WeatherStar
WeatherStar (sometimes rendered Weather Star or WeatherSTAR; "STAR" being an acronym for Satellite Transponder Addressable Receiver)[1] is the technology used by American cable and satellite television network The Weather Channel (TWC) to generate its local forecast segments—branded as Local on the 8s (LOT8s) since 2002 and previously from 1996 to 1998—on cable and IPTV systems nationwide.
The WeatherStar systems are typically programmed to cue the local forecast segments and Lower Display Line (LDL) at given times.
With the release of the Weather Star XL, the LDL was modified to include short-term daypart (and, later three-day) forecasts for the STAR's home location as well as a semi-translucent background; the later release of the IntelliStar saw the incorporation of additional products into the LDL, including air quality indexes, travel forecasts for three major cities in the region, traffic information and almanac data.
The IntelliStar units' LDL was redesigned on November 12, 2013, expanding it to be displayed throughout all programming on the national feed (including commercial breaks and telecasts of its long-form programs, but not during local ad breaks inserted at the provider level); the LDL was replaced by a rundown/progress bar during the full-screen LOT8s segments, indicating the time remaining for the product currently playing and up to two forecast products scheduled to be played afterwards.
One such instance occurred over Mediacom’s Des Moines, Iowa system on July 21, 2022, when the introductory message to a LOT8s segment displayed a racial slur that was tacked onto a default greeting used to open the segment (one of several programmed into all IntelliStar units that are usually modified only to reference the municipality of the STAR unit).
TWC parent Allen Media Group (owned and overseen by Black media entrepreneur Byron Allen, and which acquired TWC from a consortium of NBCUniversal, Blackstone and Bain Capital in 2018) stated it would investigate the source of the message, which originated within Mediacom's local headend operations.
As with all future WeatherStar models, the Weather Star I could key its text over TWC's national video feed, most often to display the current conditions at the bottom of the screen.
Even though the Weather Star I met the Federal Communications Commission's Part 15 regulations for emanated RF interference (RFI), it still radiated enough to interfere with VHF channel 2 on the broadcast band, resulting in problems at the cable television system's headend where the Weather Star I unit was installed.
However, TWC decided to drop one of the products included in the unit, "Weather Information," soon after the introduction of the STAR III.
The first Star 4000s were programmed to operate in a text-only mode (displayed over stylized graphical backgrounds), similar to the STAR III, but with two improvements: an improved font was introduced, as was a graphical radar product at the end of the local forecast segment, showing precipitation that was occurring in the viewer's local geographic area.
Due to the cost of upgrading to more advanced units including the IntelliStar, the Weather Star 4000 remained in use in some smaller communities as late as 2014, although it was already being gradually phased out in some areas in favor of the more recent models at that time.
On June 27, 2023, The Weather Channel quietly introduced a new hour-long block called “Retro 8s LIVE,” [8] which features a modernized high-definition version of the WeatherSTAR 4000.
The Weather Star Jr. was a budget model manufactured by Wegener Communications for cable headends in smaller communities.
The Star XL, an IRIX-based computer unit manufactured by SGI, had significantly more advanced technical capabilities than the 4000; it incorporated modernized graphics (with Akzidenz-Grotesk as the main typeface) and a new set of weather icons that would be used on the channel for eight years after its launch.
It was also the first STAR system to utilize Vocal Local, a software function that is technologically different from the narration track used in the WeatherStar 4000, which assembles pre-recorded audio tracks to provide narration of the current temperature and sky conditions, descriptive forecasts and introductions to certain forecast products.
In February 2003, TWC released an advanced model, IntelliStar, initially being rolled out for use on Weatherscan; the "domestic" version intended for use on The Weather Channel was subsequently introduced in early to mid-2004 in the top media markets (including Dallas, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh).
The fully released version of the IntelliStar 2 features an animated lower display line, and various products including current weather conditions, weather bulletins, three-hour Doppler radar loops for the region and the metropolitan area, a 12-hour forecast graph, and 24-hour descriptive and seven-day forecast graphics.
Similar to the first-generation IntelliStar, the unit is capable of operating natively for both analog and digital transmission on cable systems.
During national programming, the dew point and barometric pressure values were moved from the Lower Display Line to the sidebar generated by the IntelliStar 2.
