User:Ccc/xl
Weather Star XL | |||||||||
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Family: | Weather Star | ||||||||
Manufacturer: | Silicon Graphics | ||||||||
Hardware: | SGI O2 | ||||||||
OS: | IRIX 6.3 | ||||||||
Graphics: | Vector/Raster | ||||||||
Release date: | Beta – 3Q 1998 Final – 1Q 1999 | ||||||||
Status: | Retired – Decommissioned by The Weather Channel on June 26, 2014. | ||||||||
Versions: | 1, 2 and 3 | ||||||||
Visual output: | Standard definition | ||||||||
Available add-ons: | Vocal Local | ||||||||
Preceded By: | Weather Star Jr & Weather Star 4000 | ||||||||
Succeeded By: | IntelliStar |
Weather Star XL was the fifth generation of the Weather Star systems used by The Weather Channel (TWC). At its rollout in 1998, it came months after a major update to the channel's on-air presentation. The Star XL was a major leap over the much older Weather Star 4000 system, featuring advanced capabilities such as transitions, moving icons, cloud wallpaper backgrounds and reading the local forecast contents. The Weather Star XL first appeared in a beta roll out on select cable systems in November 1998[1] and appeared briefly on The Weather Channel Latin America until that channel's demise.[2] The Weather Star XL was also the initial Star unit used to generate the network's 24-hour local weather channel, Weatherscan, at the time called Weatherscan Local, and was used in this capacity until the channel was transitioned to the newer IntelliStar platform in 2004.
On June 26, 2014, The Weather Channel discontinued broadcasting its analog satellite feed, thus officially retiring all Weather Star units prior to the IntelliStar, including the XL. To address the need for a low-cost replacement, The Weather Channel developed the IntelliStar 2 Jr. platform in 2013, which is capable of operating natively on both analog and digital cable systems.
Technical
The Weather Star XL is a Silicon Graphics O2 computer within a custom-built rack-mountable chassis, featuring a custom I/O board (Moosehead/TWC INTERFACE, SGI P/N: 030-1171-003) for audio, video and other relays that are essential to the XL's operation. Within the chassis, there is a separate SatScan interface to capture weather data from The Weather Channel's satellite transponder.
The O2 used a single MIPS microprocessor and was intended to be used mainly for multimedia purposes; the O2 was SGI's last attempt at a low-end workstation. The Weather Star XL utilizes the SGI IRIX Operating System with custom written software for The Weather Channel. Because of the proprietary SGI hardware and software, the Weather Star XL remains the most expensive STAR system, having a manufacturing cost of $6,500.[3] As a result of the XL's high price, many smaller cable headends retained their Weather Star 4000 or Weather Star Jr units until the IntelliStar was released, skipping the XL altogether. The Weather Star XL receives raw video data from The Weather Channel and weather statements from the National Weather Service. It sends back monitoring data to The Weather Channel.[4] Its ad crawl manager is accessible via a modem and terminal/terminal emulator.
Graphical Revisions
The Weather Star XL has received three different graphical revisions throughout its lifespan, as well as different graphics sets for Latin America units.
Timeline
Date | Notes |
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September 2001[5] |
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March 2002[8] |
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April 2002[9] |
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July 2002[10] |
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April 2003[11] |
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June 2003[12] | On the one-minute forecast flavor, the daypart forecast and regional/metro forecast screens are replaced by a two-page text-based forecast. |
September 27, 2003[13] |
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August 15, 2005[14] |
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References
- ↑ Batten, Frank (2002). The Improbable Rise of a Media Phenomenon. Harvard Business Publishing. p. 210. ISBN 1-57851-559-9.
- ↑ "Latin America 1.6.4 Patch Release Notes: Weather Star XL" (PDF). The Weather Channel. July 2001. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2003-05-25.
- ↑ Batten, Frank (2002). The Improbable Rise of a Media Phenomenon. Harvard Business Publishing. p. 204. ISBN 1-57851-559-9.
- ↑ "Weatherscan Local by The Weather Channel: Installation and Instruction Guide" (PDF) (2nd ed. ed.). The Weather Channel. September 2000. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-01-10.
{{cite web}}
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has extra text (help) - ↑ "US 1.6.5 Release Notes" (PDF). The Weather Channel. September 2001. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-07-31.
- ↑ "TWC Locals (Archived)". TWC Locals (Archived via Internet Archive). Note: At least one Weather Star XL unit from Mobile, AL still had the original version 1 graphics as late as January 18, 2002. Mobile, AL. January 18, 2002. Archived from the original on December 10, 2011. Retrieved December 11, 2022.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: others (link) - ↑ Abel-Lear, Charles (May 5, 2002). "TWC Classics: "Shelby Layne" by Bob Rafkin". TWC Classics. Note: The St. Paul, MN Weather Star XL unit already had most of the updated version 2 graphics and features (such as the "Daypart Forecast" and "The Week Ahead" segments) installed (after the March 2002 update), but this unit still had the version 1 map graphics as well as a leftover animated version 1 banner that was still visible before the updated version 2 still banner shows up during the "Regional Forecast" segment (see 1:12-1:21 in the video). St. Paul, MN. Retrieved December 11, 2022.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ "US 1.6.6 Release Notes: Weather Star XL" (PDF). The Weather Channel. March 2002. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-07-31.
- ↑ "US 1.6.7 Release Notes: Weather Star XL" (PDF). The Weather Channel. April 2002. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-07-31.
- ↑ "Domestic 1.6.8 Release Notes: Weather Star XL" (PDF). The Weather Channel. July 2002. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-07-31.
- ↑ "Domestic 1.7.2 Release Notes: Weather Star XL" (PDF). The Weather Channel. April 2003. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2003-12-04.
- ↑ "Domestic 1.7.4 Release Notes: Weather Star XL" (PDF). The Weather Channel. June 2003. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-07-31.
- ↑ "Domestic 1.7.5 Release Notes: Weather Star XL" (PDF). The Weather Channel. September 2003. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-07-31.
- ↑ "The Weather Channel Network 1.9.0 Release Notes: Weather Star XL" (PDF). The Weather Channel. August 2005. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-06-29.
External links
- This article was originally retrieved from the "Weather Star XL" article on Wikipedia, which is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License