AU642110B2 - Improved methods of delivering multiple channels of audio and video by radiocommunications and cable - Google Patents

Description

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tI *r SiP IMPROVED METHODS OF DELIVERING MULTIPLE CHANNELS OF AUDIO AND VIDEO BY RADIO COMMUNICATIONS AND CABLE JOHN GORDON RUTHERFORD 2Crest Lane Christchurch 8 New Zealand, New Zealand citizen, hereby declare the invention, for which I pray that a patent may be granted to me and the method by which it is to be performed, to be particularly described in and by the following statement: Previously, video and audio signals came to the consumer by broadcasts utilising in the video context, predominantly Very High Frequency (VHI) and UHF transmissions, with some limited use of the lower Super High Frequencies (SHF) particularly around 2.5 GHz. The alternative method of transmission of video services has been by broadband copper cables of the coaxial variety or fibreoptic with the latter producing greater capacity, but being costly to join for distribution into individual homes, hence its primary use has been for trunking. More recently direct broadcast from satellite (DBS), has obviated the need to lay cables in streets, to serve those in the more remote areas, providing they can afford the downconversion, amplification, dish cntenna and similar costs.

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S S 2 Although transmission costs from satellite, due to the capital cost of DBS satellites being in the hundreds of millions of dollars, are high, the avoidance of expensive cable laying costs and the very much greater service area provided, offers considerable benefits as satellite transmissions service many more people, particularly those living in areas remote from metropolitan centres, in countries that do not have an infrastructure of cable television, which developed in North America prior to the advent of DBS transmissions. Lower powered satellites used for such purposes require larger receiving dishes, which are costly and impractical for general use in built up metropolitan areas, due to space limitations.

The international satellite system, Intelsat, has the capability of< transmitting video services between continents, and compression technologies permit more video services on the one satellite transponder but the signal strength in the receiving countries is insufficient for the consumer to receive such services direct to home as the size of the TV receive only (TVRO) dishes exceeds that which would 'be acceptable or affordable in the consumer context. Retransmission of such signals by local operators is appropriate in cases such as the west hemispheric beam transmissions from the Pacific Intelsat satellite transponders which have a footprint which covers most western Pacific rim countries, including New Zealand, Australia, Asia, Japan and parts of mainland China. Within this region reside:..

approximatel 400 million people and with relay services from terrestrial broadcasters and regional satellites, almost half the world's population which has around 250,000,000 TV sets can be serviced. Such potential viewers in general would be unable to afford individual satellite receiving dishes, the appropriate downconverting and/or decompression electronics, and instead a community communications facility is appropriate in the interests of lowering capital costs for'individual consumers, and bringing to them satellite programming uplinked in North America and downlinked in the weitern Pacific countries.

It is a purpose of t e present invention to receive the video, audio and digital t ansmissions in broadcast quality on the periphery of metrpolitan areas, and to re-transmist these signals in microwave frequencies as is suggested herein, preferably in the Ku or 12 GHz band or otherwise in frequency bands that are higher than the 2GHz band which is traditionally used in North America for Multichannel, Multipoint Distribution Services (MMDS), because such lower SHF frequencies in the Pacific countries are often already in use by other services and the military. Such SHF frequencies are intended for transmission to community communications poles serving blocks of apartments, offices or industrial premises and groups of low rise homes, in manner similar to the community antenna services utilised in Searlier years for receipt of terrestrially broadcast TV in Very High Frequency (VHF) form but with added features, particularly two way services as described below. Such community communications facilities will lower the cost of satellite reception to the viewers and give the capability of receiving additional local material transmitted from hilltop or high building antennas.

One of the advantages of using the higher SHF frequencies in C or Ku bands is that there is already in mass production, receive and downconversion equipment for use by viewers of satellite services who have their own satellite dishes and the modification of such equipment for use at community antenna pole facilities is not a major cost. The use of these so called satellite frequencies for terrestrial retransmission or origination of local programming enables the utilisation of consumer receive equipment that is already on the market, but which, especially in relation to downconversion and/or remodulation to the frequencies used in consumer TV sets and video recorders, is expensive, when used individually...

The frequencies to be used for on transmission of satellite signals in terrestrial mode would generally be the those that are in between the channels prescribed by international radio regulations for the various regions, for downlinking from satellites, and such frequencies are referred top s "guard bands" to avoid the overlapping and resultant interference between:..

satellite downlinks. For example, in the Australasian context, the Aussat downlinks are in the 12.5 to 12.75GHz band (in Ku band in American terminology) wiile in the more international context the Intelsat downlinks ;are allocated the 3.6 to '4.2Ghz frequencies (in C Band). (onsumer video receiving equipment for these bands is already produced by major consumer satellite receiver manufacturers and such receivers will tune in the SHF frequencies appropriate for use in these bands as transmitted by the terrestrial transmitters from hilltops and the like to the community antennas envisaged by this invention and thence, in respect to video transmissions, by coaxial or fibreoptic cable to the end users. While fibre to the home is currently expensive, costs are reduciHg to a point that should shortly make it Feasible for a simple direct connection, without branching, from a community antenna site to the yiewer's equipment.

The receipt by viewers of SHF transmissions from hilltops rather khan direct from satellite in these circumstances would lower the size of the dishes ,and other antennas, but still leave a high cost to viewers for downconvertiog the SHF transmissions into frequencies appropriateto. their television sets. The cost of establishment of what could.. be considered a community communications utility facility similar to an electricity substation, kiosk, or conversion from high voltages to the lower voltages used by consumers in their homes, is in the electrical distribution sense, a siilar application to the present invention, which is intended to lower the cost of communications in both transmit and receive modes by spreading the cost of individual consumer electronics, through cost sharing by means of a community communications facility based on a pole and appropriate electronics and antennas. Such spreads the cost of communications more extensive in nature than traditional TV or telephony services over a number of consumers, whilst still leaving them with freedom of choice of programming and the ability to call up video or similar services by interactive reaction from Viewers requesting services by communicating, by cable or via the radio spectrum, with the unmanned community communications facility, which relays such requests to service providers, TV stations, or switching services, either by radio or telecommunications.

Previously, cable television systems have been based on a "heade)id" which is a manned TV station that distributes programmes received in various ways, down broadband cable lines laid underground or reticulated on poles in the streets. The high cost of laying cables over, extended distances with line amplifiers to" boost the signal, is uneconomic in terms of contemporary cost, and dependant on licences to utilise the streets, by local authorities. The capacity of the systems is limited by the distance from the "headend" and the type of cable which generally cannot accommodate any form of viewer response. Such cable systems are unable to interface with cellular or similar telephony systems which require cellular or frequently spaced antennas to receive and transmit RF signals from the cordless handpieces. The present invention combines and extends features of cable TV and cellular telephone systems, and updates such technologies into the realm of compression, digitai, interactive, and microcellular telephony to lower the cost to the consumer by grouping facilities close to the end user with a view to providing cheaper and more comprehensive communications services than previously possible. A secondary object of the invention is to give viewers the same advantages in respect to copyright legislation, as viewers of current cable systems have, so that a wide diversity of programming can come to the viewers without they or the retransmission company developing copyright problems, as would otherwise apply by virtue of the the legislation of British I Commonwealth and North American countries, tn respect to broadcast transmissions. This secondary object of the invention has the added benefit of lowering the cost of the cable to the homes, by having much of the transmission in an encoded or digital form from the satellite or TV station, delivered by radiocommunications to a community antenna on an unmanned utility site, which processes the signals both to and from the viewers or listeners and relays them, by either radio communicatio6s or telecommunications, depending,,on the best format for bridging the short gap between the community facility and the consumers.

Relevant copyright legislation tit makes diffusion or cable services exempt from breach of copyright where the signals are received by subscribers to the cable service, is part of the copyright legislation applicable in Canada, United States (Title 17 of the US Code, Section 111) Australia, and New :Zealand. A royalty on what amounts to compulsory licensing is payable in the US context to the Register of Copyright, based on the subscriber turnover and such a procedure is similar to the use by radio stations of music which is also paid for without prior reference to the copyright holder, on a percentage of turnover basis. The British C6mmonwealth countries have similar legislation whereby disputed royalties for compulsory licensing can be settled by reference to Copyright Tribunals, while international conventions also recognise the increasing transborder transmissions that will further develop international rediffusion of broadcasts from other countries.

Such legislation does not require that the signal be transmitted all the way from the point of origin by cable, but merely that it is received by the subscribing viewer by cable (usually in encoded form). With the advent of DBS services and the use of the invention described here, national or international radio frequency (RF) transmissions can be received at the community communications facility and retransmitted quite short distances to the neighbouring end users by cable, without breach of copyright and using an infrastructure that is much cheaper to lay and erect, than the more conventional long distance broadband cable systems that have been establshed in North America in recent decades. The use of a commuoity antennas to. receive remote transmissions and distribute to the viewer by cable for copyright reasons has particular application in the South Pacific region where a major investment by the Australian government in the Aussat satellite system which will involve the use of DBS capable satellites in the near future will likely result in satellite transmissions r** downlinking in the 12Ghz band, as the major provider of Pay TV.

If these transmissions go direct'to home without any intermediate "diffusion" by cable, the advantages that the legislation gives to cable delivery will 'be lost' and with it a wealth of programming that Would otherwise be cheaply available to Pay TV providers and their viewers.

The SHF multichannel video transmitters used for terrestrial transmission of satellite programming and the origination of local programming, can be of very low power when transmitting to strategically placed community antennas and 20dBw to 100dBw EIRP would in most cases be sufficient in the metropolitan context where an urban area has a tall building or hill in proximity to the service area. Such transmitters cost a fraction of the multiple kilowatt transmitters required for conventional video broadcasting. Appropriate transmitters might for example, have a low power swept carrier wave signal covering a range of 12.1 to 12.5 GHz and a number of channels can be incorporated on the transmitter by compression technology that narrows the traditional bandwidth for such transmissions from 27MHz or thereabouts down to 2MHz or thereabouts. Such transmissions may utilise vertical and horizontal polarity and receiving equipment on the community antenna pole likewise to increase channel numbers and minimise adjacent channel interference. These transmissions are line of sight but capable of producing an acceptable video or audio signal within a range of 25km or thereabouts. It has been found that the use of compression and error correcting technology of the impulse type provide a smoothing effect that minimises bit transmission imperfections, and prevent signal theft in the case of Pay TV by providing a secure transmission system.

Transmission systems such as B-MAC, D-MAC, digital, High Definition and their derivatives can also be incorporated in the transmission and reception equipment at the community pole, for better security and picture enhancement. At the community antenna facility the signals would conventionally be remodulated (either with or without security) to UHF or VHF to enable tuning on TV sets or video recorders at the end of the cables connected to the homes from the antenna. A splitter or diplexer at the home would enable continued viewing of broadcast signals. More sophisticated home equipment would allow pay per view and addressability.

It is a further advantage of the invention, that it develops a community communications facility to provide an optimum line of sight to the transmission station or stations, satellites or other originating or relaying media, as often such is not possible, where the consumer has his own antenna and is dependent on receiving the signals independently of other nearby users.

A significant advantage of the use of the community communications pole with antennas and related facilities is the potential to be more independant of local authorities who otherwise grant licences for communications providers wishing to utilise the streets by way of underground services or pole attachments to poles of the conventional utility services. The potential for interference from electrical cables in streets and the likelyhood of water or mechanical damage by other street users, especially in relation to underground services, often results in the use of costly sheathing and/or outages and repairs.

It is an asoect of the invention that the community antennas be located nf1" sealed street areas, either on grass verges or in the rear of properties where they do not interfere with the streetscape. The cables to individual properties can then be run down boundaries on fence lines. The use of fences for attaching the cables provides a secure structure for such cables because fencing laws prevent neighbours on either side of the fence interfering with the same without mutual consent or Court Order.

Cables attached to dividing walls (in protective plastic tubing if necessary) offer a cheap, secure, and easily locable and repairable situation without the potential for groundwater damage or failures caused by other street users where underground services are installed at high cost by virtue of local authority requirements.

Use of dividing fences in this way is more environmentally attractive than more cables on electrical or telephone poles in streets. In New Zealand the Telecomunications Act gives service providers the right to enter properties for the above purposes and retain ownership of cables. Other countries have similar legislation to facilitate C'e development of communications systems through private properties.

A further advantage of the community antenna pole and associated delivery facilities is that the cabling does not have long trunk and branch architecture as is conventional ip existing cable TV systems where damage to the trunk can cut service to the branches. Likewise, fibreoptic cable is expensive to join and branch but individua running from the community facility to the end user withour branching or intermediate connections, offers a practical route to the extensive utilisation of high capacity optical fibres direct to home.

Frequencies in the lower and more flexible parts of the spectrum' are becoming scarce in most countries, and with existing VHF and similar spectrum already utilised, higher frequencies which are less tolerant of obstacles and dependent on line of sight for effective distribution, necessitate avoidance of obstacles, particularly for video transmissions in SHF and similar frequencies. The present invention has as one of its objects, the ability to overcome these obstruction problems, by locating 'the community antenna in a line of sight position to the transmitting antenna delivering the video services. Such community poles conversely have the ability to deliver RF or telecommunications signals received, to hilltop, tall building, or other regional antenna sites, for processing as viewer interactive requests or cellular or similar cordless telephony or data transmissions and accordingly a communications system independant of existing telephone networks can be established that can offer a range of services greater than the traditional twisted pair phone lines and without incurring the added expense of laying broadband cables for ISDN and similar extended telephony services.

The proximity of the cq unity communications poles to the end users who can implement-F modems to interconnect computers iith the commuhity facilities and thence relay a wide range of video, audio and data transmissions and call up data bases, and video services of the type referred to as "video on demand' to save the inconvenience of viewers visiting home video stores, are some of the added facilities available at low cost through the present invention. Electronic Funds Transfer at Point of Sale (EFTPOS) is another significant application of the invention whereby home shopping or other interactive TV participation by the viewer's transmission of a brief digitised or encoded packet of information that includes bank transfer or credit card details via th community antenna facility to banks, credit card companies, advertisers and other servi ce providers, achieves payment for required goods and services.l! An extension of the electronic funds transfer referred to above is the commercial process of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) which enables greater cooperation between manufacturers and merchants in respect to ordering, stocking, and payment for goods as they are sold. The community communications pole and related electronics in a commercial community, enables the cost effective use of EDI, by minimising the amount of hardare and software that small manufacturers and suppliers to major retailing chains, need to have on their own premises.

SAnother useful function of the community communications facility herein described is achieved by means of electronic equipment located at or near the facility that has the capability of queuing or otherwise processing many nearby viewers' requests of the type described above, where "impulse" buying, betting, answering of gameshow questions an4 the like can be dealt with and relayed through the facility tdocentral master controllers at TV stations, race tracks, or other central operational points, almost simultaneously. Such a staged procedure enables processing in greater numbers than would be possible if multiple requests went down phone or broadband cable lines to a central processing unit. Neither the central processing unit nor the phone or broadband cable line into the viewer's premises would have the capacity to deal with the large numbers of such tranmissions as are generated by viewers wanting to participate moments before the event. The same community communications facility can act as a neighbourhood processing point for transmissions to and from it on electricity lines that can 'be used in addition to their primary function, for controlling electricity services and reading meters, providing' security and similar services not adversely affected by the simultaneous carriage of electricity. Other electronic functions that can be economically carried out by electronic equipment at community antennas include the processing of incoming signals and their onwards transmission in a cost effective and spectrum efficient way. Examples of such processing include the conversion of analog transmissions to digital and vice versa, the compression of signals for the transmission of High Definition TV, and the encoding or decoding of signals for security reasons..

Equipment that establishes the geographical position of people,..

motor vehicles, aircraft, and the like is generally bulky and expensive. The community communications facility can be used in the location of people or inanimate objects within the range of location transmitters that "transpond" with simple paging, homing, or automatic irecting finding equipment that will locate items within the "cel monitored by the community communications antenna pole and rela ed equipment, in a manner that is cheaper and more conservative of radio spectrum than many other similar devices. Such a facility has advantages in respect to motor vehicle location, and qars or trucks so equipped would likely attract lower insurance premiums because of the deterrent effect on thieves. In its simplest form such equiupment would merely locate the item within particular cell served by the individual community communcations facility but such localising of stolen cars would be of great a sistance to police and a disincentive to car converters.

From the above it will be apparent that the psychological aspect of blonging to a community and the need to protect the community propeu ity is a- worwwhile aspect of the present invention, especialy in relation to security where there is now developing reliance\ on "neighbourhood. watches" and similar cooperative protectiv measures being adopted in view of increasing demands on, and diitnishing fundingfor, police forces. In the same way as electricity kiosks drf the sides of streets are seldom the target of vandalism or burglary, electrical cables coming to and from the commuications facility will be a-similar deterrent to thieves or wron' doers who will be fearful of electrocution. The electrical cable providing security monitoring will be cbnnected to existing houseiring so conventional electricity coutlets in the home. can doubrs ta connecting points for security services which ti some cases will be monitored by neighbours as well as being connected to police or security control rooms. Such security services can e achieved without ongoing costs of phone lines supplied by the t eephone company as is often an aspect of other security systems. e cutting of phone lines by burglars is not a problem'for securitt services of the type described above, as a shortrano, millisecond RF transmission by the press of a TV remote contro button can i entify the location of an emergency call at the security monitoring station via the community communications antenna, without the delay of dialling an emergency number and verbally giving location. t h.

SThe community acceptance of the community communications facility described herein will establish such units in neighbourhoods in manner similar to reservoirs, pumping stations, drainage systems, gas reticulation, electricity "ki6ks and other now standard facilities that are accepted by occupants as being in the" common interest. The cost of such community antenna and electronic facilities will diminish as prefabrication and standardisation of systems enable; 'mass production, and erection techniques are developed for 'ieed and economy of placement. Legislation is already in place in Zealand to enable approved r, b Telecomunications Network Operators to erect poles for comnunications purposes and retain ownership of the associated cables and facilities, and similar legislation will devlop in other countries as the 6c&t savings and other public benefits become apparent through use. One preferred form of the invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawing of which:- Figure 1 shdws a community communications facility of which the pole or tower shown as No 1. forms the basis of the facility on which are located an antenna, 2, designed to receive terrestrial transmissions from a hill top or tall building to which the community antenna has line of sight capability and such a receiving antenna will conventionally receive video signals in higher frequencies than those traditionally utilised by television sets, and in compressed and/or digital form which needs conversion to be receivabl: on conventional consumer TV sets, video recorders, or computer video monitors, by remodulation at the community communications facility to VHF or UHF frequencies, for on transmission to the consumer by cable.

Where satellite signals can be directly received from high powered direct broadcast 'BS type satellites, or communications satellites of the Inmarsat Low Earth Orbit (LEO) or other loworbiting satellite(, or Highly Elliptical Orbit (HEO, variety are contactable, a further antenna or antennas, pointing at such satellite or satellites will be located on the community pole (No. 3).

No. 4 is a radio frequency (RF) data transmit and/or receive antenna or antennas for terrestrial transmit and receive purposes for interactive video data services (IVDS), and No. 5 is a cellular, microcellular and/or land mobile transmit and receive antenna for telephony purposes, with there being one or more of antennas 4 and 5 as related to the number of services required or available. Antenna No. 6 is an antenna for 'the receipt of VHF video transmissions and such antennas may also be of the UHF ,variety for receipt of video transmissions in UHF format The above described antennas will vary in number and type, as related to transmissions appropriate to the desired services or the transmissionsavailable and can be added to or diminished as related to supply and demand at any time. No. 7 is an electronics enclosure which will include the electronics equipment, such as downconverter to lower high frequencies to frequencies for the consumer receivers, low noise amplifier to enhance satellite signals of low strength, line amplifiers appropriate for amplifying the signal for onwards relay by ble, and such transmitters, amplifiers for RF signals, modems, remodulation, decompression, error corredct]n, and other related transmission and reception electronics asre appropriate for the services designed to be receiveo or transmitted from or t to the individual household or other units, for viaeo, data, audio and telephony purposes. No. 8 is an alternative or additional enclosure for electronic equipment, above the reach of vandals and suited to antenna combiners, diplexers and the like. S* Such transmissions to the community communications facility may be by either radiocommunications (as in hand held cordless telephones for example) ior by wired telecommunications by the wires described as No. 9 hereunder, to the end and intent that the community communications facility lowers the cost of providing existing and new communications facilities to nearby units by grouping facilities and minimising the need for individual transmit, receive and processing communications hardware and software at users' premises.

No. dicative of the coaxial, fib'reoptic, broadband or other/cables which distribute signals where appropriate to the household, office, or industrial units, for television and/or vide6, data, or conferencing purposes with such cables being placed on fence lines, on interredate poles or underground, en route to ahe individual household units, and down lift shafts for highrise officeunits, or otherwise over or under the ground as appropriate to the terrain and buildings of the end users be they commercial, industrial or domestic.

No. 10 represents electricity cables which in some cases would be used in association with an electricity -supply ,authority enclosure from or adjoining the community communications pole, with the purpose being the relay by electricity cables of less sensitive signals into or from the household or other units for controlling the electricity supply and metering the same where appropriate or having the capability of turning on or off individual components such as water heaters by a nethod known as "ripple" control or load shedding during peak demand periods.

Such would also have the capability of providing security and fire monitoring and also other services where any interference that would otherwise be caused to data or tel"phony transmissions by the presence of electricity circuits, are snot critical but cannot otherwise be easily and cheaply accommodated by other telecommunications connections or"RF transmissions. The community communications facility in respect to the electricity cables, can connect to existing house, office, or factory wiring and outlets, plugs, sockets can be utilsed to connect these new services at low cost using existing infrastructure for security, remote switching, and monitoring.

It is a preferred method of the invention that the electronics for the neighbourhood security, health, and fire monitoring are arranged at the communications facility, in such a way as to be also monitored within the community as well as by remote police or security services. In this manner neighbours become more community oriented and able to respond to trouble in thei locality more quickly than remote services operated by locl police or other authorities. It is a feature of the community communications pole and the facilities located thereon as described above, that such will accommodate short range transmissions from the individual household or other units where users ar equipped with lower power telephony or data transmitters of up to (for example) watts or thereabouts that can be safely used without interference to other users of the radio spectrum, particularly for services referred to as Personal Communications Networks, or microcellular telephone services from hand held cordless telephone units, which can then be relayed from the community communications pole, either by. RF transmissions in varying frequencies or alternative'y by wired telecommunications into a central telephone switch such as is indicated by item 11 being the telecommunications connection to the local telephone company or companies.

The configuration of the community antennas and related electronic componentry is such as to serve a number of household S or other units for a radus appropriate to the range of the equipment in a cost effective manner that minimises the capital outlay onpequipment by the end user by providing receiving transmitfg and processing antennas and electronics that service a number of end users without depriving them of the privacy and choice inherent in the purchase of individual equipment.

Individual users may still have a range of equipment of varying performance but basic connecting, downconverting, error correcting, amplifying, transmission, and similar services are performed at the community communications facility with a view to minimising cost and clutter in the end user's domestic, industrial or commercial premises. Conventionally each community communications 'pole would serve a cell with a radius of approximatel/j one'kilometre but the spacing of the poles is dependant on the height of them, the terrain, number of end users in the community and the range and capacity of the equipment servicing the pole.

There is a considerable saving to the individual user in the type of equipment that would otherwise be necessary for multiple services to end users by means of individual user antennas, amplifiers, down converters, combiners, modems, decompressors and the like. Instead, a much cheaper end user converfer with connection for broadband cables (extending as far as the community communications pole) telephone or RF transmissions of millisecond type for data or householder interactive TV services where the viewer can respond to TV programmes, is utilised. Where the format of response by viewers to TV or videoconferencing is by means of radiocommunications rather than back down phone or broadband cable lines, the limited spectrum available necessitates short range low powered transmissions within "cells" to avoid interference with other spectrum users. The communitj' communications facility can act as the focal point or unmanned "headend" for each cell.

In the case of interactive TV participation by viewers, a RF or cable delivered millisecond data packet including credit card or electronic funds transfer at point of sale (EFTPOS) authorisation is relayed from the viewer through the community communications facility, to the television station, advertiser, or other service provider by means of the appropriate antennas on the community pole or onwards via telephone or broadband, copper "twisted pair", coaxial, or fiberoptic cable, so that TV viewer response in the form of interactive video data services (IVDS), can be used in association with the community antenna and pole facility described above with the transmissions from the viewers coming to the community facility at low transmission power, so as not to interfere with other users of the spectrum where a radio frequency transmission is utilised and such can then be converted at the community facility to a point to point transmission to television stations, advertisers and other service providers, by microwave or similar longer range transmission.

Such a'facility gives the viewer the ability to participate in the ordering of pay per view movies, answering of polls, participation in game shows, betting on horse racing and similar gambling services, answering questions of educational services and the like, with such answers being in millisecond data packets usua.-y of digital style, so that thousands of transmissions can be handled from viewers whose transmissions can be received by data receivers at the community communications facility and relayed in processed or partly processed form to master controllers which queue the transmissions and can process them very rapidly, particularly where such transmissions are for the purpose of ordering services immediately before such services commence in circumstances known as impulse buying or betting on horse racing where the number of requests for service by viewers might otherwise jam phone lines so that multiple requests simultaneously., could not be dealt with.

The use of data receivers at the community communications facility of a capacity appfropriate to the expected community demand Which queues or otherwise prepares the interactive transmissions for master controllers at TV stations or elsewhere, minimises the potential for overloading if all such consumer transmissions Went directly to a central receiving point, as such has proved unsatisfactory in jamming phone lines connected to earlier interactive equipment.

A further form of the invention is the community antenna pole and 'y its related facilities are located in a position that is free from obstruction by buildings, trees and the like in respect to its orientation toward television stations and other service providers which will have a hill top or tall building receive and transmit capability within line of sight of each such community antenna pole, whether such be located on high rise buildings, and serving a community of apartments or offices in such buildings, or a series of !ow rise household other units within tie vicinity of the'pole. Where the coi,'unity facility serves high rise office buildings, a number of commercial services such as video conferencing, electronic data interchange, (EDI) and similar business services will benefit from the community electronic antenna and communications facility that comprises the invention. Such a community antenna pole is conventionally (but not In..

exclusively) located within a residential block of low rise indiyidual houses either at the back of the housing lots and away from the view of passersby, or alternatively on the side of a street, but in such a position that cables being routed >to individual hoisehold units do not have -to cross carriageways or sealed surfaces, as this is one of ,the impediments with the normal broadband cable system where the cost of trenching and resurfacing, especially for underground trunk cables, which must avoid other underground services, is considerable.

Contrary to the conventional broadband cabling that is in some cases attached to poles in the streets, the lines to and from the community antenna facility, especially when located internally within residential blocks of low rise houses on plots of land conventional to residential suburbs, the attachment of the cables to fences or walls dividing properties which are covered by fencing legislation that prevents alteraion ,or removal of such boundary structures without-the consent f adjoining owners, is the preferred route for cables to the end users as such is cheaper and more secure than underground or "free hanging lines from poles and the like. Cabling in such a manner is less conspicuous and more environmentally acceptable.

In some cases such cabling will be fibreoptic because no branching is required to take the same from the community facility to the end user.

It is a further feature of the invention that the community antenna poles and facilities provide both radio communications and telecommunications in the alternative to the household or other units, so that there are both wired and non-wired communications capable of serving the end users in the event of failure of quipment either external or in the units and therefsre tf convelitional telephone and wired services are unserviceable, an alternative method of communications by radio spectrum is available and such gives added security and communications capability to the individual units without the need of extensive long range,transmission equipment in the case of RF communications because those communications only need to reach the community pole rather'than the much longer distances normally required to be transmitted in the case of cellular telephone or land mobile transmissions. All of these on the radio spectrum can be utilised muci more efficiently with less risk of interference from powered transmissions. Such short range transmissions can ieach the community antenna and thereafter, point to point microwave or wired communications can take over, thus enabling the.use of cordless telephones of lower power and less interference potential to what would otherwise be the case for equipment with a longer range transmission capability.

The short range requirement therefore has the advantage not only .e in respect to conserving radio spectrum but also enables longer .battery life for cordless equipment. Generally capital and y operating costs are lowered. *o* A further featuro of the community antenna pole and electronics facility is that very small aperture terminals (VSAT) are incorporated in the same where, appropriate, so that short range RF or wired transmissions made from the end user can be uplinked onto satellite and in the case of interactive television, the viewer's request can be relayed direct to satellite for national and international use' thereby enabling a viewer to purchase goods advertised on national or international television services, participate in national game shows and generally order items remote from his location. National and overseas databases can similarly be accessed.

The community antenna facilities can include a radio loop for telephony purposes, and bypass the conventional wired local telephone network and as such 41an set up an alternative telephone network to that conventionally perated by telephone companies

Claims (26)

1. A communications system including a community communications pole, with antennas and appropriate electronics attached to individual cables to provide communications services to the proximat community of individual houses, apartments, commercial or industrial premises, by telecommunications, with other signls,. being transmitted from or received at the pole by rad8i'. communications and electronically processed there, to provide further communications facilities for the proximate community, said facilities comprising: the facility for receipt and transmission of radid'. signals from or to satellites and terrestrial communication's" facilities, s the facility to process interactive television and computm;, data transmissions from users of such equipment responding to .TV. and computer programming, facilities to receive, process and relay electronic funds transfers, facilities for the processing and onforwarding of data, facilities for the receipt and retransmission of cellular and microcellular telephony transmissions, facilities for receiving and converting broadcast radi-o transmissions to telecommunications transmissions, facilities for downconverting higher radio frequency signal's to lower radio frequency signals, facilities for modulating and remodulating radio signals, facilities for converting digital transmissions to analb transmissions and vice versa, (j)facilities for adding communications and control services *to electricity cables, facilities for connecting trunk fibreoptic and coaxial cables facilities for connecting individual broadband, coaxial, fibreoptic and other communications cables to service individual end users with communications services carried on such cables, facilities for compressing or decompressing radio and telecommuiications transmissions, facilities for encoding or decoding radio or telecommunications transmissions, facilities for error correcting transmissionms, facilities for terrestrial use of satellite guardband fiequencies in between those channels conventionally used for satellite downlinking in the super high frequencies allocated by international radio regulations, facilities for originating and receiving point to point microwave transmissions, facilities for providing electronic data interchange among commercial premises, the routing of cables from the community communications pole along fence and property boundary lines.

2. A communications system as claimed in claim 1, where a satellite receiving dish or dishes is or are mounted on the pole in proximity to residential housing units or offices or factories, so that transmissions that serve a number of the consumers or commercial or industrial users are received and then distributed to those users after downconversion from super high frequencies to lower frequencies as appropriate for use in receiving equipment of such users, thereby video, data, and telephony transmissions are received by such antenna or antennas*. and processed by electronics associated with the community* antenna pole, such transmissions including compressed, encrypted, and similar transmissions which also receive error correction, compression or decompression, encryption or other processing before delivery 'rom the communications pole to end users.

3. A communications system as claimed in claim 2 where said dish.. or dishes uplink signals received from the proximate housihn..* units, or offices or factories to satellites of geosynchronou.,, low earth orbit, or highly elliptical orbit for the purpose of on*' transmission to other parties and places,. said signals being received at the community communications pole by either radiocommunications or telecommunications, and 1 here converted to satellite frequencies for on transmision to satellite transponders.

4. A communications system as claimed in claim 1, which has Ea' antenna or antennas that receive terrestrially originated signal.,. in super high or other frequencies similar to the transmission..." received from satellites as referred to in clair 2 with the ability to relay these signals on by cable or rad 6 communications to the individual users, utilising downconversion.. equipment as described in claim 2 where such signal originates i'd a local television station with its transmitter antenna in line of sight of the community pole.

A communications system as claimed in claim 1, with an antenna or antennas and associated electronics that transmit and receive radio frequency signals appropriate for data transmission in digital or analog form which are received by or relayed to nearby users who transmit radio frequency (RF) signals from equipment that has a short range transmit capability whereby the communication pole antenna (or antennas) relays such signals to other points, either of terrestrial nature or to a satellite or satellites, with interactive video data services whereby the viewers of TV or computer screens request pay per view movies, S17 respond to TV advertising, answer polling or educational questions, participate in betting and game shows and respond to and interact with TV programming or computer data.

6. A communications system as claimed in claim 1 with appropriate antennas, receivers and transmitters that receive either by radio or telecommunications, transmissions of very brief duration that are initiated by nearby viewers of television pr computer screens for on transmission for the purpose of electronic transfer of funds from bank or credit card accounts of viewers to the accounts of service providers or sellers of goods to such viewers.

7. A communications system as claimed in cla-m 1 or 6 whereby the electronics at the pole includes the capability of receiving:*. multiple simultaneous brief transmissions from viewers of TV or computer screens, which queues, stores, or otherwise processes the same in a data processor for onforwarding in precise timeframe as related to time of receipt, to master controllers Et. TV stations or service or goods providers and/or banks or credit" card agencies.

8. A communications system as claimed in claim 1 or 6 whereby thi electronics at the pole enables the simultaneous or frequert*,,* receipt of multaiple short transmissions on different frequencies from nearby TV or computer viewers and the immediate on transmission of such signals, either with or without error correction and encoding for further processing by a master controller or controllers at a remote site or sites.

9. A communications system as claimed in claim 1 with an.*: antenna or antennas appropriate for use with services of th'~e cellular or microcellular telephony type, whereby the cellulat"'. signal originated by the user is a short range or microcellulaf"" transmission appropriate to receipt at the community antenna poe...* from nearby domestic, commercial, or industrial users and,. conversely transmissions received at the pole from other sourcds.'% are relayed back to the nearby users of the community antenna pole and communications facility.

A communicJV-*Pns system as claimed in claim 1, with an antenna o, ntennas for receiving broadcast television services which\r then relayed down cable lines to the nearby individual subs\, ibers in household, or commercial and/or industrial units, to avoid the need for end users to have individual antennas for such purposes, and to give ,them protection from breach of copyright, in that such services qualify as diffusion cable services in the legislation of the United States of America and in British Commonwealth countries such as New Zealand.

11. A communications system as claimed in claim 1, with an associated electronics enclosure or enclosures within which are situated down conversion facilities for converting high frequency signals to lower frequency signals, analog transmissions to digital transmissions (and ,/ice versa), modulating and remodulating equipment and related amplifiers, modems, transmitters, and combiners, for processing such signals and relaying the same down individual cables to the individual users or retransmission via radio communications and including such decoders, data processors and related communications equipment as may be necessary to provide data, audio and video services appropriate for receipt by end user TV and computer equipment, including subscription television services of varying types, including Pay Per View programming and interactive television, of the type known as interactive video data services.

12. A communications system as claimed in claim 11 where the associated electronics enclosure iheludes digital to analog or analog to (fjgital conversion, compression and/or decompression equipment tor enhancing signals and conserving radio spectrum and". or bandwidth usage for purposes that include the delivery of hig'h" quality video signals of the type referred to as High Definitipn., TV.

13. A communications system as claimed in claim 1, where there*. are electricity cables coming to and from the pole, to bring electricity and related services being meter reading, and load shedding controls to individual users and at the same time provide non-critical communication services of the type associated with security or fire monitoring and other services.*. that can be conveyed in association with the electricity lines: that are not affected by interference from the passage electricity on such lines which are also connected to electrici. cables in the premises of the end users whose existing electric- outlets provide the connecting facility to the security and. similar services described herein.

14. A communications system as blaimed in claim 1 wherein the* transmit and receive antennas enable the transmission of locater signals and the associated electronics receive and identify the location of chattels such as motor vehicles, aircraft or railway wagons in the vicinity, where such mobile units have electronic transponder or similar equipment, personal transponding or paging equipment also b'ing so located.

A communications system as claimed in claim 1 including trunk fibreoptic cables with jointing and related equipment appropriate for conversion of optical signals to radio frequency digital or analog signals for onforwarding by cable or radio frequency to end users to whom the individual cost of optical fibre connections would not be warranted. 19

16. A communications system as claimed Ln claim 1 from which individual fibre optic cables are laid without branching or intermediate connections, direct t8 end users to give high transmission capability without high intermediate or branching costs from optical transmissions received at the community facility, or there converted and relayed to receiving equipment.

17. A communications system as claimed in claim 11 where the electronics er'closure or enclosures includes video, audio or data compression capability for onward transmission to conserve radio spectrum or bandwidth, and/or decompression capability to enable end users to utilise the signals without the need of individual decompression equipment.

18. A communications system as claimed in claim 11 whe re tht" electronics enclosure or enclosures includes the capability to encode, encrypt or decode signals for reasons of security.

19. A edmmunications system as claimed in Claim 11 where tl:le. electronics enclosure includes the capability of 'error correction, and picture, data, and audio enhancement to improje.'. the quality of signals passing through the facility. pol.

A communications system as claimed in any previous clafm where some or all of the electronics associated with the pole are housed in a location remote from the pole and connected to it by broadband cables of the coaxial or fibreoptic variety.

21. A communications system as claimed in claim 1 where th6.*. cables connected to the pole for the purpose of providing.: communications services to the community end users are routc!g" along boundary fences or walls and thereby receive protection... from interference, by fencing legislation....

22. A communications system As claimed in claim 1 where the pole is so located in the community it services that no streets crossed by cables and the location of the pola is placed in an* inconspicuous postion remote from the streetscape.

23. A communications system as claimed in claim 1 or 4 which receives transmissions from terrestrial low power video transmitters that are on frequencies that comprise the guard bands or frequencies between the channels allocated by international radio regulations for the downlinking of satellite signals in 3 to 4GHz and 12 to 13Ghz, thereby enabling standard satellite receiving equipment to tune terrestrial transmissions without amendment to standard tuning and downlinking capability of such receiving equipment.

24. A communications system as claimed in claim 1 which has a microwave antenna and transmitter either directional or bidirectional for delivery or receipt, in point to point mode to or from distant service providers or other commercial entities, the transmissions received at the community facility from end users receiving or initiating transmissions that require onforwarding by radiocommunications rather than telecommunications.

A communications system as claimed in claim 1, 2, 3, 6, or 24 where a business community is electronically linked and the service provided is that of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) in that commercial premises are linked by microwave or telecomunications via the community communications facility and suppliers of products to sellers are paid for their products as these are sold and replenishment of sold products is achieved by**" a constant updating of sales relayed through the community facility to computers of participating premises so that a paperless ordering, stocking, and payment system is instituted,. that minimises warehousing of stock at point of sale.

26. A communications system substantially as herein described and with referenci to the accompanying drawing. U o *4 THE PATENTS ACT 1990 ABSTRACT The invention comprises the use of a community communications facility that minimises the need for individual consumer equipment that in the case of antennas of the dish variety, make unsightly appendages to residential or commercial properties, and in the case of electronics for receipt and transmission of video and audio services, encryption, decoding, compression, digitising, and other high technology transmission related activities, such are expensive and often impractical if the transmissions being received are too weak from distant sources, or if terrestrial, are shaded by buildings or terrain features, from the equipment of the end user. The community antenna and communications facilities are used with short range consumer transmission and reception equipment 0 particularly of the type appropriate to microcellular radio telephony, Pay TV, interactive-TV transmissions and electronic funds transfer. Other uses include electronic data interchange in business communities, location of persons or vehicles, and community security services. The combined use of radio and cable transmissions over short distances to and from the premises of end users, and thence from the community transmission facility to hilltop retransmission facilities or direct to satellite, offers flexibility and economy, and has benefits in respect to copyright where receipt of-^ong range broadcast transmissions by viewers and listeners mi,, otherwise be a breach of copyright laws. 0*