JP3306489B2 - Automatic program control device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to an automatic program control device, and more particularly to an automatic program control device in a local television broadcasting station.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art It has been a long time since television broadcasting stations (also radio broadcasting stations) are operated by an automatic program controller, which is a kind of computer.

[0003] The television broadcast form of a local private broadcast station is mainly a broadcast program (NET receiving program) transmitted from a key station (station) in Tokyo or Osaka via a network (hereinafter referred to as NET). This is performed by inserting a program (for example, local news) produced by the own station. A quasi-key station is located in a central city (for example, Fukuoka or Sapporo) of one region (for example, Kyushu or Hokkaido), and a NET receiving program received at the quasi-key station is sent to a broadcasting station in another city (NET). Sending) also occurs.

[0004] The revenue sources of commercial broadcasting stations all depend on CM (commercial message) broadcasting fees. Previously,
Large sponsors known all over the country bought up one program and were often broadcasted nationwide as one program including commercials. Thereafter, as the number of sponsors increased and the sponsor fee increased, many programs in which many sponsors piggybacked on one program increased. Of course,
For one program, sponsors often differ depending on the broadcasting station, and CM stations often replace CM programs.

[0005] A CM program is broadcast by connecting, for example, four or eight CM program materials each having a length of 15 seconds.
Broadcasting is performed in units of one or two minutes of a CM program frame.
The broadcast time of a CM program frame of a station break between scheduled programs is determined in advance, but the broadcast time of a CM program frame in a sports program such as a baseball broadcast cannot be determined in advance. In this case, a local broadcast station receiving a NET program from a key station has a problem in replacing a CM program. To solve this problem, a cue signal is inserted into the vertical blanking period of the NET feed signal three seconds before the CM program frame of the NET feed program from the key station.

[0006] The local broadcaster receiving the NET detects the cue signal and starts its own CM program frame three seconds after detecting the cue signal, and inserts it into the NET received program.

However, there is a subtle difference in the time difference between the cue signal and the actual video (audio) signal switching timing due to the difference in the cue signal transmission device of the NET sending station (key station). Therefore, for example, when the CM program frame is replaced at the NET receiving station, a very small portion of the CM program on the NET sending station (key station) side appears to be leaked before and after the CM program frame. Broadcasters call this phenomenon "flickering". In order to prevent this "flickering", it is necessary to accurately know the time difference between the cue signal and the actual switching timing of the video signal. This time difference is constant for each NET sending station (key station).

Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 4-170166 discloses NE
For example, a method has been proposed in which, for example, a two-field delay circuit is provided on the NET receiving station side for the T-received program, the switching timing of the video signal is actually confirmed before the delay circuit, and then the CM program frame is replaced.

In Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 1-309487, a time difference between a cue signal and an actual video signal switching timing corresponding to some NET sending stations (key stations) is stored in a memory. In addition, a method has been proposed in which a time difference is read from a memory and controlled according to which NET sending station (key station) the NET receiving program is.

Further, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Hei 5-244497 proposes a method of preventing "flickering" by slightly expanding, for example, a CM program frame to be replaced forward and backward.

[0011]

Problems to be Solved by the Invention
In the case of the proposal described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 6, there is a problem in that control is complicated because a delay circuit needs to be inserted into or separated from the main video / audio signal as necessary.

In the case of the proposal described in JP-A-1-309487, since all affiliated stations included in the broadcasting network can be NET sending stations, the number of cue signals and the number of all affiliated stations except the own station are increased. There is a problem that it is necessary to provide a memory for a time difference between the actual video signal switching timing and the actual video signal switching timing.

In the case of the proposal described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 5-244497, there is a problem that, for example, the CM program frame is spread, albeit slightly.

An object of the present invention is to provide an automatic program which does not require a delay circuit to be inserted in the main line of a video (audio) signal or a plurality of memories for a time difference between a cue signal and an actual video signal switching timing. It is to provide a control device.

[0015]

According to the present invention, there is provided an automatic program control device of a network receiving station for replacing a video program transmitted from a network transmitting station on the basis of a cue signal, comprising: cue detection means for detecting the cue signal; Audio mode detection means for detecting a switching timing of the audio mode of the video program, delay means for determining the timing of replacing the video program by delaying the cue signal, and time difference data between the cue signal and the switching timing of the audio mode. Time difference storage means for storing the time difference data, the means for comparing the replacement timing and the switching timing of the audio mode to correct the stored time difference data, and control means for controlling the delay means with the corrected time difference data. It is characterized by including.

The operation of the present invention is as follows. On the NET receiving station side, the switching timing of the cue signal inserted at the NET sending station (key station) and the actual switching timing of the video signal are detected by the change in the audio mode signal, and the time difference is actually measured.
For example, a CM program frame of the NET sending signal is accurately replaced.

[0017]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of an automatic program control device according to the present invention. In addition, overlapping description is omitted.

In FIG. 1, an automatic program controller 1 on the NET sending station (key station) side sends a cue signal to a NET sending (video) program a or b selected by a video switcher 2 using a cue signal superimposing device 3. , The NET sending program c is sent to the NET receiving station via the network. The delay device 4 determines a time difference between the cue signal of the NET sending program and the switching timing of the video signal.

On the NET receiving station side, the NET sending program is received by the receiving device 6, and the video switching unit 10 replaces, for example, the CM program frame with the CM program frame d of the own station, and broadcasts (transmits) it as a video signal output. . On the other hand, the cue signal detection device 7 detects a cue signal from the output of the reception device 6, and the audio mode detection device 11 detects an audio mode.

The audio mode signal is a signal indicating the audio broadcasting mode of television broadcasting such as stereo, monaural, bilingual, etc., which is superimposed in the vertical blanking period for each field of the video signal, and usually varies depending on the program. . In particular, the audio broadcast mode often changes between a normal program and a CM program frame. Therefore, by detecting a change in the video signal as a change in the audio broadcast mode and detecting the audio mode signal, it is possible to accurately detect the change in one field unit.

The cue signal detected by the cue signal detection device 7 notifies the delay device 9 of the cue signal reception timing, and notifies the timing controller 14 of the cue signal detection. The delay device 9 instructs the control device 8 to output a video signal switching control signal after the lapse of the time stored in the time difference data holding unit 13, for example, 3 seconds, starting from the cue signal reception timing.

The control device 8 controls the video switching device 10 in response to a command from the delay device 9, and controls the video switching device 10.
At the same time as switching the input signals c and d, and outputs the control signal output timing to the video switch 10 to the timing comparator 12.

The voice mode detection device 11 sends the timing at which the voice mode signal changes to the timing comparator 12. The timing comparator 12 compares the output timing of the video switcher control signal from the control device 8 with the timing of switching the audio mode from the audio mode detection device 11, and corrects the time stored in the time difference data holding unit with the time difference. Then, control is performed so that there is no time difference.

As shown in FIG. 2, the switching timing A of the video signal at the NET sending station (key station) is, for example, assuming that the video signal a is a normal program and the video signal b is a CM program (frame). At timing t0, which is 3 seconds after the signal, for example, 3 seconds, the video signal a is switched to the video signal b. At the same time, the audio mode switches.

On the other hand, the video signal switching timing B of the NET receiving station is assumed to be switched from the video signal c to the video signal d at a timing t1 delayed from the cue signal by a time t4. If t4 = t3, the NET receiving program ( Signal) is exactly replaced with the video signal d,
As shown in FIG. 2, if, for example, t4> t3, the video signal b of the NET received program (signal) appears "flickering" for a period t5 corresponding to the time difference.

Conversely, if t4 <t3, "flickering" does not occur at the beginning of the replacement, but at the end of the replacement, for example, the end of the CM frame to be replaced ends earlier, so that the video signal b becomes "flickering.""
By accurately detecting the timing t0 by the audio mode detection device 11, the time stored in the time difference data holding unit 13 is corrected, and the timing is controlled so that t4 = t3.

In the case of a NET receiving station in a so-called cross net (for example, when programs are obtained from two key stations), t3 changes when the NET sending station (key station) changes. At the timing of the first cue signal after the change of the NET sending station (key station), there is a large possibility that t4 ≠ t3, so that “flickering” is likely to occur. In this case, for example, it is necessary to adopt the proposal described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 5-244497 to prevent "flickering".

[0029]

As described above, according to the present invention, a delay circuit is inserted into the main line of a video (audio) signal, and a plurality of memories of a time difference between a cue signal and an actual video signal switching timing are prepared. Without the necessity, there is an effect that "flickering" can be prevented when, for example, a CM program frame is replaced at the NET receiving station.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of a program replacement timing.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1, 8 Control device 2, 10 Video switching device 3 Cue signal superposition device 4, 9 Delay device 5 Transmitting device 6 Receiving device 7 Cue signal detecting device 11 Audio mode detecting device 12 Timing comparator 13 Time difference data holding unit 14 Timing controller

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. An automatic program control device of a network receiving station for replacing a video program transmitted from a network transmitting station on the basis of a cue signal, wherein the cue detection means detects the cue signal; Audio mode detection means for detecting the timing of switching the mode, delay means for determining the timing of replacing the video program by delaying the cue signal, and time difference storage for storing time difference data between the cue signal and the timing of switching the audio mode. Means, a means for comparing the replacement timing and the switching timing of the audio mode to correct the stored time difference data, and a control means for controlling the delay means with the corrected time difference data. Automatic program control device. 2. The video program replaced by the network receiving station is a CM program frame.
The automatic program control device according to the above.