Patent Application
20090083820
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to re-transmission of television signals over a network.
2. Background Art
Television service providers are able to broadcast any number of television channels over wireline or wireless communication mediums. Some television service providers are able to broadcast 50, 100, or more television channels. A full compliment of television channels can be defined as any number of television channels available to a particular subscriber.
In some environments, such as at college universities or other locales where a number of users may be associated with a common network, typically a private network, the university (subscriber) may desire to distribute or re-transmit the television channels over a local area network (LAN) for viewing by students or users associated with the network. The LAN may have bandwidth, processing, or other restrictions that prevent it from distributing the full compliment of television channels and/or the associated entity may only pay for re-transmitting a selected number of channels, i.e., it may be limited to supporting re-transmission of some number of channels less than the full compliment.
One issue faced by the subscriber relates to selecting which of the full compliment of channels to re-transmit over the LAN. Accordingly, a need exists to facilitate selecting a portion of the television channels available from the full compliment of television channels for further distribution according to the limitations of the LAN.
The present invention is pointed out with particularity in the appended claims. However, other features of the present invention will become more apparent and the present invention will be best understood by referring to the following detailed description in conjunction with the accompany drawings in which:
A network 14 may be included to facilitate transmitting the television signals from the television service provider 12. The network 14 may be a wireline and/or wireless communication medium having capabilities to support signal transmission according to any type of transmission protocol. The network 14 may be used to transmit the television signals to any number of subscribers (not shown). One of the subscribers may be a university or other entity having a local area network (LAN) 16 for supporting electronic communications with a number of users, referred to as voters 20-24 in
The television server 18 may be configured to facilitate re-transmitting the television signals over the LAN 16. The television service provider 12 may broadcast a plurality of television channels, for example 50. A full compliment of television channels can be defined as all of television channels available to the university which, for exemplary purposes of the present invention, has been selected to be 50 television channels.
The LAN 16 may have bandwidth, processing, or other restrictions that prevent it from supporting re-transmission of the full compliment of television channels and/or the university may only pay for re-transmission of a limited number of the television channels. The present invention contemplates a solution whereby a subset of the full compliment of channels may be selected for re-transmission over the LAN 16. The television server 18 may be configured or instructed to facilitate such selection and re-transmission of the television channels. This may include the television server 18 being configured or instructed to facilitate selecting and re-transmitting the subset of channels, for example, 10 channels.
The television signals may be broadcast from the television provider 12 with any type of format. The present invention contemplates at least one arrangement where the television service provider 12 broadcasts television signals in an analog format. The television server 18 may be configured to receive the analog signals and to convert the signals, at least the signals corresponding with the television channels selected for re-transmission, to a digital format, such as an IP format suitable for multicast transmission over the network 14.
One channel selection methodology may include selecting the most popular or highly demanded channels for re-transmission. This may include identifying the maximum number of channels the LAN 16 can support, and/or that have been purchased, and selecting the corresponding number of television channels for re-transmission. The maximum number channels that the LAN 16 can support may increase and/or decrease depending on purchasing changes and/or LAN bandwidth availability. For example, if more/less bandwidth is consumed during certain periods of the day or as processing demands dynamically change according to user consumption, more/less channels may be available during those periods. Rules and other parameters may also be used to establish the number of channels, including limiting LAN data transmission capabilities during peak television viewing times so that more channels can be re-transmitted and/or limiting the number of re-transmitted channels during peak data transmission times so that more data can be transmitted.
The most popular channels may be periodically updated and changed throughout the day, on a weekly or monthly basis, or according to any other schedule. The webpage 30 may include a time selection menu 34 to facilitate scrolling through a half-hour based voting schedule where votes may be cast for different channels at half-hour intervals. Of course, other time intervals are also contemplated. The voters 20-24 may access and be authenticated to vote by inputting their user name in a user name field 36. Votes for particular television channels may be cast by checking a box next a channels description 37 provided next to each channel listing. A number of votes display 38 may indicate the number of channels to vote for during the selected time slot, which can increase/decrease as described above. Once at least one vote is cast the votes may be submitted with selection of a submit vote button 40. The voters 20-24 may be required to enter a minimum or maximum number of votes.
Optionally, a quick vote button 42 may be included to facilitate voting on a more universal basis so that the voter is not required to enter votes for each voting period. The quick vote can be used to cast votes for the entire day, or other interval of time, so that the television channels having checks are automatically selected for all voting intervals subject to the quick vote. If the quick vote is associated with a full day of voting and the votes are tabulated every half-hour, the quick vote can enter the same votes for each half-hour tabulating period throughout the day.
Each of the television channel descriptions 37 shown in the webpage 30 may be highlighted or selected to display additional information. The additional information may provide a synopsis of the television channel and the content it typically shows. The additional information may also include a description of the program showing for the selected period of time. This can be helpful to facilitate voting on a program-by-program basis where voters 20-24 may locate programs of particular interest and vote for them.
The webpage 30 can allow voters 20-24 to cast votes for upcoming time periods and/or to make a “favorites” votes where particular channels or programs may be automatically selected according to a predefined schedule set by each voter 20-24. The voters 20-24 can set-up and schedule votes to occur for particular channels and/or programs throughout the day so that they can cast and change their votes without having to repeatedly access the voting forum.
As required, detailed embodiments of the present invention are disclosed herein; however, it is to be understood that the disclosed embodiments are merely exemplary of the invention that may be embodied in various and alternative forms. The figures are not necessarily to scale, some features may be exaggerated or minimized to show details of particular components. Therefore, specific structural and functional details disclosed herein are not to be interpreted as limiting, but merely as a representative basis for the claims and/or as a representative basis for teaching one skilled in the art to variously employ the present invention.
While embodiments of the invention have been illustrated and described, it is not intended that these embodiments illustrate and describe all possible forms of the invention. Rather, the words used in the specification are words of description rather than limitation, and it is understood that various changes may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.
