RK
Weather Centre though is a complete waste of space. Most of the best weather work is still done in front of a green screen, not in a mini newsroom type set.
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Best part of the set in my view, is the soft section. That looks excellent, and probably will be well used in their early breakfast output, or should be.
I mentioned this before but weather is a big draw in the US where consultants and polls say it's the brings in the eyeballs - which is why stations invest and promote heavily. I imagine they do 2-3 weather hits every 30 minutes and many forecasts start at the weather center and transition to the green screen. During severe weather the meteorologists need access to data, be able to update the graphics and get info from the NWS. A lot of that information isn't available through the interactive green screen features aside from some pre customized maps and telestration features.
That being said I've noticed a trend in recent set design where the weather center is often looks like any other presentation point or desk in the studio. Thanks to the low cost monitors they can go from showing a stations general branding, video, to weather graphics in a snap. There's still a weather office on set but the bulk of the computers may be shown partly behind a monitor wall or in a separate glass enclosed partition with tinted glass off to the side.
Officially the Houston DMA has 20 counties in it and according to RabbitEars.info the KPRC signal contour covers about 17500 square miles and an estimated population of 6.1 million. The Houston climate is subtropical and it gets about 50 inches (1270mm) of rain a year which causes a great deal of flooding. Additionally being on the Texas Coast they get occasionally are in the direction of tropical storms and hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico. Year round weather lows are well above freezing and thus snow is rare.
As for the soft set I imagine it's used rarely during weekday morning TV which is generally more serious but likely gets good use during the weekends.
Now if you want to see an over the top weather center. I give to you the KAKELand WeatherPlex. KAKE is an affiliate of ABC serving central and western Kansas (in the heart of tornado alley). They get KAKELand because their signal is broadcast on two satellite stations, two low power stations and two low power translaters. According to Wikipedia they have five broadcast zones and they have the capability to individually opt out of programming in the area of severe weather. Here's a tour of their formerly huge WeatherPlex - when they got a new set it was downgraded.
Weather Centre though is a complete waste of space. Most of the best weather work is still done in front of a green screen, not in a mini newsroom type set.
...
Best part of the set in my view, is the soft section. That looks excellent, and probably will be well used in their early breakfast output, or should be.
I mentioned this before but weather is a big draw in the US where consultants and polls say it's the brings in the eyeballs - which is why stations invest and promote heavily. I imagine they do 2-3 weather hits every 30 minutes and many forecasts start at the weather center and transition to the green screen. During severe weather the meteorologists need access to data, be able to update the graphics and get info from the NWS. A lot of that information isn't available through the interactive green screen features aside from some pre customized maps and telestration features.
That being said I've noticed a trend in recent set design where the weather center is often looks like any other presentation point or desk in the studio. Thanks to the low cost monitors they can go from showing a stations general branding, video, to weather graphics in a snap. There's still a weather office on set but the bulk of the computers may be shown partly behind a monitor wall or in a separate glass enclosed partition with tinted glass off to the side.
Officially the Houston DMA has 20 counties in it and according to RabbitEars.info the KPRC signal contour covers about 17500 square miles and an estimated population of 6.1 million. The Houston climate is subtropical and it gets about 50 inches (1270mm) of rain a year which causes a great deal of flooding. Additionally being on the Texas Coast they get occasionally are in the direction of tropical storms and hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico. Year round weather lows are well above freezing and thus snow is rare.
As for the soft set I imagine it's used rarely during weekday morning TV which is generally more serious but likely gets good use during the weekends.
Now if you want to see an over the top weather center. I give to you the KAKELand WeatherPlex. KAKE is an affiliate of ABC serving central and western Kansas (in the heart of tornado alley). They get KAKELand because their signal is broadcast on two satellite stations, two low power stations and two low power translaters. According to Wikipedia they have five broadcast zones and they have the capability to individually opt out of programming in the area of severe weather. Here's a tour of their formerly huge WeatherPlex - when they got a new set it was downgraded.
