Karl ­ the TV-weather wizard

By Svein Tønseth
PHOTO: WERNER JUVIK

Karl Eggestad (35) is the father of the TV weather on CNN and TV4 Sweden to name just a few stations using his system.

The year is 1992. In Bergen, Norway the low lying winter sun hides behind blue-grey clouds and an icy cold wind whips over those venturing out to the city square. In a meeting room a stone's throw away, SINTEF research scientist Eggestad sits before the programme director, Finn H. Andreassen, and the other newly instated executives of Norway's newest TV station, TV2.

In six months TV2 will be on the air. Before then the station's executives must decide how the meteorologists' predictions will reach the map on the TV screen. Providing weather reports is a time-consuming affair. All over the world TV companies are plotting in high-pressure systems and cold fronts into a graphical programme, often using hand-written notes from a meteorologist.

Around the meeting table in Bergen interest rises as Karl demonstrates his new labour of love. On a screen he shows the rudiments of a production and presentation system that takes a short-cut right into the meteorologists' computer program and automatically translates the calculations into TV animation. Karl can offer Finn H. and company the possibility of quickly updating TV weather presentations as new data arrives. He hoped to convince TV2 to support the final development of the system, but in this round the company chose a well-tested traditional system.

"A little devil tapped me on the shoulder," says Karl.

Refused to give up

He did not let the rejection stop him. Convinced that someone would eventually buy his system he used his spare time, including many evenings and nights, to improve it. A year later he showed the new version to TV2 and he is back in the ball game. The TV company switches contractors and in the autumn 1993 goes on the air with Karl's high-tech weather system. Two years later he makes weather his business and establishes a spin-off from SINTEF called Metaphor Systems.

"Six months later we landed CNN as a customer. I then understood that we had a viable product. Today Metaphor Systems employs 13 people and distributes its computer system for television weather to 65 television companies on five continents.

When he got his first nibble from TV2, he estimated that there were 870 hours of system development left. Today, six years later and with a clear conscience, he says that the product still is not finished.

"The system is ten times bigger than it was but it's a healthy sign that it isn't finished. Many entrepreneurs fail and it is often because they haven't realized how much work it takes to go that last mile to a finished product," says Karl. Those who have worked closely with him say he is both creative and sociable. He is always well dressed and some wonder if he wore a tie to junior school. He is a genuine workaholic. He travelled 200 days last year and still takes the day to its limit if necessary, but with a glint in his eye and his quick wit intact.

His former colleagues have never forgotten Karl's telephone conversation with the washing machine repair company that fixed his machine. He loudly mused over the service centre's limited opening hours: "Tell me, what do you use for lamps there ­ flash bulbs?"

Nine years old and an amateur meteorologist

He is christened Karl Henrik and grew up in Byåsen, a residential area to the west of Trondheim. The neighbours are certain that this nine-year-old, who together with his best friend faithfully scouted for weather indicators, will end up a meteorologist. The boys noted their predictions in a table and checked every morning to see if their predictions for yesterday's weather were better than the meteorologists. While others were reading Morgan Kane, Karl was immersed in finding out all about Vilhelm Bjerknes, the father of modern meteorology.

But it is a chartered engineer he wants to become ­ and makes it. Since he did not opt for computer science at what was then the Norwegian Institute of Technology (now NTNU), he took applied physics instead and was able to vent his passion for computers there. In his last year as a student, SINTEF's Department of Industrial Mathematics hired him to help users of the new supercomputer on the Gløshaugen campus, at the time Scandinavia's most powerful computer.

"Without the supercomputer project there would be no Metaphor Systems," says Karl.

His first project was with the Meteorological Institute, which is already connected to the supercomputer. Karl was eager to finish his thesis and chose a topic where he can combine work and his studies. He decides on visualization of weather calculations. He recalls, "The thought that what I was working on could be used on TV never crossed my mind or anyone else's."

The idea came to him one night when he arrived home exhausted after a long day as a scientist and a student, plops on the sofa and sees CNN's weather report on TV.

"On the screen I saw hand-drawn diagrams with rough curves and immediately realized my thesis work was something they could really use."

Stubborn and happy about it

Six years later CNN becomes one of his first customers, and Metaphor Systems makes a breakthrough. It is now the summer of 1996 and Karl is building up a staff in the company's office in Lysaker. Until then the weather project has been a one-man show.

"Your competition had abundant help. How could you succeed as the lone wolf?"

"Part of the explanation is luck, a lot is due to me being stubborn. My network at SINTEF was also very important. I developed the system on my own, but had sparring partners to banter ideas back and forth and I owe them a depth of gratitude."

"... and your goal with all this weather business?"

"To spread Trondheim's binary weather pattern, terrific or terrible, to the rest of the world, of course," jokes Karl.