DIGITAL MULTIMEDIA NETWORK WITH HIERARCHICAL PARAMETER CONTROL PROTOCOL

• US 20100299421A1
• Filed: 09/23/2008
• Published: 11/25/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 10/04/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Networked Audio Solutions (Proprietary) Limited, U-Man Universal Media Access Networks GmbH
• Original Assignee: Networked Audio Solutions (Proprietary) Limited, U-Man Universal Media Access Networks GmbH
• Inventors: Foss, Richard, Gurdan, Robby
• Application Number:
  US12/681,238
• Publication Number:
  US 20100299421A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/222
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 1/0066 using a MIDI interface
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 1/46 Volume control
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/04 Studio equipment; Interconnection of studios
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/4637 Interconnected ring systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/125 involving control of end-device applications over a network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/56 Provisioning of proxy services store-and-forward switching systems in data switching networks H04L12/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/565 Conversion or adaptation of application format or content adding application control or application functional data H04L67/561
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/16 Implementation or adaptation of Internet protocol [IP], of transmission control protocol [TCP] or of user datagram protocol [UDP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/26 Special purpose or proprietary protocols or architectures network applications for proprietary or special purpose networking environments H04L67/12
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23602 Multiplexing isochronously with the video sync, e.g. according to bit-parallel or bit-serial interface formats, as SDI
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2381 Adapting the multiplex stream to a specific network, e.g. an Internet Protocol [IP] network transmission of MPEG streams over ATM H04L12/5601
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4342 Demultiplexing isochronously with video sync, e.g. according to bit-parallel or bit-serial interface formats, as SDI
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4345 Extraction or processing of SI, e.g. extracting service information from an MPEG stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4381 Recovering the multiplex stream from a specific network, e.g. recovering MPEG packets from ATM cells transmission of MPEG streams over ATM H04L12/5601

Abstract

The present invention relates to a digital multimedia network of apparatuses each comprising a control device, wherein a device parameter of an apparatus is controlled by sending a command message (CMD) to said control device of said apparatus containing a tree-structured hierarchical parameter address (HPA) which consists of parameter grouping identifiers each corresponding to a hierarchy level of a predetermined tree-structured parameter hierarchy used for addressing device parameters throughout said digital multimedia network.

Claims

1-17. -17. (canceled)

18. A digital multimedia network comprising at least one apparatus,

wherein a device parameter of each apparatus is controlled by sending a command message to a control device of said apparatus containing a tree-structured hierarchical parameter address which consists of parameter grouping identifiers each corresponding to a hierarchy level of a predetermined tree-structured parameter hierarchy used for addressing device parameters throughout said digital multimedia network.

19. The network according to claim 18,

wherein said command message is sent to said control device addressed by an IP-address indicated in said command message.

20. The network according to claim 19,

wherein said control device is integrated in said digital multimedia apparatus or connected to said digital multimedia apparatus via an interface.

21. The network according to claim 18,

wherein the tree-structured parameter hierarchy comprises several parameter hierarchy levels of parameter groupings of said digital multimedia apparatus.

22. The network according to claim 19,

comprising cascaded backbones each consisting of a ring of routers,

wherein to the routers of peripheral backbones digital multimedia apparatuses are connected.

23. The network according to claim 18,

wherein a wildcard parameter group identifier is provided for selecting all device parameters of the next lower level of said tree-structured parameter hierarchy.

24. A controllable digital multimedia apparatus comprising a control device which controls at least one adjustable device parameter of said apparatus,

wherein if the control device receives a command message which contains a structured parameter address consisting of parameter grouping identifiers each corresponding to a hierarchy level of a predetermined tree-structured parameter address for addressing said control device and a parameter value said device parameter of said apparatus is adjusted by said control device to the parameter value contained in said command message.

25. The controllable apparatus according to claim 24,

wherein said control device comprises a processor for processing an XFN stack.

26. The apparatus according to claim 24,

wherein said control device is integrated in said digital multimedia apparatus or connected to said digital multimedia apparatus via an interface.

27. The apparatus according to claim 24,

comprising a memory for storing an integer parameter index value for each device parameter of said digital multimedia apparatus.

28. The apparatus according to claim 24,

comprising a flag register for storing flags associated with each device parameter of said digital multimedia apparatus which can be modified by a command message comprising a flags command qualifier.

29. A method for controlling at least one device parameter of a digital multimedia apparatus by sending a command message to a control device of said apparatus containing a structured parameter address which consists of parameter grouping identifiers each corresponding to a level of a predetermined tree-structured parameter hierarchy for addressing the device parameter and containing a parameter value to adjust the addressed device parameter of said digital multimedia apparatus.

30. The method according to claim 29,

wherein said command message comprises

an IP header including a source IP address of a sender control device of a source apparatus and a

destination IP address of a receiving control device of a target apparatus,

an UDP header including a source port and a destination port,

a parameter control protocol header and a hierarchical parameter

address or a parameter index value, and

a parameter value field.

31. The method according to claim 30,

wherein said parameter control protocol header comprises

a target device ID,

a sender device ID,

a sender parameter ID,

a user level,

a secure PIN,

a message type,

a sequence ID,

a command executive, and

a command qualifier.

32. The method according to claim 30,

wherein said hierarchical parameter address comprises

a section block ID,

a section type ID,

a channel number ID,

a parameter block ID,

a parameter block index ID,

a parameter type ID and

a parameter index ID.

33. A computer program comprising instructions for performing the method according to claim 29.

34. A data carrier which stores a computer program according to claim 33.