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News Release
Contact: Gilbert Sebenste, NIU Staff Meteorologist
(815) 753-5492
August 16, 2005
NIU Weather launches on cable Channel 26
DeKalb, Ill. — NIU Weather today launched a new cable TV channel to alert Northern Illinois University faculty, staff and students of incoming bad weather and emergency conditions.
Viewers on campus can tune into NIU Weather Channel 26 on cable television for current conditions, forecasts, satellite imagery, radar and severe weather bulletins in real-time for DeKalb County and areas east of the campus. The channel also temporarily simulcasts a local feed of NBC Weather Plus.
NIU Weather is a division of the NIU Physical Plant and Department of Environmental Health and Safety. The university purchased new equipment in order to provide students with yet another venue for updated weather information.
“It's on the air so we can get warnings and alerts to viewers, but the channel is still in beta mode, meaning it's a work in progress and not in its final format yet,” Staff Meteorologist Gilbert Sebenste said. “Viewers will definitely see major improvements to the format in coming months.
“I'm very grateful to my colleagues for getting this equipment in so quickly,” Sebenste added. “This was planned to arrive in time for the snowstorms and cold weather of the winter. But things were rushed through fast enough to get a working version of the channel operational by the time students moved in for the start of the semester.”
The channel has enough equipment functioning to broadcast life-saving and critical weather information immediately to the on-campus community via NBC Weather Plus, an over-the-air digital TV channel of NBC-Universal, broadcast out of Chicago.
Channel 26 programming will be enhanced when a new computer system arrives this fall.
“The content will become all locally driven and produced and will broadcast National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration All-Hazards Weather Radio continuously, from the station located here on campus,” Sebenste said.
“The video portion will show real-time graphics, local high-resolution satellite and radar, and live data from our weather station, which updates every two seconds in real-time,” he added. “During bad-weather conditions, it will switch to an abbreviated broadcast showing the weather bulletins in effect and live radar as appropriate. Finally, by this winter, it will display school closing and any emergency information that everyone needs to know about. In short, when bad weather or the need for a school closure develops, this will be a place for students to go to 24 hours a day for that information.”
The weather service also can be seen live on the Internet, via a Web page, at http://weather2.admin.niu.edu/weatherdisplay/.
Funding for the project came from the NIU Physical Plant, the Department of Environmental Health and Safety and the Heating Plant, in cooperation with the Division of Media Services and the Office of Student Housing and Dining.
“NIU Weather thanks these departments for continuing to support severe weather and safety initiatives,” Sebenste said.
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