Messages

226

TWC and your Cable Company / Re: VZ FiOS dropped TWC

« on: April 03, 2015, 01:22:08 PM »

I am speechless 

227

TWC and your Cable Company / Re: VZ FiOS dropped TWC

« on: April 01, 2015, 01:45:42 PM »

This is all just ridiculous. TWC acts like cry babies and does everything they can to start a war. Hey TWC, you fired over a 100 meteorologists and weather producers in the last 2 years. With that you can't reliably produce weather coverage enough. Its all half f(ass)t! While I agree severe wx should be covered, AccuWeather does have a point saying they're not in the market. I would've covered it but Accuwx is right either way for now.
So Accu still hasn't proved themselves yet. So let them fight, if they want to be that way let them suffer their own consequences

228

TWC and your Cable Company / Re: VZ FiOS dropped TWC

« on: March 30, 2015, 05:38:27 PM »

The Weather Channel ad campaign

*waits for AccuWeather's counterattack ad* 

They already have

ccuWeather’s CEO, Barry Myers, counters the ad campaign is “misleading” since its network is not even broadcast in Oklahoma. “Of course we didn’t go wall-to-wall and cover Oklahoma, because we’re not on the air there,” Myers said.

(Verizon FiOS, which carries AccuWeather’s television network, is only available in select markets along the East Coast, in Texas, and parts of California.)

The AccuWeather Channel, Myers said, targets local markets with their local weather. “The fact that [The Weather Channel] was covering the tornado all the time in Moore, doesn’t matter to people in Boston,” he said.

Myers distinguished his company’s network, which airs only straight weather coverage – from the multiple reality shows broadcast on The Weather Channel. “In 168 hours of week, the amount of programming they have devoted to real weather is really small,” Myers said. “People need to judge what that means. “People need to ask themselves what The Weather Channel is so afraid of,” Myers added. “They’ve had a virtual monopoly for 30-some years. They almost lost with DirecTV , and they have lost with Verizon. Competition is good, and it offers people choice and strengthens products.”

229

Local Forecast / Re: Create your own playlist

« on: March 28, 2015, 12:14:42 AM »

March - Mid April 2015 (Vocal/Instrumental Playlist) *No Dayparts* (A Possible List if The Weather Channel never cut vocals last May)

*Includes Classic TWC Songs* Instrumentals Bolded

All Day (00:00 - 23:59)

Title                                                                                Artist
My Best Days Are Ahead Of Me                               Danny Gokey
She Runs Away                                                           Duncan Sheik
Happy                                                                            Sister Hazel
I Would Do Anything For You                                   Foster The People
Over My Head (Cable Car)                                       The Fray
Always Take The Weather With You                      The Booze Bros
Not That Special                                                          Patrick Droney
Awake                                                                           Tycho
Hanging By A Moment                                                Lifehouse
Let Me Go                                                                     3 Doors Down
Layla                                                                              Derek And The Dominos
Suddenly                                                                     Ryan Farish
Night Storm                                                                Matthew C Shuman
All We Need                                                                 City Acres
Avalon                                                                          Ryan Farish
Falling In                                                                       Lifehouse
Red Moon                                                                    Bryan Carrigan
Imaginary                                                                    Ryan Farish

Favorite Instrumental Songs: Avalon the best, and the rest of them             Favorite Vocal Songs: Not That Special, Falling In, the rest meh 

230

Local Forecast / Re: How does Local on the 8s Work at TWC?

« on: March 27, 2015, 04:11:49 PM »

Vizrt has been providing the graphics for the SD satellite LF since May 2011 and the HD satellite LF since September 2007. I doubt an actual STAR unit is in use for the satellite LF; it's probably an internal computer system with a custom Vizrt installation that is powering these graphics. If I had to take an educated guess, since November 2013 it's probably one system that powers both the satellite LF and the national feed LDL. It's not like the old days when you'd have a custom Weather STAR 4000 running the Travel Cities scroll.

As for when and how the current generation of the satellite LF is cued, it's very likely all automated, unlike the old WPS satellite LF days, when it appears that the satellite LF actually had to be manually cued. Back then, you'd see a relative amount of variation, maybe even a few second gap before the satellite LF would actually fade in. Now, it's a seamless transition from the Local On The 8s intro into the headlines section of the Satellite LF.

It's probably automated but don't know if Viz Weather has a scheduler to automatically play through playlists at designated times? Here's an interesting video at NAB 2011 where the SD satellite graphics from 2011-2013 are shown. Interestingly the video was published in April 2011.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PUKYdtiHjI

231

Everything Else TWC / Re: General TWC Discussion

« on: March 25, 2015, 10:51:27 PM »

I think TWC did awesome tonight. I was so surprised to see an EF2 Tornado go through Moore almost 2 years later. I had no idea it would be this kind of night. Cars were flipped on I-35 just like May 2013. TWC covered every minute like they were supposed to. Hopefully they go until 2 AM because severe weather is expected till about that time. Let's see.

I'm seeing the national feed and the bar is blue?

232

Everything Else TWC / Re: General TWC Discussion

« on: March 25, 2015, 08:16:28 PM »

TWC is continuing coverage of Tornado's in Oklahoma. Don't know how long they'll be live, but better be until all storms die.

233

Local Forecast / Re: How does Local on the 8s Work at TWC?

« on: March 23, 2015, 10:41:25 PM »

So maybe TWC has a star unit for the National HD LF with a modified version of Viz to air just like the other stars on command and the music is played by another computer at specified times. That's my guess?

I wonder what software TWC uses for their music? I know they changed it back in 2010 due to the songs being repetitive.

234

Local Forecast / Re: How does Local on the 8s Work at TWC?

« on: March 23, 2015, 07:07:27 PM »

I've always wondered how TWC airs the Lo8s during specified times. I've always was curious about the National LF. I know the HD graphics from 2007-2013 were from Viz, possibly even now. Does anyone know how they aired it live along with lining up the music to air on time? Really dying to know.

I'm not as experienced as the other members on here, but as far as I know, TWC uses cue tones which the STAR at your headend recognizes and then airs the Local Forecast. Please, correct me if I am wrong. Another thing I find interesting is how the IntelliStar 2 HD cues the specific local forecast product it's supposed to be showing if it cues late. It's like a fail-safe that prevents the IS2HD from cueing the LF Over other programming.

I know that, but also that brings up an interesting question. How does TWC put advance graphics from Viz to a standalone star machine. For example the IS2 from 2010-2013. Along with the other question is what I'm curious about?

 - For those who don't know what Viz is, it' s a software made by a company called VizRT and is composed of Viz Weather, Viz Artist, and Viz World all standalone products that work together. TWC used them with stars and on air graphics.

235

Local Forecast / How does Local on the 8s Work at TWC?

« on: March 23, 2015, 05:52:03 PM »

I've always wondered how TWC airs the Lo8s during specified times. I've always was curious about the National LF. I know the HD graphics from 2007-2013 were from Viz, possibly even now. Does anyone know how they aired it live along with lining up the music to air on time? Really dying to know.

236

Local Forecast / Re: General LF Discussion

« on: March 20, 2015, 11:54:07 PM »

Looks like the :48 locals during long form have returned after a 3 month hiatus. Probably due to my complaint to @daveclark.

237

Everything Else TWC / Re: General TWC Discussion

« on: March 20, 2015, 08:50:56 PM »

Did anyone see this before any of the locals?

This press release from TWC called "Original Programming on The Weather Channel Registers Double Digit Increases" talks more about the "meteoric growth" of primetime programming. Soooo, longform isn't going anywhere.

http://www.theweathercompany.com/newsroom/2015/01/29/original-programming-weather-channel-registers-double-digit-increases

That article came out before Feb hit. You would hope TWC thinks a little differently about longform now after the winter we had, the Verizon drop and the possible addition of WN on DISH .

I don't understand something, I read Dave Clark's tweets on here Tues night. If he know the weekends are a problem, why doesn't he do something about it??? Can't they cut longform off whenever they want?!
I do

The problem lies in that they laid off too many weather producers and meteorologists. It probably would go against the remaining wx producers contract to make them work weekends (too many hours of labor). So in order for it to be fixed, they need to rehire more wx producers, which I think they laid them off because it was too expensive to keep them in the first place. 

238

Everything Else TWC / Re: General TWC Discussion

« on: March 17, 2015, 11:28:38 PM »

I also want to add that TWC is having a hard time with live coverage during weekends. So not intentional (ish).
Probably as Adrian said with the lack of producers.

https://twitter.com/jared_mauriello/status/577972167305900033

@daveclark Last I want to say is the weekend is too crowded with long form. I would really love to see live coverage in the evening on wknds

@jared_mauriello you've hit on all the right challenges.  Not easy.  But we will always be committed to live storm coverage and safety.

239

Everything Else TWC / Re: General TWC Discussion

« on: March 17, 2015, 07:24:29 PM »

I thought I would throw this out there but TWC Management is possibly considering bringing back the pre 2013 watt schedule. If that happened it would be a step in the right direction.

https://twitter.com/jared_mauriello/status/577582406280032256

@daveclark I think you need to return to previous schedules like pre-2013 watt relaunch. Then maybe extend lo8s forecasts by like 30sec

@jared_mauriello we are always learning and that's a possibility.  Appreciate the feedback.

240

TWC and your Cable Company / Re: VZ FiOS dropped TWC

« on: March 10, 2015, 11:34:55 PM »

The Accuweather channel reminds me of The Weather Network in Canada. Although I prefer Accuweather over Weather Nation because the talents are more upbeat. It's like watching a nightly weather report, plus they have maps that fly and tilt like TWC does. The biggest complaint is that they don't have full Local forecasts, just 30 second radar maps with music and it's pre recorded. Accuweather has weather experts perfectly capable of live coverage. I say they have real potential if some fixes were to happen. Although I expect TWC to return along side with Accuweather sometime in the future.