And in this week’s episode of absolutely bizarre behavior from Fox News, we bring you BATS, officially known as big area touchscreens.
The media outlet responsible for bringing fair and balanced news into our lives has today released a video that shows off the network’s brand-new Fox News Deck studio, a room filled with video walls and giant 55-inch touchscreens that will henceforth deliver the news to Fox News viewers, along with Shepard Smith.
Why, you ask?
To deal with “the new reality” as Senior Executive Producer Kim Rosenberg puts it, which includes “smartphones, apps, the internet, your computer.” As viewers change, so too must Fox News, and the only way to deal with the constant presence of the Internet is to build it right into the studio.
According to the promotional video disguised as an interview, the remodel has lasted almost a month and the team has been training for “weeks” in order to learn how to use “new cutting edge computer programs” that are capable of showing three or even four tweets at a time.
Some of the new tools include a 38-foot video wall, which Smith can manipulate with a Wii-style remote, as well as another large display wall that shows tweets under investigation, and “confirmed” tweets.
But the real stars of the new Fox News Deck are the BATS, short for “big area touchscreens.” These Windows 8-powered computers are constantly monitored and used to surf for and confirm news, which is then chosen by Smith to stream live on television.
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Why these computers need to be 55-inch touchscreens remains unclear. But will the information specialists working on them be exhausted after a days work? Absolutely.
John Underkoffler would be proud.
