JP3263996B2 - Program production device, information transmission method and reproduction device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a program producing apparatus for producing or editing a program or a program comprising image information including moving images and audio information, and a method for transmitting produced or edited information.
And a playback device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Large-capacity recording media, such as magneto-optical disks and optical disks, are supplied in large quantities at low cost. In addition, due to improvements in computer processing speed and image processing technology, a large number of devices can be prepared without using large-scale devices. It has become possible to produce or edit programs or programs that combine narration and music with still images (or moving images). For example, it has become possible to create materials in various fields such as exhibitions, education, and guidance without using a specialized production company.

For example, Hi-Vision, which is a high-definition television signal proposed by the Japan Broadcasting Corporation, has an excellent ability to display still images. A system that can be viewed has also been put to practical use. In such a system as well, it is desirable to be able to output not only images but also explanations and the like during reproduction and display of the images, and the above-described program production apparatus or system is desired.

In a conventional program production system, image editing and audio editing are separately performed according to their respective properties, and then the completed image information and audio information are recorded on a recording medium such as an optical disk.

[0005]

However, when a program produced in this way is transmitted through a limited transmission line and played back, if the amount of data is too large compared to the line capacity, voice Inconveniences such as interruption of the image and delay of image display occur.

In order to avoid such inconveniences, a production system that can easily adjust the mutual timing (synchronization) while taking into consideration the total amount of both data, instead of editing the image and audio independently, is proposed. desired.

[0007] It is an object of the present invention to present a program production device that satisfies such a demand.

Further, when editing audio information, there is a case where it is desired to appropriately fade in / out at a joint of audio. In a conventional example, audio information as a material is recorded on a recording medium in a state where the audio information is faded in / out. I have no choice but
The only way to make changes after recording was to edit the material again.

According to the present invention, there is provided information transmission in which a fade-in / out process and a screen switching process such as wipe, scroll, dissolve or the like can be selected at a joint or the like without changing the recorded material information. It is intended to present a method and a playback device.

[0010]

Means for Solving the Problems] The program producing apparatus according to the present invention is a program making apparatus for producing a program consisting of video and audio, the audio information in units of audio frames in synchronization with the cycle of the image Having an audio reproducing unit for reproducing,
The audio playback unit separates the audio frame from the audio information.
Volume information for controlling the volume of the audio information in units of
The audio information is reproduced according to the following .

[0011] Information transmission method according to the present invention is a method for transmitting information consisting of video and audio, in units of audio frames in synchronization with the cycle of the image, an audio transmission step of transmitting voice information The voice transmitting step may further include transmitting, in addition to the voice information, volume information for controlling a volume of the voice information in units of the voice frame.

[0012] reproducing apparatus according to the present invention is a reproduction apparatus for reproducing program information consisting of video and audio, those the image
Voice frames as a unit synchronized with the period of an audio processor for reproducing audio information, the audio processing unit, the
The audio information in the audio frame unit, which is different from audio information.
According to the volume information for controlling the volume of the information
To play the information and said Rukoto.

[0013]

[0014]

[0015]

[0016]

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

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

Reference numeral 10 denotes an image input device, which comprises an image scanner for inputting a still image, a video camera for inputting a moving image, and the like. Reference numeral 12 denotes a voice input device for inputting voice data. The image and sound processing circuit 14
The image data input from the image input device 10 and the audio data input from the audio input device 12 are transferred to a magnetic tape,
Large-capacity storage devices 16 such as optical disks and magneto-optical disks
To accumulate. The image / audio processing circuit 14 also processes and edits the image information and the audio information stored in the storage device 16 to produce one program. At this time, the image information and the audio information stored in the storage device 16 are read and output to the video monitor 18 and the speaker 20, respectively, and the video display and the audio output are performed. The image / audio processing circuit 14 stores the produced program data in the storage device 16 and can transmit it to the outside via the communication circuit 22 as needed.

In this embodiment, in order to easily synchronize the audio data with the image data, the audio signal is divided in units of 1/60 second. This is called an audio frame. FIG.
Indicates a recording format of audio data input from the audio input device 12 and stored in the storage device 16. The number N of audio frames indicates the entire size of audio data in units of 1/60 seconds. The number of samples in one audio frame is 735 samples when the sampling frequency is 44.1 KHz, and 800 samples when the sampling frequency is 48 KHz. The image / audio processing circuit 14 stores the audio signal output from the audio input device 12 in the storage device 16 by an integral multiple of the audio frame. Therefore, the audio length has a discrete value. The item indicating the volume of each frame is for fade-in / out control, and is written, for example, at the time of editing, and is used for audio output control at the time of reproduction.

Referring to FIG. 3, images A, B, C,.
And the case where sound A, B,... Are edited. Audio data is arranged in units of slots engraved in audio frames. In order to synchronize with the image, the process of moving the audio data back and forth with respect to the image and the process of reducing the length of each audio A, B,... Are performed in units of audio frame slots. With such a processing method, fine time adjustment of less than an audio frame becomes impossible, but practically, the unit of 1/60 second is considered to be sufficient. Rather, the advantage that the synchronization with the image data is always ensured is great.

FIG. 4 shows a comparison of fade-in / out between the present embodiment and the conventional example. FIG. 4A shows a conventional example,
(B) shows this embodiment. In the conventional example, as shown in FIG. 4A, the sound volume changes smoothly at the time of fade-in / out, but in the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. Changes stepwise. This is because voice control is performed on a voice frame basis. In FIG. 4, the step-like change is emphasized by shortening the fade-in / out time for the sake of explanation, but the actual fade-in / out time is longer, and therefore the step difference is made smaller. And the difference from the conventional example is hardly perceived.

Since the volume information of each audio frame is provided separately from the audio data, the audio data itself is not changed, that is, without performing the volume change operation for fade-in / out, Desired fade-in / out can be realized. As a result, it is not necessary to separately back up the original data of the audio data for modification or the like, and it is easy to change the fade-in / out characteristics later.

FIG. 5 shows a method for finely adjusting the timing of audio with respect to an image. FIG. 5A shows the original audio data. On the other hand, FIG. 5B shows a case where the sound is shortened by thinning. Here, the audio frames # 2 and # 8 are thinned out. FIG. 5C shows a case where the sound is lengthened by interpolation. Here, audio frames # 2 and # 7 are output twice consecutively.

In the above embodiment, the image period is 60 Hz, and the image period is 5 Hz as in the European PAL system.
0Hz or 70Hz at the workstation
In such a case, audio frames having a length corresponding to each of the frames may be set, and the present invention is not limited to a specific image cycle. The image cycle may be an interleaved field cycle or a frame cycle.

As described above, by processing the audio data in units of audio frames having a period equal to the image period, it is easy to synchronize the image and the sound when producing and editing a program including the image and the sound. .

In FIG. 2, the volume control information of each audio frame is provided in the header. However, usually, the fade-in / out can be completely defined by its starting point and duration. In this regard, fade-in / out control may be performed as audio control data. Hereinafter, the embodiment will be described.

FIG. 6 is a schematic block diagram of a second embodiment of the present invention. In the storage device 30, for example, data of a program produced by a program production device as shown in FIG. 1 is stored in a format as shown in FIG. The information stored in the storage device 30 is reproduced according to the operation (reproduction, stop, pause, etc.).

As shown in FIG. 7, the information stored in the storage device 30 includes image control data, image data with a header, audio control data, and audio data with a header. The image control data includes setting of a reference time, designation of a frame memory for writing still image data, designation of a time for reading still image data from the frame memory, and setting of image effects such as image mixing, wipe and scroll. Consists of information that controls

The voice control data includes a fade-in packet shown in FIG. 8 and a fade-out packet shown in FIG. The fade-in packet is arranged for an audio frame whose fade-in is to be started, and the fade-out packet is arranged for an audio frame whose fade-out is to be started. The fade-in packet includes a fade-in control signal and a fade designation time, and the fade-out packet includes a fade-out control signal and a fade designation time. Both the fade designation times indicate the duration of the fade-in and fade-out.

As described with reference to FIG. 2, the header of the audio data includes quantization bits, a sampling frequency, and mode information such as stereo / monaural.

The separation circuit 36 separates the data sequence of the format shown in FIG. 7 reproduced by the reproduction circuit 32, and supplies the image data to the still image decoder 38 and the image control data to the memory control circuit 42. The header of the image data is also applied to the memory control circuit 42.

The separation circuit 36 also supplies audio data to the audio decoder 48 and audio control data to the audio output control circuit 52 in audio frame units. The header of the audio data is also applied to the audio output control circuit 52.

The still picture decoder 38 decompresses the compressed image data and outputs it to the frame memory 40.
The frame memory 40 can store a plurality of screens of still images, and is controlled by a memory control circuit 42. That is,
The memory control circuit 42 controls which memory section of the frame memory 40 writes the output image of the still image decoder 38 in accordance with the image control data, and stores the stored still image data in the D / A converter 44 at a specified time. Read out. D / A
The converter 44 converts the still image data into an analog signal,
Apply to monitor 46. Thus, the still images are sequentially displayed on the monitor 46 in the order and timing specified by the image control data.

The audio decoder 48 decodes the audio data from the separation circuit 36 and outputs it to the D / A converter 50. The audio output control circuit 52 controls the D / A converter 50 according to the header information of the audio data from the separation circuit 36. D /
The audio signal converted to an analog signal by the A converter 50 is input to an amplifier 54 having a fade control terminal.

The audio output control circuit 52 controls the amplifier 54 in accordance with the audio control data from the separation circuit 36, in particular, a fade-in packet and a fade-out packet. That is, the amplifier 54 is controlled to fade in with a volume change corresponding to the designated time according to the fade-in packet, and fade out with a volume change according to the designated time according to the fade-out packet. The amplifier 54 is controlled as described above.

The output of the amplifier 54 is applied to a speaker 56 and output as sound.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 6, fade-in / out control information is allocated independently of the original audio data. By editing this control information,
You can change the duration of the fade-in / out.

In the above embodiment, the fade-in / out control information is formatted as audio control data. However, the image control data may be the entire control data including audio, and the fade control signal may be included therein. It goes without saying that it is good.

[0039]

As can be easily understood from the above description, according to the present invention, composite handling of images and sounds is facilitated, and programs and the like appropriately combining images and sounds can be easily produced. Become like

Also, sound such as fade-in / out of voice
By having the quantity information separately from the audio data, the audio output can be controlled without changing to the original audio data, and the control mode can be modified later.

[Brief description of the drawings]

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

FIG. 2 shows a format of audio data converted into an audio frame.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of timing of images and sounds.

FIG. 4 is a comparison diagram of audio fade-in / out between the conventional example and the apparatus of FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of a method for finely adjusting the audio time.

FIG. 6 is a schematic configuration block diagram of a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a data format in the embodiment of FIG. 6;

FIG. 8 shows a format of a fade-in packet.

FIG. 9 is a format of a fade-out packet.

[Explanation of symbols]

10: Image input device 12: Audio input device 14: Image / audio processing circuit 16: Large-capacity storage device 18: Video monitor 20: Speaker 22: Communication circuit 30: Storage device 32: Reproduction circuit 34: Operation device 36: Separation circuit
38: Still picture decoder 40: Frame memory 4
2: Memory control circuit 44: D / A converter 46: Monitor 48: Audio decoder 50: D / A converter 52: Audio output control circuit 54: Amplifier with fade control terminal 56: Speaker

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (58) Field surveyed (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) H04N 5/262 G11B 20/10 321 G11B 27/038 G10L 21/02

Claims (4)

(57) [Claims] 1. An image and program producing unit for producing a program consisting of speech, have the audio reproduction portion for reproducing audio information in units of audio frames in synchronization with the cycle of the image
The audio playback unit separates the audio information from the audio information.
Volume for controlling the volume of the audio information in frame units
A program production apparatus for reproducing the audio information according to information . 2. The program production apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the volume information includes information for designating a duration of a fade-in or a fade-out for an audio frame at which a fade-in or a fade-out starts. 3. A method for transmitting information comprising images and sounds.
And a voice transmission step of transmitting voice information in units of a voice frame synchronized with a cycle of the image, wherein the voice transmission step is performed separately from the voice information, in the voice frame unit. An information transmission method, further comprising transmitting volume information for controlling the volume of information. 4. A reproducing apparatus for reproducing program information comprising an image and a sound, comprising: a sound processing unit for reproducing the sound information in units of a sound frame synchronized with a cycle of the image.
And the audio processing unit has the audio file different from the audio information.
Volume for controlling the volume of the audio information in frame units
A reproducing apparatus for reproducing the audio information according to information .