Nonlinear broadcast system

• US 20020059625A1
• Filed: 08/24/2001
• Published: 05/16/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 08/30/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Kurauchi, Nobukazu
• Granted Patent: US 7,533,405 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/91
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2220/90 Tape-like record carriers
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/034 on discs G11B27/036, G11B27/038 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/34 Indicating arrangements indicating means incorporated in magazine or cassette G11B23/046 and G11B23/0875; indicating measured values in general G01D
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/42 Arrangements for resource management
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/04 Studio equipment; Interconnection of studios
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/222 Studio circuitry; Studio devices; Studio equipment cameras or camera modules comprising electronic image sensors, or control thereof H04N23/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/262 Studio circuits, e.g. for mixing, switching-over, change of character of image, other special effects ; Cameras specially adapted for the electronic generation of special effects

Abstract

A nonlinear broadcast system with improved entire resource utilization efficiency gives priority to securing hardware resources for broadcast, for preventing broadcast accidents. A hardware resource management unit determines resource allocation at reproduction start time and reproduction end time of each video data, based on a time schedule of an editing list in a HDD for reproducing plurality of video data. A hardware resource amount such as bandwidth for access to the hard disc is made varied to minimize an allocation amount to each video data. Suppose one video data transfer from the HDD for reproduction requires bandwidth 60 Mbps. In a duration where one video data is reproduced, bandwidth 60 Mpbs is secured, while in a duration where two video data are mixed and reproduced, bandwidth 120 Mbps is secured. To background processing such as network material transfer, allocation is performed by fully utilizing the remaining hardware resource after the allocation for reproduction.

Claims

1. A nonlinear broadcast system that broadcasts material data by executing a plurality of transfer processes of the material data for broadcast in parallel for at least a certain duration, the transfer processes for broadcast utilizing a common hardware resource, the nonlinear broadcast system comprising:

material storage means storing the material data;

duration information storage means storing duration information showing durations, in each of which a different one of the transfer processes for broadcast is scheduled to be executed;

first allocation means for allocating a required amount of the hardware resource to each transfer process for broadcast, for the corresponding duration shown by the duration information;

available amount calculation means for calculating an available amount of the hardware resource remaining after the first allocation means has allocated the required amount to each transfer process for broadcast;

second allocation means for allocating, to one or more background transfer processes that are processes other than the transfer processes for broadcast, as much amount of the hardware resource as possible, so as not to exceed the calculated available amount; and

process execution means for executing (a) each transfer process for broadcast utilizing the amount of hardware resource allocated by the first allocation means, and (b) each background transfer process utilizing the amount of hardware resource allocated by the second allocation means.

2. The nonlinear broadcast system of claim 1,

wherein the available amount calculation means calculates the available amount of the hardware resource, every time when one of a start time and an end time of each duration shown by the duration information is reached.

3. The nonlinear broadcast system of claim 2,

wherein the material storage means is a readable and writable recording medium,

the hardware resource is a band for an access to the recording medium,

the first allocation means allocates a required bandwidth of the band to each transfer process for broadcast,

the available amount calculation means calculates an available bandwidth by subtracting the bandwidth allocated to each transfer process for broadcast by the first allocation means from a total bandwidth of the band for the access to the recording medium,

the second allocation means allocates, to each background transfer process, as much bandwidth of the band as possible, so as not to exceed the calculated available bandwidth, and

the process execution means executes (a) each transfer process for broadcast utilizing the bandwidth allocated by the first allocation means, and (b) each background transfer process utilizing the bandwidth allocated by the second allocation means.

4. The nonlinear broadcast system of claim 3,

wherein each background transfer process is a process for writing the material data to the recording medium, and

each transfer process for broadcast is a process for reading the material data from the recording medium.

5. The nonlinear broadcast system of claim 4,

wherein the material data is video data,

the recording medium is a hard disc, and

the nonlinear broadcast system comprises:

a transmitting device for converting the video data so as to be in a broadcast format, and broadcasting the converted video data;

a plurality of nonlinear editing devices each being provided so as to correspond to one hard disc and including a coder-decoder, the first allocation means, the second allocation means, the available amount calculation means, and the process execution means, the process execution means executing each transfer process for broadcast for reading the video data from the hard disc corresponding to the nonlinear editing device and outputting the read video data via the coder-decoder; and

a switcher for selecting video data, out of video data outputted by each of the nonlinear editing devices, and sending the selected video data to the transmitting device.

6. The nonlinear broadcast system of claim 5,

wherein each nonlinear editing device further includes

effect addition means for adding an effect to the video data when the video data is outputted via the coder-decoder.

7. The nonlinear broadcast system of claim 4, further comprising

transfer complete time display means for obtaining an amount of data to be transferred by each background transfer process, calculating a time at which the background transfer process is to be completed, based on the bandwidth allocated by the second allocation means, and displaying the calculated time.

8. The nonlinear broadcast system of claim 3,

wherein each transfer process for broadcast is a process for reading the material data from the recording medium, organizing the read material data so as to be in a format suitable for a streaming-type delivery, and performing the streaming-type delivery, and

each background transfer process is a process for reading the material data from the recording medium, organizing the read material data so as to be in a format suitable for a download-type delivery, and performing the down-load type delivery.

9. The nonlinear broadcast system of claim 1,

wherein the available amount calculation means calculates the available amount, every time when one of (a) a time that is a predetermined duration before a start time of each duration shown by the duration information and (b) an end time of each duration shown by the duration information is reached.

10. A hardware resource allocation method for performing hardware resource allocation for processes, in a nonlinear broadcast system in which material data are broadcasted by executing a plurality of transfer processes of the material data for broadcast in parallel for at least a certain duration, the transfer processes for broadcast utilizing a common hardware resource,

the nonlinear broadcast system including material storage means storing the material data and duration information storage means storing duration information showing durations, in each of which a different one of the transfer processes for broadcast is scheduled to be executed,

the hardware resource allocation method comprising:

a first allocation step for allocating a required amount of the hardware resource to each transfer process for broadcast for the corresponding duration shown by the duration information;

an available amount calculation step for calculating an available amount of the hardware resource remaining after the required amount has been allocated to each transfer process for broadcast in the first allocation step; and

a second allocation step for allocating, to one or more background transfer processes that are processes other than the transfer processes for broadcast, as much amount of the hardware resource as possible, so as not to exceed the calculated available amount.

11. The hardware resource allocation method of claim 10,

wherein in the available amount calculation step, the available amount of the hardware resource is calculated every time when one of a start time and an end time of each duration shown by the duration information is reached.

12. The hardware resource allocation method of claim 11,

wherein the material storage means included in the nonlinear broadcast system is a readable and writable recording medium,

the hardware resource is a band for an access to the recording medium,

in the first allocation step, a required bandwidth of the band is allocated to each transfer process for broadcast,

in the available amount calculation step, an available bandwidth is calculated by subtracting the bandwidth allocated to each transfer process for broadcast in the first allocation step from a total bandwidth of the band for the access to the recording medium, and

in the second allocation step, as much bandwidth of the band as possible is allocated to each background transfer process, so as not to exceed the calculated available bandwidth.

13. The hardware resource allocation method of claim 12,

wherein each background transfer process is a process for writing the material data to the recording medium, and

each transfer process for broadcast is a process for reading the material data from the recording medium.

14. The hardware resource allocation method of claim 12,

wherein each transfer process for broadcast is a process for reading the material data from the recording medium, organizing the read material data so as to be in a format suitable for a streaming-type delivery, and performing the streaming-type delivery, and

each background transfer process is a process for reading the material data from the recording medium, organizing the read material data so as to be in a format suitable for a download-type delivery, and performing the down-load type delivery.

15. The hardware resource allocation method of claim 10,

wherein in the available amount calculation step, the available amount is calculated every time when one of (a) a time that is a predetermined duration before a start time of each duration shown by the duration information and (b) an end time of each duration shown by the duration information is reached.

17. The program of claim 16,

wherein in the available amount calculation step, the available amount of the hardware resource is calculated every time when one of a start time and an end time of each duration shown by the duration information is reached.

18. The program of claim 16,

wherein in the available amount calculation step, the available amount is calculated every time when one of (a) a time that is a predetermined duration before a start time of each duration shown by the duration information and (b) an end time of each duration shown by the duration information is reached.

16. A program for making a nonlinear broadcast system that has a program execution function execute a hardware resource allocation control procedure, the nonlinear broadcast system broadcasting material data by executing a plurality of transfer processes of the material data for broadcast in parallel for at least a certain duration, the transfer processes for broadcast utilizing a common hardware resource,

the nonlinear broadcast system including material storage means storing the material data and duration information storage means storing duration information showing durations, in each of which a different one of the transfer processes for broadcast is scheduled to be executed,

the hardware resource allocation control procedure comprising:

a first allocation step for allocating a required amount of the hardware resource to each transfer process for broadcast for the corresponding duration shown by the duration information;

an available amount calculation step for calculating an available amount of the hardware resource remaining after the required amount has been allocated to each transfer process for broadcast in the first allocation step; and

a second allocation step for allocating, to one or more background transfer processes that are processes other than the transfer processes for broadcast, as much amount of the hardware resource as possible, so as not to exceed the calculated available amount.