Sound control system

• US 7,840,016 B2
• Filed: 03/11/2004
• Issued: 11/23/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/11/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Yamaha Corporation
• Original Assignee: Yamaha Corporation
• Inventors: Takahashi, Kengo, Yamashita, Shinjiro
• Primary Examiner(s): Chin; Vivian
• Assistant Examiner(s): Olaniran; Fatimat O
• Application Number:
  US10/798,939
• Publication Number:
  US 20040179704A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,448 Days
• Field of Search: 381/119, 700/94, 709208-211, 709217-219, 846/60, 369/4
• US Class Current: 381/119
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/165 Management of the audio stream, e.g. setting of volume, audio stream path
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/04 Studio equipment; Interconnection of studios

Abstract

A sound control system includes a digital mixing system, a control system, and a private control system. The professional operator who is experienced in handling of the digital mixing system executes detailed settings of respective parameters associated with the mixing process of the digital mixing system by using the control system. The amateur operator who is inexperienced in the handling of the digital mixing system executes settings of a part of parameters out of the parameters that are authorized by the professional operator, etc. by using the private control system.

Claims

1. A sound control system comprising:

a mixing unit which applies a mixing process to a plurality of sound signals input from a plurality of input systems, and outputs resultant signals to a plurality of output systems;

a storing device which stores plural sets of detailed setting information to indicate setting states of respective parameters associated with the mixing process; and

a simple control unit comprising a console panel physically separate from said mixing unit and in data communication with said mixing unit;

wherein the simple control unit includes

a plurality of operating pieces,

an instruction transmitting unit which transmits an input calling instruction to the mixing unit when a calling instruction of a certain detailed setting information is input via any operating piece out of the plurality of operating pieces, and

an assigning unit which receives an authorization parameter information corresponding to the calling instruction from the mixing unit, and assigning an parameter to the operating pieces based on the received authorization parameter information, and

wherein the mixing unit and the mixing process are controlled by the respective parameters indicated in the certain detailed setting information, wherein the mixing unit includes

a receiving unit which receives the calling instruction from the simple control unit, and

a transmitting unit, responsive to authorization parameter identifying information which identifies a predetermined subset of respective parameters that the simple control unit is authorized to modify among the respective parameters indicated in the certain detailed setting information, for a) applying the authorization parameter identification information to restrict a plurality of parameters indicated in the certain detailed setting information and associated with the mixing process, and b) transmitting the authorization parameter identifying information to the simple control unit as the authorization parameter information

wherein the mixing unit a) receives the authorization parameter identifying information and b) restricts operating a function of the simple control unit to only the authorization parameter identifying information, such that a user of the simple control unit is restricted from applying control parameters that are not among the predetermined subset.

2. The sound control system according to claim 1, wherein an operating piece assigning information to identify an operating piece to which the authorization parameter identifying information is assigned is contained in the authorization parameter information.

3. The sound control system according to claim 1, wherein the authorization parameter identifying information is contained in the detailed setting information.

4. The sound control system according to claim 1, wherein, when a plurality of simple control units are equipped, the transmitting unit decides the authorization parameter identifying information for respective simple control units in such a manner that the authorization parameter identifying information is decided differently among respective simple control units.

5. The sound control system according to claim 1, further comprising:

an information generating device which generates the detailed setting information in response to an input operation, and then storing a generated detailed information in the storing device.

6. The sound control system of claim 1 wherein the assigning unit acts to generate the authorization parameter identifying information which restricts in advance the parameters that can be set by the simple control unit.

7. The sound control system of claim 1 wherein the plural sets of detailed settings information are plural sets of predetermined detailed settings information.

10. The sound control system of claim 1 further comprising:

identifying information for identifying a parameter that is authorized to change to be changed;

an identifying information notifying unit for sending to the simple control unit the identifying information included in the detailed setting information identified by the calling instruction;

a receiving unit for receiving the identifying information from the identifying information notifying unit; and

a first operating piece for selecting one of the plural sets of detailed setting information stored in the storing unit;

second operating pieces which are associated with the respective parameters, and which input values of the parameters, respectively; and

a change notification sending unit which sends to the mixing unit the parameter change notification which contains contents of the change when a type of the parameter which has been changed coincides with a type of the parameter which is authorized to be changed by the identifying information at the time the parameter is changed by any one of the second operating pieces.

8. A sound control system comprising:

a mixing unit which applies a mixing process to a plurality of sound signals input from a plurality of input systems, and outputs resultant signals to a plurality of output systems;

a first control unit physically separate from and in communication with the mixing unit and having a plurality of control input points, wherein the first control unit a) allows a user to set values of, through the plurality of control input points during the mixing process, a plurality of control parameters for controlling the mixing unit and b) allows a user to select a subset of the plurality of control parameters and stores the selected subset as authorization parameters;

a second control unit separate from the first control unit, in communication with the mixing unit, and operating a function of the mixing process assigned by the mixing unit;

wherein the mixing unit a) receives the authorization parameters from the first control unit and b) restricts operating a function of the mixing process by the second control unit and in response to the authorization parameters, such that a user of the second control unit is restricted from applying control parameters that are not among said selected subset.

9. The sound control system of claim 8, wherein the first control unit further comprises a keyboard that implements the plurality of control input points.

11. A sound control system comprising:

a mixing unit including a control system which applies a mixing process to a plurality of sound signals input from a plurality of input systems based on instructions from said control system, and outputs resultant signals to a plurality of output systems, the mixing process is controlled by user-settable parameters which cause the mixing process to effect changes in the resultant signals based on user-settable parameters, each parameter being variable over a predefined range of values;

a storing device which stores a user-specified subset of the predefined range for at least one of said user-settable parameters; and

a simple control unit comprising a console panel physically separate from said mixing unit and in data communication with said mixing unit;

wherein the simple control unit includes;

a plurality of operating pieces, and

an instruction transmitting unit which transmits an input calling instruction to the mixing unit when a calling instruction is input via any operating piece out of the plurality of operating pieces, the input calling instruction specifying a desired value for a given one of the user-settable parameters and

wherein the mixing unit includes;

a receiving unit which receives the calling instruction from the simple control unit, and

a deciding unit that passes the desired value to the mixing unit if the desired value of the given parameter is within a user-specified subset of the range associated with the given parameter and that does not pass the desired value to the mixing unit if the desired value is not within the user-specified subset of the range.