Cableshare, Inc.

Telaction Corporation

Terrence H Pocock

Peter J Coumans

Richard M McNorgan

George Maynard Hart

Karl W McCalley

Allan Lodberg

John R Bertram

Gary B Allen

Rick McNorgan

Peter Coumons

An interactive television system employs a telephone connection in a two-way manner to send command signals from a viewer to a central controller to select various presentations and to send the audio portion of such presentations from a central location to individual viewers. When a connection is first established over the telephone lines between a viewer and the central controller, a transmission path identification is sent from the viewer's terminal to the central controller which indicates the particular video transmission path, e.g. trunk line and/or television channel, connecting the viewer to the central location. This path is then used to control the transmission of uniquely addressed viewo presentations from the central location to the viewer's terminal, where they are stored and retransmitted to the viewer's receiver.

Television system for the interactive distribution of selectable video

A method of, and a system for, selectively delivering still television video with accompanying audio to home subscribers over a cable television system for advertising, promotional or educational purposes. A maximum number of home subscribers can interactively request presentations of their own choosing to be displayed on their home television sets. Only one standard television channel is required for transmission of still video with accompanying audio to serve 300 concurrent users. No equipment is required in the subscriber's home. The video is presented as still frames from one of a number of videodisc players, transmitted over one television channel during the appropriate time interval of 1/30th (or 1/25th) of a second. Such video frames, which may also contain overlaid graphics information, are uniquely addressed to a remote storage device. Unused bandwidth is used for the transmission of up to 300 discrete audio messages. The remote storage device identifies the appropriate video still frame, stores it, combines it with the corresponding audio message and conveys both to the home subscribers'television on a pre-selected channel. By uniquely addressing video frames to the remote storage device, either 30 (or 25) different video frames per second can be conveyed on one television channel to 30 (or 25) different remote storage devices for retransmission to home subscribers. Thus, if a home subscriber sees a given still video frame for 10 seconds, his remote storage device need not be updated for those 10 seconds, enabling the system to transmit 300 (10 seconds.times.30/second) different video frames to 300 other remote storage devices, thereby serving 300 concurrent users.

Cable television system selectively distributing pre-recorded video and

The present invention relates to a system for assembling a network of presentations comprising still video images with associated audio messages. The video images and audio messages are first recorded on separate recording mediums and then combines as a video/audio presentation network recorded on a video disc. The video disc can then be incorporated as part of the data base of an interactive communication system which transmits the presentations to subscriber's of the system.

System for audio/video presentation

A method of, and a system for, selectively delivering still television video with accompanying audio to home subscribers over a cable television system for advertising, promotional or educational purposes. A maximum number of home subscribers can interactively request presentations of their own choosing to be displayed on their home television sets. Only one standard television channel is required for transmission of still video with accompanying audio to serve 300 concurrent users. No equipment is required in the subscriber's home. The video is presented as still frames from one of a number of videodisc players, transmitted over one television channel during the appropriate time interval of 1/30th (or 1/25th) of a second. Such video frames, which may also contain overlaid graphics information, are uniquely addressed to a remote storage device. Unused bandwidth is used for the transmission of up to 300 discrete audio messages. The remote storage device identifies the appropriate video still frame, stores it, combines it with the corresponding audio message and conveys both to the home subscribers' television on a pre-selected channel. By uniquely addressing video frames to the remote storage device, either 30 (or 25) different video frames per second can be conveyed on one television channel to 30 (or 25) different remote storage devices for retransmission to home subscribers. Thus, if a home subscriber sees a given still video frame for 10 seconds, his remote storage device need not be updated for those 10 seconds, enabling the system to transmit 300 (10 seconds.times.30/second) different video frames to 300 other remote storage devices, thereby serving 300 concurrent users.

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Delaware, Canada

Terrence H Pocock