Virtual Weather Forecasts

Considering how important the weather is to the Brits, how long is it going to be until we get virtual weather forecasts?

Standing against a plasma screen or chromakey is just a bit boring now, weather presentation has to move on IMO.

I'm thinking of something along the lines of the ITV/Sky election night virtual studios, except with the presenter walking across a virtual British isles, walking through rain systems, clouds, etc.

It would be a sort of virtual Fred's Weather Map, only with virtual clouds and rain and other things.

Is weather to remain to be presented standing still, or are we going to see lots of weather presenters walking around virtual maps of the UK?

I think it'd look fantastic. Has it ever been done before?

That does actually sound like a very good idea! I'm sure it's possible, but no-one has ever thought it was actually worth it. I'd be very impressed to see someone have a go at it. I think it would really spruce up the weather, and maybe give more of an insight into what's happening.

Not sure, but to be honest I think the weather on the BBC is fine at the moment - at the end of the day you want something informative that will hopefully give you some indication to what conditions will be like for the next day. The virtual flyovers of Europe and the world are nice touches but I really wouldn't like to see anything more than that.

Excuse me, just going to get my lawnmower out, I need to re-shape my front lawn into a map of Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, so that certain Hudsonian feet can walk upon it.....

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bradford/weather/images/weatherview_lead.jpg

Humidity's rising....again.....

(Edited by Katherine at 11:34 pm on Feb. 6, 2002)

A number of European broadcasters have been using VR studios for their weather for a while - certainly some of the Spanish broadcasters have. However the graphics have always seemed to me to get in the way of the content - all flashy sun and cloud animations and motivation-less walks between charts (wasting time!), rather than a decent weather map with isobars, proper satellite and rainfall radar images and accurate forecasts...

That said the VR presentaions are slick and are graphically impressive - though I imagine they require quite a bit more studio space than a single position chroma key, plasma or projector.

c@t, when you were talking about Fred's weather map, were you talking about the thing where an animated cartoon figure walks in various weather conditions, and then when there's a thunderstorm, it gets struck by the lightning etc...? Not sure if that's what it's all about, but I've seen what I described above being used in Hong Kong, and the cartoon figure's named Fred.

If what I said makes no sense, then please disregard this. http://web.ukonline.co.uk/tv.home/forum/emoticons/cheesy.gif

NHK in Japan have been doing VR weather forcasts for a while now, and they do look quite nice. They're done from a real studio set, just like Peter Snow's 'laser' swingometer in the last election.

Noggin, what spanish broadcaster are you referring to?. I thought that they only used VR studios in 1995-1996 on Antena 3 Televisión for weather forecasts and sport news. Normally, Televisión Española in both TVE 1 and TVE 2 has the most complete weather information (most of the things you said, plus a detailed forecast) but I think there is not need, at least here, for a rainfall radar image. The weather here doesn´t change as fast as over there (no need of dawn, morning, lunchtime, afternoon, evening, night, etc... ,with tomorrow is enough) and it´s normally raining and sunny in the usual places (rain in the north west, sunny from Madrid to the south).

You can see captures of TVE1 weather here TVE Weather

Here is an example of VR weather from Antena 3 Televisión 1996 Antena 3 Noticias - Weather 1996 and from 1998 Antena 3 Noticias - Weather 1998

(Edited by PZG at 1:57 am on Feb. 7, 2002)

ONe of the local weathermen here went to a weather forecasting convention in the states. He was actually shopping around for some spiffy new weather technology to bring back home for the station.

Anyway, one of the items that he showed on the news was this VR weather system, where the weather presenter is actually walking through the clouds in a 3D rendered satellite map. The chroma key screen extended from the wall and covered part of the studio floor. It's like the virtual studio that Mr. Cat is referring to.

He demonstrated the system, and he used hand motion to bring up the jet stream and other weather symbols. It was quite fascinating, and it looked expensive!

(Edited by EDTV at 10:04 pm on Feb. 6, 2002)

On the face of it, c@t's right, weather presentation is a tad two-dimensional, even with the fly-overs.

The problem I think the forecasters have is that you can try to get too much information into a one or two minute forecast, especially since the UK climate can differ so much in different parts of the country, so while a VR forecast maybe a triumph of presentation, it could actually obscure the message, which is that some people are going to get wet!!!!!

Added to the expense and the sheer amount of time it takes for a computer to render 3-D animations (at the moment about an hour for a 10 second sequence), and the increasing number of bulletins that all channels (especially the 24-hour news/interactive channels) want, there's no wonder the forecasters are quite happy with the devil they know at the moment.

What about reincarnating the Weather Channel?

(Edited by burblebrox at 9:46 am on Feb. 7, 2002)

It all sounds a bit too much like The Day Today for me...

I have to say I don't think the weather needs to be 3D, or with the presenter walking on a virtual map. A problem with it is that it wouldn't be possible to make it live (would it?) so when it is shown it could be old information. Maybe the BBC could bring back the old 'Weather Show' and have an extended forecast using c@t's idea - but not have it on all the forecasts.