Orad’s TD Control Enables Video Walls Used by The Weather Channel Morning Show AMHQ

Orad’s PowerWall high resolution video wall solution and TD Control production hub were chosen to drive video wall content to over 100 monitors in The Weather Channel network’s new studio.

“Orad’s TD Control and PowerWall were the only solution in the market that met our requirements of a complex, 3D, real-time video and graphics display over our video walls by a single operator. The deployment at our studio went flawlessly, especially considering there were only six weeks between the time we ordered and the on-air date. We are very pleased with the results.” said Mike Smereski, director of engineering operations & support at The Weather Channel.

The Weather Channel approached Orad for an easy-to-operate solution to deliver video and graphics content to over 100 monitors with 18 independent clusters in multiple aspect ratios and resolutions. It was imperative that the solution integrate into The Weather Channel team’s existing setup and would not change its current workflow.

Orad’s TD Control and PowerWall were the ideal solutions. TD Control enables the video aspect ratios to be easily managed. For the daily graphics and video playback, The Weather Channel does not need to create special versions depending on which cluster it will be displayed on, as it is all managed in real time based on the graphic templates themselves. Orad’s solution provides The Weather Channel with true preview and program confidence monitoring through a multi-viewer output of an Orad processor, giving operators complete confidence by seeing each cluster in its actual aspect ratio in the control room. Thanks to its integration with MOS newsrooms, producers can add graphics elements or insert video into templates in the newsroom system.

Orad’s solutions provide The Weather Channel with significant WOW factor without using any M/E or DVE resources of the production switcher. Full 3D effects and transitions are available independently or simultaneously across monitor clusters. Up to 16 live video insertions can be added into any monitor cluster to display a dozen or more live shots in boxes featured on giant video walls when a large scale weather event is being covered. The Weather Channel has unlimited graphics-layering capability, and the ability to link graphics across monitor clusters. Data integration enables the creation of tickers that can span multiple clusters. An internal 4k video clip playback enables the clusters to show full 4K resolution rather than upscaled resolutions shown by traditional wall processors. In addition, each Orad processor has the capability to internally play back one 4K or multiple 1080i clips, without tying up any of the video inputs.