FR2915042A1 - Digital media e.g. audio content, distributing system for e.g. TV set, has case containing different digital data receiving systems for transporting digital data between master unit and mobile unit through powerline communication - Google Patents

Abstract

The system has a main element i.e. master unit, and another elements assigned and deported to public equipments such as mobile unit (104), and a case containing different digital data receiving systems for transporting digital data between the master unit and the mobile unit through a powerline communication. The main element is provided with an input card e.g. digital terrestrial television tuner, and the two elements are accompanied with specific software and assure a functionality of distribution of a digital media from the master unit to the mobile unit. An independent claim is also included for a method for distributing digital media where a master unit manager operates within a master unit allowing extracting a digital terrestrial TV (TNT) chain of multiplex TNT for handling towards mobile unit.

Description

- 1 - ABSTRACT

  A system for distributing digital media from one of several sources to devices located in different parts of a home that can be moved freely. It consists of a box grouping one or more systems receiving various digital data, such as those from tuners for TNT (Digital Terrestrial Television) and redistributed without treatment other than that allowing the transmission of digital information via PLC communication system (Online Carrier Current). This means of transporting information effectively eliminates the need for any antenna or complementary wiring at the receiver, other than the obvious need for alternating current already needed to power the equipment. It is supplemented by one or more receiver boxes connected to the final equipment which is typically a consumer device such as television or audio or video reproduction apparatus. This equipment does not undergo any transformation or adaptation to benefit from the invention.

  TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION The invention presented here falls within the field of general data processing and more particularly of the distribution, by way of non-limiting example, of the free programs of television programs, from a choice of sources among several , without the constraint of installing an antenna or network cabling, to any place in a dwelling, as shown in Figure 1.

  STATE OF THE ART As soon as several television channels have been available to the user and the latter has been offered the possibility of recording his favorite programs, it has been possible to display a program on his television. and at the same time to record another, and this without adding devices other than those intended for viewing and recording. The multiplication of televisions in the same household quickly spread and again it was possible to view on each TV a different program without adding external material. This facility (apparent) had only the counterpart of having to have an antenna outlet near each device. - 2 - The development of satellite, cable, and then digital programming provided both a greater choice of programs and better picture and sound quality. However, the user has lost the simplicity of implementation and use; in fact, each display device must have its own decoder; this one sometimes carrying decoding functions dedicated to programs for paying subscribers. This is also true for recording devices. The user is therefore faced with a multiplicity of decoders, with multiple functions and man-machine interfaces according to the brands and capabilities offered. In the course of time, and with the improvement of the transportability of televisions due to compactness, thickness or simply weight, the use of the television, then imposing furniture and often central piece of the house is completely trivialized and the viewer naturally expects to find the company of his favorite programs wherever he is in his home. Then comes a new challenge, that of the availability of the source of information for the devices. While much progress has been made on portability, a TV must always be connected to a receiving antenna and must also have a decoder in order to deliver the desired programs in digital quality. All this hinders the real mobility of audio-video equipment. Even today, only audio devices have really reached the stage of portability without loss in quality or autonomy; we find easily consumer devices allowing hours of listening to music in high quality and that can be carried everywhere with you. It's not the same for television. The only comparable offer would be mobile TV, but this is penalized by the cost and the small size of the receivers.

  The multiplicity of media sources (audio or video) is also a major issue in the use we make of our free moments. The concept of media center (Home media center) is more present and will probably make a place in the home. Again, an obstacle comes to oppose the rapid diffusion of these equipment: the availability of a network or cabling system to transport important data streams. Indeed, this type of installation is not common and is not simple to implement at home. This implies "passing cables" and if the solution, although expensive and • i 2915042 - 3 - "non-scalable", is conceivable by the owner, a tenant will not make the investment or will not have the authorization of its hirers.

  SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention addresses the unmet needs for mobility within the dwelling expressed above and makes it possible to overcome the need to have an antenna, a network, etc. . It consists of two devices, two separate devices as shown in Figure 1. The first device (102) is intended to become a media source device for a home, providing distribution of media to the nomadic reception equipment. This unit, or Master Unit, is connected to the AC mains (103). Its general constitution is close to that of a dedicated computer incorporating several interfaces or media reception cards (audio, video, etc.). Each of these cards processes the information it receives in a specific way; As a non-limiting example, a DTT tuner will receive the digitized information from a terrestrial antenna (100) and demultiplex the DTT signal to an MPEG data stream for a given television program. The same principle can be applied to cable or satellite, analogue or digital reception interfaces (101), to radio or audio reception interfaces, or to receiving analog or digital data from a network interface or from a computer. 'a source of the web (World Wide Web). Each tuner installed in the apparatus will have the task of controlling, demultiplexing, and decoding if necessary a data stream, becoming in fact a specific source available to the user's choice. As briefly described above, the Master Unit can take many forms. In a first variant of the apparatus, we use essentially TNT tuners to allow a nomadic distribution of the TNT programs, without the receiver set needing antenna wiring or the use of an antenna. inside, usually useless because of the low signal level. This first form of the invention also makes it possible to distribute TNT programs to television sets that are not capable of TNT reception, without the use of additional external equipment. In a second variant of the Master Unit, a recording medium is integrated. A hard disk represents a non-limiting example of such a medium. In this case, the Master Unit is provided with additional capabilities such as backup of the user's personal data, immediate or scheduled recording of television or media programs, from the Master Unit only on the interpretation of orders coming from a Nomadic Unit described below, the possibility of time-shifting (pause function of a program with a few minutes later), etc. In order not to render the understanding of the present invention too complex, we will not describe in detail the extent of the possibilities envisaged; the latter are for the most part made possible by the only modification of the computer programs of the Units 10 Master and / or Nomad to allow optimal use of the basic function of a storage unit reported to the Master Unit.

  There is also, in a second apparatus of the invention, a receiving unit, or Nomad Unit (104). Each receiving unit is intended for a consumer entertainment device, such as a television, audio or video recording or reproducing apparatus. The Nomadic Unit is connected to alternating current (106) and its designated apparatus (eg television apparatus) (105). In addition, a "Remote" remote control apparatus (107) is employed to give specific commands; these orders can remain local to the Nomad Unit or be routed to the Master Unit, as in the case of the choice of a television program for example. The chosen program will then be taken into account by one of the interface cards of the Master Unit and the digital information flow corresponding to this single program will be routed to the requesting Nomadic Unit. The latter will provide the necessary coding for the information to be formatted in a format usable by the device connected to the Nomadic Unit. In the case of receiving a signal to a television; the flow of information will be presented in mechanical and electrical forms compatible with TV standards, such as those governing the SCART sockets.

  We prefer, in the present description of the invention, the choice of the use of CPL (line carrier currents) for exchanges between the Master Unit and Nomadic Unit (s). Other technologies such as Wi-Fi can certainly perform the same function and find their place in the devices we are dealing with here, either as a replacement for or in addition to the use of CPL. In the above descriptions of the two units of the Master Unit and Nomadic Unit, many technical elements have been omitted in order to facilitate the understanding of the use of the apparatuses described; it will further be understood that no particular technical element is necessary for the user for the implementation of the elements presented here; these can be installed and used without the need for the specific details of the core technologies referenced or used in their design.10 - 6 - QUICK DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

  For a better understanding of the proposed invention and its advantages, reference is now made to the following descriptions accompanied by the figures in which the various constituents are named and numbered, and in which: FIG. 1 illustrates a general block diagram of the devices of which it is mentioned in the invention, and their combined use with consumer devices. Figure 2 illustrates a non-limiting embodiment of the Master Unit which is mentioned in the invention.

  Figure 3 illustrates a non-limiting embodiment of the Nomad Unit mentioned in the invention. Figure 4 illustrates a flowchart of the above-mentioned device mode of operation referred to in the invention. - 7 - DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

  We now detail the components of each of the devices constituting the invention, then we give a general operating flowchart to follow step by step the actions required in a typical use of the invention.

  Figure 2 gives a typical diagram of the Master Unit. As mentioned before, this can be likened to a computer dedicated to the manipulation of data coming from interfaces receiving information flows from outside and to Nomadic Units. There is naturally a central unit (200) consisting of a processor (201), program memory (203) and data memory (202). This subset interfaces with its outside world via a bus (205). A non-limiting example of this bus may be a PCI bus, or a serial bus type USB 2.0. The bus allows the computer program controlling the Master Unit to communicate with an ethernet set (206) connected to the bus (204) and a connection providing high speed data transmission over the sector using the capabilities of the carrier currents in line ( CPL) via a dedicated subset for this purpose (208). The bus is also the interface to subsets dedicated to the reception of data coming for example from TNT tuners (209). We then understand the possibility of connecting several of these subsets of reception; Their nature may be different (television images from various sources, digitized analog audio data, etc.), and will be recognized and taken into account by the computer program driving the Master Unit. In the case of DTT tuners, a connection to a single antenna (210) is provided and propagated by chaining to the other tuners possibly present in the Master Unit. A connection (211) will then remain free at the end of the chain to broadcast the untreated signals from the antenna to a standard installation and not dependent on the invention. A power manager (207) provides stable operation and cooling if necessary of the various elements constituting the Master Unit. Figure 3 gives a typical diagram of the Nomadic Unit. As mentioned before, it receives information flows from the Master Unit and formats them to the appropriate standard for the consumer device to which it is connected.

  There is naturally a central unit (300) consisting of a processor (301), program memory (303) and data memory (302). This subset interfaces with its outside world via an 8 - (305) bus. Again, a non-limiting example of this bus may be a PCI bus. It enables the computer program controlling the Nomadic Unit to communicate with an ethernet set (306) connected to the bus (304) on the one hand and to a connection ensuring the transmission of high-speed data on the sector by using the capacities of the currents online carriers (CPL) via a dedicated subset for this purpose (308) on the other hand. The bus is also the interface to the subset (310) dedicated to the formatting of the data received by the Nomadic Unit. By way of nonlimiting example, this subset may be intended for the management of television programs and to connect to a consumer device by using a SCART socket (313). The subset will then consist of an MPEG decoding block (311) transforming the MPEG information stream to an electrical format compatible with the video signals at the output of a SCART socket. This conversion is provided by an adapted electronics (312).

  The Nomadic Unit also has an infra-red serial interface (309) that allows reception of commands from a remote control unit not detailed here. The received commands processed by the computer program managing the processor (301) from the program memory (303). The commands can be directly interpreted by the program for its own needs, or will be forwarded to the Master Unit through the transport of information via CPL (308). A power manager (307) provides stable operation and, if necessary, cooling of the various elements constituting the Nomadic Unit.

  We now present in Figure 4, the procedure (method) typical of the two devices constituting the invention, in the non-limiting example of a set comprising one or more TNT tuners. When the Master Unit is powered on, the pre-loaded computer program in it performs a number of initialization tasks. These include the search (400), the identification and the classification of the input cards present in the system (401), and in particular in the example chosen, the numbering, the initialization of the TNT tuner cards, the search and the automatic ranking of available channels. The Master Unit program also initializes its CPL interface (402) to ensure exchanges with Nomadic Units. The program of the Master Unit then starts waiting for commands (403) from the Nomadic Units. Once the initialization phase has been completed, and upon receipt of a command from a Nomadic Unit, the program of the Master Unit has the function of interpreting the command and of routing it to the module of the unit. treatment adapted to the latter. In the non-limiting example of a television channel selection command, the program will recognize in the previously stored tables the information adapted to the optimal reception of the correct channel and will transmit the orders corresponding to the selected tuner for the unit. Nomadic. This functionality (master unit manager), operating within the Master Unit allows to extract one or more TNT channels from one or more multiplexes TNT. The MPEG video stream from the tuner via the master unit manager and then available will be routed to the correct address via the CPL adapter, to the Nomadic Unit. A specific software agent (master unit manager), operating within the Master Unit allows to extract one or more TNT (non-limiting) channels from one or more TNT multiplexes to route them to several Nomadic Units, ensuring that the same digital stream is neither duplicated nor repeated on the physical medium (ie if several Nomadic Units have requested the same "live" channel, the same digital stream is sent to them). Once the command has been fully interpreted and executed, the Master Unit then waits for new commands (414) from the Nomadic Units.

  Not described here in their implementation details, internal management modules to the Master Unit such as the operating system, task management, priorities, errors and exceptions, rights management and security, etc. are also present among the computer program of the Master Unit.

  Figure 4 also includes a description of the scheduling of certain operations ensuring the operation of the Nomadic Unit, taking the non-limiting example of a unit attached to a television set. This one will be dedicated to receive mainly video programs, at the request of the user. Recall that the Nomadic Unit is only connected to the TV via a SCART socket and that the latter does not require antenna wiring to receive the programs available from the Master Unit; indeed the TV and the Nomadic Unit are powered by the sector, and the latter via a CPL link ensures the exchange of information between the Nomadic Unit and the Master Unit.

  On power-up (420), the pre-loaded computer program in the Nomadic Unit proceeds with an initialization and declaration phase to the Master Unit (422); in return, the latter sends a number of elements that provide access to the available programs (423), allowing the "master unit manager" to transmit on request a Nomad Unit a set of program data. The various communication ports (CPL, Infra-red) have been properly initialized (421) to ensure their operation. Once these phases are completed, the program waits for user commands from the infra-red port (424).

  Upon receipt of a command (430), the latter is decoded and interpreted (431) in order to choose the module or modules that will ensure its proper execution (432). As an example, we describe a chain change order (433). In this case, the program of the Nomadic Unit initiates an exchange with the Master Unit and transmits the information corresponding to the request. The Master Unit will validate this command and in return will make available to the program of the Nomadic Unit the MPEG video stream corresponding to the requested channel. The program of the Nomadic Unit then simply pass the information received from the CPL adapter to the video formatting subsystem to the SCART socket.

  Depending on the interfaces, commands or information flows processed, the work of the Nomad Unit is more or less complex and some commands, such as a change in sound level (volume) will not require an exchange with the Master unit; their taking into account is then only local.

  Once the execution of the command is complete, the program will again wait for user commands from the infra-red port (434). Not described here in their implementation details, internal management modules to the Nomadic Unit such as the operating system, task management, standby states, priorities, errors and exceptions, etc. are also present in the computer program of the Nomadic Unit.

Claims (9)

  1) A system composed of a main element (Master Unit) and deported elements assigned to consumer equipment (Nomadic Units), and distributing digital media from a DVB-T tuner (digital terrestrial television) or TNT) among several available in the Master Unit, to viewing devices such as television sets located in different parts of a home and can be moved without constraint, through the use of power lines online (CPL) providing digital data transfer between the Master Unit and the Nomadic Unit (s).   2) System according to claim 1, wherein the main element described is provided with input cards (such as in a non-limiting example, a TNT tuner) and or the two elements described are accompanied by software specific to said elements and ensuring their functionality. distribution of digital media (audio, video, etc ...) from the Master Unit to the Nomadic Unit (s), by order of the latter.   3) System according to claims 1 or 2 wherein a local storage device and the adapted software are added to the Master Unit to store events, programs or data resulting from a request from the user from the Master Unit or a Nomadic Unit.   4) System according to claims 1, 2 or 3 wherein the digital data is physically routed on the private electrical network of the home via an on-line powerline technology (PLC).   5) The system of claim 4 wherein one or more TV reception equipment, with or without decoding capabilities of the TNT, connected or not, directly or indirectly, to a radio antenna can receive and display TNT programs without other need only a connection to the private electrical network of a dwelling, which is also required for their power supply.   6) A method where a specific software agent (master unit manager), operating within the Master Unit can extract one or more TNT channels (non-limiting) of one or more TNT multiplexes to acquire them to several Units Nomads, ensuring that the same digital stream is neither duplicated nor repeated on the physical medium (ie if several Nomadic Units have requested the same "live" channel, the same digital stream is then sent to them ).   7) A method according to claim 6 enabling a Nomadic Unit to declare itself "receiving" from the Master Unit.- 12 -   8) A method according to claim 6 allowing the "master unit manager" to transmit to connected Nomadic Units the list of TNT channels available and scanned by the Master Unit.   9) A method according to claim 6 allowing the "master unit manager" to transmit on request a Nomadic Unit a set of data-programs.