Nate Johnson, NBU Owned Stations’ director of weather operations, says the group’s naturally techy meteorologists made a smooth transition to doing their forecasts from home. Viewers have been grateful for the domestic snapshots and fleeting returns to pre-pandemic life they’ve gotten in the process.

The coronavirus pandemic has amped up the transition to cloud-based workflows as broadcasters have employed as many remote operations as possible. The next frontier: an acceleration of live production applications in the cloud. Above, an Amazon Web Services Outpost cloud server.

The FCC voted unanimously to adopt a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking seeking comment on a proposal to allow broadcasters greater flexibility in using distributed transmission systems (DTS) to deliver new ATSC 3.0 signals. The FCC said, and broadcasters agree, that allowing that flexibility with the new advanced TV broadcast standard will get those signals to hard-to-reach viewers, improve indoor reception and be more efficient with the spectrum, a big priority for the FCC.

Graham Media’s SVP and Chief Innovation Officer Catherine Badalamente is pivoting quickly to deal with the new realities of coronavirus-era broadcasting, but she saw disruption on the horizon before that. She says digital platforms like OTT and NextGen TV offer some of the best hedges against future disruption, if only legacy salespeople can finally get on side.

Las Vegas and Portland, Ore. will light up their NextGen TV markets in June from their initially-slated late April launch, but the broadcasters and coalition driving the new industry standard forward say major launches will still move ahead this year. The launches will coincide with the arrival in retail stores of the first 3.0-capable sets. Above, six LG sets will bear the NextGen TV logo, including the 55-, 65- and 77-inch class GX Gallery Series 4K Ultra HD models.

A solid business contingency plan gave Fox-owned WTTG and WDCA in Washington, D.C., a leg up in pivoting for the coronavirus pandemic. VP and GM Patrick Paolini says a priority now is staying on top of the news deluge while keeping staffers and advertisers calm amid the uncertainty.

Virtual NAB Show 2020 events this week include live webinars on remote operations best practices and using the cloud to ensure video services continuity. There’s also an on-demand webinar from Akamai about security in highly unusual business operations and a Triveni Digital webinar on Interactive Applications of ATSC 3.0.

DJI, the world’s largest drone maker and a major supplier to TV news in the U.S., has been roiled by an IPO that never came to pass, an internal fraud scandal, a damaging trade war between the U.S. and China and now the coronavirus crisis threatening its essential U.S. market.

With coronavirus pushing numerous staffers into remote working situations, broadcasters are increasingly looking to exploit all of the remote functionality in their newsroom computer systems. Improved IP connectivity and better automation software is helping to make that happen.

Graham Media-owned WDIV in Detroit now has about 90% of its staff working from home, shifting quickly on the advice of its health reporter (who is an ER doctor) and a senior producer with a public health background.

The coalition of broadcasters and technology companies seeks to advance innovation in broadcast industry.