Ventuz – the new weather tool of choice for German breakfast TV

The market leading German breakfast TV, ARD Morgenmagazin, now uses a 3D realtime weather solution based on Ventuz.

Interactive realtime graphics are expected in the market of live TV productions and Ventuz is the number one choice for INCAS Training und Projekte GmbH & CO. KG. The market leading German breakfast TV, ARD Morgenmagazin, is produced in Cologne at the public-broadcasting institution WDR. The show starts at 5.30 a.m. and has a duration of 3,5 hours with news and a weather show every 30 minutes. The weatherman Donald Bäcker presents the weather seven times each morning. Being up-to-date with news and weather forecast is essential and that is why the WDR decided to involve INCAS Training und Projekte from Krefeld in the development of a realtime graphic and editing solution for the very important half-hourly weather shows. It’s an innovative and flexible solution for meteorologists or presenters to design weather maps within minutes and present them on large-scale touchscreen displays in television studios. Meteorologists or operators can include satellite or cloud movies, edit the scrollbar, change weather symbols, temperatures or wind direction in the easy-to-use editor to present them seconds later using an iPhone-like graphical user interface on the 103″ plasma display live in the television studio.

It is a cost-effective solution developed for Breakfast TV, that first aired in June 2010 but now has more than 200 on air weather presentations. The advantage: Weather maps must no longer be produced by an external service provider or the internal graphic department. The presenter/forecaster can develop his/her own maps very quickly and present them simply by using their own hands on the touchscreen. The realtime solution for on air weather presentation and the weather editor have been developed by INCAS Training und Projekte, Germany. The on air weather presentation runs alongside VENTUZ 2008 on a standard PC, powered by an ATI Fire Pro graphic card. The large scale plasma display is a Panasonic 103″ Full HD Plasma Display equipped with a Touch Overlay.

The solution has two parts:
– a weather editor to design weather maps via drag and drop,
– the interactive realtime on air weather presentation (based on Ventuz) on the HD display.

INCAS Training und Projekte GmbH & CO. KG has developed this solution for Westdeutscher Rundfunk, WDR, Cologne and is proud to present it live on the IBC in Amsterdam, the leading international forum for the electronic media industry. You can find INCAS at the Panasonic booth, Hall 11, stand 11.E60

INCAS Training und Projekte GmbH & CO. KG gives special Thanks to the WDR, the anchorman Donald Bäcker and Christian Kuntze,*ckMEDIA!