AccuWeather Chooses 4K Display for Interactive StoryTeller Solution

Every day over a billion people worldwide rely on AccuWeather to help them plan their lives, protect their businesses, and get more from their day. AccuWeather provides hourly and Minute by Minute forecasts with Superior Accuracy with customized content and engaging video presentations available on smart phones, tablets, free wired and mobile Internet sites, connected TVs, and Internet appliances, as well as via radio, television, and newspapers.

AccuWeather’s Enterprise Solutions, the commercial weather services division of AccuWeather, Inc.,  also serves over 240 of the Fortune 500 companies and thousands more. AccuWeather Enterprise Solutions delivers mission-critical weather-driven enterprise solutions to assist businesses, government, media, and institutions, protecting people, property, and profits worldwide. AccuWeather enterprise products and services include site-specific and customized severe weather warnings, short- and long-range forecasts, legal forensics, and weather-triggered analytics, providing actionable insights from the world’s largest weather media company.

Launched to the broadcast market in 2012, AccuWeather’s StoryTeller solution is a complete interactive communications platform that combines touchscreen hardware with a proprietary suite of apps that bring stories to life with flexible, easy-to-customize content and dynamic information. The product has had unprecedented success penetrating the broadcast market, with use by every major network.

“They’re using it in 14 of the top 15 US markets,” says Daniel Despot, product manager, StoryTeller Interactive Touchscreen. “For example every station in Philadelphia uses it, and it’s unheard of for something like this to be in all 4 major stations in one market.”

With StoryTeller now poised to launch into expanded markets, including museums, visitor centers, resorts, car dealers, malls and retail stores, the development team at AccuWeather had concerns about their current display hardware.

“When StoryTeller was launched in the broadcast market, we worked with several vendors to supply the StoryTeller hardware,” says Despot. “Unfortunately, none of these vendors were able to fully meet the explosive demand for the product in a way that would ensure timely installations and follow-up. Fortunately our initial partners in the broadcast market, with their inherent commitments to advertising partners and such, have very high standards about touch performance and system reliability. That gave us a huge advantage in being able to work closely with our clients to continue improving system responsiveness and service. That put screen performance at the top of our list.”

AccuWeather first encountered ViewSonic at an industry tradeshow which afforded Despot the opportunity to take a closer look at ViewSonic’s home facility. Working with ViewSonic’s digital signage product manager Gene Ornstead, Despot narrowed down the options to the CDE8451-TL 84″ 4K Ultra HD Interactive Touch Display. While his initial impression was that the screens looked great, Despot still had concerns about the infrared touch technology, which had been a source of concern with other displays.

Despot and the AccuWeather team tested the display by subjecting it to various lighting conditions that would have negatively affected their former displays. They were happy to discover that the CDE8451-TL performed beautifully. Another limitation that had plagued AccuWeather was the tendency of other screens to inappropriately respond when a user’s finger – or jacket sleeve or bracelet – came close to the screen without touching it. Convinced about the fit of the CDE8451-TL itself to suit their needs, along with ViewSonic’s ability to fulfill their increasing demand for displays, AccuWeather also needed to be sure that customer service would be similarly improved. ViewSonic’s 3-year on-site limited warranty and an agreement to custom-configure the product did just that, and AccuWeather approved ViewSonic to be their new preferred StoryTeller display partner.

“The CDE8451-TL delivers the super responsive interactive experience required in our applications,” says Vice President of Display Systems and Services, Ryan C. Ayres. “The 4K resolution combined with its anti-glare panel and wide range of connectivity options allows AccuWeather the flexibility and versatility required in many of our proprietary interactive applications.”

With a world of new markets to explore, the AccuWeather team is now confident they have an outstanding hardware-software combination to present StoryTeller to their prospective new customers.

“We’re really excited to work with ViewSonic going forward,” said Despot. “It’s a great partnership.”

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