KOTV enhances weather segments with FOR-A telestrator

“When a meteorologist does a First Forecast, Final Forecast or Severe WX presentation from our WX Pod position, he or she will use the telestrator to help reinforce or further illustrate what they are communicating,” explained John Quesnel, director of production for KOTV/KQCW. “The meteorologists can also call up a live video feed from any of our seven skycams, 10 weather trackers, or 15 live units to help point out or illustrate a key weather item.”

“During non-severe weather, it could be used to point out weather phenomena or highlight certain weather data,” Quesnel offered. “During severe weather, this could be storm path, timing, speed, direction, etc.”

Although the FVW-700 has only been used for weather segments so far, Quesnel said the station plans to use it to accentuate storytelling for news stories as well as for high school or college football coverage. KOTV uses a touchscreen, but the FVW-700 also supports annotation for up to two wireless tablets via WiFi for additional production flexibility.

Part of a duopoly with CW affiliate KQCW, KOTV produces 50 hours of live news per week, including 12 hours for KQCW. Both stations are owned by Griffin Communications.

Designed to provide creative on-screen annotation options for sports coverage, weather reports, medical instruction and more, the FVW-700 is offered in two models to fit specific needs, including 4K and all-in-one models. Users can draw freehand, as well as straight lines and graphic shapes, with various types of lines, thickness, edge width, and colours. Numbers, still images, highlights and animations can also be placed over video. Advanced tools include automatic freehand formation, which uses a noise reduction algorithm to allow sharp angles as well as shaped smooth objects, and edge joining, which uses an edge-rendering algorithm that recognizes edges of lines drawn as outlines of a larger shape and joins them.