IBM Enhances The Weather Company Max Traffic Solution with Vizzion Camera Network
Largest Network of Road-Facing Cameras to be Integrated in The Weather Company's 3-D Max Traffic to Increase Viewer Engagement
Vizzion, provider of the largest traffic camera network in the world, is pleased to announce a new partnership with The Weather Company, an IBM Business, to integrate traffic camera imagery, streams, and data into its Max Traffic broadcast solution. Through the partnership, Max Traffic customers are able to use imagery and video feeds from Vizzion’s US and Canada camera network in broadcast traffic and weather reports, boosting viewer engagement and giving audiences a live, hyper-local look at road conditions.
Rebecca Schleicher, WTVF NewsChannel 5 Traffic Anchor, utilizing Vizzion cameras within Max.
© NewsChannel 5 Nashville, The Weather Company, an IBM Business, 2020
Research has shown that 83% of television news viewers watch the morning news for traffic, providing broadcasters an opportunity to showcase their content and start their audience’s day off right. In addition, 59% of traffic viewers want their traffic content delivered in the context of an integrated weather and traffic report.[1]
Featuring enterprise-grade visualization capabilities, The Weather Company's Max Traffic solution uses IBM’s advanced forecasting weather models to deliver reports that are informative and aesthetically appealing. Eye-catching graphics, streaming cameras, and data visualization tools for information such as drive times make the solution accessible to broadcasters across the United States and Canada. The solution’s publishing functions allow users to distribute content quickly and easily to social media, mobile devices, and the web. “Max Traffic is one of the most feature-heavy and powerful traffic and weather solutions available today,” said Sean Beaudoin, Account Manager for Vizzion. “We’re looking forward to bringing traffic and weather to life with our cameras.”
Up to four streaming or still cameras can be shown on-screen at once with Max Traffic.
© The Weather Company, an IBM Business, 2020
Vizzion’s camera imagery and streams add a new level of functionality to The Weather Company’s Max Traffic solution. With cameras in over 600 global markets, Max Traffic users have the ability to add local camera feeds to their traffic reports. Users are also able to show up to four cameras at once as well as cycle through user-selected groups of cameras to make traffic reports smooth and free of interruptions. Vizzion’s robust API delivers imagery that is consistent between providers, regions, and formats, allowing cameras from multiple agencies to be displayed seamlessly. Through their automated camera monitoring technologies, Vizzion is also able to preemptively check and filter out-of-service cameras before they go to air, ensuring that broadcasters don’t have to worry about stale or unavailable imagery.
“We are excited to be partnering with Vizzion since it gives our clients the ability to demonstrate how weather is impacting traffic by overlaying live video with near real-time weather conditions such as storms, snow and general visibility,” said Bill Dow, Head of Media Weather Solutions for The Weather Company. “Our clients can easily tell both a weather and traffic story. They could also build captivating presentations that feature weather and traffic maps, full-screen coverage and commuter drive times without switching interfaces or sources during hits. It really helps tell a more thorough, real-time and visual traffic report which audiences crave."
For more information about The Weather Company, an IBM Business, visit https://newsroom.ibm.com/the-weather-company. For more on IBM, visit IBM.com.
*“Television Traffic Viewers,” CJ&N Research, January 2020. The performance data and client examples cited are presented for illustrative purposes only. Actual performance results may vary depending on specific configurations and operating conditions.
About Vizzion
Vizzion is the leading provider of road imagery for traffic, weather, road condition, and safety operations and applications. Through partnerships with over 200 different transport agencies and on-vehicle camera providers, Vizzion offers live feeds from over 100,000 cameras in 40 countries across North America, Europe, Asia, Australasia, and key markets in South America and Africa. Both on-vehicle and roadside traffic camera services are available through Vizzion’s flexible API and turnkey Video Wall application. Vizzion’s content is trusted by major apps, map providers, broadcasters, fleets, and automotive organizations. Contact busdev@vizzion.com for more information.
Applications
Baron's Lynx platform is used by meteorologists and broadcasters to provide their viewers with real-time traffic and weather updates augmented with live traffic camera images and streams.
Microsoft has selected Vizzion for worldwide traffic camera imagery in Windows 10 and Bing Maps. This feature complements existing traffic flow data and incident data, and allows users to visualize up-to-the-minute road conditions.
Total Traffic & Weather Network (TTWN), the leading provider of traffic, weather, news, and sports content in the United States, has partnered with Vizzion to power the live camera feeds on TTWN’s online and mobile traffic platforms.
One of the largest radio broadcasters in the United States, Audacy, uses Vizzion's Desktop Video Wall to create local traffic and weather reports.