JP2011029776A - Broadcasting system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a broadcasting system for holding contact point information before a failure occurs. <P>SOLUTION: The broadcasting system includes a transmitter 20, a relay device 30, and a receiver 40. The transmitter 20 has a multiplexer 21 for inverting a contact point signal in a prescribed period and encoding it. When abnormality of the contact point signal is detected at the relay device 30, a modulator 34 generates a signal fixed at a prescribed level. The receiver 40 has a separator 44 for decoding the contact point signal and inverting it in the prescribed period. The separator 44 includes a protection circuit which the contact point signal is input to or output from. The protection circuit does not change a signal level of the contact point signal to be outputted when a change of signal level of the contact point signal to be inputted does not last longer than the prescribed period. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a broadcasting system that can maintain contact information before a failure occurs even if a line or device failure occurs between a transmitting station and a relay station.

  In a broadcasting system in which a broadcast signal is transmitted from a studio to a transmitting station, a monitoring / control line is provided in order to monitor or control the operating status of the transmitting device at the transmitting station from the studio.

  This monitoring / control line is a line for transmitting a signal between a performance room (studio) and a transmission station, and a baseband transmission system mainly using a microwave is used. The transmitting station is generally provided far from the studio, and is remotely monitored and controlled from the studio side. There are a plurality of monitoring control target points (contact points) at the transmitting station, and each of the transmitting station can take two states of open and closed. The contact information is transmitted to the performance place, and the performance place monitors the state of the transmission place with reference to the contact information.

  If the line breaks between the studio and the transmitter, or if there is an abnormality in the equipment at the transmitter, even if there is no change in the status of each contact, the status of the signal received at the studio changes, and incorrect contact information May be detected.

  Patent Document 1 discloses an alarm information management system that displays a contact recovery alarm even when a contact recovers during a transmission path failure. In the alarm information management system described in Patent Document 1, first and second current state memories and a change recording memory are provided in the contact point alarm information management device, and the state changes of the first and second current state management memories are changed. When it occurs, the fact is recorded in the state change memory, and the state change is displayed on the alarm display unit.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-120465 (paragraph 0024, FIG. 1)

  However, in the alarm information management system described in Patent Document 1, it is necessary to provide a plurality of memories such as first and second current state memories and a current state management memory. This complicates the device configuration. Also, in this alarm information management system, the contact status after the status change is transmitted to the contact alarm information management device, but the contact information before the failure occurs is transmitted during the failure of the line or equipment. I can't.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a broadcasting system capable of holding contact information before a failure occurs.

  A broadcasting system according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a transmission device that acquires and transmits a contact signal for monitoring a state of a device from a device installed at a transmission station, and transmission of the contact signal transmitted from the transmission device. A broadcasting system comprising a relay device for relaying and a receiving device for receiving a contact signal relayed by the relay device, wherein the transmitting device inverts and encodes the contact signal at a predetermined period. And a first transmission means for transmitting the encoded contact signal to the relay apparatus, wherein the relay apparatus receives a contact signal transmitted from the first transmission means. And detecting means for detecting an abnormality of the contact signal received by the first receiving means; and if the detecting means does not detect an abnormality, the contact signal is transmitted to the receiving device, and the detecting means is abnormal. Inspect In this case, a second transmission unit that transmits a signal fixed at a predetermined level to the reception device as a contact signal is provided, and the reception device receives the contact signal transmitted from the second transmission unit. Second receiving means, decoding means for decoding the contact signal received by the second receiving means and inverting it at the predetermined period, and protection means for outputting the contact signal input from the decoding means If the change in the signal level of the contact signal continues for a period longer than the predetermined cycle, the change in the signal level is output, and the change in the signal level of the contact signal is longer than the predetermined cycle. When the time is not continuous, a protection means is provided that maintains the output signal level and does not output the change in the signal level.

  According to the broadcasting system according to an embodiment of the present invention, even when an abnormality occurs in the contact signal and the signal level of the contact signal is fixed to a predetermined level, the decoding unit inverts the signal at a predetermined cycle. The protection circuit does not change the output signal level when the change in the input signal level does not continue for a period longer than the inversion period. For this reason, even if an abnormality occurs in the contact signal due to a failure of the line or device, the contact information before the failure occurs can be retained.

The figure which shows schematic structure of the broadcast system which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention. The figure which shows the detail of a structure of the multiplexer of a transmitter, and the separator of a receiver. The figure which shows an example of the signal input-output to a protection circuit. The figure which shows an example of the contact information transmitted between a transmitter and a receiver. The figure which shows an example of the contact information encoded with a transmitter and decoded with a receiver.

  Embodiments of a broadcast system according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of a broadcasting system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

  In this broadcasting system, a transmitting device 20 is provided at a transmitting station, and a receiving device 40 is provided at a performance place (studio). A relay station is provided between the transmitting station and the studio, and the relay station is provided with a relay device 30. Signal transmission is performed between the transmission device 20 and the relay device 30 and between the relay device 30 and the reception device 40 by a baseband transmission method using microwaves.

  The transmitting station is provided with a plurality of contact points of devices to be monitored, and information on each contact point is represented by the open / closed state of the switches S1 to Sn (n is an arbitrary natural number). The contact information is sent to the transmission device 20.

  The transmission device 20 includes a multiplexer 21, a modulator 22, a transmission converter 23, and an antenna 24.

  As shown in FIG. 4, the multiplexer 21 inverts and encodes contact information every other set. The multiplexer 21 multiplexes the encoder that compresses the audio data and the encoded contact information into one frame signal. The multiplexed frame signal is output to the modulator 22.

  The modulator 22 performs QAM modulation (orthogonal amplitude modulation) on the multiplexed frame signal. The modulated signal is sent to the transmission converter 23.

  The transmission converter 23 converts the QAM modulated signal into a microwave signal. The microwave signal is transmitted from the antenna 24 to the relay device 30.

  The relay device 30 includes an antenna 31, a reception converter 32, a demodulator 33, a modulator 34, a transmission converter 35, and an antenna 36.

  The microwave signal output from the antenna 24 is received by the antenna 31 of the relay device 30 and sent to the reception converter 32.

  The reception converter 32 converts the microwave signal into a QAM modulated signal. The converted signal is output to the demodulator 33. The reception converter 32 monitors the level of the reception signal. When the signal level decreases, an RX alarm signal is generated to notify the occurrence of an abnormality.

  The demodulator 33 demodulates the QAM modulated signal and returns it to the multiplexed frame signal format. The multiplexed frame signal is sent to the modulator 34. Further, the demodulator 33 detects a bit error rate (BER) of the demodulated signal, generates a BER alarm signal when detecting a BER value larger than a predetermined threshold value, and notifies the occurrence of an abnormality.

  The modulator 34 QAM-modulates the frame signal received from the demodulator 33 again. The modulated signal is sent to the transmission converter 35. When the modulator 34 receives the RX alarm and / or the BER alarm from the reception converter 32 and / or the demodulator 33, it indicates that a line abnormality or equipment abnormality has occurred between the transmission apparatus 20 and the relay apparatus 30. An all-zero signal shown is generated and sent to the transmission converter 35. In the all zero signal, all signal values are zero.

  The transmission converter 35 converts the QAM modulated signal into a microwave signal. The microwave signal is transmitted from the antenna 36 to the receiving device 40.

  The receiving device 40 includes an antenna 41, a receiving converter 42, a demodulator 43, and a separator 44.

  The microwave signal output from the antenna 36 is received by the antenna 41 of the transmission device 40 and sent to the reception converter 42.

  The reception converter 42 converts the microwave signal into a QAM modulated signal. The converted signal is output to the demodulator 43.

  The demodulator 43 demodulates the QAM modulated signal and returns it to the multiplexed frame signal format. The multiplexed frame signal is sent to the separator 44. When detecting the all-zero signal, the demodulator 43 notifies a reception monitoring control board (not shown) provided in the receiving device 40.

  The separator 44 separates audio data, contact information, and the like from the multiplexed frame signal. Further, as shown in FIG. 4, the separator 44 inverts the decoded contact information at the same cycle as the contact information inversion by the multiplexer 21 (that is, every other set). The decrypted contact information is output to a subsequent device (the remote controller 50 in the example of FIG. 1).

  In FIG. 1, a remote controller 50 is shown as an example of a device provided in the subsequent stage of the receiving device 40. The remote controller 50 can monitor the state of each contact at the transmitting station based on the contact information sent from the receiving device 40. When an abnormality occurs in the contact information, the contact abnormality information is output to the output unit of the remote controller 50, and the abnormality of the contact information can be confirmed in the studio.

  On the line between the transmission device 20 and the relay device 30, signal transmission by microwaves is performed. When the line breaks, the receiving device 40 cannot receive correct contact information, and the correct contact information is not transmitted to the remote controller 50. In addition, even when a device abnormality occurs in the transmission device 20 or the relay device 30, the reception device 40 cannot receive correct contact information, and the correct contact information is not transmitted to the remote controller 50. That is, the remote controller 50 may detect a change caused by a line or device failure as a contact state abnormality even though no abnormality has occurred in each contact.

  The relay device 30 according to the present embodiment can detect the occurrence of a failure by the decrease in the received signal level detected by the reception converter 32 and the deterioration of the bit error rate (BER) detected by the demodulator 33. When the occurrence of a fault is detected, an all-zero signal is generated from the modulator 34 and transmitted to the receiving device 40.

  Even if this all-zero signal is received, the multiplexer 21 and the separator 44 according to the present embodiment have the following configuration so that the reception device 40 can retain the contact information before the occurrence of the failure.

  FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating details of the configurations of the multiplexer 21 of the transmission device 20 and the separator 44 of the reception device 40.

  The multiplexer 21 includes a coding board (USER-T board) 211 and a multiplexing unit 214.

  The encoding board 211 includes a parallel-serial conversion unit 212 and an encoding circuit 213. The parallel-serial conversion unit 212 converts the contact information input to the multiplexer 21 as a parallel signal into a serial signal. The encoding circuit 213 encodes the contact information converted into a serial signal. As shown in FIG. 4, the encoding circuit 213 inverts and encodes contact information every other set.

  The multiplexing unit 214 multiplexes the contact information and a plurality of frame signals output from the encoder or the server into one frame signal.

  The frame signal multiplexed in the multiplexer 21 is transmitted from the transmission device 20 to the reception device 40 via the relay device 30. In the receiving device 40, the contact information is separated from the frame signal multiplexed by the separator 44.

  The separator 44 includes a decoding board (USER-R board) 441 and a separating unit 445.

  The separation unit 445 separates the received multiplexed frame signal and sends the contact information to the decoding board 441.

  The decryption board 441 includes a decryption circuit 442, a serial-parallel conversion unit 443, and a protection circuit 444. The decoding circuit 442 decodes the contact information encoded by the encoding circuit 213. Since the encoding circuit 213 encodes by inverting the contact information every other set, the decoding circuit 442 restores the decoded contact information by inverting every other set.

  The protection circuit 444 is a circuit for protecting the output of the separator 44 and does not output a non-continuous change by a predetermined number of bits (for example, 16 bits) even if there is a change in input contact information. That is, the protection circuit 444 does not output an input pulse shorter than a predetermined pulse width.

  FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of signals input to and output from the protection circuit 444.

  As shown in FIG. 3, when the signal input to the protection circuit 444 changes from H to L, after the H → L continues for a predetermined number of bits (for example, 16 bits: 1 msec), the output side changes from H to L. Become. Similarly, when the signal input to the protection circuit 444 changes from L to H, after the L → H continues for a predetermined number of bits (for example, 16 bits: 1 msec), the output side changes from L to H. That is, the protection circuit 444 outputs the change when the level change of the input signal continues for a predetermined number of bits or more.

  An input signal having a pulse width equal to or less than a predetermined number of bits is not transmitted to the output side. That is, even when a signal having a pulse width equal to or less than the predetermined number of bits is input, the protection circuit 444 maintains the previous output signal.

  As described above, the protection circuit 444 does not output a change generated in the input signal unless the same signal state continues for a predetermined number of bits. A delay time corresponding to a predetermined number of bits is generated at the input / output of the protection circuit 444.

  The predetermined number of bits set in the protection circuit 444 is determined based on the transmission speed (unit: bps) at which contact information is transmitted and the circuit scale. The transmission capacity of the general-purpose contact (32 contacts) is 64 kbps, which corresponds to 2 kbps (0.5 ms) per contact.

  FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of contact information transmitted between the transmission device 20 and the reception device 40. FIG. 4 shows an example in which a signal representing the state (open or closed) of 32 contacts is included in one set of contact information. It is assumed that the pulse width of one set of contact information is equal to or less than a predetermined number of bits determined for the protection circuit 444 described above.

  The contact information is transmitted in synchronization with an FRM signal provided by a transmission monitoring control board (not shown) of the transmission device 20. In the example shown in FIG. 4, the no-signal state and the signal-present state are repeated at a cycle of 250 μsec. In the presence of a signal, signals representing the state of each contact from contact 1 to contact 32 are sequentially arranged. The remote controller 40 detects this contact information and monitors the state of each contact.

  As shown in FIG. 4, a signal representing the state of each contact from contact 1 to contact 32 appears in the signaled state as a set, and the signaled state and the no-signal state are repeated at a predetermined cycle. The encoding circuit 213 of the encoding substrate 211 inverts and encodes the contact information in the signal state every other set.

  FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of contact information encoded by the transmission device 20 and decoded by the reception device 40.

  As shown in FIG. 5, when the contact information is normally transmitted, the contact information encoded by inverting every other set by the encoding circuit 213 is decoded by the decoding circuit 442 and set by one set. Every other one is reversed and restored. For this reason, contact information can be correctly transmitted to the remote controller 50 in the subsequent stage.

  When the line is disconnected or an abnormality occurs in the transmission device 20, an alarm signal is generated in the relay device 30 regardless of the data state in the coding board 211, and the modulator 34 outputs an all-zero signal. . When this all-zero signal is decoded by the decoding circuit 442, the all-zero signal is inverted every other set as shown in FIG.

  Therefore, a signal having a pulse width of the predetermined number of bits or less is periodically input to the protection circuit 444. Even if a signal with a pulse width of a predetermined number of bits or less is input to the protection circuit 444, the previous output signal is maintained, so that the contact information before the line disconnection or device abnormality occurs from the separator 44. Continue to output. Therefore, even if an alarm signal is generated due to a line abnormality or a device abnormality, the separator 44 outputs contact information before the abnormality occurs.

  For example, if the decoding circuit 442 does not invert the output, when an all-zero signal is input, the all-zero signal continues for a predetermined number of bits or more. For this reason, the protection circuit 444 detects a continuous all-zero signal as contact information and outputs it to the remote controller 50. As a result, the remote controller 50 recognizes the all-zero signal as the contact information even though the contact information has not changed.

  In order to avoid such a situation, in the present embodiment, even if an all-zero signal is input, the signal is inverted at a predetermined cycle by the decoding circuit 442. Even when a signal having a pulse width equal to or smaller than the predetermined number of bits is input, the protection circuit 444 continues to hold the previous output. For this reason, even if an all-zero signal inverted at a predetermined period is input to the protection circuit 444, the protection circuit 444 does not recognize the all-zero signal and continues to output contact information before the occurrence of the failure. For this reason, even if a line or device abnormality occurs and an all-zero signal is generated, contact information before the abnormality occurs is transmitted to the remote controller 50 in the subsequent stage.

  The decoding circuit 442 always inverts the signal at a predetermined cycle. In accordance with this, the encoding circuit 213 inverts the data at a predetermined cycle also when the contact information is encoded so that the original data is restored at the time of decoding.

  In this way, a broadcasting system is constructed that transmits normal contact information during normal operation and transmits contact information before the occurrence of a failure.

  In the above-described embodiment, the modulator 34 generates an all-zero signal in response to an alarm. However, the output of the modulator 34 may be fixed to one of a high level and a low level in response to an alarm.

  In FIG. 1, one relay device 30 is provided between the transmission device 20 and the reception device 40. However, transmission of broadcast waves between the transmission device 20 and the reception device 40 is installed in series or in parallel. It may be relayed by a multi-stage relay device.

  In the above-described embodiment, an example of transmission of contact information in a broadcasting system has been described, but the present invention is not limited to this. A system similar to the above may be used for monitoring power source devices provided at remote locations and other contact information of a monitoring target.

  The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and various modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the invention when it is practiced. Further, each of the embodiments includes inventions at various stages, and various inventions can be extracted by appropriately combining a plurality of disclosed constituent elements. For example, even if some constituent elements are deleted from all the constituent elements shown in one embodiment or the constituent elements shown in some embodiments are combined, they are described in the column of the problem to be solved by the invention. In the case where the problems described above can be solved and the effects described in the “Effects of the Invention” can be obtained, a configuration in which these constituent requirements are deleted or combined can be extracted as an invention.

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 20 ... Transmitting device, 21 ... Multiplexer, 22 ... Modulator, 23 ... Transmission converter, 24 ... Antenna, 30 ... Relay device, 31 ... Antenna, 32 ... Reception converter, 33 ... Demodulator, 34 ... Modulator, 35 ... Transmitting converter, 36 ... Antenna, 40 ... Receiving device, 41 ... Antenna, 42 ... Receiving converter, 43 ... Demodulator, 44 ... Separator, 50 ... Remote controller.

Claims (7)

A transmission device that acquires and transmits a contact signal from a contact installed at a broadcast wave transmitting station;
A relay device that relays transmission of a contact signal transmitted from the transmission device;
A broadcasting system comprising a receiving device for receiving a contact signal relayed by the relay device,
The transmitter is
Encoding means for inverting and encoding the contact signal at a predetermined period;
First transmission means for transmitting the encoded contact signal to the relay device;
The relay device is
First receiving means for receiving a contact signal transmitted from the first transmitting means;
Detecting means for detecting an abnormality of the contact signal received by the first receiving means;
When the detection means does not detect an abnormality, the contact signal is transmitted to the receiving device, and when the detection means detects an abnormality, a signal fixed at a predetermined level is transmitted to the receiving device as a contact signal. Second transmitting means for
The receiving device is:
Second receiving means for receiving a contact signal transmitted from the second transmitting means;
Decoding means for decoding and inverting the contact signal received by the second receiving means at the predetermined period;
The protection means for outputting the contact signal input from the decoding means, and when the signal level change of the contact signal continues for a period longer than the predetermined period, the change of the signal level is output, A broadcasting system comprising protection means for holding the output signal level and not outputting the change in the signal level when the change in the signal level of the contact signal does not continue for a time longer than the predetermined period.   The broadcasting system according to claim 1, wherein the broadcasting system includes a plurality of the relay devices.   The broadcast system according to claim 1, wherein the detection unit detects an abnormality in a broadcast wave line between the transmission device and the relay device based on a bit error rate of the contact signal.   The broadcasting system according to claim 1, wherein the detection unit detects an abnormality in a transmission line between the transmission device and the relay device based on a signal level of the contact signal.   The transmission device further includes multiplexing means for multiplexing the contact signal encoded by the encoding means with a plurality of transport streams to form one transport stream, wherein the first transmission means is the first transmission means. The broadcasting system according to claim 1, wherein one transport stream is transmitted to the relay device.   The broadcast system according to claim 1, wherein, when the detection unit detects an abnormality, an all-zero signal whose signal level is fixed to zero is transmitted as a contact signal to the receiving device.   The broadcast system according to claim 1, wherein an output from the protection means is monitored at a broadcast station of the broadcast wave.

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