JPH06178279A - Supervisory system in one-way catv system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To easily supervise the operating state of a channel proper amplifier and a center equipment while a CATV supervisor is resident. CONSTITUTION:A supervisory equipment 50 receiving a signal of a prescribed supervisory channel is installed to a prescribed location C of one-way transmission line networks L1-L3, and amplifiers S1-S5 capable of sending an RF modulation signal of control data direction to a relay amplifier disposed to a transmission line up to a channel proper amplifier 20 and a selection transmitter 60 selecting a broadcast wave of the selected channel among television broadcast waves inputted to the channel proper amplifier 20 and sending the selected wave to a reception transmission line 30 is provided to the system. The selection transmitter 60 outputs a broadcast wave of a prescribed channel to the supervisory channel in response to control data outputted from the supervisory equipment 50. Thus, the supervisory equipment 50 supervises a video image of a channel not passing through a channel proper amplifier 20 selectively.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a unidirectional CATV system, in which a receiving point amplifier arranged at a receiving point for receiving a revision radio wave and each broadcast wave are arranged in a predetermined frequency and transmitted to a unidirectional transmission line network. The present invention relates to a system capable of monitoring malfunctions and various states of a center device at an arbitrary point of a unidirectional transmission line network separated from those devices, for example, at the administrator's house of a CATV system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a television radio wave such as VHF or UHF has been received, and a predetermined frequency arrangement has been provided for transmission to a unidirectional transmission line network so that the television broadcast wave is supplied to each consumer by wire. A unidirectional CATV system is known. In this system, VH is generally received at the receiving point.
A reception point amplifier that arranges broadcast waves received by a dedicated antenna such as F or UHF in a predetermined frequency arrangement and sends them to the center device through a reception transmission path, and rearranges those broadcast waves in a predetermined frequency arrangement or broadcasts them. There is known a center device that sends out an independent broadcast wave in addition to a wave.

[0003]

However, in order to determine the malfunction of the receiving point amplifier and the center device, there is a system in which the broadcast wave input to these devices is taken out and directly monitored as an image. There wasn't. Therefore, the CATV administrator has to go to the installation place of the receiving point amplifier and the center device to check the operating state of the device. In particular, since the receiving point amplifier is installed at a high place such as a mountain top where an antenna is installed, it is very laborious to visit to monitor the operating state of this amplifier.

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and an object thereof is to allow a CATV administrator to easily monitor the operating states of a reception point amplifier and a center device while staying at home. That is.

[0005]

The structure of the present invention for solving the above-mentioned problems is, in a unidirectional CATV system having an antenna and a receiving point amplifier, a predetermined supervisory channel at a predetermined position of a unidirectional transmission line network. An amplifier or a bypass circuit capable of transmitting at least an RF modulation signal of control data from a monitoring device to a receiving point amplifier in a relay amplifier arranged in a transmission path from the monitoring device to the receiving point amplifier And a selective transmission device that is connected in parallel to the reception point amplifier and that selects the broadcast wave of the selected channel from the television broadcast waves input to the reception point amplifier and transmits it to the reception transmission path. System. Then, the monitoring device displays a video display device that receives a signal from a monitoring channel and displays a video, and control data having broadcast wave selection data that selects a broadcast wave of a channel to be monitored among the received television broadcast waves. A control data generation device for generating the control data and a modulation device for RF-modulating the control data and sending the control data to the transmission path of the unidirectional transmission path network. Also, the selective transmission device receives the RF modulated signal of the control data from the reception transmission path and demodulates it into control data, and, in accordance with the broadcast wave selection data of the demodulated control data, the television broadcast wave signal. And a channel selection converter that selects a broadcast wave of a channel to be monitored, frequency-converts it into a monitoring channel, and outputs it to a reception transmission path.

According to another invention, in a unidirectional CATV system, a monitoring device for receiving a signal of a predetermined monitoring channel is installed at a predetermined position of a unidirectional transmission line network, and a transmission line from the monitoring device to the center device is installed. An amplifier or a bypass circuit capable of transmitting at least an RF modulation signal of control data from the monitoring device to the center device is provided in the provided relay amplifier, and the amplifier or bypass circuit is connected in parallel to the center device and the television broadcast wave input to the center device is transmitted. This is a system provided with a selective transmission device that selects a broadcast wave of the selected channel and transmits it to the unidirectional transmission line network. Then, the monitoring device controls the generation of control data including a video display device that receives a signal from the monitoring channel and displays a video, and broadcast wave selection data that selects a broadcast wave of a channel to be monitored among television broadcast waves. It comprises a data generator and a modulator for RF-modulating the control data and sending it to the transmission line of the unidirectional transmission line network.
Further, the selective transmission device receives the RF modulated signal of the control data from the transmission line of the unidirectional transmission line network and demodulates it into the control data, and the receiving device according to the broadcast wave selection data of the demodulated control data. And a channel selection converter that selects a broadcast wave of a channel to be monitored from the television broadcast wave signals input from the transmission path, frequency-converts it into a monitoring channel, and outputs it to the transmission path of the unidirectional transmission path network.

[0007]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, at least the RF modulation signal of the control data is received from the monitoring device by the relay amplifier arranged in the transmission line from the monitoring device installed at a predetermined position of the unidirectional transmission line network to the receiving point amplifier. By providing an amplifier or a bypass circuit that can be transmitted to the point amplifier, the RF modulation signal of the control data can be transmitted from the monitoring device to the reception point amplifier. The monitoring device generates control data having broadcast wave selection data, RF-modulates it, and sends it to the transmission path.
Further, the selective transmission device connected to the input end of the reception point amplifier receives the control data, selects the broadcast wave of the channel designated by the channel selection converter according to the broadcast wave selection data, and selects the selected broadcast. The wave is transmitted to the monitoring channel in the predetermined frequency band of the reception transmission path. The monitoring device receives the broadcast wave from the monitoring channel and displays the image, whereby the signal state of the broadcast wave input to the reception point amplifier can be monitored by the image.

In the second invention, it is possible to perform the same monitoring as in the first invention on the center device. That is, since a relay amplifier between the monitoring device and the center device is provided with an amplifier capable of transmitting the RF modulated signal of the control data toward the center device, the monitoring device transmits the control data having the broadcast wave selection data to the center device. It can be transmitted to the device. The control data is received by the center device, and the broadcast wave of the channel to be monitored is selected from the television broadcast waves input to the center device from the reception transmission path according to the broadcast wave selection data. And the selected broadcast wave is
It is sent to the supervisory channel of the unidirectional transmission line network. As a result, the monitoring device can monitor the signal state of the broadcast wave input to the center device with video.

[0009]

As described above, the broadcast wave of the channel to be monitored is selected from the broadcast waves input to the reception point amplifier and the center device at an arbitrary position of the unidirectional transmission line network, for example, at the CATV administrator's house. Then, the signal state of the selected broadcast wave can be monitored as an image. Therefore, since the monitoring device can monitor the broadcast wave that does not pass through the reception point amplifier or the center device, the CATV administrator can determine the malfunction of the reception point amplifier or the center device while staying there. Further, in the case of the first invention, since the broadcast wave output by the antenna can be monitored, it is possible to determine the malfunction of the antenna.

[0010]

EXAMPLES The present invention will be described below based on specific examples. 1. Overall Configuration FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing a unidirectional CATV system.
The UHF antennas 11 and 13 and the VHF antenna 12 are installed at locations such as the top of a mountain where reception of television radio waves is good. Output signals from these antennas 11, 12, and 13 are input to a channel proper amplifier 20, which is one type of receiving point amplifier, and an output signal of the channel proper amplifier 20 is output to a reception transmission line 30. Reception transmission line 30
Is a transmission line for transmitting output signals from the antennas 11, 12, and 13 to the center device 40. This reception transmission line 30
In case of a long distance, the relay amplifier A1 is inserted to compensate the transmission loss.

Transmission lines L1, L2, L3 forming a unidirectional transmission line network are connected to the center device 40, and relay amplifiers B11, B21 for compensating the transmission loss are respectively connected to the transmission lines L1, L2, L3. , B31 and the like are provided. The monitoring device 50 is arranged at the point C of the transmission line L1. For example, the CATV administrator's house is selected as the point C. A selective transmission device 60 is connected in parallel to the channel proper amplifier 20, and a selective transmission device 70 is arranged in parallel to the center device 40. The selective transmission device 6
0 is mounted in the housing 21 of the channel proper amplifier 20. Further, the relay amplifiers A1, B11, B12, B13 existing between the channel proper amplifier 20 and the point C,
Amplifiers S1 to S5 for transmitting the RF signal of the control channel from the point C to the channel proper amplifier 20 are arranged in B14, respectively. These amplifiers allow control data to be transmitted from the monitoring device 50 towards the channel proper amplifier 20.

2. Configuration of Channel Proper Amplifier 20 and Selective Transmission Device 60 As shown in FIG. 2, the channel proper amplifier 20 is composed of a large number of channel selection converters and amplifiers. The channel selection converter 201 receives the signal from the UHF antenna 11, the amplifiers 202 to 204 receive the signal from the VHF antenna 12, and the channel selection converters 205 and 206 receive the UH.
The signal from the F antenna 13 is input. Each tuning converter is a device that inputs a signal from the antenna, tunes to each channel, rearranges it to a predetermined frequency, and outputs it to the reception transmission path 30, and the amplifier is an amplifier from the antenna. It is a device that outputs the received signal as it is to the reception transmission line 30 without frequency conversion. The frequency-multiplexed television broadcast wave is transmitted to the center device 40 through the reception transmission line 30 by these channel selection converters and amplifiers.

The selective transmission device 60 includes a switch device 61,
Tuning converter 62, MPU 63, RF modem 64, input / output interfaces 65a to 65d, tuning converter 2
A voltage detector 66a for detecting the power supply voltage of 01 to 206,
Limit switch 66 for detecting the open / closed state of the housing 21
b, a level detector 66c for detecting the signal level of the reception transmission line 30. The RF modem 64 is a device that receives an RF signal from the control channel of the reception transmission path 30 and converts it into control data, or RF modulates the state data detected by each of the detectors 66a to 66c and sends it to the monitoring channel. is there. The MPU 63 decodes the antenna selection data and the broadcast wave selection data from the received control data, operates the switch device 61 according to the antenna selection data, selects the broadcast wave output from one antenna, and further selects the broadcast wave. It is a device that operates the station converter 62 to select a broadcast wave of one channel, frequency-converts the selected broadcast wave into a signal of a predetermined monitoring channel, and sends the signal to the reception transmission path 30. The switch device 61 includes the UHF antenna 1
1, is a device that receives signals from the VHF antenna 12 and the UHF antenna 13 and that allows a broadcast wave output from one instructed antenna to pass through the channel selection converter 62 in response to an instruction from the MPU 63. The channel selection converter 62 is a device that selects one broadcast wave according to command data from the MPU 63, frequency-converts it into a monitoring channel, and outputs it to the reception transmission path 30.

3. Center device 40 and selective transmission device 70
The center device 40 is a device that rearranges the broadcast wave input from the reception transmission line 30 to a predetermined frequency and outputs it to the unidirectional transmission line network, or sends out the independent broadcast wave. The selective transmission device 70 is provided in the same installation place as the center device 40. The selective transmission device 70 includes a switch device 71, a channel selection converter 72, an MPU 73, an RF modem 74, input / output interfaces 75a to 75e, a voltage detector 76a that detects a power supply voltage of the center device 40, the center device 40, and the selective transmission device 70. Lock detector 76b that detects whether or not the room in which is installed is locked, and a level detector 76 that detects the level of the signal sent from the center device 40.
c, a camera 77 for photographing the monitoring panel of the center device 40 and the inside of the room, a camera control device 78 for controlling the photographing angle and zoom of the camera 77, a video signal output from the camera 77 is modulated and output to the transmission line L1 And a modulator 79 that operates.

The RF modem 74 receives an RF signal from the control channel of the transmission line L1 and converts it into control data, or
It is a device that RF-modulates the state data detected by each of the detectors 76a to 76c and sends it to the monitoring channel of the transmission line L1. The MPU 73 decodes the terminal selection data and the broadcast wave selection data from the received control data, controls the switch device 71 according to the terminal selection data, and selects an input signal to the center device 40 or an output signal from the center device 40. Output to the channel selection converter 72, the channel selection converter 72 is operated to select the broadcast wave of one channel, the frequency of the selected broadcast wave is converted into a signal of a predetermined monitoring channel, and the signal is transmitted to the transmission line L1. It is a device.

The switch device 71 is a device that selects a signal of a terminal on the commanded side of the center device 40 in accordance with a command from the MPU 73 and outputs the selected signal to the channel selection converter 72. The tuning converter 72 is the MPU7.
In this device, one broadcast wave is selected in accordance with the command data from 3 to be frequency-converted into a monitoring channel and output to the transmission line L1.

3. Configuration of Monitoring Device 50 As shown in FIG. 4, the monitoring device 50 includes a television receiver 51 that receives a signal of a monitoring channel from the transmission line L1 and displays an image, and an RF control data on the control channel of the transmission line L1. An RF modem 52 that modulates and sends out or receives an RF signal of status data from the monitoring channel of the transmission line L1 and demodulates it into status data, a CPU 53, a RAM 54, and an R
OM55, input interface 56, keyboard 57
It consists of and. Based on the selection of the antenna and the selection of the broadcast wave by operating the keyboard 57, the CPU 53
It is a device that generates control data and outputs it to the RF modem 52.

4. Operation of this system The CPU 53 of the monitoring device 50 executes processing according to the procedure shown in FIG. The operation state of the keyboard 57 is read in step 100, and control data is generated in step 102. As shown in FIG. 6, the control data is composed of surveillance place data, antenna selection data / terminal selection data, broadcast wave selection data, status data presence / absence request data, and camera control data. As for the monitoring location data, the monitoring location of the broadcast wave is the channel proper amplifier 20 or the center device 4
This is data indicating 0. The antenna selection data / terminal selection data is data for selecting one of the antennas 11 to 13 when the monitoring location is the channel proper amplifier 20, and when the monitoring location is the center device 40, This is data for selecting the input terminal or the output terminal of the center device. The broadcast wave selection data is data that specifies the frequency of the broadcast wave to be selected by the channel selection converter 62 of the selection transmission device 60 or the channel selection converter 72 of the selection transmission device 70. Status data request status data is
It is data for designating whether to request transmission of various status data detected by the selective transmission device 60 or the selective transmission device 70. The camera control data is valid only for the selective transmission device 70, and the video taken by the camera 77 is sent to the monitoring channel.
Is data for controlling the imaging angle, zoom, etc.

Next, in step 104, the control data is output to the RF modem 52. The control data is sent to the control channel of the transmission line L1. By the transmission of this control data, the broadcast wave selected by the designated selective transmission device 60 or the designated selective transmission device 70 is transmitted by the monitoring channel. This broadcast wave is received by the television receiver 51, and an image is displayed. This allows CAT
The administrator of V can monitor the signal states of the outputs of the antennas 11 to 13 and the input or output of the center device 70 by images.

Next, when it is determined in step 106 that the status data is requested, the status data is received from the monitoring channel via the RF modem 52 in step 108, and the status data is received in the television in step 110. It is displayed on the John receiver 51.

The MPU 63 of the selective transmission device 60 executes the processing according to the procedure shown in FIG. In step 200, the control data is received from the control channel of the reception transmission path 30, and in step 202, it is judged from the monitoring place data whether or not the control data is addressed to itself. If it is the data addressed to itself, step 204 In, the control data is decomposed into antenna selection data and broadcast wave selection data. Next, in step 206, the contact of the switch device 61 is controlled according to the antenna selection data, and step 20
In 8, the frequency data of the broadcast wave selected according to the broadcast wave selection data is set in the channel selection converter 62. In this state, the output signal of the antenna selected by the switch device 61 is output to the channel selection converter 62, and only the broadcast wave of one channel is selected by the channel selection converter and transmitted to the monitoring channel of the reception transmission path 30. It

Next, at step 210, it is judged whether or not there is a designation of request for status data in the control data,
If there is a request, the output signals of the detectors 66a to 66c are read in step 212, and step 2
At 14 the state data is generated in response to the signal, and at step 216 the RF modem 64 is set with the state data. As a result, the selected broadcast wave and status data can be transmitted through the transmission line L1 via the reception transmission line 30 and the center device 40, and can be received by the monitoring device 50.

The operation of the selective transmission device 70 is the same as that of FIG. 7 except that the antenna selection data becomes the terminal selection data. Based on the terminal selection data, it is possible to select and monitor the broadcast wave input to the center device 70 or the broadcast wave output from the center device 70 to the transmission line L1. further,
The selective transmission device 70 can determine whether or not to capture an image with the camera 77 based on the camera control data. When the image pickup by the camera 77 is instructed, the image pickup angle and zoom of the camera 77 are controlled according to the camera control data, and the output signal of the camera 77 is sent to the monitoring channel of the transmission line L1 via the modulator 79. Sent out. Accordingly, the television receiver 51 of the monitoring device 50 causes the camera 77 to
You can see the video captured by.

The camera 77 captures an image of a monitoring panel showing various operating states of the center device 40, and an image of the inside of the room in which the center device 40 is installed. You can monitor the operating status and the state of the room. The above-mentioned amplifiers S1 to S5 need only be able to transmit the RF signal of the control data, and therefore low-standard and inexpensive ones can be used. Further, since the attenuation of the RF signal of the control data does not become a problem as much as the video signal, some relay amplifiers are bypass lines even if they are not installed in parallel with all the relay amplifiers A1, B11, B12, B13 and B14. It may be configured. Although the antenna at the receiving point is a UHF or VHF dedicated antenna, a common antenna may be used. In this case, the switch device 61
The control data may be composed of only broadcast wave selection data for selecting a television broadcast wave to be monitored. Further, as the receiving point amplifier, the channel proper amplifier may be a simple signal amplifier which does not perform frequency conversion.

[Brief description of drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a channel proper amplifier and a selective transmission device arranged at a reception point of the system according to the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the configurations of a center device and an optional transmission device of the system according to the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a monitoring device of the system according to the embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure of a CPU of the monitoring device.

FIG. 6 is a configuration diagram showing control data.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing an operation procedure of the MPU of the selective transmission device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 11 to 13 ... Antenna 20 ... Channel proper amplifier (reception point amplifier) 30 ... Reception transmission line 40 ... Center device 50 ... Monitoring device 60, 70 ... Selective transmission device 61 ... Switch device 62, 72 ... Channel selection converter 52 ... RF modem (Modulator) 64, 74 ... RF modem (demodulator)

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An antenna for receiving a television broadcast wave of each frequency band, a reception point amplifier for amplifying a television broadcast wave received by the antenna and transmitting the amplified television broadcast wave to a reception transmission line, and a reception transmission line. Unidirectional CATV that receives signals and sends them to the unidirectional transmission line network toward consumers
In the system, a monitoring device for receiving a signal of a predetermined monitoring channel is installed at a predetermined position of the unidirectional transmission line network, and at least a relay amplifier arranged in a transmission line from the monitoring device to the reception point amplifier is controlled. An amplifier or a bypass circuit capable of transmitting an RF modulated signal of data from the monitoring device to the reception point amplifier is provided, and is connected in parallel to the reception point amplifier and is selected from the television broadcast waves input to the reception point amplifier. A selective transmission device for selecting a broadcast wave of a selected channel and transmitting it to the reception transmission path, wherein the monitoring device receives a signal from the monitoring channel and displays an image, and a received television. A control data generation device for generating control data having broadcast wave selection data for selecting a broadcast wave of a channel to be monitored among the John broadcast waves; A modulation device for RF-modulating data and transmitting the data to a transmission line of the unidirectional transmission line network, wherein the selective transmission device receives an RF-modulated signal of the control data from the reception transmission line and converts it into control data. A demodulation device for demodulation, and a broadcast wave of a channel to be monitored among the television broadcast wave signals is selected according to the broadcast wave selection data of the demodulated control data, the frequency is converted to the monitoring channel, and the reception is performed. A monitoring system in a unidirectional CATV system comprising: a channel selection converter for outputting to a transmission line. 2. An antenna for receiving a television broadcast wave of each frequency band, and a reception point amplifier for amplifying the television broadcast wave received by the antenna, converting the television broadcast wave into each predetermined frequency band, and sending out to a reception transmission line. In a unidirectional CATV system, a center device for receiving signals transmitted through a reception transmission path, arranging each signal in a predetermined frequency band, and sending the signals to a unidirectional transmission path network toward a consumer is provided. A monitoring device for receiving a signal of a predetermined monitoring channel is installed at a predetermined position of the unidirectional transmission line network, and at least RF of control data is provided in a relay amplifier arranged in a transmission line from the monitoring device to the center device. An amplifier or a bypass circuit capable of transmitting the modulated signal from the monitoring device to the center device is provided, and the signal is connected in parallel to the center device and input to the center device. And a selective transmission device that selects a broadcast wave of a selected channel from the television broadcast waves to be transmitted to the unidirectional transmission line network, and the monitoring device receives a signal from the monitoring channel to display an image. A video display device for displaying, a control data generation device for generating control data having broadcast wave selection data for selecting a broadcast wave of a channel to be monitored among television broadcast waves, and the unidirectional RF modulation of the control data. A modulation device for transmitting to a transmission line of a transmission line network, wherein the selective transmission device is an RF device for transmitting the control data from a transmission line of the unidirectional transmission line network.
A demodulation device that receives the modulated signal and demodulates it into control data, and a broadcast of a channel to be monitored among the television broadcast wave signals input from the reception transmission path according to the broadcast wave selection data of the demodulated control data. 2. A monitoring system in a unidirectional CATV system, comprising: a channel selection converter that selects a wave, frequency-converts it into the monitoring channel, and outputs the frequency to the transmission path of the unidirectional transmission path network.