Video distribution system addressing device for identifying remote locations

• US 5,455,619 A
• Filed: 11/01/1993
• Issued: 10/03/1995
• Est. Priority Date: 11/01/1993
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: LodgeNet Interactive Corporation
• Original Assignee: Lodgenet Entertainment (LodgeNet Interactive Corporation)
• Inventors: Truckenmiller, Steven D., Schulz, Mark D., Stoel, Leon P., Hills, Vernon E., Cinco, Christopher A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Harvey, David E.
• Application Number:
  US08/146,330
• Time in Patent Office: 701 Days
• Field of Search: 348/3, 348/6, 348/7, 348/8, 348/10, 348/12, 348/13, 348/1, 348/2, 455/2, 455/3.1, 455/3.3, 455/4.1, 455/4.2, 455/5.1, 455/6.1, 455/6.2, 358/86, 358/85, 358/84
• US Class Current: 725/14
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/163 by receiver means only

Abstract

The present invention is an electronic room address tag which associates an address with a remote location in a video distribution system. The video distribution system includes a central distribution point, a plurality of remote locations having at least one video control terminal located at each remote location, and a communication link for carrying signals between the central distribution point and the video control terminals at each remote location. The electronic room address tag is connected to the communication link and located at each remote location separate from the video terminal. The address is stored in the video control terminal and is accessible from the central distribution point through the communication link for tracking guest video selection and video control terminal use.

Claims

1. A device for associating an address with a remote location in a video distribution system having a central distribution point, a plurality of remote locations having at least one video control terminal located at each remote location, and a communication link for carrying signals between the central distribution point and each video control terminal at each remote location, the device being located at each remote location, the device comprising:

a housing;

connection means extending from the housing for connecting the device to the communication link and to each video control terminal at the remote location; and

address means within the housing connected to the connection means for associating a unique address with the remote location, wherein each video control terminal is separable from the address means and is capable of reading from the address means the unique address associated with the remote location.

2. The device of claim 1 wherein the connection means includes a male connector and a female connector, the male connector extending from the housing for coupling to a video outlet of a video distribution system, the video outlet being part of the communication link, and the female connector extending from the housing for coupling to a communication cable, the communication cable being part of the communication link.

3. The device of claim 1 including means for receiving power using the communication link without affecting signals present on the communication link.

4. The device of claim 3 wherein the power is provided by data pulses received from each video control terminal.

5. The device of claim 1 wherein the device is installable in an existing video distribution system without any additional external wires and cables.

6. The device of claim 1 wherein the device unique address cannot be manually changed by a customer.

7. The device of claim 1 wherein the device is located adjacent to a video outlet box located at the remote location.

8. The device of claim 1 including AC signal isolation means for isolating AC signals from the address means.

9. The device of claim 1, including DC blocking means for blocking DC signals present on the communication link from passing through the device.

10. A video distribution system for distributing signals between a central distribution point and a plurality of video control terminals, the central distribution point being located at a central location and the video control terminals being located at remote locations, the system including a communication link connecting the central distribution point and video control terminals, the communication link being used for carrying the signals between the central location distribution point and the plurality of video control terminals, the video control terminal including a television and a microcontroller, the microcontroller having a non-volatile memory, the system further including:

address means located at each remote location separate from the video control terminal for associating a unique address with the remote location;

connection means extending from the address means for connecting the address means to the communication link;

initialization means for storing a unique remote location number at the video control terminal;

reading means for reading the unique remote location unique number and storing the unique remote location number at the video control terminal;

polling means located at the central distribution point for polling each video control terminal'"'"'s unique remote location number and each address means unique address;

associating means for associating each unique remote location number with the corresponding address means unique address to form an index number for each remote location; and

video distribution control means for using the index number to poll each remote location for tracking video selection and video control terminal use, the video distribution control means maintaining the index number associated with each corresponding remote location after removal of any of the video control terminals and subsequently the substitution of a different video control terminal at the same remote location.

11. The video distribution system of claim 10 wherein the different video control terminal reads the address means unique address into memory, and subsequently wherein the video distribution control means stores the index number and remote location number corresponding to the unique address at the video control terminal.

12. The video distribution system of claim 10 wherein the communication link simultaneously carries a unique video signal to each remote location.

13. The video distribution system of claim 12 wherein the communication link simultaneously carries the same video signal to a plurality of video control terminals while carrying unique video signals to other video control terminals.

14. The video distribution system of claim 12 and further including:

power supply means separate from the address means for supplying power to the address means using the communication link without affecting video signal present on the communication link.

15. A method of associating a unique address with a remote location in a centralized video distribution system comprising the steps of:

providing a communication link for carrying video signals between a central distribution point and a plurality of video control terminals located at remote locations;

providing an address device having an internally stored unique address at each remote location;

connecting the address device at each remote location to the communication link;

initializing a video control terminal at each remote location by inputting numbers representative of the remote location using a remote control unit at the remote location;

storing the representative numbers in a non-volatile memory located in the video control terminal;

polling each remote location from the central distribution point for video control terminal remote location numbers;

reading the unique address from the address device associated at the corresponding remote location and storing the unique address at the corresponding video control terminal;

compiling a database of unique addresses corresponding with physical remote location numbers to form an index number for each remote location; and

maintaining the unique address associated with each remote location after removal of the video control terminal at a given remote location and subsequently the substitution of a different video control terminal at the same remote location.

16. The method of claim 15 and further including:

supplying power to the address device using the communication link without affecting video signal present on the communication link.

17. The method of claim 15 further including reading of the remote location unique address by the different video control terminal and storing the unique address at the different video control terminal.

18. The method of claim 17 further including assigning the index number and room number which corresponds to the unique address to the different video control terminal.