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Case Study

Plum Case Empowers Storm Chasers with Real-Time Data

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Overview

KSWO is working on an advanced storm chaser vehicle to help keep its viewers informed about severe weather events. The Plum Case provides reliable broadband communication for the storm chaser truck, serving as the conduit to transmit video back to the station but also, more importantly, to deliver live radar data to the truck. The Plum Case’s patented antenna technology enables the case to connect to towers up to 40 miles away, ensuring the team can pull weather data and transmit HD video back to the station across their entire coverage area.

About

KSWO News is “Texoma’s” home for severe weather coverage and news across Southwest Oklahoma and North Texas. Throughout its long history, KSWO has pioneered new developments in weather forecasting for its viewing area — particularly in its coverage of severe weather events across a nearly 30-county footprint stretching from Wichita Falls through Lawton.

Challenge

Continuing its pioneering legacy, KSWO is developing an advanced storm chaser vehicle to help keep viewers informed during severe weather events. But KSWO’s coverage area beyond city limits is largely open fields with limited cellular infrastructure. As Justin Williamson, Chief Engineer at KSWO-TV, explains:

“They are slowly but surely putting up towers, but we have areas where we currently struggle with shots on our Live Views camera system. We’re not able to get the required bandwidth, so we decided to look for a solution that would help us get reliable wireless coverage to ensure we can get footage throughout our entire viewing area.”

The team was already equipped with a Live View system, but one limitation of the otherwise robust kit is that it only transmits video. For data, the team had previously relied on hotspots, which can’t always pull in a strong, reliable cellular signal.

If they catch a tornado on the ground, the link back to the station is going to be through the Plum Case. Capturing the live footage is the primary purpose of the storm truck, but perhaps more important is the ability to get the radar data in the field. This is obviously important to keep our team as safe as possible, but the live radar also guides us on where we need to be to capture video of the weather event. In our line of work, second chances don't come often.
Justin Williamson, Chief Engineer, KSWO-TV

Solution

The Plum Case provides reliable broadband communication for the storm chaser truck, serving as the conduit to transmit video back to the station and — just as critically — to deliver live radar data to the truck. The Plum Case’s patented antenna technology connects to towers up to 40–50 miles away, ensuring the team can pull weather data and transmit HD video back to the station across their entire coverage area. It gives the team the freedom to operate everywhere in their viewing area and the assurance that they can always get that video home.

Outcome

When it comes to extreme weather coverage on the ground, you need equipment you can rely on — even more so when you’re in the middle of a tornado. The ease of use, connectivity, and reliability of the Plum Case will be a critical asset for capturing storm video and informing KSWO’s team in the field.