The feature debuted Sept. 28, 2023, with Storm Track 8 Meteorologist Marcus Bailey using it on the station’s morning news.

The segment utilized a wide view of one portion of the station’s set, which was updated in January 2023.

Bailey first used a virtual screen that rose up out of the floor to showcase a standard weather map, with the AR elements generated by the station’s Baron Lynx weather system..

Next, he offered a school day forecast as computer generated clasroom desks slid into the view in front of him. A large virtual chalkboard appeared, cover up the real monitor on the set wall behind Bailey. 

Bailey himself appeared to be standing behind the wooden table, trash can to the left of the chalkboard as well as the student desks spread out in front. That looks is, of course, a key hallmark of AR — unlike traditional chroma key weather maps, talent can walk around 3D objects.

Bailey then moved onto providing a forecast for the Indianapolis Colts vs. Los Angeles Rams game slated to be played at the Lucas Oil Stadium in Indy later that day.

In this scene, he was shown standing behind a 3D model of the stadium. Team helmets were added to the left with a floating screen above displaying a traditional weather graphic.

Bailey did discuss if the Lucus Oil Stadium’s retractable roof could be opened or not at game time though the roof on the virtual building remained tightly closed.

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The station is part of the CBS-owned duopoly in San Francisco including KPIX, which brands on-air as CBS Bay Area.

KPYX, which has adopted the KPIX+ branding on-air, ended its relationship with The CW on August 31, 2023, as part of an affiliation change impacting eight stations owned by CBS. 

CBS announces how its CW stations will rebrand this fall

With the move, each station has carved out different approaches to fill their schedule with KPYX adding “Primetime Edition,” hosted by Devin Fehely.

The station’s renewed mission is focused on the San Francisco community with additional local news, event coverage and specials – led by “Primetime Edition.” 

“It’s got to look and feel like a primetime show, and we think we’ve come up with some ideas that will make it work,” said Scott Warren, president and general manager of KPIX and KPIX+. 

“The center of everything we do starts and ends with storytelling… If we have really great stories, really compelling stories that pull at your emotions and you learn something along the way, that’s the heart of what we’re doing, day in and day out,” said Warren. “Now we’ll add better ways to showcase those stories and different ways to tell those stories that will help convey more information, more emotion and actually immerse the viewer in the story itself.”

To realize this vision and prepare for the next generation of newscasts, the station has embraced virtual and augmented reality technology under Warren’s leadership, with support from the CBS News and Stations leadership team. 

“The appetite for storytelling in different ways and reaching an audience in a different way goes all the way up to the top of this company, and without that support, this would never have happened,” said Warren.

“We often talk about KPIX as being the innovation leader, the incubation team for the group,” noted Jennifer Mitchell, president, CBS Television Stations. 

KPIX was the first station to debut the new CBS Television Stations group graphics package, with the station’s team developing and troubleshooting the design integration with Chyron Prime. 

Exclusive: Inside the rebranding of CBS-owned local stations

Weather as the driver of innovation

“We think the most valuable place to start with this is weather. We’ve had two-dimensional maps on the wall that somebody’s pointed to for 60 years. The maps have gotten a little better but we’ve been doing the same presentation for 60 years,” said Warren. “Weather’s three-dimensional and weather’s immersive… That was the start of all of this, how immersive can we get in this?”

While “Primetime Edition” may initially focus the technology on weather, the goal is to move behind the anchor desk for as much of the newscast as possible. 

“We’re starting with the basics and then we’re going to continue to grow and add on. Weather is our starting point. After that, we think of it less as sets and more as storytelling environments where now your lead story is in the middle of a wildfire and we have a 360 camera up out in the woods… The ways that we can bring people to a story and into a story and immerse them in a story, and make them feel like they’re part of the story, that’s where we’re headed with this.”

While the presentation may start with familiarity, building from maps and charts, Warren envisions more interaction with data such as clouds and storms surrounding the weathercaster, as he breaks down hyperlocal conditions. 

“We will slowly start adding the storytelling environments and eliminating the time we spend on our hard set, to the point where you won’t see it very much more,” added Warren.

A new workflow for virtual production

Behind the scenes, the team including Jeff Jeandheur and Eliot Curtis have been working on the task of making virtual production more efficient for usage in local news, given the tight deadlines and typical story workflow.

“We feel that the technology — in all aspects of this — has finally reached a point where we can pull it all together to make it as photorealistic and dynamic as possible,” said Warren, who emphasized this level of production and output quality has not been possible previously at a local station.  

This includes tying the virtual production into the station’s control room automation and ensuring a constant flow of real-time data from a variety of sources.

“All the technology has been out there for years, but nobody’s pulled it all together to do this. So we now have an immersive environment with real-time data that all hooks into an automated control room, so you don’t need huge teams of people to run this stuff,” said Warren. “It can be done on a daily basis, a newscast basis, by the team we have… It’s really the brilliance of the team that’s put that all together.” 

Technology-wise, the virtual environments are powered by Zero Density’s Reality solution with rendering from the Unreal Engine and camera tracking from Stype. Myreze worked with the KPIX team on the initial virtual design, with the station’s team handling implementation and further customization. 

While “Primetime Edition” is currently viewed as an experiment, it may eventually lead to new methods of storytelling at KPIX and beyond.

Warren envisions journalists that are not only gathering video and interviews but potentially capturing objects to turn into 3D models for a newscast. 

Across the group, Mitchell notes the sharing and learning coming out of San Francisco.

“As we make decisions about building out new sets, about design, we are absolutely thinking about virtual versus a hundred percent hardscape,” said Mitchell. “We can learn from that [KPIX] team and scale when the time is right.”

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WFAA forecaster Pete Delkus was presenting his weather forecast as normal last week when a map popped up claiming the heat index was 101,105 in McKinney, Texas.”

“Everyone in McKinney is dead,” Delkus joked.

"Everyone in McKinney is dead! The heat index in McKinney is 10,000, what is that, 101,105? It's hot in McKinney!" WFAA's Pete Delkus had a great reaction to a graphic error, starting about the 1:00 mark here. pic.twitter.com/M9h1gmvOcd

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) July 21, 2023

The map just before the heat index one showed that the air temperature in McKinney, Texas, was 99 degrees — which was in line with many of the other locales shown on the map.

The heat index for cities around McKinney was ranged from the low 100s to 110, so it’s likely that 101,105 figure was the combination of “101” and “105” somehow getting stuck next to each other in the computer.

Not to fear, however, the city of McKinney was not vaporized by some freak heat dome. Whew.

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The vehicle is an F-series Ford pickup truck with cap enclosing the bed. 

Wireless receivers and transmission gear along with various weather instruments are installed on the roof, which is also outfitted with utility racks that include exterior lighting.

The vehicle has souped-up tires and wheels as well as a grill guard. The truck also has multiple cameras.

KPRC got a new Storm Tracker vehicle and it is SO COOL!! I’m thrilled to storm chase in this once our heat wave ends #stormtracker @KPRC2 pic.twitter.com/iIqCv5UNNl

— Caroline Brown (@KPRC2Caroline) July 18, 2023

The entire vehicle is wrapped in a branded skin featuring the station’s “Storm Tracker 2” logo that has been rotated slightly. 

The design features a bold red panel near the back with a large hurricane symbol. The front portion of the livery is blue with a raindrop motif along with hints of lightning bolts and circular radar imagery.

The two sections are separated by a bold diagonal element. 

Much of the imagery ties into the station’s graphics package.

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Dubbed the new “Stormtracker 16 Weather Center,” the new space sits opposite of the station’s main set and features several large screens and a U-shaped desk with five workstations.

The new digs debuted on air July 11, 2023. Prior to this, the station had a weather “office” in an alcove adjacent to the newsroom with two workstations. 

In this 2017 photo, WNEP meteorologist Joe Snedeker uses The Backyard outdoor weather studio’s chroma key wall, which is hidden inside a shed-like structure. 

WNEP is unique in that it does the majority of its weather segments outside in what’s known as “The Backyard.” This outdoor weather studio features flood lighting, a stone patio, landscaping and water feature.

There is also a shed-like structure with a rolling barn door with a chroma key wall inside.

The space is shot using a robotic camera set up in a small, purpose-built room with a window that can be opened during broadcasts. The camera is positioned so that it can capture meteorologists at the key wall or in full shots that allow current conditions to appear on air.

Select segments are also captured with a handheld camera.

The new space in the main studio is also designed to serve as a primary workspace for the forecasters as well, though a single workstation remains in the newsroom, primarily for morning meteorologist Joe Snedeker. This will keep him closer to the door that connects to The Backyard. Another source said there were also concerns about the forecaster, who is known for his over-the-top personality, remaining quiet when he’s not on the air.

One disadvantage of the new location is that it’s now a bit more of a circuitous route from the studio to the backyard, according to sources. The station reportedly investigated adding a door that would give forecasters more direct access, but it wasn’t doable due to how the building was engineered. 

This 2017 photo shows the weather office off the newsroom. It has been changed slightly since then, but is largely the same.

The old indoor weather center, meanwhile, was lit and wired for live broadcasting as an alternative weather presentation spot in the event of severe weather. The station could do digital or over the air cut-ins without the control room from this location as well.

Joe Snedeker standing on the opposite side of the weather office with the newsroom in the background. Much of the broadcast lighting for the weather center is located just out of frame of this photo, taken in 2017. The newsroom itself is used for live shots and some of the lighting for that is visible in the background.

According to sources, the new space allows forecasters to broadcast without any direct intervention from its remote master control, meaning they can be on the air faster.

The expanded space allow allows for more collaboration between the weather team during severe weather events as well as interaction with anchors, though that hasn’t been shown off yet.

WNEP began using the new space for live weather bumps July 11 to showcase the new space, including the new monitors display live camera feeds, a “situational awareness” board and weather graphics. The main forecasts continued to be delivered from outdoors. 

Station sources say the space was assembled using repurposed office furniture. A new backlit sign features branding and the station brought in freestanding faux stone panels placed strategically in the gaps between the video panels to create feel that the space has more structure to it than it does.

In reality, the black spaces that appear on-camera are actually showing the studio draping.

Despite the introduction of the new weather center, WNEP is being careful to point out that it is not abandoning outdoor weather. Producers and meteorologists have been briefed on driving home that point, according to sources.

Instead, the station sees the new weather center as being devoted to severe weather coverage and giving it valuable tools to keep viewers safe.

The move comes after WNEP added a low-profile video wall to its studio back in February 2023. This gave the station a new presentation area for both anchors and sports as well as an updated way to handle tosses to the backyard, after years of using various visual effects to create the latter.

The station has also started using the wall for “video on video” teases that also show off Camera 1. That camera, incidentally, is the same one that, when flipped around, captures the new weather center. 

WNEP uses three PTZ robotic cameras and the weather center is positioned so Cam 1 can capture both the CR anchor one-shot and meteorologist without moving the ped. 

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Running as an hourlong block at 4 a.m. eastern, “Retro” recreates the channel’s iconic 1990s-era look (and sound) of banded orange and blue gradients paired with smooth jazz background music.

The segments recreate, as opposed to duplicate, the familiar look that the network used for years via Weather Star units installed in regional pay TV provider headends. 

The designs, however, have been updated to be 16:9 and HD and use a different font. 

Diehard fans who grew up on the channel in the 90s will note the graphics used during “Retro” are much less bitmapped, shedding the “8-bit” look that the Weather Star system generated at the time.

On-screen graphics also feature the present-day Weather Channel logo as well as the modern ticker along the bottom of the screen — along with a “Retro on the 8s Live” logo in the upper right of the screen that completely eschews the retro look. 

It also does not use the highly robotic pre-Siri and pre-AI text-to-speech voice technology included in several versions of Weather Star, instead opting for recorded voiceover elements. 

Throughout the hour, “Retro” shuffles between two opens, one using a block sans serif with beveled gradient strips and angled elements.

View on Giphy

The other look is serif with curved accents.

View on Giphy

“Retro” is a month-long experiment the network is trying out, reportedly with a chance to become a permanent feature.

The segment is not a true “Local on the 8s” feature, hence avoiding any reference to “local” in the “Retro 8s” name, though the weather data and maps shown do show present-day information and conditions. 

In fact, the network continues to offer its automated local forecasts at 8, 18, 28, 38, 48 and 58 minutes past the hour during “Retro” using its present-day graphics. 

“Retro,” meanwhile, essentially takes the place of what would, in a more typical hour, contain program content and runs with commercial breaks as well as the “real” local segments.

Another key difference is that “Retro 8s” is not localized, with the entire country receiving the same feed and weather data, rather than localized content inserted at pay TV provider headends. 

The Weather Channel revolutionized the broadcast industry by not only dedicating 24 hours a day to weather, but also providing customized regional and local content inserted over the national feed. Cable providers could arrange to acquire a computer system, including Weather Star-generation units and install them in headends. 

The systems were designed to take weather data feeds and display them on-screen in the form of fullscreen graphics and maps. Because the systems had to handle all graphical generation onboard, the design had a distinct look that was both indicative of trends of the day and a nod to the technical limitations of generating graphics from data feeds without the significant amount of computing power typically needed at the time. 

For providers not equipped with a local system (or in the case of local technical issues), the network provides a national feed in place of Local on the 8s that shows weather from major cities and regions across the U.S.

As technology evolved, so did the systems, eventually growing up beyond the “retro” pixelated and banded look to the smooth, high definition text and graphics used today.

The “Retro” feature is a creative way to fill what is typically a little-watched block of time while still staying true to the network’s mission. By drawing on the “retro” look, the network can provide a unique look that’s still embedded in the brains of millions of those who watched the network’s early days.

Given the comparatively lower viewership available in these early hours, many networks prefer to run automated or repeat programming during early morning hours such as the 4 a.m. block, though at least part of this time period juts up against weather-heavy local newscasts in some time zones.

At least some of the music used during “Retro” is from Transition Music Corp., including cuts with titles such as “Stormy Weather.”

Competitor Fox Weather offers an overnight feed called “Night Light,” an automated, computer-generated loop showcasing national and global weather conditions, with the graphics largely depicting the world in the dark, lit primarily by clusters of light around major metro areas. 

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This advanced network aims to create a richer, more detailed weather coverage by gathering meteorological data and visuals from multiple locations across the country. The alliance between The Weather Channel and Google is the outcome of Google’s ongoing relationship with Allen Media Group, the parent company of The Weather Channel.

“The SkyFx Camera Network in partnership with Google News Initiative furthers our mission to keep the public informed and prepared on weather conditions and threats across the country,” said Byron Allen, Founder/Chairman/CEO of Allen Media Group, parent company of The Weather Channel.

“We take our position as the most trusted news network very seriously and we will continue to innovate and launch new tools that enable us to deliver real-time, critical weather news and information that empowers individuals to take actionable steps to safeguard themselves and their loved ones during severe weather events.”

The SkyFx Camera Network pairs high-end 360-degree video cameras with individual weather stations, collecting real-time meteorological data and live streaming video. The Weather Channel plans to incorporate footage from this network into its weather coverage and make it available on The Weather Channel Streaming App.

Google also emphasizes the alignment of the project with its key principles.

“This project exemplifies two key principles of Google and our Google News Initiative: using technology to help people all over the world. SkyFx Camera Network demonstrates how a media outlet can develop a technological concept to provide its users with relevant information, as well as a product that will be used for the benefit and improvement of people’s lives. We are thrilled to be a part of this project,” said Chrissy Towle, Google’s director of news partnerships.

This initiative arrives a year after The Weather Channel’s deal with CBS News. The pact entailed featuring Weather Channel correspondents, their reports and mixed reality technology in CBS programming.

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The segment was created by the Telemundo real-time graphics team using Chyron Prime VSAR and Unreal Engine for rendering.

The segment begins with a shaky handheld-style shot showing the corner of a house’s front porch as a funnel cloud looms in the distance.

There are wider views of the surrounding landscape interspersed during the segment, with semi-transparent white and yellow graphics added, frequently appearing to be aligned with a focal point in the scene or over a key part of the concept being illustrated.

With rounded corners, microtext and rectangle accents, these graphics have a decidedly “high tech” look.

These become particularly important when the segment has to explain air currents and direction — a concept that is largely invisible. Like in many weather maps, a combination of lines, circles and arrows are used to illustrate the path of the wind, including how it begins to form the infamous funnel shape.

The segment then moves inside the virtual house, with a large appliance crashing through a wall as the importance of finding an inside room for safety is noted.

Near the end, the correspondent is shown climbing into a bathtub and placing a mattress on top of him — a common piece of tornado safety advice given for cases when there is no basement or one cannot be reached. 

The segment then illustrates an apparent direct hit of the twister on the house — with the view, in a rather cinematic style, switching to the talent’s point of view before crashing into darkness. This blackout is used as a transitional element to cut to a wide view of the talent emerging from the tub after the virtual storm has destroyed the structure. 

Telemundo’s team added some details to the segment that helped make it feel more realistic — including the wobbly nature of many shots, having the talent pass behind porch columns and then through the front door. 

There is also a well-timed reaction to the appliance breaking through the wall, though the on-screen response feels a bit staged.

Some final details that add a particularly nice touch include the tub wobbling slightly with a light thud sound effect as the correspondent steps out of it and a depiction of the many of the same items shown just inside the home just moments before now mostly destroyed or scattered in the background. 

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Dubbed “Storm Tracker,” the vehicle is co-branded with local dealership Oxmoor Ford, the vehicle isn’t new to the station, but the spot is designed to continue to showcase the vehicle and its features.

WAVE Director of Marketing Kris Ellison-Baete headed up the team who developed the new promo, including stylized shots of the vehicle parked and out and about and oversized yellow typography in solid and outline formats. Clips captured by the vehicle, as well as airchecks during severe weather, are also included, along with augmented reality-style labels showcasing the mobile radar and live streaming capabilities. 

Like many weather promos, there is also a running theme of safety during severe weather.

DO YOU REMEMBER? Before the #WAVE3News @3StormTracker, we had…

• The WAVE 3 Storm Chaser (2 versions)

• The WAVE 3 Weather Wizard "Wagen"

• The WAVE 3 Weather RV

Our history of weather vehicles goes back over 20 years! pic.twitter.com/GGUwm9OGOQ

— WAVE Storm Tracker (@WAVEStormTrackr) April 16, 2019

WAVE has had weather vehicles for over 20 years, including two iterations of “Storm Chaser,” both of which were oversized vans. There was also “Weather Wizard,” a VW Bug and an RV version. Previous vehicles had varying capacities and equipment payloads. 

Hello there. Notice anything different? pic.twitter.com/yg5qjKLYML

— WAVE Storm Tracker (@WAVEStormTrackr) November 8, 2022

Following the station’s January 2022 rebranding and new logo, the vehicle had its livery updated from the previous black, red and white color scheme later that year.

We’re all set for #ThunderOverLouisville at @KYScience! Watch our coverage with the @3StormTracker all day on #WAVE3News! #wave3thunder pic.twitter.com/Bb40ShEwQ6

— WAVE Storm Tracker (@WAVEStormTrackr) April 13, 2019

It now sports a blue, yellow and white motif with a redesigned logo and lightning bolt theme, which is showcased in the promo.

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During “News Central” on June 7, 2023, anchor Sara Sidner tossed to broadcast meteorologist Dereck Van Dam in the CNN Severe Weather Center to provide another perspective on the smoky conditions areas of the Northeast U.S. is experiencing due to wildfires in Canada.

Van Dam took up the story as a rather indiscriminate cloud of smoke hovered in the upper right of the screen for quite some time. The effect was difficult to see, given that the semi-transparent graphical representation of the smoke only occupied perhaps the upper one-eighth of the about two-thirds of the way across. 

The most obvious sign that something was there was that the red column and row of video panels on the weather set were slightly obscured.

Things got a bit more exciting when Van Dam noted that the smoke does result in some stunning sunsets — at this point the cloud grew slightly in size and shifted to a rusty orange, becoming easier to see. There was also a slight burst of light representing the sun.

In this iteration, the effect mostly covered the row of video panels on the studio wall, but a small portion peeked through in a shade that happened to closely match the sun-cast effect, making it look, at least at a quick glance, the there was some sort of odd glitch in the graphics causing the ethereal smoke to form a very unnatural right angle.

Finally, as Van Dam noted that the smoke can settle toward the ground, an additional faint gray overlay entered, covering about half of the screen. The effect was little more than a graphic of semi-transparent whisps.

CNN was apparently attempting to add a bit of augmented reality to its segment, but ended up adding another example of how using visual effects for the sake of visual effects isn’t always the best move.

While the smoke effect would technically qualify under the AR banner, the segment featured no camera moves and did not include an instance of Van Dam interacting with the smoke as if it was an element in the space of the studio, such as standing in front of it. The effect could have been created by simply overlaying an animation with an alpha channel on top of the camera feed.

At certain points, when Van Dam’s hands would gesture toward the middle of the screen, it appeared his hands were behind the smoke, as opposed to an effect making it look like he was in front of the virtual element.

In some ways, an effect like that would have actually made the segment a bit more effective since viewers would at least be able to see how the smoke could affect visibility as was better illustrated in Athena Jones’
live shot immediately preceding Van Dam’s segment. 

To be fair to Van Dam, he did offer another visual — holding up his own “asthma pump” (a small white inhaler) when notating how the smoky conditions could affect those with respiratory issues.

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