JP2002051309A - Device and method for file management - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a device and method for file management, which can simplify management file preparing work, when the device and method and applied to a system which manages video data by storing the data in a server after encoding the data. SOLUTION: In the method for file management, a subject matter file FS and a management file FTR containing stream data which have quantity of data smaller than the file FS has, are prepared simultaneously in parallel with each other.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a file management apparatus and a file management method, and can be applied to, for example, a system for encoding video data, storing the encoded data in a server, and managing the data. The present invention makes it possible to simplify the operation of creating a management file by simultaneously and concurrently creating a material file and a management file based on streaming data having a smaller data amount than the material file. .

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in broadcasting stations and the like, a huge amount of materials are recorded on a server and can be managed by a computer. That is, FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing such a material management system. In such a material management system 1, a video cassette 3 or the like which has been stored and managed on the shelf 2 or the like is reproduced by the video tape recorder 4. The video tape recorder 4 operates under the control of the controller 5 which is an editing device, reproduces a video cassette, and outputs video data and audio data (hereinafter, referred to as AV data) DAV.

[0006] Similarly, an encoder (ENC) 6 is controlled by the controller 5 to control, for example, an MPEG (Moving Pictu).
re Experts Group) to compress the AV data DAV output from the video tape recorder 4 to create a material file FS.
S is recorded on the material server 7. In this process,
The encoder 6 creates the material file FS at a high transfer rate of, for example, about 15 [Mbps], and records the AV data DAV in the material server 7 with high image quality.

[0004] The material server 7 converts the AV data DAV recorded on the video cassette 3 into a file with high image quality and records it, and sends the recorded data to a network or the like at the request of the user. .

[0005] The encoder 8 is composed of, for example, a computer, and under the control of the controller 5, compresses the AV data DAV output from the video tape recorder 4 to create a management file FD. In this process, the encoder 8 creates the management file FD at a low transfer rate of, for example, about 60 [kbps].
For example, AVI (Audio Video Interleavin) which is a file format suitable for file management in a computer.
The management file FD is created in the format of g).

As a result, in the material management system 1,
Encoding with high picture quality and encoding with low picture quality are performed simultaneously and in parallel by two signal processing systems composed of encoders 6 and 8.

The management server 9 records and holds the management file FD output from the encoder 8 in this way. Also, the management file FD held by the access of a computer (not shown) is output, and the management data of the management file FD thus held is recorded according to an instruction from the computer. Here, this management data is stored in the management file F recorded in the management server 9.
D and data indicating the correspondence between the material files FS recorded in the material server 7 and having the same contents, and data for searching the management file FD. Here, the search data is composed of data such as a photographing target for specifying a subject, a leading actor, and a photographing date and time.

Accordingly, in the material management system 1,
The management server 9 is accessed via a network or the like, and a desired material can be searched by the management data. After searching in this way, the contents of the desired material can be confirmed by monitoring the management file FD recorded in the management server 9 as necessary, and Further, the material file FS confirmed in this way can be downloaded.

The encoder 10 is constituted by a similar computer, and is operated by an operator in this manner.
The management file FD recorded on the management server is accessed in a file format suitable for file management such as the VI format, and the management file FD is converted into a management file FTR based on streaming data. Encoder 1
0 records the management file FTR based on the streaming data in the management server 9. As a result, the material management system 1 can use the management file FTR based on the streaming data for the search material without downloading each file of the AVI format or the like recorded in the management server 9 for the search material as described above. The content can be checked more quickly.

[0010]

However, in the conventional material management system 1, the management file FD must be converted into a file based on streaming data again by the operation of the operator, and the operation is complicated accordingly. In addition, there is a problem that processing takes time.

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and is intended to propose a file creation apparatus and a file creation method that can easily and quickly create a management file for managing a material file. Is what you do.

[0012]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a file management apparatus which compresses predetermined input data to create a material file and stores the material file in a server. Means for creating a material file to be recorded in a file, and after input data is compressed, converted to streaming data to create a management file,
Means for creating a management file to be recorded on the server,
The input data is processed simultaneously and in parallel by the material file creating means and the management file creating means.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the present invention is applied to a file management method, in which a predetermined input data is compressed to create a material file, the input data is compressed, and then converted to streaming data. A process for creating a management file and creating a material file from input data and a process for creating a management file are simultaneously performed in parallel.

According to the first aspect of the present invention, a material file is created by compressing input data to create a material file, and the material file is recorded on a server. A management file creating means for creating a management file by recording the data on a server, thereby enabling the source file to be specified by searching for the management file by the streaming data. For an AVI file or the like at the time of creating a file, operations such as recording on the server and recording the correspondence with the material file can be omitted.
This enables input data to be processed simultaneously and in parallel by the material file creation means and the management file creation means. In addition, by simultaneously processing input data in parallel in this way, the The management file can be created easily and in a short time.

According to the configuration of the second aspect, the management file for managing the material file can be created easily and in a short time by applying to the file management method.

[0016]

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

(1) Embodiment FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a material management system according to an embodiment of the present invention. In the configuration shown in FIG. 1, the same components as those of the material management system 1 described above with reference to FIG. 4 are denoted by the corresponding reference numerals, and redundant description will be omitted. In the material management system 11, a video tape recorder 14 includes a controller 15 which is an editing device.
, The video cassette is reproduced in synchronization with the intra-station synchronization Ref, and the AV data DAV is output.

The router R is a dedicated router for the AV data DAV, and outputs the AV data output from the video tape recorder 14 to the encoders 16 and 18 in synchronization with the intra-station synchronization Ref.

An encoder (ENC) 16 compresses the AV data DAV output from the video tape recorder 4 according to, for example, an MPEG format under the control of the controller 15. This allows the encoder 16
Creates a material file FS at a high transfer rate of, for example, about 15 [Mbps], and records the material file FS in the material server 7. As a result, in this embodiment, the material server FS is configured to record the same high-quality material file FS as in the related art.
In this process, the encoder 16 performs the intra-station synchronization Ref
And processes AV data sequentially input in synchronization with. At the time of downloading, the AV data DAV is data-compressed between the in-point and the out-point specified by the controller 15 with reference to the time code TC of the AV data to create a material file FS.

The encoder 18 and the manager 19
The material management system 11 is composed of a client computer 20 that controls the entire operation.

The manager 19 comprises an application program which is a series of processing procedures in the material management system 11. That is, the manager 19 displays a GUI (Graphical Us
er Interface) is displayed, and the operation of the user is accepted by this GUI. Upon receiving this operation, the manager 19 controls the operation of the video tape recorder 14 via the controller 15,
Accept setting of out point. When the user instructs to start downloading, the user instructs the video tape recorder 14 to rewind the magnetic tape, and then designates an IN point and an OUT point to instruct the controller 15 to start downloading. In this case, the manager 19 instructs the video tape recorder 14 to reproduce via the controller 15, then instructs the encoder 16 to encode by designating the in point and the out point, and records the material file FS in the material server 7 Instruct.

FIG. 2 is a plan view showing one GUI provided by the manager 19 in this manner.
In this GUI, when a user checks a check box, a material file FS creation process (Hi
gh-res A / V), management file FTR creation processing (Low-
res A / V) has been made available.

The controller 15 is a controller for mainly controlling a processing system of the material file FS from the video tape recorder 14 to the material server 7 according to an instruction of the manager 19. This enables the material management system 1
In 1, the operation of the video tape recorder 14 is controlled via the manager 19, processing such as preview is executed, and an editing point can be set.

In response to such an instruction from the manager 19, the controller 15 controls the operation of the video tape recorder 14 so as to rewind the magnetic tape to a position above the IN point, and as shown in FIG. When the playback is instructed by the manager 19 to perform the download process, the video tape recorder 14 is instructed to play back the material (PLAY), and when the playback is performed up to the OUT point, the playback is instructed (STOP). This enables the material management system 1
In step 1, the setting of the in-point and the out-point is accepted by the processing of the manager 19, and A between the in-point and the out-point is set.
A material file FS is created from the V data DAV and recorded in the material server 7.

Further, the controller 15 controls the AV data D
The time code TC of the AV is monitored, and when the IN point notified by the manager 19 is reached, the GPI trigger GPI is activated. Here, the GPI trigger GPI is a trigger signal used for editing equipment. In this embodiment, the GPI trigger GPI is configured to instruct the encoder 18 to start encoding. This allows the controller 15
Is configured to notify the encoder 18 of the start of encoding by a system different from the network.

Note that the controller 15 stops the operation of the video tape recorder 14 after a predetermined time has elapsed when the OUT point is reached.

The encoder 18 compresses and outputs the AV data DAV output from the router R. In this process, the encoder 18 outputs a COM (Component
(Object Model) port receives a GPI trigger GPI, whereby the COM port is used as a trigger input terminal, and encoding is started by this trigger. Thereby, in this embodiment, the time code is monitored by the controller 15 as the control means, and the creation of the management file is started by a direct trigger based on the monitoring result without passing through the network, As a result, the management file FTR can be created with high frame precision while effectively avoiding a time delay caused by the network.

In this process, the encoder 18 compresses the sequentially input AV data at a low transfer rate of, for example, about 60 [kbps], and then creates a management file FTR using streaming data. Accordingly, in this embodiment, the AV data DAV
File FT for direct management of streaming data
The data is converted into R, and the management file FTR based on the streaming data is recorded in the management server 9.

In this process, the encoder 18 monitors the data amount of the management file FTR, and when the management file FTR is created by the data amount determined by the length between the IN point and the OUT point, the encoding process ends.

Thus, the manager 19 receives the search data input by the operator during the preview or after the recording, and generates the management data for the management file FTR recorded in this manner. Data is also recorded on the management server. In this process, the manager 19 replaces the conventional management file FD based on the AVI file with the management file FTR based on the streaming data recorded on the management server 9.
Management data is generated based on data indicating a correspondence relationship with the material file FS recorded in the material server 7. As a result, in this embodiment, a desired material file can be searched by mainly using the management file FTR based on streaming data.

(2) Operation of Embodiment In the above configuration, the material management system 11
After a tape cassette in which the material stored in the material server 7 is recorded is loaded into the video tape recorder 14, the video tape recorder 14 is operated by the manager 19.
File FS for playing back a tape cassette by controlling the operation of the
The setting of the IN point and the OUT point for the management file FTR to be recorded in the file is received.

At this time, in the material management system 1, the material file FS or the management file FTR may be recorded in the corresponding server 7, 9 in advance, respectively. If only the material is recorded and the material is executed by the conventional shelf management, or even the reverse case may be considered, the setting such as whether only one of the files is created by the user's selection is received ( (Fig. 2).

When the setting of the IN point and the OUT point is received in this manner, the material management system 11 allows the video tape recorder 14 to rewind the magnetic tape by the user's operation, and then reproduces the data before the IN point. Be started.
As a result, in the material management system 11, the intra-station synchronization Ref
The AV data DAV is sequentially reproduced by the video tape recorder 14 and supplied to the router R in synchronization with (1) in FIG.

Material file FS and management file FT
In the case of creating both R, AV data is output to the encoders 16 and 18 from the router R. On the encoder 16 side, the time information based on the IN point and the OUT point received by the manager 19 is notified to the encoder 16 in advance via the controller 15, and the encoder 16 monitors the time code TC,
The encoding process is performed between the IN point and the OUT point. As a result, a high-quality material file FS with a high transfer rate is created, and the material file FS is recorded in the material server 7.

On the other hand, on the encoder 18 side, the time code is monitored by the controller 15, and when the time reaches the IN point, the GPI trigger GPI
Is output, and the GPI trigger GPI is directly input to the encoder 18. This enables the material management system 1
In the encoder 1, an instruction to start encoding is directly issued from the time code monitoring result without passing through the network.
8, the deterioration of the frame accuracy due to the time lag in the network is effectively avoided.

On the encoder 18 side, when the encoding is started and the AV data DAV is encoded by the amount of data corresponding to between the in-point and the out-point, it is determined that the out-point has been reached and the encoding is terminated. Thus, on the encoder 18 side, a management file FTR with a small data amount corresponding to the material file FS is created and recorded in the management server 9.

In this process, the encoder 18 compresses the AV data DAV at a low data transfer rate, and then creates a management file FTR using streaming data. As a result, in this embodiment, the material file FS and the management file FTR can be created simultaneously in parallel, and the creation of the management file FTR can be simplified accordingly.

As described above, when the management file FTR is created from the direct streaming data and recorded in the management server 9, the material management system 11 replaces the conventional AVI file management file FD with
Management file FTR using this streaming data
, The management data is created and recorded in the management server 9 so that the material file FS can be searched. Thus, in the material management system 11, as in the case of the management file FD using the AVI file, the content of the management file FTR can be appropriately reproduced and monitored without waiting for the download of the management file FD. Accordingly, the work of checking the material file FS and the like can be simplified.

(3) Effects of the Embodiment According to the above configuration, the material file and the management file based on streaming data having a smaller data amount than the material file are created simultaneously and in parallel, so that the management file Can be simplified.

(4) Other Embodiments In the above-described embodiment, the case where the material file FS is recorded on the material server and the management file and the management data are recorded on the management server has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and these files and data may be recorded on one server, or all may be recorded and managed on separate servers.

Further, in the above-described embodiment, the case where the material file and the management file are created with high frame precision has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to this.
If the accuracy is not required, the encoding may be performed by instructing the encoder 18 via the network to start the operation.

In the above-described embodiment, the case where the original material is reproduced by the video tape recorder has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the case where the AV data output from the optical disk device or the like is downloaded may be used. Can also be widely applied.

[0043]

As described above, according to the present invention, a management file is created by simultaneously and concurrently creating a material file and a management file based on streaming data having a smaller data amount than the material file. Work can be simplified.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a material management system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view showing a display screen of a manager in the material management system of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a time chart for explaining a download process in the material management system of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a conventional material management system.

[Explanation of symbols]

1, 11 ... material management system, 4, 14 ... video tape recorder, 5, 15 ... controller, 6, 8, 1
0, 16, 18: Encoder, 7: Material server, 9: Management server, 19: Manager

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI Theme coat ゛ (Reference) H04N 5/765 H04N 5/91 N 7/173 610 L

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A file management apparatus for recording and holding a material file containing video data and a management file having a higher data compression rate than said material file in a predetermined server so as to be accessible. A material file creating means for creating the material file by compressing the data, and recording the material file on the server; after compressing the input data, converting the input data into streaming data to create the management file; A file management device comprising: a management file creation unit that records the data in the server; and the input data is processed by the material file creation unit and the management file creation unit in parallel. 2. A file management method for recording and holding a material file containing video data and a management file having a higher data compression rate than said material file in a predetermined server so as to be accessible. Creating the material file by compressing the data, compressing the input data, converting the input data to streaming data to create the management file, creating the material file from the input data, A file management method, wherein a process for creating a management file and a process for creating the management file are executed simultaneously in parallel.