The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Aug. 03, 2004
Filed:
Nov. 03, 1998
NDS Limited, Eastleigh, GB;
Abstract
Transmission synchronization and bandwidth adjustment in a broadcast system are described. At least one service tool in the broadcast system supplies service information useful for selecting, from a series of broadcast events, broadcast events to be viewed by subscribers of the broadcast system. A conditional access (CA) unit in the broadcast system applies conditional access attributes to the series of broadcast events. Transmission synchronizing apparatus in the broadcast system synchronizes the CA unit and the at least one service tool by instructing the CA unit to blackout a particular event from the series of broadcast events to subscribers that are refused access to the particular event and instructing the at least one service tool to provide a replacement service to the subscribers that are refused access to the particular event. Alternatively or additionally, the transmission synchronizing apparatus adjusts transmission bandwidth allocated to the series of broadcast events in response to instructing the CA unit to blackout the particular event to subscribers that are refused access to the particular event and instructing the at least one service tool to provide the replacement service to the subscribers that are refused access to the particular event. Related apparatus and method are also described.