Weather Star III

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:	Discontinued (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).

Standard features

The Weather Star III is similar to the Weather Star Jr., but with a pixelized font that only uses capital letters. (The Weather Star Jr. uses the font of the Weather Star 4000.) The features include:

• Current Conditions - Displays the current weather, winds, barometric pressure, temperature, visibility, dewpoint, heat index/wind chill, and current monthly precipitation for your area.

• Latest Observations - Shows the current weather, temperature, and winds in seven nearby cities.

• Regional Observations - Shows the current temperature and weather conditions in seven major cities in the region.

• 36 Hour Forecast - The forecast for your area over the next 36 hours. Provided by the National Weather Service until 2002. Provided by TWC from 03-04.

• Almanac - Shows the local sunrise and sunset times for your area, as well as the average high and low temperatures and average precipitation for the month.

• (day of the week)'s Air Quality Forecast - Found only in Southern California. Shows the next day's forecast air quality level (Good, Unhealthy, Very Unhealthy, or Hazardous) for two to three locations on the right of the screen, with the overall Pollutant Standard Index values on the left. Data was provided by either the US or California State Environmental Protection Agency. Brought over to the Weather Star 4000 and Weather Star XL for California only and then made nationwide upon the rollout of the IntelliStar.

• Program Bulletin - A segment that can only be found on the Weather Star III, this segment announces up and coming programs from The Weather Channel.^[2][3][4]

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*****     

• Regional Forecast - The forecast temperatures and weather conditions for seven cities in the region.

• Travel Cities Forecast - The forecast for the top cities across the country. This segment was never discontinued on the III or the Junior.

• Extended Forecast - A weather forecast for the next three days (when shown on a Monday, the forecast would be for Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday). Originally a 1–2-page, often incomprehensible paragraph directly from the National Weather Service, this was later simplified into one page with three columns.

Example:

                       SATURDAY   SUNDAY   MONDAY
                       FLURRIES   SHOWERS  CLOUDY

                       HI: 33   HI: 45    HI: 29
                       LO: 32   LO: 30    LO: 27

• Outlook - A prediction from the National Weather Service of temperatures and precipitation over the next 30 days (above normal, average, or below normal). Discontinued in 1995 by the NWS.

• Tides - Showed the high and low tide times for two locations, as well as local sunrise and sunset times in selected coastal areas.

A STAR III circa 1987

• Radar Insert - The Weather Star III had a BNC jack on the back of the unit allowing a doppler radar video feed input. The radar input (LOC VID IN) would be activated during certain sections of the local forecast (such as the Almanac), and during some commercials where a local video advertisement would normally take its place.

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.^{[citation needed]}

Backgrounds

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][citation needed]}

Timeline

MétéoMedia STAR III, showing the full French localization and Canadian appearance (circa 1990)

• 1986: After several hardware upgrades, the Weather Star II is re-dubbed the Weather Star III. The Weather Channel begins broadcasting its decorative backgrounds for the local forecast.
• 1988: The decorative backgrounds are discontinued.
• 1989: The first version of the satellite forecast, an interrupted-scrolling Travel Cities Forecast on a black background, is created.^[8]
• Early 1990: The Weather Star 4000 debuts in select cable systems. Also at the same time, the Weather Star III began being unofficially dubbed as the "Weather Star 3000", though its official name remains the same.
• February 20, 1991: The L Flavor Local Forecast is born.
• July 1991: Dan Chandler re-records the narration for the Weather Star III. ^{[citation needed]}
• 1992: The STAR III is discontinued in Canada as part of a major upgrade to the Weather Star 4000. It is reported that some units remained in service several more years. Timmins, Ontario, Canada apparently kept its WeatherSTAR 3000 for way longer, receiving a graphical update only in 1996. Ironically they were the first to get the PMX system. ^{[citation needed]}
  

  A STAR III unit displaying copyright information
• Fall 1992: Dan Chandler does one final set of narration for the Weather Star III. The 36 Hour Forecast is now narrated to have come from The National Weather Service.^{[citation needed]}
• Fall 1993: The Extended Forecast becomes simplified; the text forecast from the National Weather Service is replaced with a tri-column quick glance 3 day forecast. The page title for the 36 hour forecast changes from "YOUR NWS FORECAST -- ZONE XXXX" to just "YOUR NWS FORECAST" on the first page.
• Early 1994: The Weather Channel begins broadcasting regional commercials that can be blocked by Weather Star-generated local forecasts of lengths 1:30 and 2:30. The STAR output overrides the commercial; those with non-narration audio would hear any commercials after the forecast.
• April 1995: Dan Chandler's narration is discontinued.
• November 2002: The page title for the 36 hour forecast changes from "YOUR NWS FORECAST -- ZONE XXXX" on the first page and "NAT'L WEATHER SERVICE FORECAST" on subsequent pages to "YOUR TWC FORECAST" on all 3 pages. This is due to The Weather Channel's discontinuation of using NOAA's text forecasts in place of The Weather Channel's own text forecasts.

Flavor lineups

A flavor is a certain lineup of information and forecast products.

Reverse Engineering Project

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.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Weather Star III.

• WeatherStar Jr & III Audio Enhancement Correction
• Videos of the WeatherSTAR III in action
• Pictures of the WeatherStar III (Model 2400) and the WeatherStar II.

References