Digital audio and video recording and storage system and method

• US 20050254776A1
• Filed: 04/05/2005
• Published: 11/17/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 04/05/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: S.Two Corp.
• Original Assignee: S.Two Corp.
• Inventors: Rannalli, James A., Roach, Stephen, Morrison, Michael, Romine, Christopher L.
• Granted Patent: US 8,019,194 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 386/231
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/77 between a recording apparatus and a television camera
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/781 on disks or drums
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/804 involving pulse code modulation of the colour picture signal components
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8063 using time division multiplex of the PCM audio and PCM video signals

Abstract

An integrated apparatus is disclosed that can directly connect to a portable digital video camera and can record uncompressed video and audio data, along with associated metadata, in the field and elsewhere. Most preferably, the integrated apparatus includes a removable, recordable, reusable digital magazine that may be mounted. Most preferably, the integrated apparatus also supports a variety of input and output formats, and the apparatus may be easily connected to other computing systems, either directly or through network connections, wired or wireless. The digital magazine can be mounted in a variety of docking stations and can be directly connected to a network, allowing the video and audio data to be easily stored and transferred.

Claims

1. A portable digital film recording system comprising:

a portable case;

a computer;

a display;

at least one removable, reusable digital magazine for storing computer-readable digital data, the digital data comprising uncompressed high definition video footage, uncompressed audio footage, and metadata;

the digital magazine comprising;

at least two digital storage devices, and

at least one connector;

a digital magazine receiver comprising;

a backplane; and

a connecter for mating to the digital magazine connector;

a control and connector panel for connecting to at least one external device, the at least one external device comprising;

a camera, a video monitor, an audio recorder, headphones, a computer network, an edit controller, a microphone, or a signal generator;

software stored in the computer used for communication between the at least one external device and the digital magazine;

at least one power source;

and wherein the portable digital film recording system has a total weight of not over 50 lbs.

2. The portable digital film recording system of claim 1 wherein the power source is used to turn power on the film recording system, and wherein the digital magazine can be removed from the film recording system without turning the power off the film recording system.

3. The portable digital film recording system of claim 1 wherein at least a portion of the digital data is stored in at least one of the following formats HD, HD RGB, or 2K.

4. The portable digital film recording system of claim 1 wherein the audio footage comprises 6 or 8 channels.

5. The portable digital film recording system of claim 1 wherein the reusable digital magazine holds up to 54 minutes of images.

6. The portable digital film recording system of claim 1 further comprising at least one of an RS422 control, a USB serial port, an Ethernet connection, a RS232 control, a wireless network, a USB port, a port designed to directly connect to a camera, or a Firewire port.

7. The portable digital film recording system of claim 1 wherein the control and connector panel further comprises up to 38 connectors for connecting to external devices.

8. The portable digital film recording system of claim 1 at least two power sources, the second power source further comprising at least one of a battery, an AC power source, or a DC power source.

9. The portable digital film recording system of claim 1 wherein the software further comprises at least one converter which converts digital information from one format to a different format.

10. The portable digital film recording system of claim 1 wherein the computer controls the digital film recording system and wherein the computer is controlled by a remote computing device.

11. The portable digital film recording system of claim 1 wherein the at least one external device is operable to provide for viewing of the digital data without further processing of the digital data.

12. A method of recording video, the method comprising

recording data on a portable recording apparatus, the data comprising uncompressed moving images and uncompressed audio;

saving at least 214 Gigabytes of the data on a first removable storage device, the first storage device weighing not more than 15 lbs;

viewing the saved data on the first storage device without further modification of the data;

transferring at least a portion of the saved data from the first storage device to an archival storage device in real time;

moving the saved data from the first storage device to a different location across a network;

editing the saved moving images on the first storage device non-linearly;

erasing at least a portion of the data off of the storage device; and

reinserting the first storage device into the portable recording apparatus.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein the recording further comprises recording metadata, the metadata further comprising at least one of automatic data, user-generated data, and file system data.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein the user-generated data is input using one of a laptop or a PDA networked to the first storage device.

15. The method of claim 12 wherein the uncompressed moving images data is stored in DPX File format.

16. The method of claim 12 further comprising removing the first storage device from the portable recording apparatus, and inserting a second storage device into the portable recording apparatus.

17. The method of claim 12 wherein viewing comprises at least two users viewing the data simultaneously.

18. A reusable, recordable digital magazine for storing computer-readable digital data comprising:

at least two data storage devices the storage devices together able to hold at least 18 minutes of video footage and audio footage stored digitally;

a status screen;

two backplanes;

the first backplane comprising;

a connector

two high speed circuits which simultaneously route at least a portion of the digital data from the connector to the data storage devices in the removable digital magazine;

the second backplane comprising;

a host bus adaptor operable to attach to an outside device; and

a router which routes the at least a portion of the digital data from

the connector to the Host Bus Adapter;

the digital magazine operable to attach to at least one docking station;

wherein the digital magazine weighs no more than 15 pounds; and

wherein the docking station comprises at least one of;

a cloning station for making a copy of essentially all of the digital data stored on the digital magazine,

an archiving station for transferring the stored digital data in real time to a different device, and

a network station which allows the digital data to be transferred through a network.

19. The reusable, recordable digital magazine of claim 18 wherein the archiving station comprises an internal cache and a tape library, the tape library storing at least 4 terabytes of digital data.

20. The reusable, recordable digital magazine of claim 18 wherein the network station allows the data stored on the digital magazine to be mounted as a drive.