The Weather Channel bets everything on augmented reality with Zero Density

Zero Density provides a wide variety of virtual studio and augmented reality technology solutions to bring spectacle to film productions. The Weather Channel.

The Weather Channel, with the aim of optimizing its workflows, has decided to integrate the augmented reality technology of Zero Density, based on Unreal Engine. With the inevitable collaboration of the company specialized in broadcast design Myreza, the channel has created a whole virtual world which reproduces the external environment in the studio, thus allowing presenters to move between the real and virtual world live thanks to mixed reality.

To reach this milestone, the team The Weather Channel uses Zero Density's Unreal Engine-based emissions composition system, Reality, as well as the keyer Reality Keyer. With support for 3D masks and 4:4:4 RGB camera sources, Reality Keyer uses pixel values ​​rather than a selection of colors to generate the “best matte” of an image to be extracted. Image-based embedding allows the team to create a virtual green screen in which they can map the actual green screen material, all relying on the monitoring data of the Mon-Sys integrated. This setup means that details like the shadows, subpixel details such as hair, and transparent objects stay in the final composition, favoring realism in the composition.

RealityHub serves as the hub of production, allowing The Weather Channel team manage everything in the studio- From multiple engines to real-time graphics, on a single web-based platform. Additionally, thanks to the real-time data integration tools of the Zero Density tool, the weather statistics can be applied immediately to 3D charts, bar charts, and forecasts throughout the entire broadcast time.

A new way of “giving time”

The Weather Channel uses his mixed reality studio all day for the main network's new weather show Pattern y The Weather Channel In Spanish broadcasting from long-form programs to breaking news forecasts with the help of a team of experts in real time. The shift to a primarily live format has been essential in helping the team tell their stories; This way, meteorologists can now provide audiences with information (along with stunning imagery) in the most up-to-date way possible.

Andrew Maloof, senior graphics systems engineer at The Weather Channel, highlights the network's new graphics system: "Through a single application, RealityHub offers our users the ability to configure, compile, launch and broadcast projects, while providing them with ways to save time to optimize their workflow. The centralization of these tools in an intuitive and easy-to-access web interface changes everything for our artists, engineers and graphic operators."

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