TWI425788B - Broadcast system and broadcast method for thereof - Google Patents

Description

Broadcast system and its broadcasting method

The present invention relates to a broadcast system and a broadcast method therefor, and more particularly to a broadcast system having a plurality of digital tuners and a broadcast method applied thereto.

With the rapid development of technology, multimedia processing technology has attracted attention and developed rapidly. Among them, the processing technology of instant multimedia (such as television and radio) is closely related to the life of modern people, and has a vast market in the world. As a result, a variety of digital broadcast applications, such as Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) and Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB), have been produced.

Among them, a broadcast system has been developed on the market to transmit digital broadcast programs to clients through the Internet. Due to the large number of channels of digital broadcast programs, such broadcast systems usually need to use multiple digital tuners to demodulate each digital program, and simultaneously transmit the demodulated digital broadcast programs to the client for client selection. . However, in order to be able to transmit multiple digital programs simultaneously, the broadcast system needs to have a considerable network bandwidth. In addition, simultaneous demodulation of multiple digital tuners is also quite power consuming.

Accordingly, one aspect of the present invention is to provide a broadcast system. The broadcast system wakes up one of the plurality of digit tuners upon receipt of the program request from the client to demodulate the transport stream containing the program requested by the client. The broadcast system includes a number of digital tuners, a network transmission component, and a control component. The network transport component establishes a connection with a network. The control element is electrically connected to each of the digital tuner and the network transmission component. The control component includes a program request receiving module, a tuner wake-up module, and a streaming broadcast module. The program requires the receiving module to transmit a component through the network, and receive, from at least one client on the network, a program requesting instruction for requesting a program to be received. The tuner wake-up module wakes up one of the digital tuners and causes the awakened digital tuner to demodulate a set of transmission streams based on the information of the program to be received. The demodulated transmission stream includes a plurality of selectable programs, and the program to be received is one of a plurality of selectable programs in the demodulated transmission stream. The streaming broadcast module transmits the transmission stream to at least one client on the network through the network transmission component.

Another aspect of the present invention is to provide a broadcast method applied to a broadcast system. The broadcast system contains several digital tuners. In the broadcast method, upon receiving a program request from a client, one of a plurality of digit tuners is woken up to demodulate a transport stream containing a program requested by the client. The broadcast method includes receiving, from at least one client, a program request instruction for requesting a program to be received. Wake up one of several digital tuners. The awakened digital tuner demodulates a set of transmission streams based on the information of the program to be received. The demodulated transmission stream includes a plurality of optional programs, and the program to be received is one of the optional programs. The broadcast transmission stream is streamed to at least one client.

The application of the present invention has the following advantages. The digital tuner wakes up in response to program requirements, thereby reducing the number of digital tuners that wake up at the same time. In addition, the power consumption required by the digital tuner after waking up is large. Therefore, reducing the number of digital tuners that wake up at the same time can reduce the power consumption of the broadcast system. In addition, the broadcast system does not need to continuously transmit the transmission stream demodulated by all digital tuners, thus saving the bandwidth required for the broadcast system. The same transmission stream is broadcasted to the required clients by multicasting, so that it is not required to be repeatedly broadcasted to save the bandwidth required by the broadcasting system. The bandwidth of the broadcast system can be saved by stopping the broadcast transmission stream when the receiving client is idle. In addition, the power consumption of the broadcasting system can be saved by turning off the digital tuner when the receiving client is idle.

The spirit and scope of the present invention will be apparent from the following description of the preferred embodiments of the invention. The spirit and scope of the invention are not departed.

Please refer to FIG. 1 , which is a functional block diagram of a broadcast system according to an embodiment of the present invention. The broadcast system wakes up one of the plurality of digit tuners upon receipt of the program request from the client to demodulate the transport stream containing the program requested by the client.

The broadcast system 100 includes a plurality of digital tuners 111, 112, ..., 11n, a network transmission component 120, and a control component 130. Network transmission component 120 establishes a connection with a network 300. The network transmission component can be a wired or wireless network transmission component. The digital tuners 111, 112, ..., 11n can be digital television tuners, digital broadcast tuners, or other types of digital tuners. The control component 130 is electrically coupled to each of the digital tuners 111, 112, ..., 11n and the network transmission component 120.

The control component 130 includes a program request receiving module 131, a tuner wake-up module 132, and a streaming broadcast module 133. The program request receiving module 131 receives, via the network transmission component 120, at least one client 211 on the network 300, for receiving a program request command for requesting a program to be received. The tuner wake-up module 132 wakes up one of the digital tuners 111, 112, ..., 11n, and causes the awake digital tuner to demodulate a set of transport streams according to the information of the program to be received (Transport Stream) , TS). The demodulated transmission stream includes a plurality of selectable programs, and the program to be received is one of a plurality of selectable programs in the demodulated transmission stream. The streaming broadcast module 133 broadcasts the transport stream to at least one client 211 on the network through the network transport component 120. In this way, since the digital tuner wakes up according to the program requirements, the number of digital tuners that wake up at the same time can be reduced. In addition, the power consumption required by the digital tuner after waking up is large. Therefore, reducing the number of digital tuners that wake up at the same time can reduce the power consumption of the broadcast system 100. In addition, the broadcasting system 100 does not need to continuously transmit the transmission streams demodulated by all of the digital tuners 111, 112, ..., 11n, thereby saving the bandwidth required by the broadcasting system 100.

In addition, in other embodiments, when there are multiple clients of the same intended program, the streaming broadcast module 133 may use a multicast to transmit the demodulated transmission string containing the same optional program. Stream broadcast to the client. The streaming broadcast module 133 can perform group broadcasting by dividing clients that require the same desired program into the same group. In this way, by multicasting, it is possible to save the bandwidth required by the broadcasting system 100 without repeatedly broadcasting the demodulated transmission stream containing the same optional program.

In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the broadcast system 100 can stop broadcasting the transport stream when the client 211 is idle. Therefore, the control component 130 can further include a stream stop module 134. Upon receiving an idle signal from the client 211, the streaming stop module 134 can cause the streaming broadcast module 133 to stop broadcasting the set of transport streams. The client 211 can generate an idle signal when performing a screen saver, a power save mode, or a screen off mode. In this way, the bandwidth of the broadcast system 100 can be saved by stopping the broadcast transmission stream when the client 211 is idle.

In another embodiment of the present disclosure, the broadcast system 100 can turn off the digital tuner that is awakened by the program request of the client 211 when the client 211 is idle. Therefore, the control component 130 can further include a tuner shutdown module 135. Upon receiving an idle signal from client 211, tuner shutdown module 135 turns off the digital tuner that was woken up in response to the program request of client 211. In this way, the power consumption of the broadcast system 100 can be saved by turning off the digital tuner when the client 211 is idle.

In addition, the control component 130 further includes a determining module 136 for determining whether another program to be received is determined when another program request instruction for requesting another program to be received is received from another client 221 One of the optional programs of the demodulated transmission stream. The tuner wake-up module 132 wakes up another digit of the digit tuner 111, 112, ..., 11n when another program to be received is not one of the selectable programs of the demodulated transmission stream. And causing another digital tuner to be awakened to demodulate another set of transmission streams containing another program to be received. The streaming broadcast module 133 broadcasts another set of transport streams to another client 221 via the network transport component 120. In addition, when another program to be received is one of the optional programs of the demodulated transmission stream, the control component 130 adds another client 221 to the multicast stream containing the transmission stream of another intended program. Module. In this way, there is no need to wake up another digital tuner to provide another program to be received. In addition, since the transmission stream containing another program to be received is multicast to another client 221, the bandwidth of the broadcasting system 100 can be further saved.

Please refer to FIG. 2, which is a flowchart of a broadcasting method according to an embodiment of the present invention. The broadcast method is applied to a broadcast system including one of several digital tuners. In the broadcast method, upon receiving a program request from a client, one of a plurality of digit tuners is woken up to demodulate a transport stream containing a program requested by the client. The broadcast method 400 includes the step of, in step 410, receiving, from at least one client, a program request instruction for requesting a program to be received.

In step 420, one of the plurality of digital tuners is woken up.

In step 430, the awakened digital tuner demodulates a set of transmission streams based on the information of the program to be received. The demodulated transmission stream includes a plurality of optional programs, and the program to be received is one of the optional programs.

In step 440, the broadcast transport stream is streamed to at least one client. In this way, since the digital tuner wakes up according to the program requirements, the number of digital tuners that wake up at the same time can be reduced. In addition, the power consumption required by the digital tuner after waking up is large. Therefore, reducing the number of digital tuners that wake up at the same time can reduce power consumption. In addition, there is no need to continuously transmit the transmission stream demodulated by all digital tuners, since bandwidth can be saved.

When a plurality of clients receive a program request for requesting the same desired program (step 410), the demodulated transmission stream containing the same optional program can be broadcast to the client by multicasting (step 440). The multicast can be performed by dividing the clients that require the same desired program into the same group (step 440). In this way, by multicasting, it is possible to save the required bandwidth without repeatedly broadcasting the demodulated transmission stream containing the same optional program.

In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the broadcast transport stream can be stopped when the client is idle. Therefore, the broadcast method 400 may further include: stopping the broadcast transmission stream when the at least one client requesting the program to receive an idle signal (step 450) (step 460). The idle signal is generated when at least one client executes a screen saver, a power save mode, or a close screen mode. The at least one client can generate an idle signal when performing a screen saver, a power save mode, or a screen off mode. In addition, it is also possible to continuously detect whether at least one client executes a screen saver, a power save mode or a close screen mode to determine whether an idle signal is generated. In this way, the bandwidth can be saved by stopping the broadcast transmission stream when the client is idle.

In another embodiment of the present disclosure, the digital tuner awake in response to the client's program requirements can be turned off when the client is idle. Therefore, the broadcast method 400 can further include: turning off the awakened digital tuner when the idle signal is received from the at least one client requesting the program to be received (step 450) (step 470). In this way, power consumption can be saved by turning off the digital tuner when the client is idle.

In addition, it can be determined as to whether to wake up another digital tuner by judging whether the program requested by other clients is included in the decoded transmission stream. Therefore, the broadcast method 400 may further include the step of determining whether another program to be received is resolved after receiving another program request instruction (step 480) for requesting another program to be received from another client. One of the optional programs of the transport stream is adjusted (step 490).

In step 530, the demodulated transport stream is broadcast to another client while the other of the intended programs is one of the selectable programs of the demodulated transport stream. In this way, there is no need to wake up other digital tuners of the broadcast system to provide another program to be received. Thus, the power consumption of the broadcasting system can be saved. In addition, the transport stream containing another intended broadcast program can be broadcast to another client by multicast (step 530). Therefore, the bandwidth of the broadcasting system can be further saved.

In step 500, another digitizer in the digital tuner in the broadcast system is woken up when another program to be received is not one of the selectable programs of the demodulated transmission stream.

In step 510, another digitizer tuned is demodulated to demodulate another set of transmission streams containing another program to be received.

In step 520, another set of transport streams is broadcast to another client.

It will be apparent from the above-described embodiments of the present invention that the application of the present invention has the following advantages. The digital tuner wakes up in response to program requirements, thereby reducing the number of digital tuners that wake up at the same time. In addition, the power consumption required by the digital tuner after waking up is large. Therefore, reducing the number of digital tuners that wake up at the same time can reduce the power consumption of the broadcast system. In addition, the broadcast system does not need to continuously transmit the transmission stream demodulated by all digital tuners, thus saving the bandwidth required for the broadcast system. The same transmission stream is broadcasted to the required clients by multicasting, so that it is not required to be repeatedly broadcasted to save the bandwidth required by the broadcasting system. The bandwidth of the broadcast system can be saved by stopping the broadcast transmission stream when the receiving client is idle. In addition, the power consumption of the broadcasting system can be saved by turning off the digital tuner when the receiving client is idle.

Although the present invention has been disclosed in the above embodiments, it is not intended to limit the present invention, and the present invention can be modified and modified without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. The scope is subject to the definition of the scope of the patent application attached.

100. . . Broadcasting system

111, 112, ..., 11n. . . Digital tuner

120. . . Network transmission component

130. . . control element

131. . . Program request receiving module

132. . . Tuner wake-up module

133. . . Streaming broadcast module

134. . . Stream stop module

135. . . Tuner shutdown module

136. . . Judging module

211, 221. . . Client

300. . . network

400. . . Broadcast method

410～530. . . step

The above and other objects, features, advantages and embodiments of the present invention will become more apparent and understood.

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram of a broadcast system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

2 is a flow chart of a broadcast method in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

100. . . Broadcasting system

111, 112, ..., 11n. . . Digital tuner

120. . . Network transmission component

130. . . control element

131. . . Program request receiving module

132. . . Tuner wake-up module

133. . . Streaming broadcast module

134. . . Stream stop module

135. . . Tuner shutdown module

136. . . Judging module

211, 221. . . Client

300. . . network

Claims (10)

A broadcast system comprising: a plurality of digital tuners; a network transmission component coupled to a network; and a control component electrically coupled to the digital tuners and the network transmission component, wherein the control component comprises : a program request receiving module, through the network transmission component, receiving, from at least one client on the network, a program request command for requesting a program to be received; a tuner wake-up module, waking up the One of the digital tuners, and causing the digital tuner to be awakened to demodulate a set of transmission streams based on the information of the program to be received, wherein the demodulated group of transmission streams includes a plurality of selectable programs The program to be received is one of the optional programs; a streaming broadcast module transmits the set of transmission streams to the at least one client on the network through the network transmission component; and The judging module judges whether the another program to be received is the optional program of the group of transmission streams when receiving another program request instruction for requesting another program to be received from another client One of the tuner wake-up modules wakes up another digit tuner of the digit tuners and wakes up when the other intended program is not one of the selectable programs The other digital tuner demodulates another set of transmission streams including the other intended broadcast program, wherein the streaming broadcast module transmits the component through the network The other set of transport streams is streamed to the other client. The broadcast system of claim 1, wherein when the number of the at least one client is plural, the streaming broadcast module broadcasts the set of transport streams to the clients by multicasting. The broadcast system of claim 1, wherein the control component further comprises: a stream stop module, when the at least one client receives an idle signal, causing the streaming broadcast module to stop broadcasting the set of transmission strings flow. The broadcast system of claim 1, wherein the control component further comprises: a tuner shutdown module that turns off the digitized tuner when receiving an idle signal from the at least one client. A broadcast method is applied to a broadcast system, wherein the broadcast system includes a plurality of digital tuners, the broadcast method includes: receiving, from at least one client, a program request instruction for requesting a program to be received; waking up the One of the digital tuners; the digital tuner that is woken up demodulates a set of transmission streams according to the information of the program to be received, wherein the demodulated group of transmission streams includes a plurality of selectable programs, The program to be received is one of the optional programs; Broadcasting the group of transmission streams to the at least one client; determining, when another program requesting instruction for requesting another program to be received from another client, determining whether the other intended to be received program is the group of transmissions One of the optional programs being streamed; waking up another digit tuner of the digit tuners when the other intended program is not one of the selectable programs; The other digital tuner demodulates another set of transport streams containing the other intended to be received program; and broadcasts the other set of transport streams to the other client. The broadcast method of claim 5, wherein broadcasting the set of transport streams to the at least one client comprises: broadcasting the set of transport streams to the clients when the number of the at least one client is plural The steps are by group broadcasting. The broadcast method of claim 5, further comprising: stopping receiving the set of transport streams when receiving an idle signal from the at least one client. The broadcast method of claim 5, further comprising: turning off the digital tuner that is awake when receiving an idle signal from the at least one client. The broadcast method of claim 7 or 8, wherein the idle message The number is generated when the at least one client executes a screen saver, a power save mode, or a close screen mode. The broadcast method of claim 5, further comprising: broadcasting the set of transmission streams to the other client when the another intended to be received program is one of the selectable programs.