WeatherStar

WeatherStar (sometimes rendered Weather Star or WeatherSTAR; "STAR" being an acronym for Satellite Transponder Addressable Receiver) 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 hardware takes the form of a computerized unit installed at a cable system's headend. It receives, generates, and inserts local forecasts and other weather information, including weather advisories and warnings, into TWC's national programming.

The primary purpose of WeatherStar units is to disseminate weather information for local forecast segments on The Weather Channel. The forecast and observation data – which is compiled from local offices of the National Weather Service (NWS), the Storm Prediction Center (SPC), and The Weather Channel (which began producing in-house forecasts in 2002, replacing the NWS-sourced zone forecasts that were utilized for the STAR's descriptive, regional and extended forecast products) – is received from the vertical blanking interval of the TWC video feed and from data transmitted via satellite; the localized data is then sent to the unit that inserts the data and accompanying programmed graphics over the TWC feed.

The WeatherStar systems are typically programmed to cue the local forecast segments and Lower Display Line (LDL) at given times. The units are programmed to feature customized segments known as "flavors", pre-determined segment lengths for each local forecast segment, varying by the time of broadcast, accommodating the inclusion or exclusion of certain products from a segment's product list. (Until the Local on the 8s segments adopted a uniform length, the extended forecast was the only product regularly included in each flavor.) Flavor lengths previously varied commonly between 30 seconds and two minutes, with some running as long as six minutes during the late 1980s and the mid-1990s; in April 2013, the LOT8s segment flavor switched permanently to a uniform one-minute length.

Outside of the regularly scheduled full-screen graphical segments, weather data is also inserted over the channel's national feed via the Lower Display Line; the LDL was originally displayed as a text-only overlay over the bottom third of the video feed on older STAR units up to the Weather Star Jr. model, containing no graphical background and only showing current weather observations and monthly precipitation totals for the chosen reporting station. (The text-based LDL was discontinued on active pre-1998 STAR units on March 11, 2010, coinciding with The Weather Channel permanently adding a version of the LDL for the network's national clean feed.) 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. A sidebar, which was shown only during the channel's forecast programming and was removed during commercial breaks, was also added and paired with the LDL on the right third of the screen over the channel's high definition simulcast feed and displayed supplementary observation data (including visibility, dew point and barometric pressure data that was previously shown on the LDL), average flight delay times for area airports, air quality forecasts, and historical almanac data.

All STAR systems are able to display watches, warnings and advisories issued by the National Weather Service and the Storm Prediction Center for the immediate area where the WeatherStar system's headend is based, which generate a tone as an audible leader to the alert message. Older STAR units up to the WeatherStar 4000 displayed NWS bulletins in the form of a full-screen vertical scroll with differing-colored backgrounds (brown for advisories and red for warnings), which was paired with the Lower Display Line.

However, the 4000 introduced a horizontal ticker that was restricted to the bottom third of the TWC video feed; since November 12, 2013, IntelliStar models now display alerts over the national feed's headlines ticker placed above the LDL. The systems are also capable of generating multiple scrolling text advertisements that appear at the bottom of the screen during local forecast segments, which are programmed into the administrative menus by a local provider-employed technician. STAR units are also capable of generating advertising tags for overlay on national advertisements seen on the national feed, displaying localized addresses for retailers, and on newer models, tagging products seen during breaks (such as pollen reports).

The Weather Channel provides its STAR units to cable and IPTV providers free of charge. Programming and maintenance of all units is handled by engineers employed by each provider, who are able to modify specifications to generate locally specific weather data, program locally specific greetings for LOT8s segment introductions, generate test alerts viewable only by cable company technicians performing silent remote administration tests, and make upgrades and repairs to the unit's software and hardware. Although extremely rare, the programmability of STAR units at the headend level can leave systems vulnerable to possible tampering.