Why Local Broadcasters Are Turning to Augmented Reality

Augmented reality (AR) is growing in use by broadcast news outlets — even local news studios are exploring AR as a tool to bring their broadcasts up to date and engage their audiences. It's a sign of the evolving times that a growing tech niche like AR is quietly slipping into the mainstream, even among studios not known for their tech expertise.

Why AR Works

AR has one major driving force behind its adaptation: It's cheap.

As much as tech-heads love extolling the benefits of everything from VR to mech suits to flying cars, nothing ever catches on unless it's accepted by the masses, and thanks to income inequality, the masses are keeping their checkbooks close to their vest. Unlike VR, AR doesn't require a $700 headset to work. Any 2D screen, from your smartphone to your TV set, can handle AR. And on the producer end, the images can transposed to a live feed far more cheaper than a VR feed could be.

That's how Pokemon Go and other AR games took off, and it's why local broadcasts are picking up on it.

20 Percent of Broadcasters Use AR

According to the TV trade publication Newscast Studio, around 20 percent of broadcasters are “currently utilizing augmented reality in some capacity.” While that number may seem small, its a strong showing for such a new tech advancement, which many are still terming a gamble.

Newscast also highlighted the vendors helping broadcasters use AR: Vizrt, Ross Video, and Avid. The main areas that augmented reality has proven useful include weather — “AR graphics can display data in ways that don’t require the viewer to work too hard or the meteorologist to verbalize every statistic” — opinion polls and, especially, traffic — “Inserted shots of the construction, weather or accident that’s blocking the road can lend a sense of inside knowledge to a report that says more than an app ever could.”

Read about more trends in augmented reality at TechCo

Did you find this article helpful? Click on one of the following buttons
We're so happy you liked! Get more delivered to your inbox just like it.

We're sorry this article didn't help you today – we welcome feedback, so if there's any way you feel we could improve our content, please email us at contact@tech.co

Written by:
Adam is a writer at Tech.co and has worked as a tech writer, blogger and copy editor for more than a decade. He was a Forbes Contributor on the publishing industry, for which he was named a Digital Book World 2018 award finalist. His work has appeared in publications including Popular Mechanics and IDG Connect, and his art history book on 1970s sci-fi, 'Worlds Beyond Time,' is out from Abrams Books in July 2023. In the meantime, he's hunting down the latest news on VPNs, POS systems, and the future of tech.
Explore More See all news
Back to top
close Building a Website? We've tested and rated Wix as the best website builder you can choose – try it yourself for free Try Wix today