Multi-access local area network using a standard protocol for transmitting MIDI data using a specific data frame protocol

Claim 1

A multi-access local area network that uses a standard protocol and is for transmitting MIDI data between at least two MIDI devices, the network comprising: at least one transmit-side adapter that accepts data from a first of the at least two MIDI devices and converts MIDI data to be transmitted on the multi-access local area network, the transmit-side adapter comprising: a serial-to-parallel converter circuit for receiving and converting the MIDI data to produce parallel data that only forms data frames that represent an MIDI local area network transmission protocol which is different from and does not interfere with the standard protocol currently being used on the multi-access local area network, a storage buffer for storing the parallel data from the serial-to-parallel converter in a predetermined order of frames, a parallel-to-serial convertor circuit for receiving and converting data from the storage buffer in the predetermined order of frames to produce serial data frames, a modulating circuit to modulate and code the serial data frames for transmission on the multi-access local area network, and a carrier-sense/back-off control circuit that controls when the modulating circuit transmits the modulated data frames on the multi-access local area network; and at least one receive-side adapter that receives modulated data frames from the multi-access local area network that use the MIDI local area network protocol and converts the modulated data frames into MIDI data for a second of the at least two MIDI devices, the receive-side adapter comprising: a decoding circuit to demodulate and decode each of the modulated data frames into MIDI data, a frame-length counter circuit to determine the length of each of the received modulated data frames to detect complete transmission of each of the modulated data frames, and a gate controlled by the frame-length counter circuit, wherein the gate passes the demodulated and decoded MIDI data for each modulated data frame to the second of the at least two MIDI devices when the framelength counter circuit detects a complete transmission of each of the modulated data frames.