The NEW Backyard

The WNEP-TV Backyard is actually an outdoor weather studio. WNEP-TV was one of the first stations in the country to place its Meteorologists outside during a weathercast. The reason the Meteorologists go outside is simple: that’s where the weather is happening! When it’s raining, they carry an umbrella. When it’s cold they wear a heavy coat, just as you would. They are also able to show you how the weather is affecting things. They can measure rain or snow right there on the set, show you how well the tomato plants are doing this year, or show you how the leaves have changed color in the fall.

In the spring of 2004 WNEP hired Rob Rave of Rave's Landscaping to design and build a new backyard set. The new backyard includes a large patio, a pond and waterfall, and hundreds of new plants. Follow the link below for photos. Rave's Landscaping is located on Edinger Road, Dallas, (570) 675-4537.

Photos of new backyard

Meteorologists in The Backyard don’t use a giant TV set to show you weather maps like they do in the Stormtracker 16 Weather Center. They use something called a ChromaKey. Take a look at the picture on the top. It looks like Tom Clark is standing in front of his weather map. But in reality there is nothing behind him but a wall painted a special color of green. That’s the ChromaKey. Computers in the Control Room can "trick" the camera to not see this special bright green color. Instead, the Director can put any other video signal in to replace the "invisible" green. During the weathercast these other video signals include maps, satellite pictures, and Doppler Radar. The image of Tom then goes on the air “looking” like there is a map behind him. Tom actually has to point at things that aren’t really there. He knows where to point because he can watch himself on TV sets that are just off-camera. What he sees is himself standing in front of a map.

Because of the ChromaKey Tom has to watch what he wears. He can’t wear a green tie for example. If he did, the computer would take the tie out of the picture and replace it with the map. Then it would look like Tom had a large hole through his chest.

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