For highly localised areas, changing weather conditions can be shown over real-life 3D landscape photography as if the scene was actually being viewed from the air.  Using special software developed by Weather Services International (WSI), the BlueSky aerial photography is modelled in 3D to provide real life views of virtually any area of the British Isles.

WSI and BlueSky have entered into an exclusive agreement to provide television stations throughout Europe with the ability to produce the highly realistic localised views.  It is not just for weather reports as newscasters can also get on-air fast with up-to-the minute incident reports or traffic condition reports; all displayed over the real-life views of local streets and highways.

WSI provide a sophisticated on-air weather system and with 2D and 3D animations displayed over the high-resolution base maps, the entire newscast presentation is radically improved.  The 3D perspective view is similar to hovering in a helicopter and looking down on a neighborhood scale allowing TV stations to offer 'hyper-local' coverage.

The BlueSky team has been servicing government agencies, environmental companies, architects, and the consumer market since 1996. "We chose WSI as our partner to help us break into the media market because we recognised WSI to be the established leader in visualization technology for the broadcast market," explains Rachel Eddy, Managing Director of BlueSky.

"With regard to 'hyper-local' terrain maps, we saw a breakthrough opportunity with BlueSky," explains Louis Bucciarelli, Director of Media at WSI's European headquarters. "We knew that with their Getmapping data, BlueSky had the most complete and high resolution aerial photography for the UK. Together, we are bringing innovation into the way broadcasters can deliver weather, news and traffic programming throughout the UK." concludes Louis Bucciarelli.