Channel transmitter unit

• US 20030212998A1
• Filed: 06/05/2003
• Published: 11/13/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 05/09/2002
• Status: Active Application

• Current Assignee: Radiant Communications Corp. (Rogers Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Radiant Communications Corp. (Rogers Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Darish, Jay L., Kikta, Jacek J., Fitzsimmons, John E., Phillips, Denis P., Thaw, Michael G.
• Application Number:
  US10/454,902
• Publication Number:
  US 20030212998A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/118
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/14 for monitoring programmes
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/78 CATV [Community Antenna Television] systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/222 Secondary servers, e.g. proxy server, cable television Head-end provisioning of proxy services in data packet switching networks H04L67/56
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23106 involving caching operations prefetching while addressing of a memory level in which the access to the desired data or data block requires associative addressing means within memory systems or architectures G06F12/0862; caching at an intermediate stage in a data network H04L67/568
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4347 Demultiplexing of several video streams
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44209 Monitoring of downstream path of the transmission network originating from a server, e.g. bandwidth variations of a wireless network arrangements for maintenance or administration in data switching networks involving bandwidth and capacity management H04L41/0896
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6118 involving cable transmission, e.g. using a cable modem
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6175 involving transmission via Internet broadcast-related systems characterised by the transmission system being the Internet H04H60/82
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/10 Adaptations for transmission by electrical cable H04N7/12 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17309 Transmission or handling of upstream communications

Abstract

A transmitter unit for receiving a channel signal and transmitting a representation of the channel signal to a monitoring location. The transmitter unit includes an encoder unit which compresses the received channel signal to a selectable bit rate. The encoder also converts the compressed channel signal to a packet signal for transmission to the monitoring location via a telecommunication link and adjusts a packet rate of the packet signal to conform to the bit rate of the compressed channel signal. The transmitter unit also includes an infrared control unit for receiving a demultiplexer command signal from the encoder unit and transmitting the demultiplexer command signal by an infrared signal.

Claims

1. A transmitter unit for receiving a channel signal and transmitting a representation of the channel signal to a monitoring location, said transmitter unit comprising:

an encoder unit which compresses the received channel signal to a bit rate, the bit rate being selectable to one of a fixed rate and a variable rate, the variable rate being determined to achieve a constant quality, said encoder converting the compressed channel signal to a packet signal for transmission to the monitoring location via a telecommunication link and adjusting a packet rate of the packet signal to conform to the bit rate of the compressed channel signal; and

an infrared control unit for receiving a demultiplexer command signal from the encoder unit and transmitting the demultiplexer command signal by an infrared signal.

2. The transmitter unit according to claim 1, wherein the channel signal comprises at least one of a video signal and an audio signal, the video signal being encoded in conformance with one of a National Television Standards Committee standard and a Phase Alternating Line standard and the audio signal being a baseband signal.

3. The transmitter unit according to claim 1, wherein said encoder unit comprises a video codec, said video codec compressing the video signal to be in substantial conformance with a Motion Picture Experts Group standard selected from the group consisting of MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4.

4. The transmitter unit according to claim 1, wherein said encoder unit encodes the channel signal to be in substantial conformance with an International Telecommunications Union (ITU) standard selected from the group consisting of H.320 and H.323.

5. The transmitter unit according to claim 4 wherein said encoder unit comprises a video codec, said video codec compressing the video signal to be in substantial conformance with an ITU standard selected from the group consisting of H.261 and H.263.

6. The transmitter unit according to claim 5 wherein said video codec is responsive to a configuration command for setting at least one of the bit rate, a picture format, a temporal quantization and a spatial quantization.

7. The transmitter unit according to claim 6 wherein the picture format is selectable to either common intermediate format (CIF) or quarter common intermediate format (QCIF).

8. The transmitter unit according to claim 1, said transmitter unit including an input for receiving at least one alarm signal.

9. The transmitter unit according to claim 8 wherein said encoder unit further comprises a multiplexer which multiplexes the compressed channel signal and the at least one alarm signal into fixed sized frames in substantial conformance with ITU standard H.221.

10. The transmitter unit according to claim 9 wherein said encoder unit further converts the fixed size frames to the packet signal and transmits the packet signal to the monitoring location using a protocol selected from the group consisting of transport control protocol (TCP), User Datagram Protocol (UDP) and UDP-Private.

11. The transmitter unit according to claim 1, the demultiplexer command signal comprising at least one of a channel select command signal and a mode command signal.