IntelliStar
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| IntelliStar | |
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| Manufactured: | Wind River Systems |
| Family: | IntelliStar |
| Hardware: | Custom computer using Intel x86-based processor |
| OS: | FreeBSD |
| Graphics: | Vector/Raster |
| Final Release Date: | March 9, 2004 |
| Status: | Currently used in most cable systems |
IntelliStar is the fifth generation successor to the WeatherStar systems used by the American cable TV and satellite TV channel The Weather Channel (TWC), for inserting local forecasts and current weather information (such as the "Local on the 8s" portion of their program schedule) into TWC's programming. Like the WeatherStar, it is installed as well at the cable TV company's headend.
The IntelliStar has many enhanced features over its predecessor, the WeatherStar XL. Like all other WeatherStars, the IntelliStar receives its data over a satellite connection. However, unlike the rest, it has the capability to receive more complex information, more efficiently. It also has a Dual Feed feature, which allows a selection of two different video feeds. In the event of inclement weather, the DualFeed option would switch from the first (network) feed, to a second (localized) feed , providing weather information to a specific STAR or network of STARs. By doing this, the specified network of STARs could be addressed with weather updates, versus the entire national network of STARs (where such information would be irrelevant).
It also has improved display graphics, dynamic radar capabilities, and a feature called Vocal Local, in which a pre-recorded voice will read the weather conditions displayed on screen. It plays the background music from its satellite feed and uses ducking to reduce the volume of the background music when speaking.
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[edit] IntelliStar's design
The IntelliStar differs in design from previous WeatherStar units, as the IntelliStar is basically a customized rack-mount Intel CPU-based PC. It runs the FreeBSD operating system, running specialized software written by The Weather Channel to make it function as an IntelliStar, but otherwise using commodity hardware of the PC platform. This was done to minimize maintenance costs, and to ease upgrading of the IntelliStar units. The previous WeatherStar units used a proprietary hardware design that hampered any hardware upgrades (the WeatherStar XL, for comparison, uses proprietary SGI hardware, and runs IRIX).
[edit] Current Products
- Current Conditions
- Weather Bulletin (when a weather statement has been issued)
- Latest Observations
- Regional Conditions
- Regional Radar
- Local Radar (when precipitation is present)
- Radar/Satellite (all areas except the west and Puerto Rico)
- Satellite (western locations and Puerto Rico, other areas only get this if there is an approaching hurricane, or large Nor'easter)
- Almanac
- Air Quality Forecast (select areas only)
- Tides (coastal areas only)
- Marine Forecast (coastal areas only)
- Getaway Forecast
- Outdoor Activity Forecast and School Day Weather
- Daypart Forecast
- Metro Forecast
- Morning & Afternoon Commute Forecast (seen only from 8PM-12AM)
- Regional Forecast (only seen in units without marine and/or traffic products)
- 24-48 Hour Local Forecast
- The Week Ahead
- Traffic Overview (select areas only)
- Traffic Report (select areas only)
- Traffic Flow (select areas only)
[edit] IntelliStar's timeline
Late Summer 2003
- The IntelliStar begins beta testing in select markets.
- The IntelliStar has gone out of beta and begins its debut in select cable headends, including Comcast headends in markets such as Atlanta, Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia.
- Allen Jackson narrates the Regional and Local Radar screens when he says "[Here's] your local Doppler radar", and reads during the "36 Hour Forecast" segment, although he did not read the wind information and Weather Bulletin data until 3 months later. He also narrates The Week Ahead as "The Week Ahead", "Here's your 7-day outlook", "Your 7-day outlook, and "Your week ahead" during the Week Ahead screens.
July, 2004
- DirecTV debuts the "black bar" Lower Display Line, which displays the forecast and current conditions for major cities across the U.S., and major airport delays during national segments and special programming.
- The narration also updates to begin reading the wind information during the "36 Hour Forecast" segment and "Weather Bulletin" data from the National Weather Service.
- The gray portion of the Lower Display Line becomes slightly brighter.
August, 2004:
- Each cable company headend's STAR ID number on the upper right hand corner of the screen in The Weather Channel's hourly identification began displaying as "Local weather ID" on the Lower Display Line. It has been criticized because it is displayed longer than actual weather data. At first, this is displayed only on the local forecast, but later that month, it started displaying during live national broadcasts as well.
September, 2004
- "Regional Forecast" map returns for those who have the metro forecast.
- "36 Hour Forecast" is renamed "Local Forecast" when it becomes a 48-hour Local Forecast.
- The AM/PM Commute Metro Maps are introduced.
- The "School Day Weather" and "Outdoor Activity Forecast" screens have also been added. The "School Day Weather" screen displays only during the school year, while in the summer, the "Outdoor Activity Forecast" displays for all days of the week, including holidays.
- As a result of the addition of these screens, more screens are used in each flavor, making the duration for each screen shorter.
- The 90 seconds flavor is discontinued.
- The hour-by-hour forecast referred to as "Daily Planner" is now renamed "Daypart Forecast".
- The IntelliStar begins its debut in Time Warner Cable headends.
October, 2004
- National sponsors have been added during the local forecast, such as Intel's Centrino technology, America Online and Dell. They are shown on the upper right hand corner for 48 seconds after the ad crawl displays. In summer 2006, an animated sponsor is added.
November, 2004
- Buzzing audio interference is widely reported at the beginning of the Local Forecast during the "Current Conditions" and "School Day Weather"/"Outdoor Activity Forecast" products.
January, 2005
- More cities are introduced to the Metro Forecast maps such as Lincoln/Omaha, NE.
April, 2005
- Traffic products begin beta testing in Atlanta.
- The Weather Channel announcer Allen Jackson's narration was changed from "Your" to "Our" in each applicable narration, such as "Our local Doppler radar", "Our 7-day outlook", "Our week ahead", etc.
Mid-May, 2005
- Traffic conditions from Traffic Pulse made its debut in the top media markets, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Pittsburgh, and Detroit. It also displays the "Traffic Pulse" logo on the bottom left hand corner during the Local on the 8s intro.
- The IntelliStar received minor changes in graphics, including a sunny background to replace the cloud background, and the new The Weather Channel logo.
Late August, 2005
- Many cities are added and removed on the metro and regional forecast maps.
Fall, 2005
- The Air Quality Forecast no longer shows the data for 2-3 cities in the forecast area. Instead, it shows the air quality for only one city.
- The "L-Bar" (aka Corner Forecast) is introduced. It displays current weather conditions and forecasts on-screen during special programming, such as Forecast Earth, Storm Stories, and It Could Happen Tomorrow. This "L-bar" is similar to the one that is used by Weatherscan and NBC Weather Plus.
- The "Traffic Overview" map similar to one seen on WeatherScan was added on. The narration for the "Traffic Overview" map was "Traffic Conditions around our area" and "Traffic Congestion for our area".
- From this date through January 2, 2006, Allen Jackson's narration for the Regional/Local Doppler Radar segment is removed.
- There is a bug in the 3-day extended forecast in which the narration reads only the temperatures on the first day and not the rest of the forecast.
- The morning and afternoon commute maps are discontinued.
- The Almanac and Getaway Forecast products are discontinued for many IntelliStar units with traffic products.
- From this date until January 19, 2006, the narration says "Our extended forecast" over the 3-day "Extended Forecast" segment.
- The narration for the "Traffic Incident" and "Traffic Flow" segments were removed leaving only one remaining narration for the "Traffic Overview" map.
- The 90 second forecast is brought back, which causes the regional forecast to be discontinued for IntelliStar units with traffic products. This also causes the text-based forecast to sometimes show only two pages instead of three or four.
- The almanac returns to IntelliStar units with traffic products.
- The morning and afternoon commute maps return after a hiatus.
- HiRAD technology makes its debut. This allows TWC to choose almost any location, landmark, or neighborhood as a weather reporting station. Only certain IntelliStars received this update during this time, however by summer 2006 all IntelliStar units had HiRAD technology installed on them.
- The 90 second forecast is once again discontinued. As a result, the regional forecast map is brought back.
- A metro conditions map is added. This causes some changes made to the line-ups on the local forecast.
Fall, 2006
- Dish Network receives the satellite IntelliStar. It is identical to the one used by DirecTV. While most can, only certain receiver boxes can carry this TWC service.
- Weather icons that were used on The Weather Channel since 1998 are replaced by more realistic icons. The changes were also made on DirecTV/Dish Network satellite, weather.com, national broadcast, and Weatherscan. Some IntelliStar units have not received this update until a month or two later. Note: The "Fog" and "Windy" are only worded in the regional/metro maps.
- The radar now includes indicators for wintry precipitation. The former "light/heavy" precipitation key is changed to "rain." Entries for "mix/ice" and "snow" are added, replacing the previous time lapse bar.
April, 2007
- The Getaway Forecast is brought back on a regular basis to select IntelliStars with traffic products. It also causes not to show the traffic overview map for some IntelliStars with traffic products.
May, 2007
- The 90 second forecast is brought back, which causes the regional conditions and regional forecast to be discontinued for IntelliStars with traffic products and once again it also causes the text-based forecast to sometimes show only two pages instead of three or four.
- Select traffic maps have also been disabled due to insufficient coverage of the viewing area, including Indianapolis, Fort Worth, and Orlando. Currently, there is no set date for return.
- Allen Jackson's narration is discontinued for all local forecast segments during the "prime time" hours (8:00 PM ET through 1:00 AM ET).
- The narration for the "Traffic Report" segment was brought back for certain areas only where the overview map was removed.
Mid-May, 2007
- The feature turning the upper text on the black bar to yellow while a Severe Thunderstorm or Tornado Watch was effective is brought back after being inactive for several months.
- The green "CLEAR" box on the traffic flow segment has been replaced with "NO INCIDENTS REPORTED."
- The radar legend becomes interactive with the precipitation. The snow and mix indicators now only display if frozen precipitation is detected.
- From this date through October 23, Allen Jackson no longer says the current conditions at the beginning of forecast, it's now the temperature only. This is confirmed to be an error.
- The narration for the "Traffic Flow" segment was brought back for certain areas only where the overview map was removed.
Late September, 2007
- Some Getaway Forecast locales change. It is confirmed that in the near future, likely in late 2007 or early 2008, the IntelliStar will have sponsors for Getaway locations and the Getaway product will soon get a face lift.
- Allen Jackson's prime time narration returns after a 6-month hiatus from 8:00PM-1:00AM ET.
- It is announced that a pending update will be beta tested on three units: the Comcast Penn Hills headend in suburban Pittsburgh; the Comcast South Bend IN, headend; and the other near Lincoln NE. This update will introduce new graphics. The national update was to occur on October 16, 2007, but was delayed until October 23, 2007 due to debugging.
- The IntelliStar received its first major graphics facelift with a new title bar and a new cloud background which occurred around 3:18 am ET.
- Once again, Allen Jackson says the full current conditions.
- The Current Conditions product has been renamed "Now", as well as the Latest Observations, Regional conditions and Metro conditions.
- The Regional Radar and Local Radar products are renamed Regional Doppler and Local Doppler, respectively.
- The images on the School Day Forecast and Outdoor Activity Forecast have been changed.
- Graphics have been added to the 24–48 hour "Local Forecast" on the right hand side of the screen, and sound effects are added to correspond with the forecasts.
- The sliding transition was replaced with a fading transition.
- The "L-bar" Local Forecast during special programming was changed. On the bottom right hand corner, the The Weather Channel bug is replaced by the "Local on the 8s" logo.
- IntelliStar units at all Verizon FiOS headends have received the October 23 upgrades.
- Any prevailing blue text on the IntelliStar was changed to black.
- On the two minute :08 and :38 flavor, the Getaway Forecast is moved between the 36/48-Hour "Local Forecast" and the "Week Ahead" on some IntelliStars (beta stage).
- The 3-Day extended forecast has been removed from the IntelliStar.
- Some STARs testing the beta Getaway-product location have been switched back to normal.
- STARs in the Pittsburgh and Atlanta areas begin testing a new Getaway and traffic product-locations. The Getaway moved to the very end of the local forecast, and the traffic products moved to directly after the current conditions products. As a result, the current conditions metro map has been replaced by the local ob pages at :08/:38, but it's unknown if this change is permanent.
Late March, 2008
- The same STARs which received the traffic-placement beta on March 20, 2008 (in Pittsburgh and Atlanta), begin showing the regional forecast once again, which hasn't been seen on some IntelliStars in nearly a year. However, it is now shown after the metro maps (example sequence: Today metro > Tonight metro > Today regional). It is suspected that this is an error in the flavor.
May 2008
- The "Incidents and construction impacting our area" narration returns to some IntelliStars listing the Traffic Incidents.
- A new Lower Display Line is beta-tested in Atlanta and Pittsburgh.
- The Lower Display Line (LDL) was changed. This was made due to the new HD studio at the Weather Channel, USA. The following changes have occurred:
- The background changes to blue.
- Appearing effects are added.
- The font changes from Interstate-style to Helvetica and Arial Black.
- Icons appeared smaller.
- The scroll-down effect was implemented.
- The Time and Temperature appear together instead of inverting.
- Tabs are added, giving it an "ESPN Bottomline" feel. The following tabs are included in the rotation:
- Now (current conditions)
- Today's/Tonight's forecast
- Following day's forecast
- 3 day forecast
- Almanac
- Travel
- Traffic
- Airport(durring mornings)
- Air quality (where available)
- UV Index
- Date, Visibility, and Ceiling readings are missing. Those were reported as errors.
- The Local Weather ID is set to appear only on the "Local On The 8s" segments. However, they appear twice in a row. This is reported as an error.
- The DirecTV/Dish Network Lower Display Line (LDL) Satellite display is missing. This is also reported as an error.
- The current Local Forecast design remains the same at this time.
- The Weather Bulletin background page was changed to darker sky blue.
- The Regional Conditions and Regional Forecast once again return with traffic products and only used during 90 second flavors.
- The Advisory LDL remains unmodified at this time.
[edit] Gallery
 The IntelliStar's look from its debut in 2004 until August 15, 2005. |
 The IntelliStar's look from August 15, 2005 through December 12, 2006, with the old icons. |
 The IntelliStar's look from December 12, 2006 through October 23, 2007, with the new icons. |
 The IntelliStar's look from October 23, 2007 through February 7, 2008, with blue text. |
 The IntelliStar's look from February 7 through June 1, 2008 with black text, and black LDL bar. |
 The Intellistar's look from June 2, 2008 through the Present with black text, and blue LDL bar. |
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
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