Simulcast transmission of digital programs to shared antenna receiving systems

Claim 3

A system as in claim 1, wherein the predetermined delay processing window of the delay signal processing circuits has a value equal to or greater than the difference in propagation time to the at least one antenna from two of the spaced apart transmitters.

Claim 4

A system as in claim 2, wherein the delay signal processing circuits comprise time delay equalizers.

Claim 5

A system as in claim 1, wherein the predetermined delay processing window of the delay signal processing circuits has a value of approximately 100 microseconds.

Claim 6

A system as in claim 1, wherein the digital processors are located in the living units and process digitized and compressed broadband information selected by individual users.

Claim 7

A system as in claim 1, wherein the digital processors are elements of the shared receiving system.

Claim 10

A system as in claim 7, further comprising: a plurality of demodulators, each demodulator demodulating signals from a respective one of the multiplexed channels and supplying the demodulated signals for processing by one of the delay signal processing circuits; a plurality of modulators for modulating the acquired single copies from the delay processing circuits into separate channels; and a combiner for combining the separate channels into a multiplexed signal containing the separate channels for broadcast via the network.

Claim 11

A system as in claim 7, wherein the predetermined delay processing window of the delay signal processing circuits has a value equal to or greater than the difference in propagation time to the at least one antenna from two of the spaced apart transmitters.

Claim 12

A system as in claim 9, wherein the predetermined delay processing window of the delay signal processing circuits has a value of approximately 100 microseconds.

Claim 13

A system as in claim 9, wherein the delay signal processing circuits comprise time delay equalizers.

Claim 14

A system as in claim 7, wherein the multiplexed channels have different frequencies, said system further comprising a plurality of demodulators, each demodulator demodulating selected signals from one of the channel selectors and supplying demodulated signals for processing by one of the delay signal processing circuits.

Claim 15

A system as in claim 12, wherein each of the demodulators comprises a QAM demodulator.

Claim 16

A system as in claim 12, further comprising: a plurality of groups of digital processors, each group of digital processors processing the acquired single copy of a signal from one of the delay signal processing circuits, each digital processor processing selected digitized and compressed broadband information corresponding to one program to produce an analog program signal; and a plurality of modulators for modulating the analog program signals for distribution through said network.

Claim 17

A system as in claim 14, wherein each digital processor comprises a digital audio/video decoder for decompressing the selected digitized and compressed broadband information to produce a decompressed video signal and a decompressed audio signal.

Claim 18

A receiver as in claim 15, wherein: the selected digitized and compressed broadband information comprises MPEG encoded audio and video packets, and each audio/video decoder comprises: an MPEG video decoder; an MPEG audio decoder; and an MPEG demultiplexer selectively routing information from the MPEG encoded video and audio packets carried on the selected channel to the MPEG video decoder and the MPEG audio decoder, respectively.

Claim 19

A system as in claim 7, further comprising: a combiner for multiplexing the acquired copies of signals to form a single optimized representation of said signal including multiplexed channels for distribution via the network; terminals located in a plurality of the living units, each terminal receiving the single optimized representation of said signal including multiplexed channels and in response thereto presenting information corresponding to a selected one of the programs.

Claim 20

A system as in claim 17, wherein each terminal comprises: (i) an interface module responsive to the single optimized representation of said signal including multiplexed channels for selecting one of the multiplexed channels and acquiring a digital transport stream from the selected channel; and (ii) a digital signal processing section for processing a portion of the acquired digital transport stream associated with a selected program to present information relating to the selected program.

Claim 21

A system as in claim 18, wherein each digital signal processing section comprises a digital audio/video decoder for decompressing selected digitized and compressed broadband information to produce a decompressed video signal and a decompressed audio signal.

Claim 22

A receiver as in claim 19, wherein: the selected digitized and compressed broadband information comprises MPEG encoded audio and video packets, and each audio/video decoder comprises: an MPEG video decoder; an MPEG audio decoder; and an MPEG demultiplexer selectively routing information from the MPEG encoded video and audio packets carried on the digital transport stream to the MPEG video decoder and the MPEG audio decoder, respectively.

Claim 23

A system as in claim 18, wherein each digital signal processing section comprises driver circuitry for presenting information to a user via a video output device.

Claim 24

A communication system comprising: a plurality of transmitters located at spaced apart sites transmitting a signal including multiplexed channels so that areas of propagation from respective ones of the transmitters substantially overlap over each other in at least a major portion of a reception area; each multiplexed channel containing digitized and compressed broadband information relating to a plurality of programs; and a shared receiving system located within the reception area and serving a plurality of living units, said shared receiving system comprising: (1) at least one antenna receiving multiple time delayed copies of said signal including multiplexed channels; (2) a plurality of channel selectors coupled to the at least one antenna, each channel selector selecting a respective one of the multiplexed channels; (3) a plurality of delay signal processing circuits each connected to one of the channel selectors for processing multiple time delayed copies within a predetermined delay processing window of signals in a respective one of the multiplexed channels, to acquire a single copy of a signal corresponding to the respective one of the multiplexed channels; and (4) a network for distributing information from the acquired single copies of the respective channels to the living units for presentation of selected broadband information.

Claim 25

A communication system comprising: a plurality of transmitters located at spaced apart sites transmitting a signal including multiplexed channels so that areas of propagation from respective ones of the transmitters substantially overlap over each other in at least a major portion of a reception area; each multiplexed channel containing digitized and compressed broadband information relating to a plurality of programs; and a shared receiving system located within the reception area and serving a plurality of living units, said shared receiving system comprising: (1) at least one antenna receiving multiple time delayed copies of said signal including multiplexed channels; (2) a plurality of channel selectors coupled to the at least one antenna, each channel selector selecting a respective one of the multiplexed channels; (3) a plurality of delay signal processing circuits each connected to one of the channel selectors for processing multiple time delayed copies within a predetermined delay processing window of signals in a respective one of the multiplexed channels, to acquire a single copy of a signal corresponding to the respective one of the multiplexed channels; and (4) a network for distributing information from the acquired single copies of the respective channels to the living units for presentation of selected broadband information.

Claim 26

A communication system as in claim 22, further comprising a headend comprising: (1) a source of a first digital multiplexed data stream containing a plurality of packet streams, each packet stream carrying digitized data representing one of a first group of video programs, (2) a source of a second digital multiplexed data stream containing a plurality of packet streams, each packet stream carrying digitized data representing one of a second group of video programs, (3) a modulation system modulating the first digital multiplexed data stream and the second digital multiplexed data stream into first and second channels, respectively; and a combiner for multiplexing the first and second channels together to form the signal including multiplexed channels.

Claim 27

A system as in claim 22, wherein the predetermined delay processing window of the delay signal processing circuit has a value equal to or greater than the difference in propagation time to the at least one antenna from two of the spaced apart transmitters.

Claim 28

A system as in claim 22, wherein the predetermined delay processing window of the delay signal processing circuit has a value of approximately 100 microseconds.

Claim 29

A system as in claim 22, wherein the delay signal processing circuits comprise time delay equalizers.

Claim 32

A method as in claim 27, wherein the step of processing the multiple time-offset copies of said channels comprises: separating signals containing multiple time-offset copies of each of the multiplexed channels; processing the separate multiple time-offset copies of each channel received within the predetermined processing time window to produce the single optimized representation of the digitally multiplexed data contained in each of the multiplexed channels; and combining the single optimized representation of the digitally multiplexed data contained in each of the multiplexed channels to form a single optimized representation of said signal including multiplexed channels for distribution.

Claim 33

A method as in claim 28, wherein the step of combining comprises; modulating the single optimized representation of the digitally multiplexed data contained in each of the multiplexed channels into a transport channel; and multiplexing the transport channels together.

Claim 34

A method as in claim 29, wherein: the transport channels are channels at different frequencies; and the multiplexing step comprises frequency division multiplexing the transport channels together.

Claim 35

A method as in claim 28, wherein the step of combining comprises; processing the single optimized representation of the digitally multiplexed data contained in each of the multiplexed channels to produce an individual analog program signal for each of the programs; modulating each individual analog program signal into a transport channel; and multiplexing the transport channels together.

Claim 36

A method as in claim 31, wherein: the transport channels are channels at different frequencies; and the multiplexing step comprises frequency division multiplexing the transport channels together.

Claim 37

A method as in claim 28, wherein the step of processing the separate multiple time-offset copies of each channel comprises time domain equalizing the multiple time-offset copies of each channel.

Claim 38

A method as in claim 27, further comprising the step of selectively presenting selected ones of the programs to users in a plurality of the living units.

Claim 39

A method as in claim 27, wherein the predetermined processing time window has a value equal to or greater than the difference in propagation time to the one receiving site from two of the spaced transmitting sites.

Claim 40

A method as in claim 27, wherein the predetermined processing time window has a value approximately 100 microseconds.