Techniques for ATSC 3.0 broadcast boundary area management using plural tuners

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11601707-B2
Application number	US-202117488274-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 28, 2021
Priority date	Aug 6, 2021
Publication date	Mar 7, 2023
Grant date	Mar 7, 2023

Abstract

Techniques are described for expanding and/or improving the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) 3.0 television protocol in robustly delivering the next generation broadcast television services. In a boundary region between first and second broadcast stations in which a receiver can pick up signals from both stations, a primary tuner presents a demanded service while a secondary tuner scans for duplicate transmissions of the service, and if one is found, the version with the better quality metrics may be presented.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. In broadcast digital television comprising at least one region in which at least one DTV receiver receives broadcast signals from at least first and second digital television broadcast assemblies, a method, comprising:
using a first tuner of a digital television receiver, receiving a demanded service carried by a first broadcast signal;
using a second tuner of the digital television receiver, scanning a frequency spectrum for a duplicate of the demanded service carried by a second signal from the first digital television broadcaster assembly or from the second digital television broadcaster assembly; and
identifying respective first and second quality metrics associated with the respective demanded service and duplicate of the demanded service to form a basis for selecting which broadcast signal to tune to for presenting a service, wherein the digital television receiver comprises an advanced television systems committee (ATSC)-3 receiver and wherein the first and second quality metrics comprise signal-to-noise ratios (SNR), or packet error number (PEN), or both SNR and PEN.

2. The method claim 1 , wherein the digital television receiver comprises an advanced television systems committee (ATSC) 3.0 receiver.

3. The method of claim 1 , comprising automatically tuning to the first or second broadcast signal based on the quality metric of the respective first or second broadcast signal without user intervention.

4. The method of claim 1 , comprising presenting an audibly or visually perceptive message to tune to the first or second broadcast signal based on the quality metric of the respective first or second broadcast signal.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the digital TV receiver is a mobile receiver.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first and second quality metrics comprise signal-to-noise ratios (SNR).

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first and second quality metrics comprise packet error number (PEN).

8. The method of claim 1 , comprising presenting the demanded service responsive to the second quality metric of the duplicate of the demanded service not exceeding the first quality metric of the demanded service by at least a threshold.

9. A digital television apparatus comprising:
at least one receiver configured to receive digital television from a digital television transmitter system comprising at least first and second terrestrial broadcast transmitters, the receiver comprising:
at least one processor programmed with instructions to:
present a demanded service acquired from a first tuner;
while presenting the demanded service, use a second tuner to scan a digital television broadcast over-the-air (OTA) frequency range for a duplicate of the demanded service;
determine respective quality metrics associated with the demanded service and the duplicate of the demanded service; and
select to present the demanded service or the duplicate of the demanded service based on the quality metrics, wherein the receiver comprises an advanced television systems committee (ATSC)-3 receiver and wherein the quality metrics comprise signal-to-noise ratios (SNR), or packet error number (PEN), or both SNR and PEN.

10. The digital television apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the digital television receiver comprises an advanced television systems committee (ATSC) 3.0 receiver.

11. The digital television apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the instructions are executable to automatically tune to the demanded service or the duplicate of the demanded service without user intervention.

12. The digital television apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the instructions are executable to present an audibly or visually perceptive message to tune to the demanded service or the duplicate of the demanded service.

13. The digital television apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the receiver comprises plural antennae, and the first tuner is connected to more antennae than the second tuner.

14. The digital television apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the receiver is a mobile receiver.

15. The digital television apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the instructions are executable to continue tuning to the demanded service responsive to the quality metric of the duplicate of the demanded service not exceeding the quality metric of the demanded service by at least a threshold.

16. A digital television apparatus comprising:
at least one receiver comprising at least one processor programmed with instructions to configure the processor to:
receive from plural digital television broadcasters information from respective frequencies;
present a service on the receiver received from a first tuner tuned to a first one of the frequencies;
scan the frequencies for a duplicate of the service using a second tuner; and
responsive to a relationship of quality metric of the duplicate of the service to a quality metric of the service, present the duplicate of the service in lieu of the service from the first tuner, wherein the service comprises an advanced television systems committee (ATSC)-3 service and the quality metrics comprise signal-to-noise ratios (SNR), or packet error number (PEN), or both SNR and PEN.

17. The digital television apparatus of claim 16 , wherein the digital television receiver comprises an advanced television systems committee (ATSC) 3.0 receiver.

18. The digital television apparatus of claim 16 , wherein the relationship comprises satisfying a threshold.

19. The digital television apparatus of claim 18 , wherein responsive to satisfying the threshold, the instructions are executable to automatically present the duplicate of the service using the second tuner.

20. The digital television apparatus of claim 18 , wherein responsive to satisfying the threshold, the instructions are executable to automatically re-scan the frequencies.

Assignees

• Sony Group Corp

Inventors

• Clift Graham
• Fay Luke
• Candelore Brant
• Goldberg Adam
• Ansfield Fred
• Pineda Loren F

Classifications

• H04N21/6118

  involving cable transmission, e.g. using a cable modem · CPC title

• H04N21/4263

  involving specific tuning arrangements, e.g. two tuners · CPC title

• H04N21/42607 Primary

  for processing the incoming bitstream · CPC title

• H04N21/2665

  Gathering content from different sources, e.g. Internet and satellite · CPC title

• H04H20/22

  Arrangements for broadcast of identical information via plural broadcast systems · CPC title