ADVERTISEMENT

In Local News, Weather is Becoming the Visual Attraction

that could deliver high performance by separating the pro-cessing activities within the CPU (via multiple busses) and make them work in parallel to achieve real-time rendering speed in HD resolution. And it had to do it cost-effectively, avoiding the use of ancillary components.

Looking around the industry, Weather Central recognized it needed to provide its clients with real-time effects using an industry-standard PC workstation, available on the market today. It needed a video-centric architecture, one that could stand up to the rigors of daily processing and instant ren-dering in a live broadcast environment. It needed a power-ful, proven platform that didn’t make compromises when it comes to processing bandwidth-intensive 3-D HD imagery.

Enter the HP xw9400 Workstation, which is now paired with all of the HD-capable systems Weather Central ships. With its unique AMD-based, multi-core processing architec-ture, the xw9400 provides the high-capacity disc speed, processing bus throughout and a powerful graphics-render-ing engine that Weather Central’s systems demand. This helps avoid the data fl ow bottlenecks that can slow down a real-time rendering application, which is so critical to a pre-senter changing an on-screen map to show climate trends. In a highly rated live newscast, where up-to-the-minute data is being broadcast constantly, rendering speed helps avoid weather disasters.

“The HP xw9400 and all of the HP workstations are de-signed for high-performance visualization applications,”

A s broadcasters make the transition to high-defi -nition television, they’re doing so with the un-derstanding that local newscasts are their main revenue generator and that the weather forecast

segment, with its 3-D immersive maps and forecast graph-ics, is the most visual entertaining part of the broadcast.

Weather Central, a Madison, Wisconsin-based company that supplies graphics systems and climate forecasting tech-nology for local stations and broadcast networks, under-stands this better than most. The company showed the fi rst HD resolution graphics system for weather in 1999 and today offers advanced systems that provide live, real-time, motion effects across its product line.

Within the past year, stations have begun to purchase HD-ready weather systems, even if they are not planning to move to HD right away. It just makes economic sense, be-cause most stations normally upgrade their weather system (and many other production tools) once every fi ve years.

The key for Weather Central was fi nding a computer platform that could provide the horsepower and fl exibil-ity that its sophisticated software requires. Its 3D:LIVE™, ESP:LIVE™, 3D:Traffi c™ and ScreenWRITER® systems are designed to be resolution-independent. This means that the architecture was designed for HD from the start.

Moving to HD graphics processing was no easy task for Weather Central. What was needed was an architecture

ADVERTISEMENT

said Jeff Wood, director of product marketing for HP’s personal workstation business.

Wood works out of Fort Collins, CO, where HP maintains a large R&D and quality control facility.

“Graphics has always been a very core compe-tency for us,” Wood said. “We’ve been driving a lot of very high-end solutions, and the HP xw9400 is the only tier-1 workstation on the market that supports two full, PCIe X16 3-D graphics output.”

Hewlett-Packard is a company steeped in the video produc-tion industry, supporting many companies that leverage its hardware to make their respective HD image processing and nonlinear editing software systems work. This includes Avid Technology, Autodesk Media & Entertainment, Adobe Systems, Grass Valley (Thomson) and Leitch (Harris).

“HP has really stepped up to the plate and provided us with a platform that gives us a lot of fl exibility to develop the kinds of applications our broadcast clients need,” said Victor Marsh, vice president and CTO at Weather Central. “Because our system allows for graphics generation on top of live video, we have to move multiple streams of HD video content in and out of our box and across the busses without compromise. That’s a tall order for many computer platforms.”

The system design of the HP xw9400 also allows for rack-mounting, which is a key issue for stations with limited space. It also can be ordered as a liquid cooling system to reduce heat and with an innovative “whisper-quiet” fan design that enables the workstation to run much quieter. This comes in handy for stations that install their weather systems on the set, where noise can be problematic.

The xw9400 frame also provides ample room to allow Weather Central to add third-party graphics cards, from companies such as Blackmagic, Digital Video Systems and NVIDIA, which make their weather their systems sing. These cards facilitate new weather forecasting applications, such as the company’s patented MagicTRAK® technology, which allows on-air presenters--using a live camera feed and pre-built 3-D graphics elements to use their hand like a computer mouse to click around an on-air weather map, in real-time.

“We’ve really been happy with the support HP has provided us through our relationship,” Marsh said. “I think the com-pany really has a handle on the high-end video market and what it takes to make our applications run. That can’t be

said about other computer compa-nies. That’s why HP is such a perfect comple-ment to what we are trying to do with our systems. And our customers appreciate this unique synergy as well.”

Weather Central offers several ways for a station to make the move to HD. It can buy a full-blown 3D:LIVE™ HD sys-tem (including the HP xw9400 Workstation) and begin broadcasting in HD immediately. It can buy a lower-cost HD system (w/an Intel processor-based HP xw8400 work-station) and use it in SD mode until it is fully ready. Or, it can buy the HP xw4400 chassis and populate it with SD-only video cards and SD-only video out cards. These budget-conscience customers can then upgrade the system with HD-capable cards at a later date, using the same HP chassis, thereby protecting some of its investment.

“The important thing for us, and our clients, was to make our HD systems easy to use as the SD versions,” Marsh said. “Every one of our SD customers has an expectation of how easy the system is to use. The HP xw9400 ensures that they will have the same success in HD.”

Added HP’s Wood, “From a market perspective, the broadcasting business is huge, and we feel we’re the only computer company to address the industry with applica-tion-specifi c products for moving large amounts of data the way we have. In order to stay competitive, stations have to move to HD, either sooner or later, so we’re ready to sup-port them with cost-effective workstation hardware that will make the transition a success.”

Thus far, about 360 stations use Weather Central system on-air in SD, and about 30 have deployed full HD weather systems (including ABC’s “Good Morning America”). It’s clear the potential for new business for both Weather Cen-tral and HP, this year and in 2008, is huge.

See the new HP products in action for yourself. What: The HP xw9400 Workstations Where: On display in the Weather Central booth (#C5334) and the HP booth (#SL3820) at NAB (National Associa-tion of Broadcasters). Want more? Visit www.hp.com/go/dcc and www.weathercentral.tv

said Jeff Wood, director of product marketing for

Wood works out of Fort Collins, CO, where HP maintains a large R&D and quality control facility.

“Graphics has always been a very core compe-tency for us,” Wood said. “We’ve been driving a lot of very high-end solutions, and the HP xw9400 is the only tier-1 workstation on the market that supports

Hewlett-Packard is a company steeped in the video produc-tion industry, supporting many companies that leverage its hardware to make their respective HD image processing

said about other computer compa-nies. That’s why HP is such a perfect comple-

Screen images courtesyof Weather Central.