KDKA-TV Debuts AR/VR Set As The Pitt Cast Prepares Trek Read
KDKA-TV unveiled its new augmented reality and virtual reality set during Monday’s 4 p.m. newscast, with meteorologists Ray Petelin and Mary Ours demonstrating the technology.
The virtual set is called the First Alert Weather Sphere. Its introduction showed viewers the broadcast presentation and the physical studio used to produce it.
Inside the studio, the setup consists of two green walls and a green floor. On television, viewers see graphics placed across those surfaces through the augmented and virtual reality system.
The technology is a more advanced form of a traditional green-screen setup. It presents weather information within an immersive virtual environment rather than against a flat background.
Mary Ours demonstrated the system during the day’s weather presentation. She appeared to stand on top of a radar image and to use an iPad to change the graphics as she moved through the forecast.
The debut came almost seven weeks after CBS announced that KDKA would become the latest CBS-owned station to receive an augmented reality and virtual reality set. In the meantime, KDKA newscasts and other local programmes had been broadcast from alternative locations before the new set entered use.
CBS introduced the technology as part of its efforts to enhance the presentation of local stories and audience engagement.
The Writers Guild and Star Trek are also marking their 60th anniversaries this year. In connection with those anniversaries, cast members from HBO Max drama The Pitt are scheduled to take part in a live table reading.
The performance will take place at 10 p.m. on 30 August in Los Angeles and will serve as a fundraiser for The Writers Guild Foundation. The cast will perform The Man Trap, an episode from the original Star Trek television series.
Tickets for the in-person event cost $66 per person. A livestream will also be available for $20. Event information is available at wgfoundation.org/events/all/2026/8/30/wgf-retroreads-presents-star-trek-60th.
The Pitt star Noah Wyle will perform the role of Kirk. Co-star Katherine LaNasa will provide the voice of Dr McCoy, while Taylor Dearden will perform the role of Spock.
Fiona Dourif, Shabana Azeez and Ayesha Harris, who also appear in The Pitt, are due to participate. The Star Trek characters they will perform have not yet been specified.
The Pitt has also played a role in renewed activity involving nonfiction television programmes set in hospital emergency departments, including a return to an earlier TLC title. That connection begins with Allegheny General Hospital, which previously featured in episodes of the TLC documentary series Trauma: Life in the ER.
Allegheny General Hospital previously featured in episodes of the TLC documentary series Trauma: Life in the ER. That programme followed the success of medical drama ER and filmed episodes at the Pittsburgh hospital.
The Pitt later established another link with Allegheny General Hospital by filming there during each season. That connection also inspired the possibility of a reboot of Trauma: Life in the ER.
In another television development, TLC last week announced ER: Caught on Camera, a new nonfiction emergency-department programme. The series is scheduled to debut at 8 p.m. on 19 August.
ER: Caught on Camera comes from a different production company from Trauma: Life in the ER. It also uses a different method to document the medical incidents featured in the programme.
Rather than filming patients in the same manner as the earlier series, the programme uses patients’ own video footage of events that resulted in visits to the emergency department. The format addresses HIPAA rules that would make a reboot of Trauma: Life in the ER difficult under its previous approach.
Doctors provide commentary on each medical incident featured in the programme. Allegheny General Hospital does not appear in the new series.
In another television development, Amy Poehler is reuniting with Parks and Recreation showrunner Michael Schur for the Peacock comedy Dig, which is scheduled to debut on 23 November.
The programme follows a team of archaeologists working at a dig site in Greece, where they discover a rare artefact. Hugh Laurie, who starred in House, is also part of the cast.
