorologist with WJZY-46, the Fox affiliate in Charlotte, N.C. “GOES-R will take this resolution down to 500 meters per pixel.” As well, the current GOES images only update every half hour. GOES-R images will update as often as every 30 seconds, “allowing us to show the rotation of the hurricane clouds in greater detail,” Eicher said.

For TV stations wanting to move away from the traditional green screen, AccuWeather’s StoryTeller interactive touchscreen system combines the company’s proven weather product/graphics with an 84-inch touchscreen 4K monitor to create “MinuteCast.” “Basically, MinuteCast allows a weatherperson to control and switch their on-screen graphics on air as easily as if they were using an iPad,” said Daniel Despot, AccuWeather StoryTeller’s product manager. “You can also use the system for all aspects of your newscast; not just weather.”

KEEPING IT CLEAR
Advances in TV weather graphics notwithstanding, broadcasters in the Atlantic and Gulf Coast regions are most focussed on keeping their hurricane coverage clear and concise. “Viewers are most interested in the 3-5 day projection cones and paths provided by NOAA,” said Aliana Perez, weather producer at WPLG-10, the ABC affiliate in Miami. “These graphics, plus predictions in straightforward language, is what our viewers count on.”

“Augmented reality looks really impressive, but our emphasis right now is on using our current graphics and Doppler radar system to best advantage,” said David Nussbaum, meteorologist at WWL-4, the CBS affiliate in New Orleans. “What our viewers want to know is what the predicted hurricane track will be and how it will affect them. This has been the case for years, even before Hurricane Katrina. That’s what WWL-TV will be giving people in New Orleans this hurricane season.”

LONDON – Viewers can get a better look into the eye of a storm when they tune into The Weather Channel now as it has begun using live augmented reality presentations for weather presentations. Assisting in the presentation is the Ncam Live, a low latency real-time camera tracking system that allows the presenter and camera to have complete freedom of movement.

Integrating with the existing graphics programs for The Weather Channel, which includes Vizrt and The Weather Channel’s own professional division, WSI, the Ncam tracking system provides a stream of positional information without the need for special markers in the studio. As a result, the Ncam system keeps the graphics on a fixed location, allowing both the camera and presenter to have free range of movement.

The Weather Channel will use the Ncam system during “America’s Morning Headquarters,” which runs weekdays from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m.

Ncam Technologies develops virtual production technology for film, television and broadcast industries and is based in London.

Check out a video of The Weather Channel's graphics program and Ncam in action below.