CBS News and Stations has been rolling out augmented reality and virtual technology to its group of owned stations, with KCNC adding the tech in September following the summer debut of a new studio.
The addition follows KPIX in San Francisco and KYW in Philadelphia, along with the national program “CBS News 24/7,” which launched in summer 2024.
NewscastStudio wrote exclusively about the rollout in September 2023, with Jennifer Mitchell, president of CBS Television Stations, predicting an expansion of the technology across the group.
“As we make decisions about building out new sets, about design, we are absolutely thinking about virtual versus a hundred percent hardscape,” said Mitchell. “We can learn from that [KPIX] team and scale when the time is right.”
Technology-wise, the virtual environments are powered by Zero Density’s Reality solution with rendering from the Unreal Engine and integration with Chyron Prime.
At KCNC, the technology is currently being used for First Alert Weather.
“There was great collaboration between CBS Colorado and CBS News and Stations,” said Eric Buckland, engineering manager at KCNC, about the commitment to making the technology a reality in local markets with a CBS-owned station. KCNC notes the virtual studio is part of the First Alert Weather Center and will complement First Alert Weather Trackers and the First Alert Weather Deck, which includes a snow board, wind meter and rain gauge.