IntelliStar

**IntelliStar** is the fifth-generation successor to the WeatherStar systems used by the American cable 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 and over the Internet. However, unlike the rest, it has the capability to receive more complex information, more efficiently. It also has a DualFeed 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 improvements to the forecast-reading feature called Vocal Local (which uses TWC voiceover artist Allen Jackson's narration on TWC, Jim Cantore's narration on the HD cable version of TWC, and more simplified female narration on its basic 24/7 TV cable/satellite network spinoff Weatherscan). The IntelliStar removes the 3-day extended forecast narration (as of March 20, 2008) but adds narration for the 36-hour forecasts and Weather Bulletins, and also ducking for lowering the level of the background music when playing Vocal Local files. (The Weather Star XL just cut into the music to play Vocal Local files.). HiRAD (High Resolution Aggregated Data) technology, added to the IntelliStar in 2006, allows The Weather Channel to choose any city, town, or landmark as an observation/forecast site and provide data. Occasionally, HiRAD will fail, in which case the old NWS (National Weather Service) sites are used (Only the Current Conditions, Latest Observations, and Regional/Metro products are affected significantly. on other products, only the site name changes). 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). TWC has contributed code to the FreeBSD development community.

The word "**IntelliStar**" is likely a portmanteau of "**Intelligent Star**", probably because it's a successor of WeatherStar XL and it has been used on The Weather Channel and Weatherscan all throughout the mid- and late-2000s to the early- and mid-2010s until December 2017, when Xfinity was the last of the cable providers to drop Weatherscan off the TV guide and cable lineup from all locations. IntelliStar has lots of updated features for weather forecasting and weather conditions such as "Traffic Report", "Airport Conditions", "Boat & Beach", "Golf", "Weather and Your Health", etc. This would make IntelliStar smarter than its predecessor WeatherStar XL and its significant others.

 Bold song titles are acquired to Weatherscan Musical.