| Weather Star III | |
|---|---|
| Manufacturer: | Wegener / Texscan MSI / Compuvid |
| Family: | WeatherStar |
| Model Number: | 2400 |
| Hardware: | Proprietary |
| OS: | Proprietary |
| Graphics: | ASCII Text |
| Release Date: | January 1986 |
| Status: | Legacy (Retired in U.S. in 2004) - Retired in Canada (1996)[1] |
The Weather Star III (sometimes dubbed the Weather Star 3000 since the introduction of the 4000) is one in a series of systems from The Weather Channel that use data from satellite systems and organize it for broadcasting. Introduced in 1986, it was a major hardware upgrade over the Weather Star II. The majority of production work on the Weather Star III was done by Texscan-MSI|Compuvid, which had also done work on the previous two Weather Stars.
When a Weather Star unit is hooked up at a cable headend, it receives data via baseband on a subcarrier feed. This data includes the page data (a common misconception is that actual weather data is sent to the unit over satellite), background color, and other various formatting.
The Weather Network and MétéoMédia in Canada used Weather Star III hardware until 1991-92, when a sweeping upgrade to the Weather Star 4000 was made. The Canadian III units had metric measurements, a tweaked layout and color scheme (sky blue screen instead of purple), and (for MétéoMedia STARs) full French localization. Unlike TWC in the US, TWN/MétéoMedia replaces local forecast machines for each cable company (today, a completely different system called PMX is used).
Contents |
The Weather Star III is similar to the Weather Star Jr, but with a pixelized font that only uses capitalized letters. (The Weather Star Jr uses the font of the Weather Star 4000.) The features include:
Example:
****** PROGRAM BULLETIN ******
WATCH TRI STATE WEATHER EVERY
SATURDAY AND SUNDAY AT THE TOP
AND BOTTOM OF THE HOUR BETWEEN
7AM AND 3PM......
*****ON THE WEATHER CHANNEL*****
Example:
SATURDAY SUNDAY MONDAY
FLURRIES SHOWERS CLOUDY
HI: 33 HI: 45 HI: 29
LO: 32 LO: 30 LO: 27
Also, until the mid 1990s, The Weather Channel sold an optional sensor package that could be connected to a Weather Star to display weather conditions at the headend office on the LDL, including the current temperature, the highest and lowest temperatures recorded since midnight, relative humidity, wind speed, direction, and gusts, and current daily and monthly precipitation totals. These appear to have been very common up until the late 1980s.
From 1986 to 1988, The Weather Channel would air decorative backgrounds during their local forecasts. Then, depending on the cable company, the Weather Star III unit would either output only text or override the national feed and use its standard blue/purple background.[5] Occasionally, the national feed would be accidentally knocked out, in which case the STAR would go back to its purple background.[6] In 1988, The Weather Channel discontinued the decorative backgrounds. At this time, the satellite forecast had not yet been created, so satellite viewers would see only the backgrounds (or a black screen) with music.[7]
A flavor is a certain lineup of information and forecast products.
| Flavor | Added | Length
(Minutes and Seconds) |
Segments Featured
(Original Version) |
Segments Featured
(Southern California) |
Modified? | Discontinued |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | 0:50 | Current Conditions, 36 Hour Forecast, Latest Observations | Current Conditions, 36 Hour Forecast, Latest Observations | April 1990 | ||
| B | 0:50 | Latest Observations, Almanac or Local Tide Information, Extended Forecast | Latest Observations, Almanac or Local Tide Information, Extended Forecast, Air Quality | April 1990 | ||
| C | 1:00 | Regional Conditions, 36 Hour Forecast, Regional Forecast | Regional Conditions, 36 Hour Forecast, Regional Forecast | April 1990 | ||
| D | 1:00 | Latest Observations, Almanac or Local Tide Information, 36 Hour Forecast, Regional Conditions | Latest Observations, Almanac or Local Tide Information, 36 Hour Forecast, Regional Conditions | |||
| E | 1:00 | 36 Hour Forecast, Extended Forecast, Latest Observations | 36 Hour Forecast, Extended Forecast, Air Quality, Latest Observations | |||
| F | 1:00 | Current Conditions, Regional Conditions, 36 Hour Forecast, Almanac or Local Tide Information | Current Conditions, Regional Conditions, 36 Hour Forecast, Almanac or Local Tide Information | February 1992 | ||
| G | 0:30 | 36 Hour Forecast | 36 Hour Forecast | 1989 | ||
| H | 1:00 | 36 Hour Forecast, Regional Forecast, Almanac or Local Tide Information , Latest Observations | 36 Hour Forecast, Regional Forecast, Almanac or Local Tide Information , Latest Observations | |||
| I | 0:30 | Current Conditions, Regional Conditions, Regional Forecast | Current Conditions, Regional Conditions, Regional Forecast | 1990 | 1989 | |
| I | 0:30 | Current Conditions, Latest Observations, Regional Conditions | Current Conditions, Latest Observations, Regional Conditions | December 1992 | ||
| J/LL | October 1987 | 3:00 | Current Conditions, Latest Observations, Regional Conditions, 36 Hour Forecast, Almanac or Local Tide Information , Regional Forecast, Travel Cities Forecast, Extended Forecast, 30 Day Outlook | Current Conditions, Latest Observations, Regional Conditions, 36 Hour Forecast, Almanac or Local Tide Information , Regional Forecast, Travel Cities Forecast, Extended Forecast, Air Quality, 30 Day Outlook | 1998 | |
| K | October 1987 | 1:30 | Current Conditions, Latest Observations, Regional Conditions, Regional Forecast, 36 Hour Forecast, Extended Forecast | Current Conditions, Latest Observations, Regional Conditions, Regional Forecast, 36 Hour Forecast, Extended Forecast, Air Quality | June 1990 | March 1989 |
| K | June 1990 | 1:30 | Current Conditions, Almanac or Local Tide Information, Regional Forecast, 36 Hour Forecast, Extended Forecast, Latest Observations | Current Conditions, Almanac or Local Tide Information, Regional Forecast, 36 Hour Forecast, Extended Forecast, Air Quality, Latest Observations | September 2004 | |
| L | February 1991 | 2:00 | Current Conditions, Latest Observations, Regional Conditions, Regional Forecast, Almanac or Local Tide Information, 36 Hour Forecast, Extended Forecast | Current Conditions, Latest Observations, Regional Conditions, Regional Forecast, Almanac or Local Tide Information, 36 Hour Forecast, Extended Forecast, Air Quality | ||
| M | 2:00 | Current Conditions, 36 Hour Forecast, Extended Forecast, Travel Cities Forecast | Current Conditions, 36 Hour Forecast, Extended Forecast, Air Quality, Travel Cities Forecast | |||
| N | 5:00 | Current Conditions, Latest Observations, Regional Conditions, 36 Hour Forecast, Almanac or Local Tide Information, Regional Forecast, Travel Cities Forecast, Extended Forecast, Current Conditions, 36 Hour Forecast, Extended Forecast, 30 Day Outlook | Current Conditions, Latest Observations, Regional Conditions, 36 Hour Forecast, Almanac or Local Tide Information, Regional Forecast, Travel Cities Forecast, Extended Forecast, Air Quality, Current Conditions, 36 Hour Forecast, Extended Forecast, Air Quality, 30 Day Outlook | 1991 | ||
| O | 6:00 | Current Conditions, Latest Observations, Regional Conditions, 36 Hour Forecast, Almanac or Local Tide Information, Regional Forecast, Travel Cities Forecast, Extended Forecast, 30 Day Outlook, Current Conditions, Latest Observations, Regional Conditions, 36 Hour Forecast, Almanac or Local Tide Information , Regional Forecast, Travel Cities Forecast, Extended Forecast, 30 Day Outlook | Current Conditions, Latest Observations, Regional Conditions, 36 Hour Forecast, Almanac or Local Tide Information, Regional Forecast, Travel Cities Forecast, Extended Forecast, Air Quality, 30 Day Outlook, Current Conditions, Latest Observations, Regional Conditions, 36 Hour Forecast, Almanac or Local Tide Information , Regional Forecast, Travel Cities Forecast, Extended Forecast, Air Quality, 30 Day Outlook | 1988 | ||
| P | 1:00 | Current Conditions, Almanac or Local Tide Information, 36 Hour Forecast, Regional Conditions | Current Conditions, Almanac or Local Tide Information, 36 Hour Forecast, Regional Conditions | April 1990 | ||
| Q | 0:50 | 36 Hour Forecast, Extended Forecast | 36 Hour Forecast, Extended Forecast, Air Quality | April 1990 |
In April 2011, a project to reverse engineer and document the hardware and software aspects of The WeatherStar III launched, known as The Weather Star III Reverse Engineering Project. The project documents its findings using the MediaWiki wiki software, while discussions about the project occur the forums and on freenode #weatherstar.
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| The Weather Network local forecast systems | Weather Star III | Weather Star 4000 | PMX |