New BBC Weather Format Riles British
Last Monday, the British Broadcasting Corporation rolled out new weather maps based on video game technology in all of its weather broadcasts. Instead of a traditional flat map with symbols depicting sun, clouds, and rain, the new system presents a 3-D moving map that shows sunny and cloudy areas, rain falling, and even snow.
You can see some of the graphics, and even a video of the new forecast in the BBC’s article announcing the changes.
The change immediately annoyed many British citizens, whose complaint letters outnumbered compliment letters by more than 30 to 1. Complaints ranged from the brown color used to depict the British Isles in the forecast, to the fact that the 3D technology made the Northern Isles of Scotland less visible.
The decision to move to the new technology was announced last summer, and was made due to the need to replace the aging computer systems that were previously used, and because the BBC felt that people were becoming more used to 3D effects in film and TV, and would appreciate the same technology being used to present the weather.
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