ARS brings Advanced Mapping to TV News
Since its introduction in the late 1950’s, airborne video has proven an immensely powerful way for television stations to bring viewers closer to the action. This unique vantage point has become the standard for major TV news organizations today. However, without familiar landmarks, addresses, or street names, airborne shots often lack context, making it difficult for viewers to relate to what they were seeing… Until now.
Recently, KWTV in Oklahoma City, OK, became the first television station in the country to utilize Churchill Navigation’s Augmented Reality System (ARS) for news coverage. Dubbed ‘StreetScope’ by the CBS affiliate for on-air use, ARS brings proven and powerful mapping capabilities to aerial electronic news-gathering.
ARS gives airborne video much-needed context by overlaying streets, addresses, businesses, and much more directly onto the helicopter’s live feed — which is streamed to the station’s control room and made available for live broadcast. Now, viewers can know exactly where news is taking place and quickly determine how it impacts them — a critical link made even more poignant in severe weather-prone areas like Oklahoma.
“Every street will be labeled, every address on every home will be labeled, ahead of the tornado, behind the tornado,” said the CBS affiliate’s chief meteorologist, David Payne. Using tools built-into ARS, KWTV’s crew will be able to show not only what streets and neighborhoods lie in the path of a tornado, but also the speed and direction at which the storm is moving. This capability can be potentially life-saving for viewers while giving the pilot the ability to concentrate on flying the aircraft rather than dividing their attention to identifying and reporting roads and features on the ground.
Providing Context is Just the Beginning…
Finding breaking news will be much easier now, too. ARS gives operators the capability to search for any address, intersection, business, or point-of-interest and automatically slew the camera to that location with the touch of a button. According to Gardner, “The camera will swing and point right to the location as we fly. We really don’t need to get there and start hunting for addresses; the camera is going to take us there.” This allows the helicopter and its crew to be more efficient when on scene and, in some cases, to augment and assist emergency services. In one recent event, the crew of the News 9 helicopter was able to quickly and accurately map the area of a 50-acre wildfire and relay that information to fire fighters on the ground, adding another compelling dimension to what ARS can do when in the trained hands of law enforcement, fire fighters, or now, journalists.
“I mean it is mind blowing what this can do.” — KWTV chief meteorologist David Payne.
