JPS6039986A - Catv system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To attain the information of start of a broadcast in a short time by switching forcibly a channel to a communication broadcast channel when an own terminal group number and a designated group number are coincident. CONSTITUTION:A broadcast 100 and a terminal device 500 are tied via a transmission line 400. In inputting the command of start of the communication broadcast for a group to a center CPU110, the CPU110 detects the command, the group number and the channel number are designated to all terminal devices 500 so as to attain the notice of a group broadcast start. When the terminal control section 514 of a device 500 receives the notice from the CPU110 and the group number stored in the own terminal device and said group number are coincident, it is discriminated as the start of the communication broadcast to the group to which the own terminal device belongs, the section 514 controls an electronic tuner 512 and switches the output of a receiver 530 forcibly to the designated channel.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Field of Industrial Application The present invention relates to a group broadcast implementation method in a CATW system.

Conventional configurations and their problems In recent years, the VCCA TV 7 system has been increasingly put into practical use mainly in the United States, and along with this, the functions associated with the system are also becoming more diverse. An example of this is a group broadcasting function in which the center forces terminals belonging to a particular group to view a qh constant tape tunnel. This is used for emergency broadcasts and communication broadcasts to specific groups. With this function, in the conventional method, when a cruise broadcast starts, the center belongs to the corresponding group! The IM terminal is searched from the group customer management table, and sent to the terminal in sequence using the lZi + address address of the corresponding terminal in the data format shown in Figure 4.7'joL
In this method, there is a group management table j-1y at the center, and there is a person who produces the roaring sushi pieces from the table, and if there are many ψj′M pieces belonging to the group, the terminal It takes a long time to notify everyone of the start of a group broadcast, especially in the case of video services, the start of the broadcast may be delayed, and the first terminal to be notified may have to wait for a long time. (By the way, If the transmission speed is 12 oobps and the number of terminals in the group is 500, the notification time will take approximately 50 seconds.

Purpose of the Invention In view of the above-mentioned problems, it is an object of the present invention to provide 7.
The purpose is to make it possible to notify the start of broadcasting in a short time.

Structure of the Invention The present invention provides a system for notifying terminals belonging to a group (tyu) of the group number to all terminals in advance;
The terminal memorizes the group number (.After that, when a request for broadcasting to a specific group occurs,
When the center sends a contact broadcast notification command to all terminals by specifying the corresponding group number, the terminal will be notified only when the pre-memorized group number of the terminal matches the specified group number. It determines that this is a notification of the start of a communication broadcast to the group to which it belongs, and forcibly switches to the communication broadcast channel.

DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, as an embodiment of the present invention, a case where the present invention is applied to a hotel will be described. Figure 1 shows the system configuration. The broadcasting center 100 and the terminal devices 500 in each guest room are connected to the transmission line 400.
are connected through. Broadcast center 100 and hotel center 200 are connected via modem 112 and cable 14. Further, the broadcasting center 100 and the front terminal 300 are connected via a cable 15 and a second O/cable 22. Broadcasting Center 10 (lj:
, center computer/system (hereinafter abbreviated as center CPU) 110. A source group 12o of video and audio information.

Video and audio switching device 130. Head end 14o.

It is composed of a modem 111 and a modem 112. The signal from the antenna 150 installed outside the hotel for receiving commercial TV broadcasts is still transmitted to the head end 140 via the cable 24. Additionally, signals from external information source 16Q are input to head end 140 via cable 25. The center CPU 110 is
Computer.

It consists of a Disnzi device, a magnetic disk device, a floppy disk device, a magnetic tape device, a line printer device, a card reader device, etc.

The source group 120 is an independent broadcasting studio device 121.

Video tape 1/coder 122. It is composed of a video disc player 1232, a character/graphics generator 124, and the like. Source 7i'1120. The video/audio switching device 6130 is controlled by the center CPU 110 via the cables 11 and 12. The various video and audio signals from the source group 120 are input to the video and audio switching device t13o via the cable 21, and the video and audio signals are selected by the video and audio 1 male switching device 130 by the center CPIJ 110J: Rino control 1 signal. is input to the head end 140 via the couple 23. Further, in order to perform bidirectional data transmission between the center CPU 110 and the terminal device 500, the center CPU 110 and the head end 140 are connected via a modem 111 and a cable 13.

The head end 140 has a function of modulating the video and audio signals input to each pillar, and transmits the modulated video and audio signals to the center CP.
A function of mixing the modulated data signal from U110, and transmitting this mixed video/audio/data signal to the transmission path 40.
0, the modulated data sent from the terminal device 500 via the transmission path 400 is output to Google 13.
It has a function of outputting to the center CPU 110 via the modem 111.

The hotel center 200 is a host computer system 21
0 and a modem 112.

The host computer 7 stem 21o is a computer,
It consists of a display device, magnetic disk device, floppy disk device, magnetic tape device, line printer device, cartridge soda device, etc.

The front terminal 300 is used to make communication broadcasts to the front rooms and each guest room, and is composed of a front keyboard 1-31o for transmitting and receiving data with the seven-point CPU 110, and a broadcast nose 320.
It is connected to the center CPU 110 via a 01 cable 15. The output signal from the broadcast source 320 is input to the video/audio switching device 130 via the cable 22.

The transmission line 400 includes a bidirectional trunk amplifier 41o, a bidirectional branch amplifier 420 . Bidirectional duplexer 43o, series unit 4a
Consisting of OkJ Kobi cable 41 111. Ru.

The terminal device 500 includes a control device 510. It is comprised of a keypad 520 for selecting a channel, a keypad 520, and a television receiver 530. The terminal control device 510 has the function of transmitting and receiving data with the center CPU 11o, converts the frequency of the video and audio signals sent via the transmission line 400 using a channel selection signal from the keypad 520, and outputs the converted signals to the television receiver 530. Has a function. The terminal control device 610 and the key power l-52o are connected by a cable 51. -'f, The terminal control device 510 and the television receiver 530 are connected by a cable 52.

Furthermore, a block diagram of the terminal control device 51Q is shown in FIG. The terminal control device 510 includes a distributor 611°, an electronic tuner 512. Modem 513. Terminal control unit 514, address setting switch 515. Consisting of a power relay 516 and a power relay 517, the terminal control unit 514 controls communication mυ with the center cPU 11o, and controls the electronic terminal 61.
2 control of the TV receiver 53 o, power on/off of the TV receiver by control of the power relay 616, key input from the keypad 520, and display on the LED display section 521 of the keypad 520. Perform output.

Also, the terminal device 6. The top view of the keypad 520 of
It is as shown in the figure, and 621 is the change key that corresponds to the pressed key. f LED for display, 522
is the request key for the pay channel group, 523 is the request key for the hotel channel group, 524 is the request key for the TV retransmission channel group, 526 is the response key for confirmation of viewing when requesting a pay channel, 526 is the channel request key for explaining the operation of the system , 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. 1. Center CPU11
In order to perform bidirectional data transmission between the center CPU 110 and the terminal device 500, a data channel, a data channel, and a channel are provided in addition to the video channel.
The downlink data signal is modulated by modulation and zill, and then mixed with other video channel signals as the data channel signal at the first end 140, and transmitted through the transmission line 400. is transmitted to the terminal device 600 via
The terminal control device 510 demodulates the data channel signal and processes it as downstream data from the central processing unit CPU 110.

Next, the uplink data signal from the terminal device 500 is modulated by the terminal control device f51o, placed on the data transmission channel, and transmitted via the transmission line 400 to the head end 1.
The data channel signal, which is transmitted 4Q-\ and separated from other channel signals at the head end, is transmitted to the modem 111, demodulated by the modem, and then sent to the center CPU.
110-\sent.

Note that by setting the carrier frequencies of uplink data and downlink 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 Borg method is used.A unique number (address) is assigned to each terminal device, and the address is sent from the center CPU 110 to The added command data is sequentially sent bit serially in the format shown in FIG.
Then, bit serial downstream data from the center CPU 110 is received, all data is reassembled into the format shown in FIG. 4(a), and temporarily held in the 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 515, and only if they match, determines that the data from the center is valid and uses the current command. In addition to performing the appropriate terminal processing, the center cPU 11
The data sent from the terminal device 500 to the terminal device 500 is transmitted bit serially in the /ζ format shown in FIG. 4(b).

An example of commands from the center is shown in FIG.

The operation will be explained below. Generally, at hotels, groups of guests such as group travelers may stay in multiple guest rooms, and the guest rooms belonging to each group are
They are registered and managed in the center CPU 110 using the same group number. Furthermore, for the terminal where the check-in has occurred, the center CPU 110 sends a check-in notification in the take format shown in Figure 4 and a group number notification in the data format shown in Figure 6, and the terminal performs the processing at the time of check-in. After doing so, store the group number in memory. After that, if it becomes necessary to broadcast a message such as "Change of meeting place and departure time" to all terminals 500 belonging to the group, or to provide video services only to the group, the center operator Center CP
When a command to start communication broadcasting of the group -\ is inputted to the center CPU 110 from the console tisgerei device Tt, which is a command input device of U110-8, the center CPU 110 detects the command and sends all terminal devices to the center CPU 110. 5001/C, specifying the group number and channel number in the data format shown in FIG. 7, and send one notification of the start of group broadcasting. Next, the terminal control H in the terminal device 500
When S1 (514"C) receives the notification from the CPU 110 and the group number stored in its own terminal matches the group number written in AfJ, it starts communication broadcasting of the group '\ to which its own terminal belongs. I decided that the electronic team
The channel 512 is controlled to forcibly switch the output of the television receiver 530 to the specified channel.

In addition, the contact broadcasting channel is independent of other video channels, and the channel is 1.
Center video source 7! Video and audio information worth 120 yen is sent to the terminal device 500 via the video and audio switching device 130 and the head end 140.

Effects of the Invention According to the present invention, notification of the start of communication broadcasting to a specific group can be instantaneously made, and the service in the guest room'\ is improved.

Furthermore, since the group broadcast start command only needs to be output once from the center CPU 110, the load on the CPU is reduced, and other CPU processing can be performed more efficiently.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block configuration diagram of a CATV system according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a plan view of a key bat of a terminal device, and FIG. 3 is a block configuration diagram of a terminal control device in FIG. 1.
Figure 4 is a diagram showing the formation of communication data between a normal center control device and a terminal control device, Figure 5 is a diagram showing an example of a command from the center control device, and Figure 6 is a diagram showing the center control device when notifying a group number. And 1 terminal? FIG. 7 is a diagram showing the format of communication data between the center control device and the terminal control device when notifying the start of group broadcasting. 100...Broadcast center, 110...Center C
P.U. 400-...transmission line, 5o○-1-1 terminal device, 61
0-...Terminal control device, 520- ・Kino ζtsudo,
630...TV receiver. Name of agent: Patent attorney Toshio Nakao and 1 other person
4 (Ken C Zonta → Tachiwakusue (7 High L) (Kakushoban--
Pink (, 5 Hyde) No. 5 (71

Claims (1)

[Claims] A CATV network is formed from a transmission line connecting the center computer peak system, a terminal device having a terminal control device, a receiver, and a TV receiver, and the previous R5 center computer system and the terminal control device, and the center computer system controls the terminal control device. It has a function of notifying the group number information \Pi to the device, a function of notifying a forced channel switching command to specify the group number, a function of memorizing the group number information of the terminal control device +d, and a function of notifying the group number information It has a function of switching the video output of the receiver to the specified channel only when the memorized group number and the specified group number match when a channel forced switching command is received, and starts broadcasting a specific group. One notification from the center combination coater system
Sakibenkin CATV system is characterized by being operated by command output.