Real-time broadcast · CBS News & Stations

One weather studio, six newsrooms

A master Unreal Engine 5 weather framework and visual standard, deployed across six US markets.

Client: CBS News & Stations
Role: Art direction, visual system design and real-time design. Led development from the first concept to the nationwide rollout
Rollout: New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Dallas
Tools: Unreal Engine 5, Pixotope, Zero Density, Niagara, VDB

Overview

From a mountaintop observatory into the studio

The weather studio is an observatory on a ridge, glass all the way round. The forecast is not a graphic on a wall but a place: the sky, the light and the precipitation outside the windows are the weather itself.

6US markets on one framework

1master UE5 architecture

0dropped frames, as the performance target on every station’s hardware

The challenge

Standardise it nationwide

One master weather framework had to be visually complex, with volumetric clouds and heavy precipitation, and still light enough to deploy fast and run reliably for different broadcast teams, without an Unreal engineer on site.

Process

Concept first, in AI. Then built for real

Before the level existed, the room was designed as images. A written brief went to GPT Image 2, which produced twelve variations of light, material and city outside the glass, reviewed together as a set.

CBS does not allow AI in the final product, so it was used only to explore ideas. One variation became the pre-concept and the final frame was drawn from it by hand. It fixed the proportions, the material family and the light, and went into Unreal as the reference every later decision was checked against. Everything on air was then built by hand: blockout, materials, sky, weather states.

Concept · AI

Production · Unreal Engine 5

01Prompt

A written brief of the room and its light

02Generate

Twelve variations of light, material and city

03Pre-concept

One frame becomes the pre-concept, then the final

04Blockout

The level built to match the frame

05Look

Materials, sky and lighting in engine

06Weather

Niagara and VDB states driven by data

07On air

Tablet control, six markets

Prompt

Use the provided existing observatory studio screenshot as the primary architectural reference, keep the room, vary the light, the materials and the city outside…

GPT Image 2

prompt ●● images

modelGPT Image 2 · 2.5 Sunburst

variations12

size1920×1088

seedrandomize

Preview Image · 12 variations

Same room, twelve readings of light and material

Select Image · art direction

123456789101112

Fixes proportions, material family and light

Save Image · pre_concept

Pre-concept

Save Image · final_concept

The frame that went to development

To Unreal Engine 5

Blockout → materials → sky → weather states

The place

A room you can believe in

Before any data, the room has to hold on its own: one material family of warm wood, dark glass and a circular floor, lit by the sky outside.

Build

Built in Unreal Engine 5, shot as one fly-through

The ridge, the observatory and the studio inside live in one level. One camera move takes the viewer from the landscape, through the glass, into the room.

Master framework

One modular UE5 architecture, adopted by stations in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Philadelphia and Dallas.

Optimised at scale

VDB and Niagara systems for rain, snow and dynamic lighting states, profiled for steady performance on each station’s hardware.

Data-driven

Blueprint hooks tie live weather APIs to Niagara parameters, so a meteorologist triggers a complex state from a simple control panel.

Weather states

One sky, every state

Clear, thin and puffy cloud, overcast, fog, rain, snow and thunderstorm are each a level sequence over the same set. Ultra Dynamic Sky runs the clouds, the sun and the moon, and a Blueprint ties them to the incoming data.

Level states cycling over the same set, in the Unreal editor

The level states, the sequencer and the sky Blueprint

The dome and the New York horizon

Floor and walls

The studio is also the graphic

Maps, forecasts and photographs are drawn on the floor and across the curved glass instead of on a screen beside the host, so the presenter walks across the data.