Yes, there is always a certain problem with the need to provide
local and regional data from a satellite that covers the whole of the
EU!
I would personally welcome the effort of putting a zoomable,
animated weather system on Freesat. It would be a very BBC thing to
do, of course, a combination of a technical trial and public service.
It seems to me it might be worth giving it a go for until Xmas,
and drop it if people hate it.
Unfortunately the project plan of work is extremely big and with some
very tight deadlines. If the team had chance to do more fun stuff like
that, we'd all be up for it because we're all very keen to push the
limits and move the technology forward as much as we can.
Alas it won't be for now.
As a response to the Weather production team: "their locale
only" isn't necessarily just one place. Many people commute long
distances, or have family and friends around the country. It's not, as
I am also sure they say in weather production, "cut and dry".
Ah well, as some of my colleagues in Nations and Regions are very keen
on saying "most activities and purchases take place within a dozen miles
from home". The average commute is 13 miles, and that's about the
furthest people tend to go (see "Average distance normally travelled for
various purposes" in
http://www.newspapersoc.org.uk/documents/publications/NS-BBC-submission/
ns-bbc-submission.htm for example - it is from 2003 but I doubt has
changed much)
As the current BBCi weather maps cover very large areas (we split the UK
into seven) chances are, very few people are regularly needing the
option to move onto another weather map.
