In-station television program encoding and monitoring system and method
First Claim
1. An in-station system for automatically encoding and monitoring the transmission of television programs at a television station, said station having a video library management system, comprising, at the station:
- an input video player for playing a recorded Storage medium containing a program received at the station;
an encoder coupled to the output of said video player for encoding the video information signal of said received program with identifying data;
a video recorder coupled to said encoder for recording said encoded program onto a video storage medium compatible with the station'"'"'s video library management system;
database means for storing information concerning the recorded encoded programs;
a tuner/decoder for receiving the programs transmitted by such station and for detecting the presence of such identifying data on the video information signal of said received programs; and
means for storing information concerning the identity and transmission of encoded programs in said database means.
6 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An in-station method and apparatus for encoding television programs, including commercials, with a digital identification code recorded on a selected video scan line which is not normally visible to the television viewer, and for verifying the proper airing of such programs by such television broadcast station. The encoding and decoding is performed at the broadcast station during its normal operating procedure. The program is encoded during the normal dubbing procedure when a program video tape is dubbed to a video cartridge for use by the broadcast station'"'"'s library management system. The decoder is located either at the station at an off-air monitor, or at the transmitter, where it monitors the transmitted signal from the broadcast station and records the occurrence of encoded programs or commercials. The information generated is stored locally for later transmission to a host computer where the information can be combined with information from other broadcast stations and other databases.
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Citations
27 Claims
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1. An in-station system for automatically encoding and monitoring the transmission of television programs at a television station, said station having a video library management system, comprising, at the station:
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an input video player for playing a recorded Storage medium containing a program received at the station; an encoder coupled to the output of said video player for encoding the video information signal of said received program with identifying data; a video recorder coupled to said encoder for recording said encoded program onto a video storage medium compatible with the station'"'"'s video library management system; database means for storing information concerning the recorded encoded programs; a tuner/decoder for receiving the programs transmitted by such station and for detecting the presence of such identifying data on the video information signal of said received programs; and means for storing information concerning the identity and transmission of encoded programs in said database means. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 27)
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8. In a system for automatically monitoring and verifying the transmission of television programs by a television station having a video library management system, an in-station method of encoding such programs comprising the steps performed at the station of:
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receiving programs to be broadcast by such station; dubbing such received programs onto a storage medium compatible with such video library management system; encoding the video portion of such received programs with an identifying code simultaneously with the dubbing of such program onto said medium and storing information concerning said dubbed encoded programs in database means at the station. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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20. An in-station system for automatically encoding and monitoring the transmission of television programs by a station having a video management system, comprising at the station:
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means for encoding programs received at said station with identifying information and for dubbing the encoded programs to a storage medium compatible with the video library management system; means for receiving the video signal of programs transmitted by said station; means for detecting the presence of said identifying information on said video signal; means for separating said identifying information from said received video signal; and data base means for storing information concerning the identity and transmission of said encoded programs. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26)
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Specification