Antenna system with individually addressable elements in dense array

• US 8,787,975 B2
• Filed: 11/17/2011
• Issued: 07/22/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 11/18/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Charter Communications Operating LLC (Charter Communications Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Aereo Incorporated
• Inventors: Lipowski, Joseph Thaddeus, Kanojia, Chaitanya
• Primary Examiner(s): GESESSE, TILAHUN
• Application Number:
  US13/299,194
• Publication Number:
  US 20120127363A1
• Time in Patent Office: 978 Days
• Field of Search: 455/562.1
• US Class Current: 455/562.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/57 for mobile receivers
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/51 of receiving stations
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/70 using geographical information, e.g. maps, charts or atlases
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/82 the transmission system being the Internet
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/40 using video transcoding, i.e. partial or full decoding of a coded input stream followed by re-encoding of the decoded output stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2143 located in a single building, e.g. hotel, hospital or museum arrangements specially adapted for plural spots in a confined site in broadcast systems H04H20/63; adaptations for transmission by electric cable for domestic distribution in television systems H04N7/106
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2181 comprising remotely distributed storage units, e.g. when movies are replicated over a plurality of video servers distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS], H04L67/1097
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2221 being a cable television head-end CATV in broadcast systems H04H20/78
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2335 involving reformatting operations of audio signals, e.g. by converting from one coding standard to another details of audio signal transcoding G10L19/173
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2393 involving handling client requests scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests H04L67/60
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25841 involving the geographical location of the client retrieval from the Internet by querying based on geographical locations G06F16/9537; arrangements for identifying locations of receiving stations in broadcast systems H04H60/51; location of the user terminal in data switching networks H04L67/52; services making use of the location of users or terminals in wireless networks H04W4/02; locating users or terminals in wireless networks H04W64/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25866 Management of end-user data customer care in data networks H04L41/5077
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2747 Remote storage of video programs received via the downstream path, e.g. from the server
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4126 The peripheral being portable, e.g. PDAs or mobile phones
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/41407 embedded in a portable device, e.g. video client on a mobile phone, PDA, laptop constructional details of equipment or arrangements specially adapted for portable computer application G06F1/1626; arrangements specially adapted for mobile receivers in broadcast systems H04H20/57
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4341 Demultiplexing of audio and video streams
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4347 Demultiplexing of several video streams
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/43637 involving a wireless protocol, e.g. Bluetooth, RF or wireless LAN [IEEE 802.11] arrangements for wireless networking or broadcasting of information in indoor or near-field type systems H04B10/114
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6112 involving terrestrial transmission, e.g. DVB-T
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6175 involving transmission via Internet broadcast-related systems characterised by the transmission system being the Internet H04H60/82
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/455 : Demodulation-circuits

Abstract

A method and system for capturing, storing, and streaming over the air broadcasts based on user requests is disclosed. The system and method utilize subarrays of antenna elements for receiving over the air broadcasts. Processing pipelines are used to demodulate, transcode and index the content transmissions to produce content data that are streamed to users. In this way, the feeds from antennas can be accessed by users over a network connection.

Claims

1. An antenna system comprising:

a two dimensional array of antenna elements for separately receiving over the air broadcasts, the array of antenna elements having a density of at least 10 antenna elements per square meter; and

an encoder system for transcoding over air broadcasts received by the separate antenna elements into content data to be stored in a data storage system.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein the antenna elements are omni-directional antenna elements.

3. The system according to claim 1, wherein the antenna elements are symmetric dual loop antenna elements.

4. The system according to claim 1, further comprising:

multiple ones of the two dimensional array of antenna elements; and

a housing that supports the two dimensional arrays adjacent to each other.

5. The system according to claim 4, wherein the two dimensional arrays of antenna elements form a three dimensional array within the housing.

6. The system according to claim 1, wherein the two dimensional array of antenna elements and at least part of the encoder system are implemented on a common circuit board.

7. The system according to claim 6, wherein the encoder system comprises demodulators that are implemented on the circuit board.

8. The system according to claim 1, further comprising radio frequency tuners for tuning the antenna elements of the two dimensional array.

9. The system according to claim 8, wherein the two dimensional array of antenna elements and radio frequency tuners are implemented on a common circuit board.

10. The system according to claim 9, wherein the circuit board comprises at least 50 antenna elements.

11. The system according to claim 1, wherein the antenna elements have a density of at least 50 antenna elements per square meter.

12. The system according to claim 1, wherein the antenna elements are hemispherical directional antenna elements.

13. A method for receiving over the air broadcasts with an array of antenna elements, the method comprising:

providing two dimensional arrays of antennas elements for receiving the over the air broadcasts, the arrays of antennas elements each having a density of at least 10 antenna elements per square meter;

stacking the arrays to form a three dimensional array of antenna elements;

receiving the over the air broadcasts with the three dimensional array of antenna elements; and

transcoding the over the air broadcasts into content data to be stored in a data storage device.

14. The method according to claim 13, further comprising implementing the two dimensional arrays of antenna elements and tuners for the antenna elements on a common circuit board.

15. The method according to claim 13, further comprising providing at least 50 antenna elements in the two dimensional arrays.

16. The method according to claim 13, wherein the antenna elements have a density of at least 50 antenna elements per square meter.

17. An antenna system comprising:

a plurality of circuit boards, each of the circuit boards including a two dimensional array of antenna elements for separately receiving over the air broadcasts and an encoder system for demodulating the over air broadcasts received by the separate antenna elements, the encoder system transcoding the over the air broadcasts from MPEG4 encoding into content data;

a card cage for housing the circuit boards, and

a data storage system that stores the content data from the encoder system.

18. A method for receiving over the air broadcasts with an array of antenna elements, the method comprising:

providing two dimensional arrays of antennas elements for receiving the over the air broadcasts;

stacking the arrays to form a three dimensional array of antenna elements;

receiving the over the air broadcasts with the three dimensional array of antenna elements; and

demodulating and transcoding the over the air broadcasts from MPEG4 into content data to be stored in a data storage device.