JPH10164516A - Sound and dynamic image reproducing system of data centralized managing type - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a sound and dynamic image reproducing system hardly causing troubles, such as interruption in video and sound even when access to a network is congested. SOLUTION: This sound and dynamic image reproducing system of data centralized managing type is connected to a shared hard disk device storing voice and dynamic image data and its shared hard disk device and is provided with plural sound and dynamic image reproducing devices 4, individually provided with a function for accessing to the shared hard disk device for reading sound and dynamic image data. The devices 4 are respectively provided with an auxiliary storage device 68 for temporarily storing at least a part of sound and dynamic image, data transferred from the shared hard disk device in advance of its reproduction and read data stored in the device 68 to reproduce sound and dynamic image.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a data centralized sound / moving image reproducing system used for a communication karaoke system, a video server, and the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in a video server, a communication karaoke system, or the like, a management device for collectively storing and managing sound and moving image data and a plurality of playback devices are connected by a two-way communicable network. By transferring data from the player to the playback device,
2. Description of the Related Art A centralized sound / moving image reproduction system capable of reproducing moving images has been constructed. As a network connection method in such a system, for example, SC
A method using an SI (Small Computer System Interface) bus or a method using a LAN (Local Area Network) can be exemplified.

[0003]

By the way, in the above-mentioned sound / moving picture reproducing system, the amount of moving picture data to be transferred is extremely large, and the capacity of the data buffer memory mounted on each reproducing apparatus is limited. Therefore, data transfer is usually performed from the management device to the playback device by a real-time method synchronized with playback. However, this method not only increases the processing load on the management device, but also causes a delay in data transfer when the access to the network is crowded, which directly leads to a break in video and sound in the playback device. There's a problem.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a data-intensive management type sound / moving picture reproduction which can smoothly reproduce a picture or sound without troubles such as interruptions even when access to a network is crowded. It is to provide a system.

[0005]

Means for Solving the Problems and Functions / Effects In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a data central management type sound / moving image reproducing system according to the present invention comprises sound data and moving image data (hereinafter referred to collectively as sound / moving data). And a plurality of sound / audio devices connected to the shared hard disk device and individually having a function of accessing the shared hard disk device for reading out sound / video data. Video and audio playback devices, each of which has an auxiliary storage device for temporarily storing at least a portion of the audio and video data transferred from the shared hard disk device prior to its playback. The sound and the moving image are reproduced by reading the data stored in the auxiliary storage device. Sound data includes music performance sounds and singing sounds, sound effects,
It can be sound or voice data such as dialogue and narration.

In the above configuration, an auxiliary storage device is provided in each audio / video reproduction device, and at least a part of the audio / video data from the shared hard disk device is stored in the auxiliary storage device prior to reproduction. After that, the data is read from the auxiliary storage device and reproduced. Therefore, for example, even if access to the shared hard disk device from the sound / moving image reproducing device becomes crowded and data transfer is delayed, the influence on reading / reproducing of sound / moving image data stored in the auxiliary storage device is exerted. Since sound and moving images can be smoothly reproduced, troubles such as interruption of images or sounds are less likely to occur. Note that the auxiliary storage device can be specifically configured by a hard disk device or a magneto-optical disk device.

The moving image data is transferred in a compressed state from the shared hard disk device to the sound / moving image reproducing apparatus, and a plurality of sound / moving image reproducing apparatuses perform compression for releasing the compressed state of the moving image data. Release means may be provided respectively. As a result, the moving image data having a large data amount is stored in a compressed state on the shared hard disk device, transferred to the individual sound / moving image reproducing device in the compressed state, and then decompressed and reproduced for each device. In addition, the storage capacity of moving image data in the shared hard disk device can be reduced. Further, since the amount of moving image data is reduced by compression, data transfer can be performed in a short time, and processing load for transfer control can be reduced.

[0008] The sound / moving picture reproducing apparatus performs the reproducing process of the sound / moving picture data stored in the auxiliary storage device and the storing process of new sound / moving picture data in the auxiliary storage device in parallel. Can be configured. In other words, when transferring a large amount of audio / video data from the shared hard disk device to the auxiliary storage device, it takes a long time to complete the transfer, so when a certain amount of data is accumulated in the auxiliary storage device, By starting the reproduction of the already stored data while storing new data in the auxiliary storage device, the waiting time from the start of data transfer from the shared hard disk device to the start of reproduction can be reduced. it can. Note that the parallel processing may include both processing of simultaneously reading and reproducing the sound / moving image reproducing apparatus, or processing of alternately performing reading and reproducing.

Next, when a plurality of sets of audio / video data are stored in the shared hard disk device, the audio / video reproducing apparatus is provided with a reproduction number counter for counting the number of reproductions of each audio / video data. The sound / moving image data whose count value of the counter has reached a predetermined value can be configured so as to be entirely stored / registered in a data registration unit formed in the auxiliary storage device. In this case, the sound / moving image data is read from the data registration unit and reproduced from the next reproduction. As a result, sound / moving image data for which the count value of the counter has reached a predetermined number is read out from the data registration unit of the auxiliary storage device and reproduced without accessing the shared hard disk device. Of course, the effect of eliminating congestion of access to the shared hard disk device and further improving the data transfer efficiency can be obtained.

Next, as a specific system configuration in which each sound / moving picture reproducing apparatus can independently access the shared hard disk device, the following can be exemplified. That is, a plurality of sound / moving-image reproducing devices are connected in a linear manner to each other by a data bus, and the data bus is used between at least some of the plurality of sound / moving-image reproducing devices on the data bus. If conflicts occur,
Arbitration means for setting the right to use the data bus is provided for any one of the competing audio / video reproduction devices. Further, each sound / moving picture reproducing apparatus has a read command means for commanding reading of predetermined sound data and moving picture data to the shared hard disk drive, and only when the right to use the data bus is set by the arbitrating means. Read command control means for causing the read command means to execute the above-mentioned command to the shared hard disk device. Then, the shared hard disk device transfers the sound data and the moving image data via the data bus to the sound / moving image reproduction device to which the use right is set.

In the above arrangement, the read command means provided in each sound / moving picture reproducing apparatus instructs the shared hard disc drive to read out the sound data and the moving picture data, so that individual access to the shared hard disc drive is achieved. It becomes possible. Here, when access to the shared hard disk device from a plurality of sound / moving image reproducing devices (that is, use of the data bus) conflicts, the arbitration means sends to any one of the sound / moving image reproducing devices according to a predetermined method. Since the right to use the data bus is set and only the playback device to which the usage right is set can instruct data reading to the shared hard disk device, for example, a large number of playback devices can simultaneously send data to the shared hard disk device. Even when an attempt is made to access the data, the data can be read and transferred smoothly and without error.

[0012] The sound data and the moving image data read from the shared hard disk device are transferred by a data bus connecting the playback devices in a linear fashion. Each audio / video playback device accesses the data bus if the right to use the data bus is set and receives the data to be transferred. If the right to use the data bus is not set, the access to the data bus is restricted. Configured as not doing. Thus, even if the shared hard disk device does not particularly recognize the data transfer destination, data transfer to a predetermined playback device can be reliably performed.

More specifically, a priority order regarding the use of the data bus can be fixedly set in advance among the plurality of sound / moving image reproducing apparatuses. Further, the arbitration means can be provided in each sound / moving-image reproducing device. In this case, each arbitration unit confirms the use status of the data bus, and checks its own corresponding sound / moving image reproducing apparatus with another sound / moving apparatus.
The use of the data bus is not competing with the video playback device, and another audio / video playback device which should be given priority over the corresponding audio / video playback device requests the right to use the data bus. Only when it is determined that the data bus has not been used, the right to use the data bus is set for the sound / moving image reproducing apparatus.

As a specific example of such a system, SCS
A system employing the I (Small Computer System Interface) standard can be given. In this case, each sound / moving picture reproducing apparatus is provided with a SCSI interface, and is connected to each other via a SCSI interface by a SCSI bus functioning as the data bus. This way,
The connection mechanism between the devices can be configured at a lower cost as compared with a conventional connection system using both a LAN and a coaxial cable. Further, there is an advantage that the data transfer speed can be increased as compared with the case where a LAN is used (at most about 4 Mbytes / sec). Note that the transfer speed differs depending on the type of the SCSI standard to be adopted.

In the present invention, the following SCSI standards can be adopted. SCSI-1: The SCSI bus is a parallel bus having a data width of 8 bits (+1 parity bit). The data transfer speed is about 5.0 Mbytes / sec at maximum for synchronous transfer.

SCSI-2: Includes the following three types. (1) Fast-SCSI: The SCSI bus has 8 bits (+
Although it is a parallel bus of 1 parity bit), the data transfer speed is about 10.0 Mbytes / sec at the maximum for synchronous transfer. (2) 16-bit Wide-SCSI: The SCSI bus is a parallel bus having a data width of 16 bits (+2 parity bits) and a maximum data transfer speed of 20.
It is about 0 Mbytes / sec. (3) 32-bit Wide-SCSI: The SCSI bus is a parallel bus having a data width of 32 bits (+4 parity bits) and a maximum data transfer speed of 40.000 for synchronous transfer.
It is about 0 Mbytes / sec.

SCSI-3: The following are included as parallel transfer methods. (1) Ultra-SCSI: Also referred to as Fast20. S
The CSI bus is a parallel bus having a data width of 8 bits (+1 parity bit), and has a data transfer speed of about 20.0 Mbytes / sec at maximum for synchronous transfer. (2) Ultra-2: Also referred to as Fast40. SCSI
The bus is a parallel bus having a data width of 8 bits (+1 parity bit) and a data transfer speed of up to 4 for synchronous transfer.
It is about 0.0 Mbytes / sec. (3) Ultra-3: Also referred to as Fast80. SCSI
The bus is a parallel bus having a data width of 8 bits (+1 parity bit) and a data transfer speed of up to 8 for synchronous transfer.
It is about 0.0 Mbytes / sec.

In the above three parallel transfer methods of SCSI-3, it is also possible to use a transfer method in which the data width is 16 bits (+2 parity bits) and the transfer speed is doubled. On the other hand, as SCSI-3, FiberChannel, IEEE1394,
A standard of a serial transfer method such as SSA (Serial Storage Architecture) can also be used. For example, Fibre
In the channel, the data bus is constituted by an optical fiber cable, and the data transfer rate is 100 to 800.
Since it is as large as about M bytes / sec, it is particularly effective for transferring moving image data.

When a plurality of sound / moving image reproducing apparatuses are connected to each other via a SCSI bus, a shared hard disk drive and a sound / moving image reproducing apparatus are connected to each other.
Video playback devices can also be connected by a SCSI bus. Here, when the shared hard disk drive is composed of a plurality of hard disk drives, in the shared hard disk drive, all of the data buses serving as access paths from the audio / video playback devices to the individual hard disk drives are SCSI. It can be composed of a bus. On the other hand, a part of the data bus may be constituted by a data bus other than the SCSI bus, such as a PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) bus. In the former case, all the hard disk drives in the shared hard disk device and the sound / moving image reproducing device can be connected by an inexpensive SCSI bus, so that the configuration cost of the connecting portion can be reduced. However, in the case of the SCSI standard of the parallel transfer method, the number of devices that can be connected to one SCSI bus cannot be larger than the number of data bus bits included in the SCSI bus. When a plurality of hard disk drives are used, the number of connectable sound / moving image reproducing devices decreases as the number of connected hard disk drives increases.

On the other hand, according to the latter configuration, since the SCSI bus forming an access path to each hard disk drive is replaced by a data bus other than the SCSI bus in the shared hard disk drive and is interrupted, the sound and the sound are lost. There is an advantage that the number of connections of the moving image reproducing device can be increased. In this case, the SCSI bus connecting the plurality of hard disk drives in the shared hard disk device and the SCSI bus connecting the plurality of sound / moving image reproducing devices may be configured by different standards. SCSI-2 may be 16-bit Wide-SCSI, and the latter may be SCSI-2 Fast-SCSI. In addition, SCSI of serial transfer method
When the standard is used, the above-described restrictions do not occur, and for example, Fiber Channel using an optical fiber cable is used.
el, a maximum of 10 per SCSI bus
About 00 devices can be connected.

On the other hand, it is also possible to adopt a method in which a fixed priority order regarding the use of the data bus is not particularly defined among the plurality of sound / moving image reproducing apparatuses. In this case, for a competing audio / video reproducing device, a method of randomly setting a reproducing device for setting a use right each time, a method of setting a use right for a device with the fastest access, and a method of setting a use right for a data bus. Various methods can be adopted, such as a method of determining a priority order according to the access results up to that time (for example, a round robin method in which a device with the latest access time in the past access results is higher in the priority order). Also, it is sufficient that at least one arbitration unit is provided on the data bus, and it is not always necessary to provide the arbitration unit in all sound / moving image reproducing devices.

[0022]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the embodiments shown in the drawings. FIG. 1A is a block diagram showing an overall configuration of a karaoke system as one embodiment of a data / centralized management sound / moving picture reproducing system according to the present invention. The karaoke system 1 has a shared hard disk drive 5 and a plurality of sound / moving picture reproducing devices 4 daisy-chain connected thereto via a SCSI bus 3.

The shared hard disk drive 5 is a so-called RA
As shown in FIG. 2, a plurality of hard disk drives (hereinafter abbreviated as HDDs) 26 are arranged in a disk array 27, and a plurality of disk arrays 27 are daisy-chain-connected by the SCSI bus 15 as shown in FIG. Disk controller 6, direct memory access controller (hereinafter abbreviated as DMA controller) 52, control CPU 53, ROM 54, RAM 5
5, a SCSI controller 50 (which functions as a SCSI interface), a SCSI port 56 connected thereto, a data buffer memory 57, and a local bus (for example, PCI (Periferal Co
high-speed standard bus such as an mponent interconnect) bus 9. Then, the audio / video reproducing device 4 is connected to the SCSI controller 50 via the SCSI port 56.

Returning to FIG. 1, the shared hard disk drive 5
Is formed with a musical sound data storage unit 5a, a background video data storage unit 5b as moving image data, and a lyrics data storage unit 5c. In the musical sound data storage section 5a, musical sound data of a large number of karaoke songs as sound data are stored in association with song names and song numbers. The musical sound data of each music is configured as digital sound data compressed according to a known method such as MPEG1 or MPEG2.

On the other hand, in the lyrics data storage section 5c, lyrics data describing the lyrics of each karaoke song in the form of character codes are stored in the form of being associated with song names and song numbers in the same manner as musical tone data. Based on the lyrics data, the lyrics telop of the karaoke song is displayed on the monitor 78 (FIG. 5) of the sound / video playback device 4 (described later). On the other hand, the background video data storage unit 5b stores moving image data of a plurality of background videos corresponding to the respective karaoke songs. Each moving image data is configured as compressed moving image data compressed according to a known method such as MPEG1 or MPEG2. As shown in FIG. 1B, image data of a plurality of moving image frames and reproduction of each frame are provided. And time stamp data defining timing.

The above-mentioned musical sound data, moving image data and lyrics data are to be read and written as a unit, for example, data corresponding to one karaoke tune (hereinafter referred to as original data) is divided into a plurality of data blocks. Divided into multiple HDs of the shared hard disk drive 5
D26 is distributed and stored in data block units. Then, the original data is read and written in parallel to the plurality of HDDs 26 in units of the data blocks, thereby achieving high-speed data input / output.
Control of data input / output is performed by the control CPU 53 (FIG. 2). In this case, it can be seen that the musical sound data storage unit 5a, the background video data storage unit 5b, and the lyrics data storage unit 5c are formed over the plurality of HDDs 26. In this embodiment, a method of distributing and storing the original data of the musical sound data, the moving image data, and the lyrics data in all the HDDs 26 except for storing error correction information to be described later is adopted. This is divided into several groups (for example, the disk array 27), and the original data is distributed /
A storage method may be used.

Here, in the disk array, in order to improve the reliability of the data, the divided data blocks are stored by adding redundant data as error correction information, and a part of the data on the disk is stored. Is lost,
The original data can be restored.
Parity, Hamming code, BCH
A code, a Reed-Solomon code, or the like can be used. In this embodiment, parity is used.

As shown in FIG. 3A, the original data is in units of several bits (for example, in units of 1 bit, in units of 1 byte (= 8 bits), or in units of a predetermined sector: in this embodiment, in units of 1 byte). ), And divided into data blocks B11, B12,.
2 and ‥‥ are added, and stored in each HDD as shown in FIG. In the figure, for simplicity of description, the original data is depicted as being distributed and stored in three HDDs (disks 1 to 3).

Parity is an odd parity where the parity is "1" when the number of bits "1" in the data block is an even number and "0" when the number of bits is an odd number. There is an even parity in which the parity is "0" and an odd number is "1". For example, when the data block is "10001010", the even parity is "1". Then, when any one of the bits cannot be read at the time of reading the data block, the value of the bit that could not be read is determined from the value of the other bit that was successfully read and the value of the parity bit.・ Can be restored. If even parity is used, the value of the unreadable bit can be directly obtained by taking the exclusive OR of all bits including the parity in the data block except for the unreadable bit. For example, the data “10001010:
If “0” in the second digit from the top of “1” cannot be read, the exclusive OR x is: x = 1 # 0 # 0 # 1 # 0 # 1 # 0 # 1 = 0 (“#” Is a symbol representing an exclusive OR operation), and it can be seen that it is equal to the value of the unreadable bit.

Next, in the shared hard disk drive 5 configured as a disk array, one of the plurality of HDDs 26 is a dedicated HDD for storing error correction information created in advance based on original data (hereinafter referred to as a correction HDD). )
If the data block cannot be read from any one of the data blocks stored in the other HDDs, the error correction information stored in the correction HDD and the data that has been successfully read out. To recover lost data blocks from the data blocks from the HDD. Hereinafter, the details will be described. In the present embodiment, the generation of the error correction information and the restoration processing of the data block for which the reading has failed are performed as shown in FIG.
Based on a dedicated program stored in the OM54 or the like,
Although it is assumed that the control is performed by the control CPU 53, a configuration in which this is performed by dedicated hardware is also possible.

First, the respective systems of the HDDs arranged in parallel for dividing the original data into blocks and storing them in a distributed manner are as follows:
These are referred to as a first lane, a second lane #, and so on. The number of HDDs arranged in parallel is called a parallel number, and is represented by a variable p. However, an HDD for storing error correction information is stored in the parallel number p.
Is not included. Therefore, when the parity is adopted as the error correction information, there are p + 1 lanes. Note that a lane for error correction information, that is, a lane for parity data is referred to as a parity lane. Explaining with reference to FIG. 3B, the parallel number p is 3
And disks 1 to 3 form first to third lanes.

First, when the original data is distributed and written in each lane, as shown in FIG. 3A, it is divided into data blocks of 1 byte as described above to be stored in three HDDs. Next, as shown in FIG. 3B, an exclusive OR operation is performed on the bits at the corresponding positions of the three data blocks to calculate an odd parity. In the example shown in the figure, each data block is “00101”.
111 "," 01111000 "," 1110010 "
0 ", and the parity between the first bits is 0 # 0 #
1 = 1, the parity between the second bits is 0 # 1 # 1 = 0,
‥‥, and the parity set obtained for all eight bits is “10110011”. A total of four blocks of the parity data and three data blocks obtained in this way are written simultaneously to four HDDs.

Next, when data is read, data blocks are read from three lanes other than the parity lane, and the original data is restored by rearranging them in the original order. Here, when the data cannot be read from any one of the three lanes, the parity data is read from the parity lane, and between the read two data blocks, By performing an exclusive OR operation, a data block that cannot be read can be restored. FIG. 3C shows the third lane (disk 3).
5 shows an example of data restoration when data reading cannot be performed.

In the disk array, one H
If the DD causes a failure and data in the DD cannot be read, the defective HDD is removed and a new HDD is removed.
Need to be replaced. At this time, the HDD extracted from the parity data and data of other normal HDDs
The same data stored in the HDD can be restored and reconstructed (rebuilt) on a new HDD.

Next, as shown in FIG. 4, each sound / moving picture reproducing apparatus 4 has a daisy chain connection with a central control unit 60 having a CPU 61, a ROM 62 and a RAM 63, and another sound / moving picture reproducing apparatus 4. And a plurality of AV decoders 67, etc., which are connected via a bus 66, and the like, and a SCSI interface 64 for performing the operation, a peripheral device connection interface (for example, an IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics) interface, a SCSI interface, etc.) 65, and the like. The interface 65 is connected to a local hard disk drive (hereinafter abbreviated as L-HDD) 68 as an auxiliary storage device. The SCSI bus 3 for the sound / moving picture reproducing device 4 is, for example, of the 16-bit Wide-SCSI standard in this embodiment. The sound / moving picture reproducing device 4 connected to the end of the SCSI bus 3 has a terminator 3 for preventing noise generation due to signal reflection at the bus end.
b (FIG. 1) is attached. Also, each AV decoder 6
For example, a reproduction output unit 69 arranged in each room of a karaoke box is connected to the terminal 7.

Here, the above-mentioned musical sound data, compressed moving image data of background video and lyric data are supplied from the shared hard disk device 5 to the sound / moving image reproducing device 4 via the SCSI bus 3. CPU of control unit 60
Reference numeral 61 denotes a role of realizing a function of individually accessing the shared hard disk device 5 for reading out the data, based on a predetermined program stored in the ROM 62 with the RAM 63 as a work area. Fulfill.

More specifically, the CPU 61 is a main component of each of the following means. Arbitration means: SCSI with other audio / video playback device 4
When the use of the bus 3 conflicts, arbitration is performed so that the right to use the SCSI bus 3 is set to any one of the competing audio / video reproducing devices in accordance with a method described later defined in the SCSI standard. I do. Read command means: commands the shared hard disk drive 5 to read data specified by a song number or the like. Read command control means: Causes the read command means to execute the above command to the shared hard disk drive 5 only when the right to use the SCSI bus 3 is set by the arbitration means. Distribution means: music data, moving image data and lyrics data sent from the shared hard disk device 5
To the designated AV decoder 67.

FIG. 6 shows an example of the area configuration in the L-HDD 68. For example, the request counter 68
a, a registration area 68b, an ordinary area 68c, and the like. Of these, the normal area 68c is
It plays a role of temporarily writing and storing a part or the whole of the musical sound data, moving image data and lyrics data transferred via the CSI bus 3. In this case, the data once reproduced is sequentially overwritten / erased by writing new data. Also, the request counter 68a
This stores the number of times of selection of each karaoke tune selected and reproduced by the sound / moving picture reproducing device 4. Each time a tune is selected, the count value of the corresponding tune is incremented by one. Further, the registration area 68b
Is an area for writing and registering the entire music data, moving image data and lyrics data of the karaoke tune for which the number of times of tune selection has reached a predetermined value or more in a form associated with the tune number. The data in the registration area 68b is not erased unless a predetermined registration cancellation process is performed.

Then, the aforementioned CPU 61 (FIG. 4)
Controlling the writing of musical sound data, moving image data, and lyrics data transferred via the CSI bus 3 to the normal area 68c and the registration area 68b, and playing sound and moving images, such as playing karaoke songs and displaying background images. To do
It controls the reading of the data from those areas. Here, the CPU 61 is suitable for multitask processing so that writing and reading of data to and from the normal area 68c and the registration area 68b can be performed in parallel.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of the AV decoder 67 and the reproduction output unit 69. The AV decoder 67 includes a central control unit 70 having a CPU 71, a ROM 72, and a RAM 73, and a compressed moving image data decoder 74, a superimposed telop controller 75, a compressed sound data decoder 76, a serial driver 77, and the like connected thereto. ing. Here, the CPU 71 of the central control unit 70 controls the overall operation of the AV decoder 67, and transmits the musical sound data received via the bus 66 to the compressed sound data decoder 76, the moving image data to the compressed moving image data decoder 74, It plays a role of distributing the lyrics data to the superimposed telop controller 75.

The compressed moving image data decoder 74 and the compressed sound data decoder 76 decompress compressed sound data as compressed moving image data and musical sound data, respectively. Also, the superimposed telop controller 7
Reference numeral 5 denotes a font R as character image storage means therein.
The OM 75a receives the above-mentioned lyrics data, reads out character font data (character image data) corresponding to each character code included in the lyrics data from the font ROM 75a, generates video data of the lyrics telop of the music, and compresses it. It functions as video synthesizing means for synthesizing with the decompressed video data from the video data decoder 74. In addition, the display state of the displayed lyrics telop (for example, the display color of the lyrics telop, the display color of the background portion of the lyrics telop, etc.) is sequentially changed in synchronization with the progress of the music, and the singing portion corresponding to the user is changed. Also plays the role of notifying. Since the number of playback frames per unit time is fixed in moving image playback, if time stamp data (FIG. 1B) accompanying each frame is read out in synchronization with frame playback, The reading interval is almost constant. The change speed or timing of the display state of the lyrics telop can be determined with reference to the read time stamp data.

Next, the reproduction output unit 69 is connected to a monitor 78 connected to the superimpose telop controller 75 of the AV decoder 67 via a video output cable 78a, and a sound output cable 79a such as a stereo pin jack cable. An amplifier 79 connected to the compressed sound data decoder 76, a speaker 80 connected thereto, and a serial driver 77 via a signal transfer cable 81a.
, And a remote control unit 82 attached thereto. The remote control unit 82 has an input key for inputting a song number and the like,
A wireless transmission unit for wirelessly transmitting the input data. For example, when a music number is input for music selection, the data of the music number is wirelessly transmitted to the remote control reception unit 81, and the AV decoder 67 Serial driver 7
7 to the central control unit 70. On the other hand, the superimposed telop controller 7
From 5, the background video and the lyrics telop data after synthesis are converted into video signals by a monitor control unit (not shown), and then transmitted to the monitor 78 for video display. Also,
From the compressed sound data decoder 76, the decompressed musical sound data is sent to an amplifier 79 via a D / A converter (not shown), and output from a speaker 80 as a karaoke performance sound.

Hereinafter, the operation of the karaoke system 1 will be described with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS. FIG.
From the sound / video playback device 4 to the shared hard disk device 5
3 shows a flow of a data access process to the server. That is, in the reproduction output unit 69 shown in FIG. 5, when a music number is inputted from the remote control unit 82, this is transmitted to the central control unit 60 of the sound / moving image reproduction apparatus 4 of FIG. Sent.
If the music number transmission flag 63a in the RAM 63 is on, the CPU 61 of the central control unit 60 transmits the received music number data to the shared hard disk device 5 of FIG. 1 via the SCSI bus 3 ( FIG. 7: S
1). On the other hand, if the music number transmission flag 63a is off, the music number data is not transmitted.

As shown in FIG. 9, the SCSI bus 3 is connected to each SCSI compatible device (that is, the SCSI controller 50).
And a data bus bit corresponding to the audio / video playback device 4) and a BUSY signal (a signal indicating that the bus is being used: hereinafter, BS)
Y signal) bus BSY, SELECT signal (some S
A signal indicating that the CSI device has secured a bus: a SEL signal (hereinafter, referred to as a SEL signal) includes a bus SEL and the like, and various state transitions of the SCSI are executed by a combination of these signals. The SCSI bus 3 is 1
Although the number of data bus bits is 16 since it is a 6-bit Wide-SCSI, it is assumed that only eight data bus bits DB0 to DB7 are shown for easy understanding. The data bus bits DB0 to DB7 have a voltage level lower than a predetermined value (hereinafter, referred to as a data bus bit DB0 to DB7).
It is assumed that the state can be in either of a state of being simply “L” or the like) and a state of a high voltage level (hereinafter simply referred to as “H” or the like). In this embodiment, “L” is “true”. And “H” is treated as meaning “false”. On the other hand, since each SCSI compatible device shares one bus signal bus BSY and one SELECT signal bus SEL, the other SCSI devices are in the “false” state.
In order not to prevent the use of those buses from I-compatible devices,
The buses are released in a "high impedance" state in which neither "L" nor "H" is output.

The SCSI bus 3 initially has all sounds and
All the SCSI compatible devices including the moving image reproducing device 4 are in the bus free phase in which no bus is used, and both the BSY signal and the SEL signal are false. And
An arbitration phase is executed in order for the sound / moving picture reproducing apparatus 4 which is about to send music number data to acquire the right to use the SCSI bus 3 (FIG. 7:
S2). In the SCSI standard, the use priority order of the SCSI bus 3 for each SCSI-compatible device is defined, and the use of the bus is prioritized for a device having a larger ID number. When the use (access) of the SCSI-compatible device on the SCSI bus 3 conflicts, only the device with the highest priority, that is, the device with the largest ID number, has the right to use the SCSI bus 3. Here, ID = 0 is assigned to the SCSI controller 50, and ID =
It is assumed that 1 to 7 are assigned to each sound / moving-image reproducing device 4. The determination procedure is as follows.

First, there is a case where only one sound / moving picture reproducing apparatus 4 uses the SCSI bus 3, for example, FIG.
When the device with ID = 1 attempts to use the SCSI bus 3 as shown in (1), the device becomes an initiator, sets the output of the data bus bit DB1 corresponding to its own ID number to "true (L)", As “true (L)” (arrow A). After a lapse of a predetermined time, the sound / moving image reproducing device 4 with ID = 1 confirms that the other data bus bits of the SCSI bus 3 are not “true (L)”, and sets SEL to “true (L)”. (Arrow B). As a result, the sound / moving picture reproducing apparatus 4 with ID = 1 has acquired the right to use the SCSI bus 3.

Next, referring to FIG. 10, the two sound / moving image reproducing apparatuses 4 perform arbitration, and the SCSI bus 3
The case of acquiring the right to use is described. That is,
The sound / moving picture reproducing apparatus 4 of ID = 1 that intends to use the SCSI bus 3 sets the data bus bit DB1 corresponding to its own ID number to “true (L)” and sets the BSY signal to “true (L)”. (Arrow C). Next, the sound / moving picture reproducing device 4 of ID = 2 trying to use the bus at the same timing has the data bus bit DB corresponding to its own ID number.
2 and BSY are set to “true (L)” (arrow D). And
In the SCSI arbitration phase, the bus with the higher priority is given to the device having the larger ID number.
Therefore, the device with ID = 2 confirms that the data bus bit larger than its own ID number is not “true (L)” after a certain period of time has elapsed, and has acquired the right to use the SCSI bus 3. Then, SEL is set to “true (L)” (arrow F). On the other hand, the SCSI-compatible device with ID = 1 has a data bus bit DB2 larger than its own ID number.
Is "true (L)"
Knowing that the acquisition of the right to use the SI bus has failed, the data bus bits DB1 and BSY are set to “false” (“H” and “high
Impedance ”)” (arrow E or G).

Now, the arbitration is completed and the SC
When the right to use the SI bus 3 is secured, the process proceeds to the selection phase. The selection phase is
This is a phase in which the initiator, that is, the sound / moving picture reproducing apparatus 4 which has obtained the right to use the SCSI bus 3 selects its own target. In this case, the target is (the SCSI controller 50 of) the shared hard disk device 5.

For example, as shown in FIG. 11, when the sound / moving picture reproducing device 4 with ID = 3 as the initiator acquires the SCSI bus 3 at the arrows A and B, the target device with ID = 0 (namely, as shown in FIG. 11) The shared hard disk device 5) sets the data bus bit DB0 of the device of ID = 0 to “true (L)” at the timing of the arrow C after a certain time has elapsed since the SEL signal was set to “true (L)”, and At the timing of arrow D, BSY is set to “false (high impedance)”. Thereafter, the device with ID = 0 knows that the data bus DB0 has been selected as the target because the data bus DB0 is “true (L)”, and sets BSY to “true (L)” (arrow E). ). When BSY becomes “true (L)”, the initiator releases SEL, and the selection phase ends (arrow F).

When the initiator and the target are determined in this way, the process proceeds to the data out phase, and the data of the music number is transmitted from the sound / moving image reproducing device 4 as the initiator to the shared hard disk device 5 as the target. At the time of transmission of the song number data, the central control unit 60 (FIG. 4) of the sound / moving image reproducing device 4 increments the counter corresponding to the song number in the request counter 68a in the L-HDD 68 (see FIG. 7). : S
4).

Now, an outline of the data read / transfer process in the shared hard disk device 5 which has received the music number data will be described with reference to FIG. That is, the music number data () sent from the audio / video reproducing device 4 to the SCSI controller 50 is stored in the RAM 55 from the SCSI controller 50 via the DMA controller 52, and the control CPU 53 is notified of the reception of the music number. Is performed by interrupt processing or polling (). Then
The control CPU 53 issues an instruction to each disk controller 6 to cause each HDD 26 to read the data storage sector corresponding to the music number (). The read data is temporarily stored in the data buffer memory 57 (),
When reading of all data is completed, this is notified to the control CPU 53 by interrupt processing or polling (). In response, the control CPU 53 issues an instruction to the SCSI controller 50 and the DMA controller 52, and transfers the data in the data buffer memory 57 to the SCSI controller 50 ().

The SCSI controller 56 transfers the received data to the sound / moving picture reproducing device 4 as an initiator (data-in phase, FIG. 7: S5). The central control unit 60 (FIG. 4) of the audio / video reproducing device 4 temporarily writes the received data into the L-HDD 68 and accumulates the data. In this case, the request counter 68a corresponding to the music number
If the value of FIG. 6 has reached the predetermined value n, the received data is written in the registration area 68b in a form associated with the music number, and if less than n, it is written in the normal area 68c (see FIG. 6). 7: S6 to S9).

FIG. 8 shows the flow of the process of reproducing the received data. This reproduction process is performed in parallel with the process of receiving data and writing to the L-HDD 68 as described above. First, with respect to the music number input from the remote control unit 82, the central control unit 60 (FIG. 4) of the sound / moving image reproducing device 4 stores the musical sound data, lyrics data and moving image data corresponding to the music number in the registration area 68b ( 6), and if there is no data, the above-mentioned music number transmission flag 63a is turned on (FIG. 9: S1 to S3). As a result, the data is transferred from the shared hard disk device 5 by the above-described processing shown in FIG.
Is accumulated in Here, when the value of the request counter 68a (FIG. 6) is less than n, the transferred data is written in the normal area 68c, so that the accumulated data amount in the area 68c has reached a certain value or more. , The central control unit 60 starts reading data from the area 68c,
This is transferred to the AV decoder 67 receiving the music number (S5 to S8). The AV decoder 67 performs the music performance by decompressing the received musical sound data and outputting it to the amplifier 79, while the superimpose telop controller 75 performs the lyrics based on the background video and the lyrics data based on the decompressed moving image data. The telop is synthesized and output to the monitor 78 (FIG. 5). Note that, even when the value of the request counter 68a (FIG. 6) has reached n, the same processing is performed except that the area from which data is read is the registered area 68b (S10 to S15).

As described above, by reading out the data once stored in the L-HDD 68 and performing reproduction,
It is no longer necessary to transfer data from the shared hard disk device 5 in real time as the reproduction progresses. For example, even if the access to the SCSI bus 3 is crowded and data transfer from the shared hard disk device 5 is interrupted,
Troubles in which sound or moving images are interrupted are less likely to occur.

On the other hand, in S2, if the data is in the registration area 68b, the process proceeds to S16, where the music number transmission flag 63a is turned off. Thereafter, the data is read from the registration area 68b and reproduced. (S17 to S1
9). In this case, the song number transmission flag 63a (FIG. 4) is turned off, and the shared hard disk device 5 shown in FIG.
No data access processing is performed.

As shown in FIG. 4, a modem 90 for communicating with the host computer 11 can be provided in any of the plurality of sound / moving image reproducing apparatuses 4. As a result, the sound / moving image reproducing apparatus 4 transmits new karaoke music data (including musical sound data, lyrics data, and moving image data of background video) from the host computer 11 via the modem 90 and the communication network NW such as a telephone line. ) And send this to S
It plays a role of transferring to the shared hard disk device 5 via the CSI bus 3. In addition, the sound / moving picture reproducing device 4
While collecting data (operation data) relating to the operation status from the other sound / moving picture reproducing device 4, the collected operation data is transmitted to the host computer 11 via the modem 90.
Play the role of sending to. The modem 90 is connected to the bus 66
The central control unit 60 of the sound / moving picture reproducing apparatus 4 controls each process of receiving data of a new karaoke song and transmitting collected operation data to the host computer 11.

The musical sound data is compressed digital sound data in the above embodiment, but this is
It is also possible to use I (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) standard data. The MIDI standard data is
A dedicated data decoder (that is, a MIDI sequencer or a MIDI-compatible musical instrument incorporating the same) that includes signal data such as at least the pitch, sound intensity, sound length, and timbre of each sound constituting the music. Or it is sent to a synthesizer or the like and converted into a sound signal. In this case, for example, as shown in FIG. 5, the AV decoder 67 includes a compressed sound data decoder 76 instead of the compressed sound data decoder 76 or a compressed sound data decoder 76.
At the same time, a MIDI sequencer 91 as the data decoder is provided. Here, the MIDI data can be converted into a sound signal and output to the amplifier 79.
In this case, for example, the music data of some karaoke songs such as those frequently played may be stored in the shared hard disk device 5 by digital compressed sound data and the others by MIDI data. In this case, both the compressed sound data decoder 76 and the MIDI sequencer 91 are provided, and these are appropriately used depending on the type of data. Since MIDI data requires less data volume than digital compressed sound data, it is convenient for covering data of many karaoke songs.

As shown in FIG. 12, a configuration is also possible in which the sound / moving picture reproducing device 4 and all the HDDs 5a included in the shared hard disk device 5 are daisy-chain connected by one SCSI bus 3. In this case, the shared hard disk drive 5 does not constitute a disk array, and neither the above-described data division nor the distributed storage in a plurality of HDDs is performed. In the SCSI standard, the wiring length of the SCSI bus is limited to 6 m for the single-ended type and 25 m for the differential type. In the above configuration, the audio / video reproducing device 4 and the shared hard disk device 5 are placed as close as possible. By arranging them, an integrated centralized control device is formed, and data is output from the centralized control device to the reproduction output unit 69 disposed in each room by using the above-described output cables 78a and 79a having no restriction on the wiring length. It can be said that the supply mode is desirable.

The data / central management type sound / moving picture reproducing system of the present invention is applicable not only to the karaoke system as shown in the above-mentioned embodiment, but also to a video server system for providing sound / moving picture information such as movies and programs. Can be applied in exactly the same way.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an overall configuration of a karaoke system which is an embodiment of a data centralized sound / moving image reproduction system according to the present invention, and an explanatory diagram showing a data configuration of background video data.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an example in which the shared hard disk device is configured by a disk array.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of a data storage format in a disk array.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of a sound / moving image reproducing apparatus.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of an AV decoder and a reproduction output unit.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing a storage area configuration of a local hard disk drive.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a processing flow of the communication karaoke system of FIG. 1;

FIG. 8 is another flowchart.

FIG. 9 is a timing chart when one SCSI-compatible device acquires the right to use the SCSI bus.

FIG. 10 is a timing chart when two SCSI-compatible devices perform arbitration.

FIG. 11 is a timing chart when performing selection.

FIG. 12 is a block diagram showing a modification of the karaoke system according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Communication karaoke system (data and sound reproduction system with centralized management) 3 SCSI bus (data bus) 4 Sound and video reproduction device 5 Shared hard disk drive 26 Hard disk drive 27 Hard disk group 61 CPU (arbitration means, read command means, read command) Control means) 64 SCSI interface 67 compressed video data decoder (decompression means) 68 local hard disk drive (auxiliary storage device, reproduction number counter)

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A shared hard disk device that stores sound data and moving image data (hereinafter, both are collectively referred to as sound / moving image data), and is connected to the shared hard disk device and reads the sound / moving image data. A plurality of sound / moving-image reproducing devices individually having a function of accessing the shared hard-disk device for the It has an auxiliary storage device for temporarily storing at least a part thereof prior to the reproduction thereof, and reproduces sound and moving images by reading data stored in the auxiliary storage device. Data and sound management system with centralized data management. 2. The moving picture data is transferred from the shared hard disk device to the sound / moving picture reproducing apparatus in a compressed state. 2. The sound / moving picture reproduction system according to claim 1, further comprising a decompression means for decompression. 3. The sound / moving image reproducing apparatus performs a reproduction process of the sound / moving image data stored in the auxiliary storage device and a new accumulation process of the sound / moving image data in the auxiliary storage device in parallel. 3. The method according to claim 1, wherein
The sound / video reproduction system according to any of the above. 4. The shared hard disk device stores a plurality of sets of the sound and moving image data, and the sound and moving image reproducing device has a reproduction number counter for counting the number of reproductions of each of the sound and moving image data. The sound / moving image data whose count value of the reproduction number counter has reached a predetermined value is entirely stored and registered in a data registration unit formed in the auxiliary storage device. 4. The sound / moving picture reproduction system according to claim 1, wherein the data is read out from the data registration section and reproduced from the next reproduction.