Community antenna television arrangement for the reception and distribution of TV - and digital audio signals

• US 4,513,315 A
• Filed: 06/01/1982
• Issued: 04/23/1985
• Est. Priority Date: 06/25/1981
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: US Philips Corporation (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Original Assignee: US Philips Corporation (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Inventors: Vries, Lodewijk B., Dekker, Cornelis B.
• Primary Examiner(s): Masinick, Michael A.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Coles, Edward L.
• Application Number:
  US06/383,907
• Time in Patent Office: 1,057 Days
• Field of Search: 455/21, 455/3, 455/6, 370/77, 370/50, 370/4, 381/2, 371/37, 358/86, 358/142, 358/143, 358/144
• US Class Current: 725/67
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/79 using downlink of the CATV systems, e.g. audio broadcast via CATV network
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 40/90 specially adapted for satellite broadcast receiving

Abstract

Community antenna television arrangement for the reception and distribution of TV signals and digital audio signals, in particular signals which are transmitted per satellite, including a head-end connected to a receiving antenna and a signal distribution network, a time-division multiplex signal which comprises the digital audio signals in a time-multiplex distribution, being applied to the head-end, which time-division multiplex signal is modulated on a sound carrier, the bit rate of the digital audio signals to be distributed being reduced in the head-end of the community antenna television arrangement by a TDM/FDM conversion in order to reduce signal echoes.

Claims

1. A community antenna television arrangement for the reception and distribution of TV signals and digital audio signals, particularly those signals which are transmitted by satellite, comprising a head-end, connected to a receiving antenna and a signal distribution network, a time-division multiplex signal which incorporates said digital audio signals in a time-division multiplex distribution being applied to said head end, which time-division multiplex signal is modulated on a sound carrier, characterized in that the head-end comprises a demodulation arrangement for demodulating the time-division multiplex signal to the baseband, a demultiplexing arrangement for demultiplexing the time-division multiplex signal, this demultiplexing arrangement having parallel outputs at which the digital audio signals are available in parallel, which outputs are connected to modulators of a modulation arrangement for modulating the digital audio signals on separate audio carriers, the modulation arrangement being connected to the signal distribution network for applying the digital audio signals to a plurality of subscribers'"'"' connecting points.

2. A community antenna television arrangement as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that the modulation frequencies of the said modulators are located in several, mutually separated, non-occupied frequency regions in or near the standard VHF and UHF bands.

3. A community antenna television arrangement as claimed in claim 1 or claim 2, characterized in that between the demultiplexing arrangement and the demodulation arrangement an encoding circuit is arranged for coding the digital audio signals into discrete multi-level signals, which after modulation are adapted to the transmission properties of the signal distribution network.

4. A community antenna arrangement as claimed in claim 3, the digital audio signals of the received time-division multiplex signals having been coded in an error-correcting code, characterized in that the demultiplexing arrangement is connected to an error-correcting decoding arrangement.

5. A receiver for connection to a community antenna television arrangement as claimed in claim 1.

6. A receiver as claimed in claim 5, characterized in that said receiver comprises an echo canceller connected to a tuning unit for reducing echoes in the received digital audio signal.