During its 6 a.m. newscast today, KDKA-TV revealed the \u201cbig announcement\u201d the station has been teasing in promos for the past week.<\/p>\n
KDKA will implement an \u201caugmented reality\/virtual reality\u201d set in the station\u2019s Studio A, something CBS has installed at many of its owned and operated TV stations already<\/a>. Pittsburgh\u2019s KDKA becomes O&O A CBS rep says the new studio, expected to debut in mid-August, will allow KDKA journalists, meteorologists and storytellers to \u201cstep inside virtual environments, turning complex stories into engaging visual experiences.\u201d<\/p>\n Basically, it\u2019s taking the green screen from the weather department and expanding it throughout the studio.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u201cThey call it a bathtub almost,\u201d said KDKA-TV president\/general manager Julie Eisenman, who took the helm of the CBS affiliate in 2025. \u201cThe floor is green, the walls are green, so it is an entirely immersive experience when you walk in. We can put CGI graphics at the bottom [of the screen] and around you.\u201d<\/p>\n A CBS representative would not disclose the cost of upgrading to the AR\/VR set but said, \u201cThis is a meaningful investment by CBS stations in the future of local journalism. As audience expectations evolve, we\u2019re investing in technology that enhances that storytelling.\u201d<\/p>\n At launch, the existing news anchor desk set will remain and continue to be used.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are going to be launching with weather and sports [using the AR\/VR] space and then slowly adding more elements into the newscast,\u201d Eisenman said. \u201cYou can also slide a desk into that area and we can use that as an entire environment.\u201d<\/p>\n Two monitor walls in the studio will be removed to make room for the AR\/VR set, while one will remain.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re still seeing if we\u2019ll go 100% AR\/VR in the future,\u201d Eisenman said, \u201cor if we\u2019ll still keep some of the desks in some segments.\u201d<\/p>\n Western Pennsylvania native Eisenman, a 1997 graduate of what is now PennWest Clarion, began her TV news career working as an assistant assignment editor at WPXI in the late 1990s. She worked as a producer and advanced to become a news director in multiple TV markets before moving into a GM role at WNEP-TV in Wilkes-Barre\/Scranton in 2021. She said if she were still working as a producer, she\u2019d be most excited to use the AR\/VR technology \u201cto bring clarity to complex issues.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cInstead of us just telling you, explaining how this complex issue breaks down, we can bring you into that experience with this type of storytelling,\u201d Eisenman said.<\/p>\n She pointed to recent tornadoes as something the new AR\/VR technology can assist with, helping meteorologists explain \u201cwhat is happening in the weather at a level that the viewers have never seen before.\u201d<\/p>\n For a news report, Eisenman pointed to a story the San Francisco CBS affiliate reported in 2024 that used AR\/VR to show how the Port of San Francisco and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers plan to raise the city\u2019s historic Ferry Building by as much as seven feet in about a decade. A reporter stood on the AR\/VR set next to a digital replica of the Ferry Building while a Port engineer appeared to stand on a concrete island in San Francisco Bay. As he explained the process that will be used to raise the port, graphics on the screen appeared and depicted the efforts the engineer described.<\/p>\n The addition of the AR\/VR set will require KDKA\u2019s existing graphics producers to get new training, and on-air talent will also have to be trained to report from inside a green screen environment (meteorologists, of course, have a head start on their news and sports peers).<\/p>\n \u201cWe are utilizing our sister stations from other markets, making some field trips and learning from those that have experienced all of this before us,\u201d Eisenman said. \u201cIt\u2019s a ton of rehearsals, which is also why I\u2019m a little hesitant to say a launch date because we may be done with construction, but if we\u2019re trying to figure out left from right [in front of a green screen], we have to make sure that the team is ready.\u201d<\/p>\n During Monday\u2019s 4 p.m. newscast, Barry Pintar, who referenced the AR\/VR upgrade in a social media post last week, gave a tour of locations at the station that are being used while the AR\/VR set is constructed.<\/p>\n Newscasts relocated from Studio A to a newsroom \u201cnews nook\u201d anchor desk set that\u2019s been infrequently used since it was installed during the station\u2019s 2023 renovation. Weather and sports segments now emanate from KDKA\u2019s Studio B.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u201cPittsburgh Today Live\u201d and \u201cTalk Pittsburgh\u201d moved to the station\u2019s news conference room that\u2019s all windows and looks out onto Gateway Center, but the plan is for those programs to return to their existing sets in Studio A, at least initially, after the AR\/VR set is built. Then the AR\/VR set will be used for some segments on those chat shows.<\/p>\n That KDKA is getting this update comes as little surprise, given how CBS has been rolling out the same AR\/VR set at its O&Os for almost three years.<\/p>\n Perhaps the first indication of the new set came on June 15, when the \u201cPittsburgh Today Live\u201d crew posted an Instagram video where Heather Abraham feigned distress over having to say goodbye to a large studio monitor.<\/p>\n \u2018Life, Larry \u2026\u2019<\/p>\n
\nNo. 13 (out of 17 CBS O&O markets) to get the AR\/VR set, following an upgrade at the CBS station in Sacramento in May.<\/p>\n