AccuWeather® Unveils Enhanced WeatherShow Enhancer™: Elevating Weather Presentations with Enhanced Motion, Interactivity, Rapid Severe Weather Updates, and Unmatched Hyperlocal Weather Data
By DaMarko Webster
AccuWeather® is introducing significant updates to its acclaimed interactive touchscreen system, the WeatherShow Enhancer™, at the NAB. These enhancements bring enhanced motion, increased interactivity, rapid severe weather updates, and unparalleled real-time hyperlocal weather data through an exclusive partnership with Ambient Weather®, a leading provider of modern weather station technology.
The WeatherShow Enhancer, a multi-screen presentation tool, synergizes with and greatly enhances any TV station’s existing weather system. Built on AccuWeather’s StoryTeller+® Interactive Touchscreen System, this software and hardware display system empowers on-air talent with exclusive live interactive capabilities. With the WeatherShow Enhancer, local weather teams gain a significant advantage with comprehensive breaking severe weather information at their fingertips, enabling them to effectively engage viewers and articulate complex weather events with clarity and precision.
The latest iteration of the WeatherShow Enhancer elevates weather presentations and enhances audience engagement with unique features, including:
- Special Effects and Interactivity: Advanced touchscreen technology enables easy resizing of graphics or videos via touch. Spotlight and telestration tools facilitate the highlighting of key areas on the screen. Six live HD/SDI video inputs and multiple video feeds allow simultaneous display of multiple scenes. The system also supports the simultaneous display of multiple screens (4, 8, or 16) and enables zooming in or out on any screen or group of screens in any order.
- Enhanced Street-Level Reporting: The WeatherShow Enhancer offers the most detailed worldwide street-level reporting, mapping, and labeling available, allowing for precise localization. Users can pan and zoom into any neighborhood in their designated market area (DMA) for enhanced localization, applicable not only to weather but also to breaking news coverage worldwide.
- Superior Severe Weather Coverage: New severe weather capabilities provide up-to-the-second breaking weather information, with severe weather warnings and alerts appearing instantly on the Enhancer screen as they are issued. A unique 4-screen display of severe weather components allows on-air talent to illustrate all key weather impacts in the same area simultaneously, facilitating clearer understanding for audiences.
In an exclusive partnership with Ambient Weather, AccuWeather’s WeatherShow Enhancer now grants access to a dense network of over 100,000 weather stations, providing street-by-street™ weather data for the most comprehensive coverage of real-time hyperlocal conditions in each DMA. This network fills geographical gaps between government and private sector weather stations, offering meteorologists and viewers a clearer picture of real-time street-by-street™ local weather variations.
Additionally, two popular features from the AccuWeather app are now available on the WeatherShow Enhancer: AccuWeather MinuteCast®, providing hyperlocal, minute-by-minute forecasts of precipitation type and intensity for the next 2 hours, and AccuWeather WinterCast™, offering probabilities of various snow accumulations from approaching winter storms.
Dr. Joel Myers, Founder and Executive Chairman of AccuWeather, emphasized the importance of winning in weather broadcasting: “Having the most accurate and hyperlocal forecasts, meteorologists who can best communicate and illustrate the latest weather story, and a weather team viewers can depend on and trust during times of severe weather are key to winning the local weather wars.” He added, “Our latest version of the WeatherShow Enhancer provides the fastest live severe weather tools and more real-time street-by-street weather data – information that you can’t get anywhere else – that turbocharges your current weather systems and helps you beat your competitors on the air with breaking weather stories.”