Method and apparatus for storing announcements in a communications system
AssigneeBell Telephone Laboratories, Incorporated
InventorsThomas W. Anderson, Robert V. Jenness, Richard J. Milczarek, Edwin M. Schaefer, III, Robert M. Stekl
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A telephone network having a public announcement system is disclosed. Announcements are divided into message segments each of which is stored in a sector of a disc memory. When an announcement is activated, the message segments are loaded into a corresponding number of buffers for transmittal to calling customers. Each buffer will transmit the entire message, but in real time the buffers contain different message segments. Upon request for an announcement, the buffer containing the beginning message segment is selected to minimize holding time and customer waiting.
Claims14
For use in a communications system having customer stations, an announcement system and switching means for interconnecting said announcement system over communication channels to said stations for transmitting prerecorded messages to said stations;
- said announcement system comprising
- a message store wherein segments of a particular message are stored in discrete sectors of said store for transmittal in a predetermined sequence during adjacent time intervals to reproduce said message,
- a plurality of buffers associated with said particular message and each buffer adapted to transmit said particular message over one of said channels wherein the number of buffers equals the number of message segments of said particular message, and
- means for loading the message segments of said particular message into first and second ones of said buffers, wherein said first and second buffers contain different message segments during a designated time period;
- and
- said switching system comprising means responsive to a request from one of said stations for the reproduction of said particular message for selecting one of said first or second buffers according to the particular message segment currently loaded therein.
For use in a telephone network having equipment for storing messages for transmittal over the network and a switching office for selectively interconnecting telephone stations with said equipment, a method for recording and playing back said messages comprising the steps of
- storing segments of a particular received message in discrete sectors of a memory,
- activating the particular message for playback by sequentially loading all segments of the particular message into each of a plurality of buffers so that each buffer in real time contains a different segment of the particular message, and,
- connecting the station to a particular one of the buffers according to the message segment contained therein in response to a request from a station for playback of the message.
For use in a communications system having customer stations and announcement system and switching means for interconnecting said announcement system over communication channels to said stations for transmitting prerecorded messages to said stations;
- said announcement system comprising
- a plurality of message stores wherein segments of a particular message are stored in discrete sectors of each of said stores for transmittal in a predetermined sequence during adjacent time intervals to reproduce said message,
- a group of buffers associated with each said store and each buffer group including a plurality of buffers associated with said particular message, each buffer being adapted to transmit said particular message over one of said channels wherein the number of buffers of each said group equals the number of message segments of said particular message,
- means operative during a first time period for loading the message segments of said particular message into first and second buffers of said first group and operative during a second time period for loading the message segments of said particular message into the first and second buffers of said second group wherein the first and second buffers of a said group contain different message segments in real time, and
- said switching means comprising means responsive to a request from one of said stations for the reproduction of said particular announcement for selecting one of said buffers according to the message segment currently loaded therein.
For use in a telephone network having announcement equipment for storing messages and a switching office for selectively interconnecting customer stations with said equipment, a method for recording and playing back said messages comprising the steps of
- dividing a designated message received for recording into a plurality of message segments,
- storing the segments in a corresponding number of sectors of a memory,
- activating the designated message for playback by continually transferring the contents of the sectors into a plurality of buffers so that each buffer will receive all message segments over a period of time equal to the length of the designated message and so that each buffer in real time contains a different segment of the particular message,
- selecting the buffer containing the beginning segment of the designated message in response to a request from a calling station for playback of the designated message, and
- coupling the calling station to the selected buffer for the length of the designated message.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.