Simulated tornado rips through Weather Channel studio

Subscribe to NewscastStudio for the latest news, project case studies and product announcements in broadcast technology, creative design and engineering delivered to your inbox.
The Weather Channel used immersive mixed reality to showcase the power of a tornado — by having it “wipe out” its own studio.
The segment, which aired the morning of Wednesday, June 20, 2018, started out looking normal enough — with Jim Cantore standing in the studio in front of a video wall array, which served as a portal to a realtime simulation of a tornado.
An empty country road with increasingly angry sky gets darker and darker as the storm approaches.
After the funnel cloud approaches, a power line and pole “crashes” onto the studio floor, giving Cantore an opportunity to explain safety tips surrounding downed power lines — as important facts appear in floating yellow boxes.
In the segment, Cantore encourages viewers to stay at least 40 feet away from any live wires while noting that he would, in fact, be standing too close if the downed pole was real.
Subscribe to NewscastStudio for the latest news, project case studies and product announcements in broadcast technology, creative design and engineering delivered to your inbox.
tags
Epic Games, Epic Games Unreal Engine, immersive mixed reality, Jim Cantore, Ross Frontier, The Future Group, The Future Group Frontier, the weather channel
categories
Augmented Reality, Virtual Production and Virtual Sets, Broadcast Design, Broadcast Industry News, Heroes, Weather