JP5229287B2 - Karaoke network system, centralized management device - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a karaoke network system that performs peer-to-peer (P2P) type content transmission between a plurality of karaoke apparatuses connected to each other via a network.

  In recent years, various content services using the Internet have been implemented. Such contents are diversified year by year in order to cope with diversification of hobbies and preferences of users who use the contents, and individual contents are also of high quality and large capacity. In addition, the number of Internet connection terminals that use content is increasing. In response to this situation, the load on the server increases as the service scale increases in the conventional client-server method. Therefore, the operation of the content transmission system such as higher performance of the server and securing of sufficient communication bandwidth are required.・ The problem that maintenance costs are enormous is becoming more prominent.

  Therefore, a P2P content transmission system that shares data among a plurality of terminals has been put into practical use (see, for example, Patent Document 1). According to such a P2P system content transmission system, it is said that the load on the server that distributes the content can be reduced, and the cost for operation and maintenance can be reduced.

  By the way, the content played back by a karaoke apparatus that provides a karaoke service includes, in addition to normal performance data (MIDI data), high-quality live music songs, promotional videos, CM videos, etc. obtained by sampling actual performance sounds. It is becoming increasingly diverse. In addition, in order to provide individual services corresponding to the diversification of tastes and hobbies of users who use karaoke devices, in recent years, content used in karaoke devices is required for each individual user. It is a huge amount.

  Therefore, all the contents that can be provided by the karaoke service cannot be stored in the storage device in each karaoke apparatus. Therefore, when the user requests a service (singing a song, watching a video, etc.), if there is no content corresponding to the service in the karaoke device, other devices (for example, a content transmission server on the Internet, On-demand content transmission is performed in which content is acquired from other karaoke devices and the like to provide services.

JP 2006-197400 A

  An Internet connection terminal that performs P2P data communication normally transmits and receives data to and from other terminals on the Internet via an access line provided by an Internet service provider (ISP). However, when some terminals transfer a large amount of data through P2P communication, the communication band of the ISP access line is occupied, and there are increasing cases in which communication with other terminals is hindered.

This is partly due to an increase in the amount of uplink traffic (at the time of data transmission) of each terminal, which has not been so much in the past, because P2P communication has been actively performed in recent years. In order to cope with this, the number of ISPs that perform measures such as limiting the amount of communication data per predetermined period (for example, one day) (especially when sending data) is increasing.
(For example, see http://www.ocn.ne.jp/info/rules/upload/)
In a communication karaoke system that uses P2P communication, if there is a karaoke device that cannot transmit content due to a conflict with the traffic limit, the number of karaoke devices that can transmit content in the network is reduced accordingly. become. When the number of karaoke devices that can transmit content decreases, content transmission requests are concentrated on the remaining karaoke devices, which may cause delay in content transmission due to an increase in communication load. Further, if such a situation further deteriorates and the transmission of contents between karaoke apparatuses is hindered, it is fatal as a karaoke service. For this reason, it is necessary to adjust the transmission data amount of each karaoke apparatus so as not to exceed the limit value under the condition that the transmission data amount is limited.

  For example, if the communication speed at the time of data transmission of each karaoke device is limited, the amount of transmission data per day can be limited in total, so that it does not exceed a preset upper limit value. However, if the communication speed is uniformly restricted for all karaoke apparatuses, the time required for content acquisition increases. Therefore, in a karaoke service that transmits content on demand, the waiting time until the service requested by the user is started is undesirably long. Therefore, it is necessary to suppress the transmission data amount of each karaoke device within the upper limit value without limiting the communication speed at the time of content transmission.

  However, the usage situation of the user in each karaoke apparatus is various, and since the service request | requirement to each karaoke apparatus differs, the content to hold has bias. For example, a user of a certain karaoke device may select many new songs, and a certain karaoke device may select only the eighteenth selected songs. In such a case, it is not necessary to download new songs to the latter karaoke device, so the content held does not increase, and the amount of data transmitted to other karaoke devices is not so large. As a result, the karaoke device It is considered that there are many cases where the amount is less than the upper limit value of the transmission data amount in a predetermined time unit. Or it seems that the usage rate of the karaoke apparatus of the whole user is simply low, and it may fall below the upper limit of the transmission data amount. If there is a difference in the utilization rate in such a predetermined time unit, the amount of transmission data is not so much in a certain predetermined time unit, but there is a large amount of use in a certain predetermined time unit, and the transmission of each terminal It is possible that the upper limit of the data amount is exceeded.

  The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problem, and in a karaoke network system that transmits and receives content between karaoke devices by P2P communication, transmission related to content transmission regardless of the utilization rate of data transmission resources in the karaoke device. An object of the present invention is to provide a technique capable of suppressing the transmission data amount of each karaoke device within an upper limit value by effectively smoothing the data amount between the karaoke terminals.

The karaoke network system according to claim 1 made to achieve the above object has the following characteristics.
The karaoke device makes a content acquisition request to another karaoke device, acquires the content from the requested karaoke device, and the requesting karaoke in response to the content acquisition request from the other karaoke device. It also has a server function for transmitting content to the device.

  As a client function, first, client information including identification information of the own karaoke device, a content reproduction reservation status, a content reserved content reservation status, and the like is transmitted to the central management device (client information transmission means). As a server function, among the upper limit amount of transmission data set for the karaoke device in units of a predetermined period, the remaining data amount that the own karaoke device can transmit to other karaoke devices during the current period is stored. Along with (remaining data amount storage means), server information including identification information of the own karaoke device, remaining data amount, content holding status, data transmission speed information, etc. is transmitted to the centralized management device (server information transmission means) . In addition, the predetermined period here may be a period of days such as one day, one week, or one month, or may be a period of time units such as every hour.

  These client information and server information may be transmitted to the centralized management apparatus every time there is a change in the contents of the reservation content or the content held, or may be transmitted at regular intervals. In any case, it is desirable that the latest state of the karaoke apparatus is always notified to the central management apparatus.

On the other hand, the centralized management device stores client information and server information received from each karaoke device (client information storage means, server information storage means).
Further, the number of reproduction reservations for each content is totaled based on the client information received from each karaoke device (reproduction reservation number counting means).

Based on the stored server information, the remaining data amount is a predetermined value or more, and
When a remaining data amount equal to or greater than the predetermined value is defined as a surplus data amount, a high remaining amount karaoke device that has the largest surplus data amount is selected (large remaining amount karaoke device selection means). Further, based on the stored server information, the content that is frequently reserved for reproduction is specified as the acquisition target from the content held by the large remaining amount karaoke apparatus (acquisition target specifying means).

  Based on the stored server information, the surplus data amount of the large remaining amount karaoke device is larger than the data amount of the content to be acquired, and according to the data transmission speed, the content to be acquired is transmitted within a predetermined period. It is determined whether it is possible (data transmission availability determination means).

  Furthermore, based on the stored server information of each karaoke device, a non-acquisition karaoke device is selected from karaoke devices that do not have the content to be acquired (non-acquisition karaoke device selection means).

Then, corresponding server information is transmitted to the selected non-acquisition karaoke apparatus to the karaoke apparatus with a large remaining amount, and an instruction to acquire content to be acquired is given (acquisition instruction means).
When the karaoke apparatus receives a content acquisition instruction and server information of the acquisition destination from the central management apparatus as a client function, the karaoke apparatus transmits an acquisition request for the content to the karaoke apparatus indicated by the server information (acquisition request). Means), and content is acquired (content acquisition means). Further, as a server function, when a content acquisition request is received from another karaoke device, if the remaining data amount of the own karaoke device is equal to or larger than the data amount of the content related to the acquisition request, the remaining data amount of the own karaoke device is After the data amount of the content is reduced, the content is transmitted to the requesting karaoke apparatus (client) (content transmitting means).

  According to the karaoke network system configured as described above, when there is no reproduction reservation from the user, popular content can be acquired in advance from a karaoke apparatus having a sufficient remaining data amount. In this way, content transmission requests can be distributed among karaoke devices, and the amount of transmission data can be effectively smoothed between karaoke devices regardless of the utilization rate of data transmission resources in the karaoke devices. . Therefore, it is possible to prevent the transmission data amount from exceeding the upper limit due to the concentration of content transmission requests on a specific karaoke apparatus (server).

  Furthermore, as described in claim 2, when a reservation for unacquired content is received, acquisition of content currently being executed may be interrupted in order to prioritize acquisition of unacquired content desired by the user.

  Furthermore, in the server function of the karaoke device according to claim 3, after the content transmission is finished, the shortage of the actual transmission data amount with respect to the data amount of the content is set as the remaining data amount of the own karaoke device. It is good to comprise so that it may reduce (reduction means). For example, when the communication is in the middle stage before the transmission is completed for some reason during the transmission of the content, the actual transmission data amount may be smaller than the content data amount subtracted in advance from the remaining data amount. Therefore, by reducing the shortage of the actual transmission data amount with respect to the content data amount to the remaining data amount, the remaining data amount that can be transmitted can be managed more accurately, and the limit frame for the transmission data amount can be utilized without waste.

  Furthermore, as described in claim 4, in the server function of the karaoke apparatus, when the predetermined period expires, the remaining data amount stored in the remaining data amount storage means may be reset to the upper limit amount. (Reset means). For example, if an upper limit is set for the amount of data that can be sent in one day, if the date is updated, the data amount from 0 to the upper limit will be sent on the next day regardless of the amount of data sent up to the previous day. Will be accepted. Therefore, the remaining data amount that can be transmitted can be appropriately managed by resetting the remaining data amount to a limited amount upon expiration of a predetermined period (for example, date unit or time unit).

  Next, a centralized management apparatus according to a fifth aspect is a centralized management apparatus constituting the karaoke network system according to the first aspect. According to this centralized management apparatus, the karaoke network system can be constructed, and thereby the above-described effects can be obtained.

1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a karaoke network system 1. FIG. It is a block diagram which shows schematic structure of the centralized management apparatus 2 and the karaoke apparatus 4. FIG. It is explanatory drawing which shows an example of client information. It is explanatory drawing which shows an example of server information. It is a ladder chart which shows a communication sequence. It is a flowchart which shows the procedure of a client process. It is a flowchart which shows the procedure of a server process. It is the first half part of the flowchart which shows the procedure of centralized management processing (1). It is the latter half part of the flowchart which shows the procedure of centralized management processing (1). It is a flowchart which shows the procedure of centralized management processing (2).

Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. In addition, this invention is not limited to the following embodiment at all, and can be implemented in various aspects.
[Description of configuration of karaoke network system 1]
As shown in FIG. 1, the karaoke network system 1 includes karaoke apparatuses 4a, 4b, 4c, and 4d installed in karaoke stores A, B, C, and D that provide karaoke services to users, and centrally manages them. The central management apparatus 2 is connected to each other via the Internet 200 so that they can communicate with each other. In the following description, the karaoke devices 4a, 4b, 4c, and 4d are simply referred to as the karaoke device 4 unless otherwise distinguished. 1 shows a configuration in which four karaoke apparatuses 4 are connected to the karaoke network system 1 for convenience of explanation, more karaoke apparatuses 4 may be connected.

  The karaoke network system 1 is a P2P network system that can share content by transmitting and receiving content to and from each karaoke device 4 that is an Internet connection terminal. Moreover, in this embodiment, regarding the transmission / reception of the content between karaoke apparatuses 4, the upper limit is provided in the transmission data amount of the content which each karaoke apparatus 4 can transmit per predetermined period (for example, a date unit or a time unit). Assumes that. This is a measure for preventing the communication bandwidth of the public line from being occupied due to an excessive amount of data transmitted by each karaoke device 4.

  The central management device 2 determines the karaoke device 4 on the side that transmits the content (hereinafter also referred to as a server) for transmission / reception of the content between the karaoke devices 4, and determines the karaoke device 4 on the side that receives the content (hereinafter referred to as the server). The content transmission / reception between the karaoke apparatuses 4 is managed in an integrated manner. For this purpose, the central management device 2 receives client information indicating the status of content playback reservations from each karaoke device 4 and server information indicating the content holding status and the remaining data amount that can be transmitted within the current period. Based on these pieces of information, a server that transmits content to the client is determined.

  The karaoke device 4 is a karaoke song requested by a user using the karaoke service, video content such as a movie, variety program, drama, CM, user-participated content such as an audition or quiz, purchase content such as ordering food and drink, etc. These are devices that hold various contents in their own HDDs 44 and play back the held contents. Each karaoke apparatus 4 is assigned a unique serial number (for example, a manufacturing number) and an IP address as identification information for identifying a device that transmits and receives data.

  The karaoke device 4 includes an HDD 44 that is a storage device for storing content to be reproduced, but the storage capacity of the HDD 44 is small enough to hold all the content that can be provided by the karaoke service. Therefore, each karaoke apparatus 4 has only a part of content. However, an electronic sample (not shown) used by the user when requesting content from the karaoke device 4 covers all information necessary for reservation of all the content that can be provided by the karaoke service. It is possible to make a playback reservation even for content that is not owned by. Therefore, by sharing the content among a plurality of karaoke devices 4 connected to the karaoke network system 1, all the content can be provided by each karaoke device 4.

  Specifically, the karaoke device 4 manages the reproduction reservation status of the content, acquires a non-acquired content from another karaoke device 4 (server) based on an instruction from the central management device 2, and other functions. It also has a server function for transmitting content in response to a content acquisition request from the karaoke apparatus 4 (client).

  The outline of the client function is as follows. The karaoke device 4 manages the content reserved for playback by the user in the order of reservation, and each time the reservation status is updated, client information indicating the content playback reservation status and the content holding status is stored in the central management device 2. Send to. When there is unacquired content that the karaoke device 4 does not have in the content reserved for playback, the central management device 2 notifies the karaoke device 4 of information indicating the karaoke device 4 from which the content is acquired. The Receiving the notification, the karaoke apparatus 4 can reproduce the content reserved by the user by acquiring the content from the notified acquisition destination.

  On the other hand, the outline of the server function is as follows. The karaoke device 4 stores and manages server information indicating the content holding status in the karaoke device 4 and the amount of remaining data that can be transmitted within the current period. Server information is transmitted to the management apparatus 2. On the other hand, when a content acquisition request is received from the client, the content corresponding to the request is transmitted to the client, and the remaining data amount is subtracted.

Next, FIGS. 2A and 2B are block diagrams illustrating schematic configurations of the centralized management device 2 and the karaoke device 4.
As shown in FIG. 2A, the central management apparatus 2 includes a CPU 21, RAM 22, ROM 23, HDD 24, network communication unit 25, and the like as a hardware configuration.

  Among these, the CPU 21 is a device that executes control and various operations for each part of the central management device 2 in accordance with programs and data stored in the RAM 22 and the ROM 23, and the central management processing described later is executed by the CPU 21. The RAM 22 is a storage device used as a main memory that is directly accessed from the CPU 21. The client information and server information received from each karaoke device 4 are also stored here. The ROM 23 is a nonvolatile storage device, and stores BIOS, read-only data that is not normally updated, and the like. The HDD 24 is a storage device for storing a program for operating the centralized management device 2 and various data. The network communication unit 25 is a communication interface for connecting the central management device 2 to the Internet 200 and communicating with the external karaoke device 4.

  As shown in FIG. 2B, the karaoke apparatus 4 includes a CPU 41, a RAM 42, a ROM 43, an HDD 44, an operation unit 45, a playback unit 46, an input unit 47, a network communication unit 48, and the like as hardware configurations.

Among these, the CPU 41 is a device that executes control and various operations for each part of the karaoke device 4 according to programs and data stored in the RAM 42 and the ROM 43, and various processes related to client functions and server functions described later are executed by the CPU 41. The The RAM 42 is a storage device used as a main memory or the like that is directly accessed from the CPU 41. The remaining data amount of the own karaoke apparatus 4 and the content holding status are stored in the RAM 42. The ROM 43 is a nonvolatile storage device, and stores BIOS, read-only data that is not normally updated, and the like. The HDD 44 is a device for storing various data such as content data such as karaoke music data and video data, and programs. The operation unit 45 is an input device for inputting various instructions from the user, and includes a plurality of key switches and the like.

  The playback unit 46 is a MIDI sound source that performs performance playback based on performance data, an audio control unit that outputs an audio signal generated from the MIDI sound source and an audio signal input from the input unit 47 to a speaker, and video playback based on image data A video playback unit for controlling the video, a monitor for displaying video, and the like. The input unit 47 is for converting a singer's singing voice into an audio signal by a microphone and inputting the voice signal to the reproduction unit 46. The network communication unit 48 is a communication interface for connecting the karaoke apparatus 4 to the Internet 200 and communicating with the outside.

[Description of client information]
An overview of client information transmitted from each karaoke device 4 to the centralized management device 2 will be described with reference to FIG. <a>-<d> of FIG. 3 has shown an example of the client information transmitted from karaoke apparatus 4a, 4b, 4c, 4d, respectively.

  The client information includes a serial number and an IP address assigned to the karaoke device 4 as identification information for specifying the karaoke device 4 as a transmission source. A communication destination on the Internet can be specified by the identification information. In addition, as information indicating the playback reservation status in the karaoke apparatus 4, a reservation list that is a list of contents being reserved for playback is included.

  In the reservation list, information indicating the reservation order (that is, the playback order), the music selection number, the song title, the playback time, the size of the content (data amount), Information such as a holding flag indicating whether or not the content is held by the karaoke apparatus 4 is described. The possession flag is described as “1” when the content is possessed, and “0” when the content is not retained.

[Description of server information]
An overview of server information transmitted from each karaoke device 4 to the centralized management device 2 will be described with reference to FIG. <a>-<d> of FIG. 4 has shown an example of the server information transmitted from karaoke apparatus 4a, 4b, 4c, 4d, respectively.

  The server information includes a serial number and an IP address assigned to the karaoke device 4 as identification information for specifying the karaoke device 4 as a transmission source. A communication destination on the Internet can be specified by the identification information. In addition, the remaining data amount of the karaoke device 4, retained content information that is a list of all the content held by the karaoke device 4 in the HDD 44, and UPLOAD speed information indicating the speed of uploading data such as content are included. Yes.

  The remaining data amount is a value indicating the remaining amount of content transmission data that can be transmitted to the client during the current period. When the remaining data amount necessary for content transmission is insufficient, the server does not transmit the content. For example, when the upper limit amount of transmission data amount per day is set to 2000, if the transmission data amount during the day is 200, the remaining data amount during the day is 1800.

In the possessed content information, information such as a music selection number and a music title, which are content identification information, is described for all the content possessed by the karaoke apparatus 4.
As the UPLOAD speed information, the maximum UPLOAD speed and the minimum UPLOAD speed are described. The maximum UPLOAD rate is set to a theoretical maximum value as the content transmission rate. The minimum UPLOAD speed is set to a value that is assumed to be the speed at which content is actually transmitted. In the present embodiment, the minimum UPLOAD speed is set to the smallest value among the actual UPLOAD speeds measured within a predetermined period. Has been.

[Description of communication sequence]
Next, communication between the karaoke apparatus 4 and the centralized management apparatus 2 and a communication sequence between the karaoke apparatuses 4 will be described with reference to FIG.

FIG. 5A is a ladder chart showing a server information transmission / reception and content non-acquisition state notification sequence.
In the server function of each karaoke device 4, server information related to the own karaoke device 4 is transmitted to the central management device 2. The server information is transmitted every time there is a change in the possession status of the content included in the server information and the remaining data amount. The central management device 2 stores the server information received from each karaoke device 4 in a predetermined storage area of the RAM 22 and centrally manages it. When server information is received from the karaoke device 4, the server information of the karaoke device 4 is stored. Update to the latest content.

  On the other hand, the client function of each karaoke device 4 notifies the central management device 2 that the content is not acquired when content is not being received from another karaoke device 4. The centralized management device 2 manages the notification result from each karaoke device 4, and determines whether each karaoke device 4 is acquiring content based on the content.

FIG. 5B is a ladder chart showing client information transmission / reception and content transmission / reception sequences.
The karaoke device 4 on the client side transmits client information related to the reservation status of the own karaoke device 4 to the centralized management device 2 when the playback reservation status is updated. The client information is transmitted every time there is a change in the contents of the reservation list included in the client information (reservation order or reservation content holding status). The centralized management device 2 stores the client information received from each karaoke device 4 in a predetermined storage area of the RAM 22 and centrally manages it. When client information is received from the karaoke device 4, the client information of the karaoke device 4 is stored. Update to the latest content.

  The centralized management device 2 detects unacquired content that needs to be acquired in the client-side karaoke device 4 based on the client information, and determines the server-side karaoke device 4 that holds the unacquired content based on the server information. To detect. What is detected here is the karaoke device 4 having the largest remaining data amount among the karaoke devices 4 having contents not acquired by the client. The central management device 2 instructs the client-side karaoke device 4 to acquire surplus content, and transmits server information corresponding to the detected server-side karaoke device 4. The surplus content is content that is not owned by any of the client-side karaoke devices 4 among the content held by the server-side karaoke device 4. Content that is desirable to have.

  The client-side karaoke apparatus 4 that has received the server information together with the content acquisition instruction from the central management apparatus 2 first notifies the central management apparatus 2 that the own karaoke apparatus 4 has shifted to the content acquisition state. Then, an unacquired content acquisition request is transmitted to the content acquisition karaoke apparatus 4 (server) indicated by the IP address and serial number of the server information.

  The server-side karaoke device 4 that has received the content acquisition request from the client-side karaoke device 4 first subtracts the size of the content from the remaining data amount of the own karaoke device 4. Next, the content stored in the HDD 44 is transmitted to the karaoke apparatus 4 on the client side. After the transmission is completed, the shortage of the actual transmission data amount with respect to the size of the content is added to the remaining data amount, the minimum UPLOAD rate is updated, and the karaoke device 4 on the client side is notified of the completion of the content transmission.

  The client-side karaoke device 4 that has acquired the content updates the client information of the own karaoke device 4, transmits the client information to the centralized management device 2, and notifies the content non-acquisition state.

[Description of client processing]
Next, the process which the karaoke apparatus 4 performs as a client function is demonstrated based on FIG.

  FIG. 6A is a flowchart showing the procedure of the client process (1) executed by the CPU 41 of the karaoke apparatus 4. This process is a process executed in parallel with a process related to content reservation and playback.

  In S101, the CPU 41 of the karaoke apparatus 4 determines whether or not the content reproduction reservation content (reservation order or the like) has been updated. If the reservation content has not been updated (S101: NO), this process is repeated. When the reservation contents are updated (S101: YES), the client information reflecting the latest reservation contents is transmitted to the central management apparatus 2 (S102).

  Next, FIG. 6B is a flowchart showing the procedure of the client process (2) executed by the CPU 41 of the karaoke apparatus 4. This process is a process executed in parallel with a process related to content reservation and playback.

  In S111, the CPU 41 of the karaoke apparatus 4 notifies the central management apparatus 2 of the content non-acquisition state. This notification is for notifying that the own karaoke apparatus 4 is not currently receiving content from another karaoke apparatus 4.

  Next, it is determined whether or not an instruction to acquire unacquired content has been received from the centralized management apparatus 2 (S112). When the content acquisition instruction has not been received (S112: NO), the process proceeds to S120 described later in order to execute a series of processes (S120 to S127) for acquiring surplus content. On the other hand, when a content acquisition instruction is received (S112: YES), server information indicating a content acquisition destination is received (S113). Subsequently, the centralized management apparatus 2 is notified of the content acquisition state (S114). This notification is for notifying that the own karaoke apparatus 4 is currently receiving content from another karaoke apparatus 4.

  Next, an acquisition request for unacquired content is transmitted to the karaoke apparatus 4 (server) indicated by the IP address and serial number of the received server information (S115), and is transmitted from the server in response to the acquisition request. The coming content is acquired (S116). After receiving the transmission end notification from the server, it is determined whether or not the content has been successfully acquired (S117).

  When the content acquisition is successful (S117: YES), the client information of the own karaoke apparatus 4 is updated (S118). Here, the possession flag of the acquired content is changed from “0” to “1” in the reservation list of the client information. Next, the updated client information is transmitted to the central management apparatus 2 (S119), and the process returns to S111.

On the other hand, if it is determined in S117 that content acquisition has failed (S117: NO), the process returns to S111.
By the way, when the content acquisition instruction is not received in the previous S120 (S112: NO), the following series of processing (S120 to S127) for acquiring the surplus content is executed.

  First, it is determined whether there is a surplus content acquisition instruction from the centralized management apparatus 2 (S120). If there is no instruction to acquire surplus content (S120: NO), this process is repeated. On the other hand, when there is an instruction to acquire surplus content (S120: YES), server information indicating a surplus content acquisition destination is received and surplus content is acquired (S121). Subsequently, the centralized management apparatus 2 is notified of the content acquisition state (S122).

  Next, a surplus content acquisition request is transmitted to the karaoke apparatus 4 (server) indicated by the IP address and serial number of the received server information (S123), and transmitted from the server in response to the acquisition request. Content is acquired (S124). After receiving the transmission end notification from the server, it is determined whether or not the content acquisition has ended (S125).

  When the content acquisition is completed (S125: YES), the process returns to S111. On the other hand, when it is determined that content acquisition has not ended (S125: NO), it is determined whether there is unretained content in the client information (S126). When there is unretained content in the client information (S126: YES), surplus content acquisition is interrupted (S127), and the process returns to S111. On the other hand, when there is no unheld content in the client information (S126: NO), the acquisition of surplus content is continued, and the process returns to S125.

[Description of server processing]
Next, the process which the karaoke apparatus 4 performs as a server function is demonstrated based on FIG.

  FIG. 7A is a flowchart showing the procedure of the server process (1) executed by the CPU 41 of the karaoke apparatus 4. This process is a process executed in parallel with a process related to content reservation and playback.

In S201, the CPU 41 of the karaoke apparatus 4 transmits server information regarding the remaining data amount of the karaoke apparatus 4 and the content holding status to the centralized management apparatus 2 (S201).
. Next, it is determined whether or not there is a change in the remaining data amount or content holding status (S202). If there is a change as a result of the determination (S202: YES), server information reflecting the latest state is transmitted to the centralized management apparatus 2 in S201.

  On the other hand, as a result of the determination, if there is no change in the remaining data amount and the content holding status (S202: NO), it is determined whether or not a predetermined period as a determination criterion for the upper limit amount of the transmission data amount has expired ( S203). Here, when the predetermined period is set in units of days, it is determined that the period has expired when the date is updated. When the predetermined period is set in units of time, it is determined that the period has expired when the set time has elapsed. If the predetermined period has not expired (S203: NO), the process returns to S202. On the other hand, when the predetermined period has expired (S203: YES), the remaining data amount is reset to the upper limit amount set for each period (S204), and the process returns to S202.

  Next, FIG.7 (b) is a flowchart which shows the procedure of the server process (2) which CPU41 of the karaoke apparatus 4 performs. This process is a process executed in parallel with a process related to content reservation and playback.

  In S211, the CPU 41 of the karaoke apparatus 4 determines whether a content acquisition request has been received from the client. While the content acquisition request is not received (S211: NO), this process is repeated. When the content acquisition request is received from the client (S211: YES), the size of the content corresponding to the acquisition request (hereinafter, requested content) is compared with the current remaining data amount of the own karaoke apparatus 4, and the size of the requested content It is determined whether there is a remaining amount of data (S212). As a result of the determination, if there is a remaining data amount corresponding to the size of the requested content (S212: YES), the process proceeds to S213, and if there is no remaining data amount (S212: NO), the process proceeds to S217.

  In S213, which proceeds when there is a remaining data amount corresponding to the size of the requested content, the data amount of the requested content is subtracted from the current remaining data amount (S213). After the remaining data amount is updated, the requested content stored in the HDD 44 is transmitted to the client (S214). After the start of content transmission, the transmission speed is measured (S2141), and it is determined whether the transmission is completed (S215). While the transmission continues (S215: NO), this process is repeated.

  When content transmission is completed (including interruption) (S215: YES), a shortage of the actual transmission data amount of this time with respect to the data amount of the requested content is calculated, and the shortage is added to the remaining data amount ( S216). For example, when the content transmission is interrupted in an incomplete state for some reason, the amount of data that has not been transmitted is reduced to the remaining data amount. Subsequently, it is determined whether or not the transmission rate measured in S2141 is smaller than the minimum UPLOAD amount of its own server information (S2161). If the transmission speed is smaller than its own minimum UPLOAD amount (S2161: YES), the value of its own minimum UPLOAD amount is updated to the measured transmission speed value (S2162), and the process proceeds to S217. On the other hand, if the transmission speed is equal to or greater than the own minimum UPLOAD amount (S2161: NO), the process proceeds to S217 as it is. In step S217, the client is notified of the end of transmission processing for the content acquisition request. After notifying the end, the process returns to S211.

[Description of centralized management process (1)]
Next, centralized management processing executed by the centralized management device 2 will be described with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 8 is the first half of a flowchart showing the procedure of the central management process (1) executed by the CPU 21 of the central management apparatus 2, and FIG. 9 is the second half thereof.
The CPU 21 of the centralized management device 2 determines whether or not client information has been received from the karaoke device 4 in S301. When the client information is received (S301: YES), the received client information is stored in a predetermined storage area of the RAM 22 (S302). Then, based on the stored client information, the popularity ranking is totaled and the total result is stored (S3021).

  If client information has not been received (S301: NO), it is next determined whether server information has been received from the karaoke apparatus 4 (S303). When the server information is received, the received server information is stored in a predetermined storage area of the RAM 22 (S304).

  On the other hand, when the server information is not received (S303: NO), it is determined whether or not there is a client in the content non-acquisition state among the karaoke apparatuses 4 storing the client information ( S305). Whether or not the client is in a content non-acquisition state is determined based on the notification result from each karaoke device 4.

  As a result of the determination, if there is no content non-acquisition client (S305: NO), the process returns to S301. If there is a content non-acquisition client (S305: YES), the process proceeds to S306. . In S306, it is determined whether or not there are a plurality of content non-acquisition clients. When there is only one client in a content non-acquisition state (S306: NO), the process proceeds to S307, and when there are a plurality of clients (S306: YES), the process proceeds to S314.

  In step S307 when the client in the content non-acquisition state is single, a client in the content non-acquisition state is detected from each client information (hereinafter, this client is referred to as a detection client). Subsequently, the client information corresponding to the detected client is referred to, and it is determined whether or not there is unacquired content that is not owned by the detected client in the currently reserved content in the detected client (S308). As a result of the determination, if there is no unacquired content in the detected client (S308: NO), the process returns to S301. If there is unacquired content (S308: YES), the process proceeds to S309.

  In S309, the content with the earliest reservation order is detected from the unacquired content of the detection client (hereinafter, this content is referred to as “detected content”). Next, the process proceeds to S310 (FIG. 9), and a server having detected content and having a remaining data amount larger than the size of the detected content is detected from each server information. Then, it is determined whether or not there are a plurality of servers having the largest remaining data amount in the detected server group (S311).

  As a result of the determination, when there are a plurality of servers with the largest remaining data amount (S311: YES), that is, when the conditions for the remaining data amount are the same, the number of contents held in the server with the largest remaining data amount. The server information corresponding to the smallest server is extracted, the extracted server information is transmitted to the detection client, and the detection client is instructed to acquire the detection content (S312). After executing the process of S312, the process returns to S301.

  On the other hand, when the server with the largest remaining data amount is single (S311: NO), server information corresponding to the server with the largest remaining data amount is extracted, and the extracted server information is transmitted to the detection client and detected. The acquisition of content is instructed to the detection client (S313). After executing the process of S313, the process returns to S301.

  On the other hand, in S314, which proceeds when there are a plurality of clients in the content non-acquisition state in the determination in S306 (FIG. 8), the client group in the content non-acquisition state does not own the content that is not reserved by the client. It is determined whether or not there is a client having the acquired content. As a result of the determination, if there is no client having unacquired content (S314: NO), the process returns to the process of S301, and if there is a client having unacquired content, the process proceeds to S315.

In S315, a client having the largest remaining data amount is detected from these clients (hereinafter, this client is referred to as a detection client). Next, it is determined whether or not the detected client has a plurality of unacquired contents (S316). As a result of the determination, when there is one unacquired content (S316: NO), the process proceeds to S309, and when there are a plurality of unacquired contents (S316: YES), the process proceeds to S317.

  In S317, it is determined whether there is another client having unacquired content in common with the detected client (S317). As a result of the determination, if there is no other client having unacquired content in common with the detected client (S317: NO), the process proceeds to S309, and if it exists (S317: YES), S318 (FIG. 9). Move on to processing.

  In S318, a server that has the content that is the earliest reservation order in the detection client (hereinafter referred to as target content) among the common unacquired content and that has a remaining data amount larger than the size of the target content is detected. . Then, it is determined whether there are a plurality of servers having the largest remaining data amount in the detected server group (S319).

  As a result of the determination, if there are a plurality of servers having the largest remaining data amount (S319: YES), that is, if the conditions for the remaining data amount are the same, the number of contents held in the server having the largest remaining data amount. Detects the smallest server (S320). On the other hand, when the server with the largest remaining data amount is a single server (S319: NO), the server with the largest remaining data amount is detected (S321). Hereinafter, the server detected in S320 or S321 is referred to as a detection server.

  Next, in S322, it is determined whether or not the remaining data amount of the detection client is larger than the value obtained by subtracting the data amount of the target content from the remaining data amount of the detection server. As a result of the determination, if the remaining data amount of the detection client is larger (S322: YES), the server information corresponding to the detection server is extracted, the extracted server information is transmitted to the detection client, and the target content is acquired. The detection client is instructed (S323). After executing the process of S323, the process returns to S301.

  On the other hand, when the value obtained by subtracting the data amount of the target content from the remaining data amount of the detection server is equal to or larger than the remaining data amount of the detection client (S322: NO), unacquired content common between the detection client and other clients In step S324, it is determined whether there is content in the order of reservation next to the target content.

  As a result of the determination, if there is content with the earliest reservation order (S324: YES), the content (hereinafter, the content becomes the next target content) is held, and the remaining data amount is larger than the target content. A server is detected (S325), and the process returns to S319. On the other hand, if there is no content with the earliest reservation order next to the target content (S324: NO), the content with the earliest reservation order is detected among the unacquired contents of the detection client (S326). Thereafter, the process proceeds to S310 with the content as detected content.

[Description of Centralized Management Device Processing (2)]
FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing the procedure of the centralized management process (2) executed by the CPU 21 of the centralized management apparatus 2.

  In S401, the CPU 21 of the centralized management apparatus 2 detects a server having a surplus data amount (remaining data amount), and determines whether a server having a surplus data amount has been detected (S402).

  The surplus data amount refers to the data amount that is the difference between the data amount that can be transmitted at the maximum UPLOAD rate and the remaining data amount until the next remaining data amount reset time. Then, if the remaining data amount is larger than the data amount that can be transmitted at the maximum UPLOAD speed until the next remaining data amount reset time, there is surplus data, and if it is smaller, there is no surplus data amount. The remaining data amount reset time is a time for resetting the remaining data amount to the upper limit amount set for each period.

When a server having an excess data amount is not detected (S402: NO), the process returns to S401.
On the other hand, when a server having a surplus data amount is detected in S402 (S402: YES), the most popular content (maximum popular content) is detected from the content held by the detected server (S403). Subsequently, it is determined whether the detected surplus data amount of the server is larger than the data size of the detected most popular content (S404).

When the detected surplus data amount of the server is equal to or smaller than the data size of the most popular content (S404: NO), the process returns to S401.
On the other hand, if the surplus data amount of the server detected in S404 is larger than the data size of the maximum popular content (S404: YES), it is determined whether or not the maximum popular content can be transmitted by the detected remaining data amount reset time of the server. (S405).

Here, when the data size of the most popular content is transmitted at the minimum UPLOAD speed, transmission is possible if all data can be transmitted before the next remaining data amount reset time.
If transmission is not possible (S405: NO), the processing returns to S401.

  On the other hand, if transmission is possible in S405 (S405: YES), it is determined whether or not there is a client that is not currently acquiring content (a client in a non-acquisition state) (S406). If it does not exist (S406: NO), the process returns to S401.

  On the other hand, if it exists in S406 (S406: YES), it is determined whether there is a client that does not have the most popular content among non-acquired clients (S407). If it exists (S407: YES), the client having the smallest number of owned contents is detected from the corresponding clients (S408), and the server information of the server detected in S402 is transmitted to the client detected in S408. An instruction to acquire surplus content is issued (S409). Then, the process returns to S401.

  On the other hand, if it is determined in S407 that there is no client that does not have the most popular content among the non-acquired clients (S407: NO), the next most popular content from the content held by the server detected in S402 Is detected (S410), and it is determined whether it has been detected (S411). If detected (S411: YES), the process returns to S404. On the other hand, if not detected (S411: YES), the process returns to S401.

[Correspondence with configuration described in claims]
Next, the correspondence between the configuration of the karaoke network system 1 of the embodiment and the configuration described in the claims will be described.

  The CPU 21 of the centralized management device 2 includes an acquisition target specifying unit, a large remaining amount karaoke device selection unit, a data transmission availability determination unit, a non-acquisition karaoke unit selection unit, an acquisition instruction unit, a client information reception unit, and The RAM 22 corresponds to server information reception means, and the RAM 22 corresponds to client information storage means and server information storage means.

  The CPU 41 of the karaoke apparatus 4 corresponds to client information transmission means, acquisition request means, content acquisition means, server information transmission means, content transmission means, return means, and reset means in the claims, and the RAM 42 has a remaining data amount. It corresponds to storage means.

[effect]
According to the karaoke network system 1 of the above embodiment, the following effects can be obtained.
(1) When there is no reproduction reservation from the user, popular content can be acquired in advance from another karaoke apparatus 4 from the karaoke apparatus 4 having a sufficient remaining data amount. In this way, content transmission requests can be distributed among karaoke devices, and the amount of transmission data can be effectively smoothed between karaoke devices regardless of the utilization rate of data transmission resources in the karaoke devices. . Therefore, it is possible to prevent the transmission data amount from exceeding the upper limit due to the concentration of content transmission requests on a specific karaoke apparatus (server).

  (2) If a reservation for unacquired content is received during content acquisition, the acquisition of the content currently being executed is interrupted in order to prioritize the acquisition of the unacquired content desired by the user, thus improving user convenience. be able to.

  (3) When the server transmits content, the remaining data amount can be more accurately managed by reducing the shortage of the actual transmission data amount with respect to the content data amount to the remaining data amount. Can be used without waste.

  (4) The remaining data amount that can be transmitted can be appropriately managed by resetting the remaining data amount to the upper limit whenever the predetermined period expires.

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Karaoke network system, 2 ... Centralized management apparatus, 21 ... CPU, 22 ... RAM, 23 ... ROM, 24 ... HDD, 25 ... Network communication part, 4 ... Karaoke apparatus, 41 ... CPU, 42 ... RAM, 43 ... ROM 44 ... HDD, 45 ... operation unit, 46 ... playback unit, 47 ... input unit, 48 ... network communication unit, 200 ... Internet

Claims (5)

A karaoke network system in which a plurality of karaoke devices that play back content based on a playback reservation from a user and a centralized management device are connected to be able to communicate with each other via a network,
The karaoke device
In response to a client function for making a content acquisition request to another karaoke device and acquiring the content from the requested karaoke device and a content acquisition request from another karaoke device, the content is sent to the requesting karaoke device. In addition to the server function to send,
As a configuration related to processing executed as the client function,
Client information including at least identification information of the own karaoke device, identification information of the content reserved for reproduction, and possession information indicating the possession status of the content reserved for reproduction in the own karaoke device is transmitted to the centralized management device Client information transmission means for
As a configuration related to processing executed as the server function,
Of the upper limit amount of transmission data set for the karaoke device in units of a predetermined period, the remaining data amount for storing the remaining data amount that the own karaoke device can transmit to other karaoke devices during the current period Storage means;
Centralized management of server information including at least the identification information of the own karaoke device, the remaining data amount of the own karaoke device, the identification information of the content held by the own karaoke device, and the data transmission rate information indicating the data transmission rate Server information transmitting means for transmitting to the device,
The centralized management device is:
Client information storage means for storing client information received from each karaoke device;
Reproduction reservation counting means for totalizing the number of content reproduction reservations from the client information received from each karaoke device,
Server information storage means for storing server information received from each karaoke device;
Based on the server information of each karaoke device stored in the server information storage means, the surplus data amount when the remaining data amount is equal to or greater than a predetermined value and the remaining data amount equal to or greater than the predetermined value is defined as the surplus data amount Karaoke device selection means for selecting a large remaining amount karaoke device which is the largest karaoke device,
Based on the server information of the large remaining amount karaoke apparatus stored in the server information storage means, the reproduction reservation is made from the contents held by the large remaining amount karaoke apparatus detected by the large remaining amount karaoke apparatus selection means. An acquisition target specifying means for specifying high-frequency content as an acquisition target;
Based on the server information of each karaoke device stored in the server information storage means, the surplus data amount of the large remaining karaoke device detected by the large remaining karaoke device selection means is specified by the acquisition target specifying means. Data transmission availability determination means for determining whether the acquisition target content can be acquired within a predetermined period according to the data transmission speed, which is larger than the data amount of the acquisition target content;
A non-acquiring karaoke apparatus is selected from karaoke apparatuses that do not have the content to be acquired specified by the acquisition target specifying means based on the server information of each karaoke apparatus stored in the server information storage means. Acquisition karaoke device selection means,
For the non-acquisition karaoke device selected by the non-acquisition karaoke device selection means, the corresponding server information is transmitted to the karaoke device with a large remaining amount selected by the high-remaining karaoke device selection means, and the acquisition target content is acquired. Acquisition instruction means for instructing
Furthermore, the karaoke device
As a configuration related to processing executed as the client function,
An acquisition request means for transmitting an acquisition request for the content to the karaoke apparatus indicated by the server information when receiving the acquisition instruction of the content to be acquired and the server information of the acquisition destination from the centralized management device;
In response to the acquisition request transmitted by the acquisition request unit, the content acquisition unit for acquiring content transmitted from the karaoke device of the request destination,
As a configuration related to processing executed as the server function,
When a content acquisition request is received from another karaoke device, if the remaining data amount of the own karaoke device is equal to or greater than the data amount of the content related to the acquisition request, the remaining data amount of the own karaoke device is equal to the data amount of the content. A karaoke network system comprising: content transmitting means for transmitting the content to the requesting karaoke device after the content is reduced. The karaoke network system according to claim 1,
In the client function of the karaoke device,
When the acquisition request unit receives a playback reservation for an unacquired content different from the content being acquired by the content acquisition unit, the acquisition request unit transmits an acquisition interruption of the content to the karaoke apparatus indicated by the server information. ,
In the server function of the karaoke device,
The content transmission means interrupts the transmission of the content when receiving the content acquisition suspension from another karaoke device. In the karaoke network system of any one of Claim 1 or Claim 2,
The karaoke apparatus is configured as a process to be executed as the server function,
After the content transmission by the content transmission unit is completed, the karaoke device further comprises a reduction unit that reduces the shortage of the actual transmission data amount with respect to the data amount of the content to the remaining data amount of the own karaoke device. Network system. In the karaoke network system of any one of Claims 1-3,
The karaoke apparatus is configured as a process to be executed as the server function,
A karaoke network system, further comprising a reset unit that resets the remaining data amount stored in the remaining data amount storage unit to the upper limit when the predetermined period expires. A centralized management device used in a karaoke network system in which a plurality of karaoke devices and a centralized management device that play back content based on a playback reservation from a user are connected to each other via a network,
Client information including at least identification information of the karaoke device from the karaoke device, identification information of the content reserved for playback by the karaoke device, and holding information indicating a holding status of the content reserved for playback in the karaoke device. Client information receiving means for receiving
Client information storage means for storing client information received from each karaoke device by the client information receiving means;
From the karaoke device, among the identification information of the karaoke device and the upper limit amount of transmission data set in units of a predetermined period, the remaining data amount that the karaoke device can transmit to other karaoke devices during the current period, Server information receiving means for receiving server information including at least content identification information held by the karaoke device and data transmission speed information indicating a data transmission speed;
Reproduction reservation counting means for totalizing the number of content reproduction reservations from the client information received from each karaoke device,
Server information storage means for storing server information received from each karaoke device by the server information receiving means;
Based on the server information of each karaoke device stored in the server information storage means, the surplus data amount when the remaining data amount is equal to or greater than a predetermined value and the remaining data amount equal to or greater than the predetermined value is defined as the surplus data amount Karaoke device selection means for selecting a large remaining amount karaoke device which is the largest karaoke device,
Based on the client information of the large remaining amount karaoke apparatus stored in the server information storage unit, the reproduction reservation is made from the contents held by the large remaining amount karaoke apparatus detected by the large remaining amount karaoke apparatus selection unit. An acquisition target specifying means for specifying high-frequency content as an acquisition target;
Based on the server information of each karaoke device stored in the server information storage means, the surplus data amount of the large remaining karaoke device detected by the large remaining karaoke device selection means is specified by the acquisition target specifying means. Data transmission availability determination means for determining whether the acquisition target content can be acquired within a predetermined period according to the data transmission speed, which is larger than the data amount of the acquisition target content;
A non-acquiring karaoke apparatus is selected from karaoke apparatuses that do not have the content to be acquired specified by the acquisition target specifying means based on the server information of each karaoke apparatus stored in the server information storage means. Acquisition karaoke device selection means,
For the non-acquisition karaoke device selected by the non-acquisition karaoke device selection means, the corresponding server information is transmitted to the karaoke device with a large remaining amount selected by the high-remaining karaoke device selection means, and the acquisition target content is acquired. A centralized management apparatus comprising: an acquisition instruction means for instructing

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