JPH0136756B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a method for prohibiting viewing of a specific channel in a CATV system.

In recent years, the practical use of CATV systems has been increasing mainly in the United States, and along with this, the functions associated with the systems are also becoming more diverse. Among them, several viewing prohibition methods have been proposed to prevent viewing of specific channels, and the following methods have been proposed. That is, a scramble method - a method in which the image sent from the center is scrambled and sent, and in terminals that have not been designated as prohibited from viewing, the image is descrambled to restore the normal image. Center control method - When a request to view a program is generated from a terminal, the center is notified, the center determines whether it is prohibited, and the terminal is notified.The terminal then displays the video of the requested channel if it is not a prohibited channel. A method of outputting to a receiver. Terminal control method - A method in which prohibited channels unique to the terminal are set when the terminal is installed.

However, with these methods, it is necessary to add scrambling and descrambling equipment to the center side and the terminal side, which leads to increased costs.In the case of , the response time increases as the number of terminals increases. Or, as communication speeds increase, the cost of communication equipment increases and problems with transmission errors occur.
There was a drawback that it was not possible to change prohibited channels.

The present invention eliminates such drawbacks, provides low cost,
This provides a new system that provides a function to prohibit viewing of specific channels in the CATV system.

Hereinafter, as an embodiment of the present invention, a case where the present invention is applied to a hotel will be described. Figure 1 shows the system configuration. Broadcasting center 100 and terminal devices 5 in each guest room
00 are connected via a transmission line 400. Broadcasting center 100 and hotel center 200 are connected via modem 112 and cable 14. Furthermore, the broadcast center 100 and the front terminal 3
00 is connected via a cable 15 and a cable 22. Broadcasting sensor 100 is a center computer system (hereinafter abbreviated as center CPU)
110, a group of video and audio information sources 120, a video and audio switching device 130, a head end 140, a modem 111, and a modem 112. Further, a signal from an antenna 150 installed outside the hotel for receiving commercial television broadcasting is input to the head end 140 via the cable 24.
Signals from external information sources 160 are also input to headend 140 via cable 25 . The center CPU 110 includes a computer, a display device, a magnetic disk device, a floppy disk device, a magnetic tape device, a line printer device, a card reader device, and the like.
The source group 120 includes an independent broadcasting studio device 121,
It is composed of a video tape recorder 122, a video disk player 123, a character/graphics generator 124, and the like. The source group 120 and the video/audio switching device 130 are controlled by the center CPU 110 via the cables 11 and 12. Various video and audio signals from the source group 120 are connected to the cable 2
1 to the video/audio switching device 130,
The video/audio signal selected by the video/audio switching device 130 based on the control signal from the center CPU 110 is
It is input to the head end 140 via the cable 23. Furthermore, in order to perform bidirectional data transmission between the center CPU 110 and the terminal device 500, the center CPU 110 and the head end 140
They are connected via a modem 111 and a cable 13. The head end 140 has a function of modulating various input video and audio signals, a function of mixing this modulated video and audio signal with a modulated data signal from the center CPU 110, and a function of transmitting this mixed video and audio/data signal to the transmission path 400. Function to output to,
It has a function of outputting a modulated data signal sent from the terminal device 500 via the transmission line 400 to the center CPU 110 via the cable 13 and the modem 111.

Hotel center 200 is comprised of host computer system 210 and modem 112.
The host computer system 210 includes a computer, a display device, a magnetic disk device, a floppy disk device, a magnetic tape device, a line printer device, a card reader device, and the like.

The front terminal 300 is for broadcasting communications from the front desk to each guest room.
It is composed of a front keyboard 310 and a broadcasting source 320 that exchange data with the CPU 110. Front keyboard 310 has cable 15
It is connected to the center CPU 110 via. The output signal from the broadcast source 320 is connected to the cable 22
The signal is input to the video/audio switching device 130 via.

The transmission line 400 is composed of a bidirectional trunk amplifier 410, a bidirectional branch amplifier 420, a bidirectional duplexer 430, a series unit 440, and a cable 41.

The terminal device 500 includes a terminal control device 510, a keypad 520 for selecting channels, and a television receiver 530. The terminal control device 510 has the function of transmitting and receiving data with the center CPU 110, and converts the frequency of the video and audio signals sent via the transmission line 400 using a channel selection signal from the keypad 520, and outputs the converted signals to the television receiver 530. Has a function. The terminal control device 510 and the keypad 520 are connected by a cable 51. Further, the terminal control device 510 and the television receiver 530 are connected by a cable 52.

Furthermore, the block diagram of the terminal control device 510 is shown in the third section.
As shown in the figure. The terminal control device 510 is a distributor 51
1, an electronic tuner 512, a modem 513, a terminal control unit 514, an address setting switch 515, a power relay 516, and a power sensor 517.
10, channel switching of the television receiver 530 by controlling the electronic tuner 512, power on/off management of the television receiver by controlling the power relay 516, detection of key input from the keypad 520, LED display section 521 of the keypad 520
Display output to.

Further, the top view of the keypad 520 of the terminal device is as shown in FIG. 2, and 521 is an LED for displaying channel information corresponding to the pressed key;
522 is the request key for paid channels, 5
23 is the request key for the hotel channel group, 5
24 is a request key for a television retransmission channel group, 525 is a response key for confirming viewing when requesting a paid channel, 526 is a channel request key for explaining the operation of the system, and 527 is a power switch.

Note that the receiver, keypad, and terminal control device may be integrated or separate.

The operation will be explained below.

First, in order to perform bidirectional data transmission between the center CPU 110 and the terminal device 500, one data channel is provided in addition to the video channel, and the downlink data signal from the center CPU 110 is modulated by the modem 111. After that, it is mixed with other video channel signals as the data channel signal at the head end 140,
The signal is transmitted to the terminal device 500 via the transmission path 400, and the terminal control device 510 demodulates the signal of the data channel and processes it as downlink data from the center CPU 110.

Next, the uplink data signal from the terminal device 500 is modulated by the terminal control device 510, put on the data channel, and transmitted to the head end 140 via the transmission path 400, where the other channel signal is transmitted. The separated data channel signal is transmitted to the modem 111, demodulated by the modem, and then sent to the center CPU 110.

Note that by using different carrier frequencies for uplink data and downlink data, bidirectional data transmission is possible with one transmission channel.

Next, as a transmission method, in order to enable data transmission with multiple terminals, a multi-drop polling method is used, a unique number (address) is assigned to each terminal device, and command data with the address added is sent from the center CPU 110. In the format shown in FIG.
The bit serial downstream data from 110 is received, all data is reassembled into the format shown in FIG. 4, and temporarily held in memory.

Next, the terminal control unit 514 compares the address part of the held data with its own address read from the address setting switch 515, and only if they match, determines that the data from the center is valid and uses the current command. It processes the terminal accordingly, and sends upstream data from the terminal device 500 to the center CPU 110 in a bit serial format in the format shown in FIG. 4 within a specified time.

An example of commands from the center is shown in FIG.

The operation of the present invention will be explained below. first,
The center CPU 110 notifies all the terminal devices 500 in advance of information for each paid channel, such as the channel number and paid channel classification (G channel, R channel), along with a paid channel notification command, and the terminal control device At 510, the sent pay channel information is stored in the memory of the terminal control device 510.

In addition, what G Channel means is that if you watch any one of the paid channels belonging to the G Channel Group, you will be charged a certain amount, and the rest will be charged to G Channel.
It is a paid channel where you are not charged for watching any channel in the channel group, and the R channel is different from the R channel, where the price is different for each channel.
Each channel is independent, and you will be charged a fee whenever that channel is viewed.

After that, if a minor guest stays in the relevant guest room at the hotel, when registering for check-in at the hotel front desk, add the information "young guest" to the hotel.
Register with host computer system 210.

Thereby the host computer system 210
From there, the check-in information of the guest, including the guest room number, information on the minor guest, etc., is transmitted to the center CPU 110 via the modem 112 and cable 14, and the center CPU 110 uses the check-in information to determine that the guest is a minor guest. Then, at the next polling timing, the channel number that is broadcasting programs prohibited for minors (adult movies, etc.) is sent to the corresponding guest room terminal in the channel data in the data format shown in Figure 4. Set the prohibited channel notification command to the terminal device 50.
Send to 0. In this embodiment, the program prohibited for young people is a specific channel among the R channels (paid channels) that have been previously notified to the terminal.

The terminal control device 510 stores the sent viewing prohibited channel information in a memory separate from the memory holding the G channel and R channel information of the terminal control device 510.

After that, when the viewer presses the power switch 527 on the keypad 520, the signal is transmitted to the terminal control section 514, and the power relay 516 is turned "ON" under control from the terminal control section 514.
At the same time that the power of the television receiver 530 is turned on, the electronic tuner 512 transmits the image of a specific channel to the television receiver 530 under the control of the terminal control unit 514.
is output to. Note that at this time, the power sensor 51
7, the TV power-on status can always be detected. Furthermore, since the electronic tuner 512 is directly controlled by the terminal control section 514, information on the channel being viewed can also be held in the terminal control section 514.

Subsequently, when the viewer presses one of the pay channel keys 522 on the keypad 520 to request a pay channel, the signal is transmitted to the terminal control unit 514, and the terminal control unit 514 requests the pay channel that has just been requested. Before determining whether the channel is set to G channel or R channel, it is determined whether the channel is prohibited or not, and if it is a prohibited channel, the electronic tuner 512 is controlled and the TV receiver is 530 to a rejected channel instead of the requested channel, the viewer is immediately notified that the paid channel he just requested cannot be viewed, and the viewer then operates the keypad 520 again. and request other channels.

Note that at this time, no information is notified to the center CPU 110, and the processing is completed within the terminal device 500. Furthermore, the telop video to be broadcast on the rejected telopia channel (for example, the 9th channel of normal television) is created by the video source group 120 in the broadcasting center 100, and is created by the video and audio switching device 13.
0, is constantly sent to the terminal device 500 via the head end 140.

A common method of use is when broadcasting paid programs such as adult movies, the program is registered as a prohibited channel in the table in the center CPU in advance, and guests are registered for check-in at the hotel reception desk. Sometimes, in the case of a minor customer, if you enter the information "young person" into the CPU,
Adult movies will automatically not be served in the guest rooms of minors.

As described above, the present invention has the ability to immediately determine whether or not a channel is prohibited on the terminal side when a request occurs on each terminal, and to perform corresponding processing. Since no additional circuit is required, high reliability and low cost of the system can be achieved. Furthermore, by operation at the center,
It is possible to set/cancel any prohibited channels on any terminal online, which has the effect of allowing flexible handling of the system operation. In addition, when a prohibited channel is selected, the terminal will determine that it is possible to display a rejection message instead of displaying a scrambled and difficult-to-view video, making it easier for the user to understand that viewing that channel is not permitted. If it is used by a single customer such as a hotel,
This is highly effective in making it easier for users to understand the operation.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block configuration diagram of a two-way CATV system according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a plan view of a keypad of a terminal device, FIG. 3 is a block configuration diagram of a terminal control device in FIG. 1, and FIG. The figure shows a communication data format between the center control device and the terminal device, and FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of commands from the center control device. 100...broadcast center, 110...center
CPU, 400...transmission line, 500...terminal device,
510... terminal control device, 520... keypad, 530... television receiver.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A CATV network is formed from a center computer system, a terminal device having a terminal control device, a receiver, and a keypad, and a transmission line connecting the center computer system and the terminal control device, and the CATV network The center computer system has a function of generating pay channel information including information of a pay channel number and specific channel viewing prohibition information including information of a channel number for which viewing is prohibited. , the keypad has a function of generating a receiving channel request signal, and the terminal control device has a function of storing the paid channel information and the specific channel viewing prohibition information, and a function of storing the receiving channel request signal and the memory. A two-way CATV system characterized by having a function of outputting a video of the rejected terrorism channel to the receiver when the specific channel corresponds to the specific channel viewing prohibition information.