Digital video distribution system
First Claim
1. A digital video distribution system for distributing analog video information of any one of a plurality of video sources to a plurality of video display units, comprising:
- a plurality of first terminals adapted to be respectively connected to the plurality of video sources, each of the plurality of first terminals comprising an encoder for converting the analog video information supplied from the respective one of the plurality of video sources to compressed digital video information and a first interface for outputting the digital video information in the form of multicast protocol-based packets;
a local area network, connected to the plurality of first terminals, for receiving the digital video information from the plurality of first terminals; and
a plurality of second terminals connected to the local area network and to the plurality of video display units, each of the second terminals comprising a second interface for receiving desired packets among the multicast protocol-based packets supplied from the local area network and a decoder for converting the desired packets received by the second interface to uncompressed analog video information, the resulting analog video information being displayed on the display units, the second interface comprising a hardware-implemented filter for selectively extracting desired packets in accordance with a multicast communications protocol, comprising a register into which a desired IP source address and a desired IP multicast address have been set by a CPU in the corresponding second terminal and a comparator for comparing an IP source address and an IP multicast address contained in a received packet with the desired IP source address and the desired IP multicast address set in the register.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A digital video distribution system is disclosed which includes video terminals connected within a LAN and distributes video from a certain terminal to destination terminals, simultaneously. In this system, each transmitter terminal has an encoder that converts analog video information from a corresponding video source to digitally compressed video information. A hub are connected to the video terminals to distribute digitally compressed video information from a transmitter terminal to multiple destination (receiver) terminals in accordance with a multicast communication protocol. Each of the receiver terminals has an address filter for selecting a packet from among multicast communication packets that has a desired source address as valid video information. The receiver further has a decoder for converting digitally encoded information received as valid to original analog video information with expansion.
204 Citations
44 Claims
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1. A digital video distribution system for distributing analog video information of any one of a plurality of video sources to a plurality of video display units, comprising:
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a plurality of first terminals adapted to be respectively connected to the plurality of video sources, each of the plurality of first terminals comprising an encoder for converting the analog video information supplied from the respective one of the plurality of video sources to compressed digital video information and a first interface for outputting the digital video information in the form of multicast protocol-based packets; a local area network, connected to the plurality of first terminals, for receiving the digital video information from the plurality of first terminals; and a plurality of second terminals connected to the local area network and to the plurality of video display units, each of the second terminals comprising a second interface for receiving desired packets among the multicast protocol-based packets supplied from the local area network and a decoder for converting the desired packets received by the second interface to uncompressed analog video information, the resulting analog video information being displayed on the display units, the second interface comprising a hardware-implemented filter for selectively extracting desired packets in accordance with a multicast communications protocol, comprising a register into which a desired IP source address and a desired IP multicast address have been set by a CPU in the corresponding second terminal and a comparator for comparing an IP source address and an IP multicast address contained in a received packet with the desired IP source address and the desired IP multicast address set in the register. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16)
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15. A digital video distribution system for distributing analog video information of any one of a plurality of video sources to a plurality of video display units, comprising:
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a plurality of first terminals adapted to be respectively connected to the plurality of video sources, each of the plurality of first terminals comprising an encoder for converting the analog video information supplied from the respective one of the plurality of video sources to compressed digital video information and a first interface for outputting the digital video information in the form of multicast protocol-based packets; a local area network, connected to the plurality of first terminals, for receiving the digital video information from the plurality of first terminals; and a plurality of second terminals connected to the local area network and to the plurality of video display units, each of the second terminals comprising a second interface for receiving desired packets among the multicast protocol-based packets supplied from the local area network and a decoder for converting the desired packets received by the second interface to uncompressed analog video information, the resulting analog video information being displayed on the display units, the second terminals having a ring buffer RAM on which digital video information from the first terminals is overwritten cyclically and means for stopping overwriting on the ring buffer RAM at a specific time, wherein the second terminals display information retained on the ring buffer RAM instead of video information from the local area network after the overwriting on the ring buffer RAM has been stopped. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29)
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30. A digital video distribution system for distributing analog video information of any one of a plurality of video sources to a plurality of video display units, comprising:
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a plurality of first terminals adapted to be respectively connected to the plurality of video sources, each of the plurality of first terminals comprising an encoder for converting the analog video information supplied from the respective one of the plurality of video sources to compressed digital video information and a first interface for outputting the digital video information in the form of multicast protocol-based packets; a local area network, connected to the plurality of first terminals, for receiving the digital video information from the plurality of first terminals;
a plurality of second terminals connected to the local area network and to the plurality of video display units, each of the second terminals comprising a second interface for receiving desired packets among the multicast protocol-based packets supplied from the local area network and a decoder for converting the desired packets received by the second interface to uncompressed analog video information, the resulting analog video information being displayed on the display units; andvideo distributors connected between the video sources and the first terminals, each of the video distributors distributing video information from a corresponding video source to its two outputs one of which is connected to a corresponding first terminal and a switch matrix connected to the other of the two outputs of each video distributor, the switch matrix selectively outputting video information of one of the video sources to a broadcasting device. - View Dependent Claims (31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44)
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Specification