JP2654583B2 - Multiple access mechanism for karaoke terminals - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to an apparatus for transmitting karaoke music that has been digitized using a public line to a karaoke terminal.
The present invention relates to a karaoke terminal multiple connection mechanism capable of controlling a plurality of karaoke general terminals by one representative terminal.

[Conventional technology and its problems]

Recently, karaoke music has spread widely to ordinary households, but all of them are independent devices, using audio tapes or optical disks recorded with PCM as media, and selecting and playing favorite music from these It is a configuration. Therefore, even when a plurality of karaoke apparatuses are used in one building, independent apparatuses are installed individually. Also, for example, even when it is desired to receive a new song, each person must obtain a recording medium by mail or delivery, so that there is an inconvenience that the new song cannot be enjoyed immediately when desired.

By the way, the applicant of the present application has conventionally disclosed a technique of converting karaoke music into digital information, storing the digital information in a database of a host computer, and downloading the digital information to individual karaoke terminals via a public line. If this configuration is adopted, it is necessary for each user to install a karaoke terminal, but there is an advantage that when a new song is provided, all terminal users can use it without delay. However, in the conventional configuration, one public line had to be secured for each karaoke terminal. Therefore, in order to use a large number of karaoke terminals in one building, many lines had to be secured. Instead, it was not possible due to the number of available lines and the structure of the building.

In view of such facts, the present invention provides a multiple connection mechanism that can provide information to a large number of karaoke general terminals at equal opportunities by connecting only one representative terminal to one public line. The purpose is to do.

[Means for solving the problem]

In the present invention, in order to achieve the above-described object, one representative terminal connected to a host computer storing a large number of karaoke music in which music and lyrics are digitally encoded and connected to a public line, and connected in parallel to the representative terminal, A plurality of general terminals that digitally process the karaoke music and play the music, the representative terminal periodically communicates with the host computer to download new karaoke music,
Further, means for simultaneously transferring the new karaoke music to the respective general terminals and outputting answer back for diagnosing the transfer state from the respective general terminals is used.

[Action]

New songs are stored sequentially in the storage device provided in the host computer.
A function to periodically request the download of a new song from the host computer and store it, and a function to simultaneously transfer the new song to a general terminal connected in parallel and save it in a storage device provided in the terminal. I do. In general terminals, new songs are saved sequentially and data is maintained,
It has a function of digitally processing designated karaoke music and playing back music using a synthesizer or the like.

In addition, the representative terminal and each of the general terminals communicate bi-directionally, perform an answerback in a transfer state according to an instruction from the representative terminal, and have an effect of reliably storing data.

〔Example〕

Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. First, in this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 1, a representative terminal 1 is connected to a host computer 4 via a modem 2 and a public line 3. Is a means for downloading digitally encoded karaoke information and simultaneously loading it on general terminals 5a, 5b, 5c... 5x (x is an arbitrary number). Have been. The representative terminal 1 periodically communicates with the host computer 4 in order to receive a new song, and updates data in a storage device provided in the representative terminal 1. In addition, the number of general terminals connected in parallel (the number corresponding to x) is not particularly limited. However, in actuality, considering the restrictions on the output port of the representative terminal 1 and the communication protocol, 255 devices are used. Maximum. This quantity is sufficient for multiplexing in a general building.

FIG. 2 shows an outline of a connection circuit between the representative terminal 1 and the general terminal 5. Reference numeral 6 denotes an internal bus on the representative terminal side, and reference numeral 7 outputs data processed in parallel in the representative terminal 1 to each general terminal. 8x are buffers connected to each general terminal. The output from the parallel-to-serial converter 7 is input to a plurality of buffers 8a... 8x in parallel to enable simultaneous data transfer. Thus, the transmission time from the representative terminal 1 to the plurality of general terminals 8 is reduced.

On the other hand, when data is transferred from the representative terminal 1 to the general terminal 8 in one way, it is not possible to check the general terminal 8 for a failure or transfer failure. Therefore, in this embodiment, a request status command is sent to the general terminal 8 along with the data transfer of the karaoke information in order to check that the data can be normally transferred and the save operation has been completed. In addition, a terminal number is attached to this command, and a general terminal 8 corresponding to this number is assigned.
If there is a response within a predetermined time from, it is determined that it is normal, and if there is no response or an error message is sent,
The representative terminal records the number. In this error message, items for which an error can be predicted are determined in advance, and a corresponding number is assigned, for example, a communication error and a disk writing error. In this way, the data transfer can be performed simultaneously, and it is possible to diagnose a failure of the general terminal or a defect in the data processing.

The general terminal 8 that receives the data transfer is configured to receive the command from the representative terminal 1 with the highest priority in consideration of the efficiency of the entire system. Therefore, if the transfer of data is started while the karaoke music is being reproduced in the general terminal, the reproduction is temporarily stopped. However, these inconveniences can be easily avoided by transferring data while avoiding the use time period of a general terminal. When the general terminal completes the data reception, these are stored in a storage device provided in each general terminal, for example, an MO disk. If any abnormality occurs during this time, the current process is immediately interrupted, a code corresponding to the cause of the occurrence is recorded, and the process stands by. Even when the save operation is completed normally, the standby state is maintained until a reproduction instruction is given.

〔The invention's effect〕

Since the present invention adopts the configuration as described above,
New song data is provided evenly to a plurality of karaoke terminals by using only one public line, so even a building line that can use only a limited line can efficiently configure a network. can do. Further, since the number of lines directly connected to the host computer is greatly reduced, the load on the host computer can be suppressed, and communication can be performed with a margin.

Furthermore, since the representative terminal and the general terminal communicate in two directions, failures and transfer failures of the general terminal can be diagnosed at each general terminal, and the representative terminal can collectively communicate. And a highly reliable mechanism was obtained.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a connection example of one embodiment of the present invention,
FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a data connection configuration between a representative terminal and a general terminal. In the figure, 1 ... representative terminal, 2 ... modem, 3 ... public line, 4 ... host computer, 5a / 5b / 5c 5X ... general terminal, 6 ... internal bus on the representative terminal side, 7 ...... Parallel-serial converter.

 ────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page Examiner Toshiro Ito (56) References JP-A-63-6984 (JP, A) JP-A-2-95097 (JP, A) JP-A-60-83090 (JP, A) Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Sho 60-24591 (JP, A) Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Sho 60-253082 (JP, A) Japanese Patent Laid-open No. Sho 63-60634 (JP, A)

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A representative terminal 1 connected by a public line 3 to a host computer 4 storing a large number of karaoke music in which music and lyrics are digitally encoded. It consists of multiple general terminals 5a, 5b, 5c ... 5x that perform digital processing and play music.
The representative terminal 1 periodically communicates with the host computer 4 to download new karaoke music, and simultaneously transfers the new karaoke music to the respective general terminals, and an answer for diagnosing the transfer state. A multiple connection mechanism for a karaoke terminal, wherein the back is output from each of the general terminals.