METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR MONITORING AND CONTROLLING A VIDEO SIGNAL NETWORK

• US 20090257360A1
• Filed: 04/14/2009
• Published: 10/15/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 04/14/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Evertz Microsystems Ltd. (Evertz Technologies Limited)
• Original Assignee: Evertz Microsystems Ltd. (Evertz Technologies Limited)
• Inventors: Patel, Alpesh, Nikolic, Vojin, Patel, Rakesh
• Granted Patent: US 9,923,790 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/252
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0213 Standardised network management protocols, e.g. simple network management protocol [SNMP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0879 Manual configuration through operator
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/22 comprising specially adapted graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0817 by checking functioning
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/16 Threshold monitoring

Abstract

The embodiments described herein provide a method for operating a video signal network. The method comprises: providing a video signal router having a plurality of input ports for receiving input video signals and a plurality of output ports for transmitting a plurality of output video signals and wherein the router has a plurality of monitorable router status conditions; providing a router control system for controlling the configuration of the router; defining, in the router control system, a plurality of predetermined states, wherein each of the predetermined states comprises at least one condition from the group consisting of: one or more signal conditions relating to one or more of the input and output video signals; and one or more router conditions relating to one or more of the monitorable status conditions; for each of the states, defining at least one action; configuring the video signal router to couple at least some of the input ports to at least some of the output ports; monitoring at least some of the input and output video signals and at least some of the router status conditions; in response to the monitored input and output video signals and router status conditions corresponding to one of the predetermined states, transmitting a notification message to the router control system; and initiating an action corresponding to the transmitted notification message.

Claims

1. A method of operating a video signal network comprising:

providing a video signal router having a plurality of input ports for receiving input video signals and a plurality of output ports for transmitting a plurality of output video signals and wherein the router has a plurality of monitorable router status conditions;

providing a router control system for controlling the configuration of the router;

defining, in the router control system, a plurality of predetermined states, wherein each of the predetermined states comprises at least one condition from the group consisting of;

one or more signal conditions relating to one or more of the input and output video signals; and

one or more router conditions relating to one or more of the monitorable status conditions;

for each of the states, defining at least one action;

configuring the video signal router to couple at least some of the input ports to at least some of the output ports;

monitoring at least some of the input and output video signals and at least some of the router status conditions;

in response to the monitored input and output video signals and router status conditions corresponding to one of the predetermined states, transmitting a notification message to the router control system; and

initiating an action corresponding to the transmitted notification message.

2. A system for monitoring a video signal network, the system comprising:

a video signal router comprising;

a routing module for routing a plurality of video signals from a plurality of input ports to a plurality of output ports; and

a monitoring module for monitoring the routing module and at least some of the video signals, and transmitting one of a plurality of notification messages when one of the router and the plurality of video signals reach one of a plurality of predetermined states; and

a monitoring device in electronic communication with the router, the monitoring device comprising;

a graphical user interface for configuring a plurality of automatic responses wherein each automatic response corresponds to one of the plurality of notification messages and outlines a procedure to be executed when the corresponding notification message is received by the monitoring device, and

a processor for receiving the transmitted notification message, determining whether one of the plurality of automatic responses corresponds to the transmitted notification message, and if one of the plurality of automatic responses corresponds to the transmitted notification message, executing the corresponding automatic response.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the procedure outlined by each automatic response comprises executing an action.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein

the routing module is configured to adjust the routing of the plurality of video signals from the plurality of input ports to the plurality of output ports upon receipt of a routing command message;

and

the action of at least one automatic response comprises transmitting the routing command message to the router.

8. The system of claim 3, wherein the procedure outlined by at least one automatic response comprises running a query and executing the action based on the results of the query.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the query comprises requesting status information from the monitoring module of the video signal router.

10. The system of claim 2, wherein the monitoring device further comprises an automatic response input module for receiving pre-configured automatic responses.

5. The system of claim 5, wherein

the plurality of video signals comprise a primary video signal and a corresponding backup video signal,

the routing module is initially configured to route the primary video signal to a particular output port of the plurality of output ports, and

the routing command message instructs the routing module to route the backup video signal to the particular output port.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the action of at least one automatic response comprises alerting users of the video signal network of an error condition.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein alerting the users of the video signal network of the error condition comprises integrating a visible error message into one of the plurality of video signals.

11. A method of monitoring a video signal network, the method comprising:

configuring a plurality of automatic responses using a graphical user interface, wherein each automatic response corresponds to one of a plurality of notification messages and outlines a procedure to be executed when the corresponding notification message is received by a monitoring system;

monitoring a video signal router and a plurality of input video signals processed by the video signal router using a monitoring module of the video signal router;

transmitting one of the plurality of notification messages from the video signal router to the monitoring system, when one of the router and the plurality of video signals reach one of a plurality of predetermined states,

receiving the transmitted notification message at the monitoring system,

determining whether one of the plurality of automatic responses corresponds to the transmitted notification message; and

if one of the plurality of automatic responses corresponds to the transmitted notification message, executing the corresponding automatic response.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the procedure outlined by each automatic response comprises executing an action.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the action of at least one automatic response comprises alerting users of the video signal network of an error condition.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein alerting the users of the video signal network of the error condition comprises integrating a visible error message into one of the plurality of input video signals.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein the procedure outlined by at least one automatic response comprises running a query and executing the action based on the results of the query.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the query comprises requesting status information from the monitoring module of the video signal router.

17. A system for transporting video signals, the system comprising:

a first video processing device, the first video processing device comprising;

an input module for conditioning a plurality of input video signals and producing a plurality of intermediate video signals,

a crossover module coupled to the input module, the crossover module comprising a plurality of crossover input ports for receiving the intermediate video signals from the input module, a plurality of crossover output ports for outputting the plurality of intermediate input signals, and a switching module for routing the intermediate signals from the plurality of crossover input ports to the plurality of crossover output ports, and

an output module coupled to the crossover output ports, the output module for conditioning the intermediate video signals and producing a plurality of output video signals;

a second video processing device comprising a plurality of input ports; and

a cable comprising a first plurality of ports and a second plurality of ports wherein the first plurality of ports is coupled to the plurality of crossover output ports of the first video processing device and the second plurality of ports is coupled to the plurality of input ports of the second video processing device to transport the plurality of intermediate video signals from the first video processing device to the second video processing device.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the cable comprises a plurality of sub-cables wherein each sub-cable is associated with one of the plurality of intermediate video signals.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein each of the input video signals have a first signal power and each of the intermediate video signals have a second signal power wherein each of the first signal powers is greater than the corresponding second signal power.

20. The system of claim 17, wherein the cable has a maximum length of 25 meters.

21. A method of transporting video signals, the method comprising:

receiving a plurality of input video signals at a first video processing device;

conditioning the plurality of input signals to produce a plurality of conditioned video signals;

processing the plurality of conditioned video signals to produce a plurality of intermediate signals and

transporting the plurality of intermediate video signals from the first video processing device to a second video processing device via a cable.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the cable comprises a plurality of sub-cables wherein each sub-cable is associated with one of the plurality of intermediate video signals.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein each of the input video signals have a first signal power and each of the intermediate video signals have a second signal power wherein each of the first signal powers is greater than the corresponding second signal power.

24. The method of claim 21, wherein the cable has a maximum length of 25 meters.

25. A video signal router comprising:

an input module for receiving a plurality of encoded video signals;

a plurality of video signal decoders coupled to the input module, the plurality of video signal decoders configured to receive the plurality of encoded video signals and produce a plurality of decoded video signals;

a routing module coupled to the plurality of video signal decoders, the routing module comprising a plurality of input ports and a plurality of output ports and configured to receive the plurality of decoded video signals on the plurality of input ports and route each of the plurality of decoded video signals to a particular output port; and

an output module coupled to the output ports of the routing module, the output module configured to receive the plurality of decoded video signals and produce a plurality of output signals.

26. The video router of claim 25, wherein each of the plurality of video signal decoders comprises a monitoring module for monitoring the video signal decoder and generating a warning message when one of a plurality of predetermined conditions occurs.

27. The video router of claim 25, wherein at least one of the plurality of video signal decoders is an MPEG decoder.