The Newsroom

The Weather Thread

For Domestic Coverage (November 2008)

This site closed in March 2021 and is now a read-only archive
DV
DVB Cornwall
One significant issue also is that the weather for the SW invariably - more than 90pct of the time originates in the Atlantic, even the Eastern Seaboard of the North American continent. That's one major reason to show the synoptic charts for the rural and maritime users normally, and for everyone at times like this.
JW
JamesWorldNews
Have no caps of it but what is going on next to the BBC Weather screen on the balcony? The wall looks like it has been stripped back or reinstalled and when I caught a glimpse a couple of days ago there were wires hanging through it where the BBC WEATHER logo used to be. They haven't shown the wall since.


I wonder if Weather will share their Hub with the new Outside Source programme on World News, which will be presented by Ros Atkins and Karin Giannone? Looking at the clip News Junkie has just posted over in the BBC World News thread, the wall, screens and Newswall arrangement up in the balcony does look *quite* similar to the recently revised weather centre.
DO
dosxuk
It is the weather balcony position - the "status" screen in that video even says "Weather Studio J".
HB
HarryB
Today's regional weather for Wales Today was recorded by national forecaster Chris Fawkes from NBH. Do we normally see the nationals do the weather on regionals?
ST
South Today
Alex Deakin did the weather forecast for NE&C earlier in the week for the late bulletin.
LL
London Lite Founding member
AxG posted:
Not in London, weather presenter handed over the main presenter who closed the programme.


The BBC London weather presenter handed over to Nina Ridge tonight.
NG
noggin Founding member
Having a bit of a nosey at various BBC regions' weather forecasts online, I've noticed that Spotlight always seem to take forever-and-a-day to get zoomed in to the SW England part of the map. There's always a long bit with the map zoomed right out, like you'd expect to see on the national forecasts (i.e. the whole UK fairly small, and much of the Atlantic etc out to the west/south can be seen).

I think all other BBC regions rarely/never use such a high degree of zoom-out. Maybe just the full "whole-UK" view, at a push.

Coupled with lots of bibble at the start involving showing scenic footage of some beauty spot in the region from earlier that day (plus stuff about waves for surfing etc, once the local part of the forecast finally gets underway), the whole "weather" part of the programme end up seeming ridiculously long-winded compared to any other region.

I wonder if at least part of the reason for this is to help fill the airtime, in a perhaps not massively news-rich region?


Presumably BBC South West, being a very maritime region with lots of people working on the coastal waters, or using them for pleasure, realise that people want to see the wider view to look at the weather systems further out to see and how they are moving, rather than just a local "is it going to rain tomorrow" forecast? Spotlight usually include sea conditions, barometer setting information etc.

BBC East, with a large farming community, is often similar.

I think you'll find that some of the regions like those based in Plymouth and Norwich often have longer and more detailed forecasts, because they are serving the needs of their different, rural and coastal communities.
AS
Asa Admin
Caught the BBC local/national mash up properly for the first time just now and it really doesn't work too well. We had Rob effectively do a sign off just before handing over to the weather presenter and at the end cut to a silent giant outlook slide, seemingly designed for those with impaired vision. I guess that's there to mask the presenters who would be in the same position suddenly changing. It feels forced and not very slick but I'm not really sure what another solution could be.
MO
Mouseboy33
Speaking of broadcast weather. Not to long ago The Weather Channel, headquartered in the same city as CNN, Atlanta relaunched top to bottom with new graphics and and sets. A massive departure from their previous styles. The result was a cleaner format, making view far more informative and pleasant to look at. Though in my opinion the set is not very good.
First here is the previous set years ago
http://www.nebraskaweatherphotos.org/Dscn4795sm42.jpg
Then they invested millions to build in their new HD studios
http://www.urs.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Weather_Channel_Studio_Addition_1_WP-e1386630674532-449x299.jpg
They used this for Severe Weather coverage. On screen it wasnt very good to look at
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_j9wynNJB0-o/TSXJ7HguArI/AAAAAAAAArc/-8Zd99ttSSM/s1600/twc_studio.jpg
Then they updated the set and changed from a large rear-projection wall. To a LED-illuminated rear-projection display cubes array.
http://livedesignonline.com/site-files/livedesignonline.com/files/archive/blog.livedesignonline.com/briefingroom/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/dsc_4780.jpg
This is the Expert Desk in the newsroom. This is where the Hurricane, Severe, Tornado, Etc experts (Dr Postel, Forbes etc) will break down the storms and actually track it on air.
http://media.cmgdigital.com/shared/lt/lt_cache/thumbnail/960/img/photos/2014/01/13/c2/e9/WEATHER-CHANNEL.jpg
The previous graphics were not good at all. Far too chunky and busy.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-FXWbTgEIzS0/UnJqxUSkgUI/AAAAAAAABoM/Bhm727Un-To/s1600/weather,+1031+2013.jpg
Here is the new set.
http://www.newscaststudio.com//wp-content/gallery/the-weather-channel-studio/1395302_10151930803917834_995525397_n.jpg
I dont like it very much.
But the graphics were a revelation. A complete departure.

http://uverseonline.att.net/web_files/NEXTGEN/web_files/uverse-custom/pages/uverse-apps/images/weatherCh.png
http://www.trollback.com/main/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/TWC_Boulder.jpg
http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/files/2013/11/NewWeatherChannelMap.jpg
http://www.newscaststudio.com//wp-content/gallery/the-weather-channel-graphics/twc_2013_02.png
http://i.imwx.com/web/multimedia/images/miscellaneous/0222nextcold_980x551.jpg
Instead of using something like an LCD screen to present their main forecasts the Weather Channel returned to use of the green screen. As they tried other screens in the past but for severe weather coverage it doesnt work very well for their purposes. The Weather Channel is known for their Weather on the 8's. Every 8 minutes a live updated graphic local forecast is simultaneously delivered to 1000s of cable systems headends. A prerecorded voice of weather meteorologist Jim Cantore used. The prerecorded vocal words are pieced together to deliver the live temps and winds, etc. This feature is not available on the satellite tv services such as Dish Network.
The Weather Channel recently took heat for naming Snow storms as the Weather Service does with Hurricanes. During severe weather outbreaks The Weather Channel logo and most on screen-graphics turn red, including parts of the set and the wall behind the experts desk. The graphics at the bottom of the screen continuously stream local weather and info and also pulls in instant warnings from the Nation Weather Service..
Last edited by Mouseboy33 on 25 February 2014 3:00pm - 3 times in total
NG
noggin Founding member
Like the graphic design of the weather maps. What on earth were they thinking with that hemispherical desk? Looks like a spoof news set.
MO
Mouseboy33
Like the graphic design of the weather maps. What on earth were they thinking with that hemispherical desk? Looks like a spoof news set.

Im not a fan either. I dont like the desk myself. I think they were trying to mimic or recall the new spherical element of their graphics. I do like the lighted area to the right of the anchor desk. Strangely the set works well on air with a wide number of presentation points to give each segment more visual variety.
But just this month they started broadcasting from a temporary set. It looks like a mini version of the big set. It had a small LCD array in the background with a wooden surround and they even mocked up the white lighted area to the right. And even a smalled mini version of the curved wall to the right of that with an LCD display stuck in the middle. I believe the launch was in November, so its strange they are already making changes. Many are speculating this because they are making changes for the AMHQ show. A new morning program with their new hire from ABC's Good Morning America, Sam Champion.
http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Screen-Shot-2014-01-31-at-12.24.16-PM-350x167.png
Here is a pic of the set they are supposedly going to create for the program.
http://www.newscaststudio.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Screen-Shot-2014-02-18-at-1.08.35-PM-594x589.png
SC
scottishtv Founding member
Carol Kirkwood had a template make it to air this morning, showing "Town name" being 99'C.

A clip is available in this BBC Breakfast Facebook post.

Newer posts