JPS58223979A - Bidirectional catv system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To relieve the load of a center, by performing the processing of accounting in response to the attribute of a toll channel at a terminal side instantly when a request of the toll channel takes place at each terminal. CONSTITUTION:The information at each toll channel is informed to all terminal devices 500 in advance together with a toll channel notice command from the center cpu 110 and stored in a memory of a terminal controller 510. When a viewer depresses any of a toll channel key on a key pad 520, the signal is given to a terminal control section to discriminate whether or not the requested toll channel is the channel G. When the channel G is already occupied and accounted, a picture is outputted instantly on a receiver 530. In case of the 1st request, the toll key confirmation on the key pad 520 is depressed after the processing of procedure of viewer confirmation and when the presence of will of viewing is discriminated, the accounting processing is done.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a pay channel information notification method in an 0ATV system.

In recent years, 0ATV systems have been increasingly put into practical use mainly in the United States, and the functions associated with these systems have also become more diverse. As an example, regarding paid channels, attributes such as billing methods, prices, viewing conditions, etc. may differ depending on each channel.

In such cases, in the conventional method, the attributes of each paid channel are centrally managed at the center, and when a request for a paid channel occurs on a terminal, it is notified to the center, and the center manages the attributes of the paid channel. The corresponding processing command was sent to the terminal, and the terminal executed the processing according to the command.

However, this method has drawbacks such as an increase in center load, an increase in response time due to an increase in the number of terminals, an increase in the cost of communication equipment due to faster communication speeds, and problems with transmission errors. Ta.

The present invention is a new method that eliminates such drawbacks and enables terminal control of pay channels in a CATV system at low cost.

Hereinafter, as an embodiment of the present invention, a case where the present invention is applied to a hotel will be described. FIG. 1 shows the stem configuration. Broadcast center ioo and transmission lines 40 for 500 terminal devices in each guest room
They are connected via 0. Broadcasting center 100 and hotel center 200 are connected via modem 112 and cable 14. Further, the broadcast center 00 and the front terminal 300 are connected via a cable 15 and a cable 22. The broadcast center 00 has a center computer system (hereinafter abbreviated as center CPU) 110.
Video and audio information source group 120. Video and audio switching device 13
o, a head end 14o, a modem 111, and a modem 112. Further, a signal from an antenna 160 installed outside the hotel for receiving commercial television broadcasting is input to the bed end 1'40 via the cable 24.

Signals from external information sources 160 are also input to headend 140 via cable 25 . The center CPU 110 includes a computer, a display device, a magnetic disk device, a floppy disk device, a magnetic tape device, a line printer device, a card league device, and the like. Source group 120 is independent broadcasting studio equipment 1
21. It is composed of a video tape recorder 221, a video disc player 231, a character/graphics generator 124, etc. The source group 12o and the video/audio switching device 130 are connected to the cable 11 and the cable 1 by the center CPU 110.
2. Various video and audio signals from the source group 120 are transmitted to the video and audio switching device 13 via a cable 21.
0 and selected by the video/audio switching device 130 in response to a control signal from the center CPU 110 is input to the head end 140 via the cable 23. In order to perform bidirectional data transmission between the center CPU 110 and the terminal device 500, the center CPU 11
0 via a head end 14ou, a modem 111, and a cable 13.

The head end 140 has a function of modulating various input video and audio signals, and modulates the modulated video and audio signals and the center CPU1.
10, a function to output the mixed video/audio/data signal to the transmission path 400, and a function to output the modulated data signal sent to the terminal device 600 via the transmission path 400. Cable 13. It has a function of outputting to the center CPU 110 via the modem 111.

Hotel center 200 host computer systems 21
0 and a modem 112.

Host computer system 210 includes a computer,
It consists of a display device, magnetic disk device, floppy disk device, magnetic tape device, line printer device, card reader device, etc.

The front terminal 3oo is used to broadcast communications from the front desk to each guest room, and is composed of a front keyboard 310 that transmits and receives data to and from the center CPU 110, and a broadcast source 320.

The keyboard 310 is connected to the center CPU 110 via the cable 15. Broadcast source 320
The output signal is input to the video/audio switching device 13o via the cable 22.

The transmission line 40Q includes a bidirectional trunk amplifier 41o, a bidirectional branch amplifier 42o, a bidirectional duplexer 43o, and a series unit) 44.
0 and cable 41.

The terminal device Boo includes a keypad 520 for selecting the terminal control device 51o5 channel and a television receiver 5.
Consists of 3Q. The terminal control device 510 is a center C
Function for transmitting and receiving data with pu110, transmission line 400
The video and audio signals sent via the keypad 62
It has a function of converting the frequency using a channel selection signal from 0 and outputting it to the television receiver 630. The terminal control device 610 and the keypad 520 are connected by a cable 61. In addition, the terminal control device 610 and the television receiver 6
30 is connected by a cable 52.

Furthermore, a block diagram of the terminal control device 510 is shown in FIG. The terminal control device 610 includes a distributor 511°, an electronic tuner 612. Mochimura 13. Terminal control unit 614, address setting switch 615. Consisting of a power relay 616 and a power sensor 517, the terminal control unit 514 controls communication with the center CPU 110, switches channels of the television receiver 530 by controlling the electronic tuner 512, and powers on/off the television receiver by controlling the power relay 616. Management, detection of key force from the keypad 520, and display output to the IICD display section 621 of the keypad 520 are performed.

Further, the plan view of the keypad 620 of the terminal device is as shown in FIG. 2, where 521 is an LED for displaying channel information corresponding to the pressed key, 622 is a request key for a pay channel group, and 623 is a hotel channel. 624 is a request key for a TV retransmission channel group, 626 is a response key for viewing confirmation when requesting a pay channel, 526 is a channel request key for explaining the operation of the system, and 627 is a power switch.

Note that the receiver, keypad, and terminal control device may be integrated or may be separate devices.

The operation will be explained below. First, center CPU11
0 and the terminal device [600, in order to perform bidirectional data transmission, one data channel is provided in addition to the video channel, and the downlink data signal from the center 0pu 110 is modulated by the modem 111 and then , as a signal of the data channel at the head end 140,
It is mixed with other video channel signals, transmitted to the terminal device 600 via the transmission path 400, and sent to the terminal control device 610.
Then, the signal of the data channel is demodulated and processed as downlink data from the center CPU 110.

Next, the uplink data signal from the terminal device 600 is modulated by the terminal control device 610 and put on the data channel, and then sent to the head end 140 via the transmission path 400.
The data channel signal, which is transmitted to the modem 111 and separated from other channel signals at the head end, is transmitted to the modem 111.
After being demodulated by the modem, the center CPU 110
sent to.

Note that by setting the carrier frequencies of the upper and lower data to different layer wave numbers, bidirectional data transmission is possible with one transmission channel.

Next, as a transmission method, in order to enable data transmission with multiple terminals, a multi-drop boring method is used, a unique number (address) is assigned to each terminal device, and command data is sent from the center CPU 110 to which the address is attached. The terminal control unit 614 of each terminal device 600 receives the bit serial downlink data from the center CPU 110 and converts all the data back into the format shown in FIG. Reassemble it and store it in memory.

Next, the terminal control unit 614 compares the address part of the held data with its own address read from the address setting switch 616, and only if they match, determines that the data from the center is valid and uses the current command. In addition to processing the terminal accordingly, the center CPU 11 is
0, upstream data from the terminal device 600 is transmitted bit serially in the format shown in FIG.

An example of a command from the center is shown in FIG. 6. The operation of the present invention will be described below. First, center C
In advance, the pu 110 notifies all terminal devices 500 of information for each pay channel, such as the channel number and pay channel classification (G channel, R channel), along with a pay channel notification command. In 61Q, the sent pay channel information is stored in the memory of the terminal control device 51o.

By the way, G channel means that if any one of the paid channels belonging to the G channel group is watched,
It is a paid channel where you are charged a certain amount, and you are not charged even if you watch any channel in the G channel group. A channel that is always charged when the channel is viewed.

After that, when the viewer presses the power switch 527 of the keypad 620, the signal is transmitted to the terminal control unit 1614, and under the control of the terminal control unit 514, the power relay 516 turns on the TV receiver 630. When the power of
17, the TV power-on status can always be detected. Furthermore, since the electronic channel 612 is directly controlled by the terminal control section 614, information on the channel being viewed can also be held in the terminal control section 614.

Subsequently, when the viewer requests a pay channel by pressing any one of 622 for each pay channel on the keypad 520, the signal is transmitted to the terminal control unit 614, and the terminal control unit 614 requests the pay channel It is determined whether the paid channel is set to the G channel or the R channel, and if it is the G channel, if the channels belonging to the G channel group have already been viewed and charged, the charging process is not performed. Immediately output the video of the requested channel to the receiver 630, or in the case of a first G channel group request or R channel request, after completing the viewing confirmation procedure with the viewer, press the keypad 52.
If the paid key confirmation 626 of 0 is pressed and it is determined that there is an intention to view the video, billing processing is performed, the video of the requested channel is output to the receiver 530, and the center CPU
110, when the next polling arrives, set the charging occurrence bit in the status to 1°, and set the channel data to
The paid channel data will be recorded and notified.

Furthermore, this time, if you watch even once, you will be charged a fixed amount regardless of the viewing time, but by notifying the terminal device 600 in advance of the program fee or hourly unit price as paid channel information, You can perform processes such as displaying fees, automatically adding money according to viewing time, and calculating fees using only the terminal, and it is also possible to notify the center of only the total amount at the time of checkout and payment.

As described above, the two-way CATV system of the present invention has the effects of reducing center load and line traffic due to distributed processing. Furthermore, the attributes of each pay channel can be changed by operating the center computer system, which has the effect of making system operation more flexible.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a two-way CATV system according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a plan view of a keypad of a terminal device, FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a terminal control device in FIG. 1, and FIG. The figure shows the format of communication data between the center computer/system and the terminal device, and FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of commands from the center control device. 100... Broadcasting center, 110... Center CPU, 409... Transmission line, 600...
...Terminal device, 610...Terminal control device, 6
20... Keybara), 530...
TV receiver. Name of agent: Patent attorney Toshio Nakao and 1 other person No. 4
Figure 1 Terminal (18 "Iri C2) Terminal → Request (4) (It) 5 Figure Command L Inside, 7 pages full
It's a short story, a middle chapter IV) °So-on 1
``Holiday>2゛Shooks, ravishing''
vff, 1 m uncut v'c Gugorei ItυSaishiragi volley J release 1〆1 Gogo 1 strangulation between 46 elder father or 1000 〒nel to the pierced 柤 unvisited y Sogomine Jkirigami Gh＞ Saij Shisa Iyanerute 1-Evening 13? :
t*+Anneno ν 4
cr chiinel (Ariotogumachinenori and @2gg6p
fvnλ-lume Urichi Vnnelde'-2 □11 old &
1*Tenooru t5 k4
-Mano 4 Shikuo Yuto 4YnX Nori Y Drum t3 Ban Masu,
λvkJ Knowledge Channel 1 Part 1 Run th Channel 4-v

Claims (3)

[Claims] (1) A CATV network is formed from a center computer system, a terminal device having a terminal control device, a receiver, and a keypad, and a transmission path connecting the center computer system and the terminal control device, and the center computer system provides pay channel information. The key band has a function of generating a reception channel request signal, and the terminal control device has a function of generating a reception channel request signal, and a function of reading information stored in the memory of the terminal control device. and a function of comparing the received channel request signal with the memorized pay channel information and generating and storing a charging signal when they match, and the center computer system generating the charging signal by a self-generated polling signal. Bi-directional 0A, which is characterized by reading out the information and performing billing processing for each terminal device.
TV system. (2) The keypad has a function of generating a pay channel reception confirmation signal, and the center computer system performs billing processing according to an AND condition between the billing signal stored in the terminal control device and the pay channel reception confirmation signal. A two-way 0ATV system according to claim 1, characterized in that: (3) The receiver controls the keypad and the terminal.