Operations center with video storage for a television program packaging and delivery system

An apparatus for use in an operation center for a video-audio program delivery system, wherein the operations center receives a plurality of programs from external sources, stores one or more of the received programs, generates a program schedule, and causes program identities and at least one of the stored programs to be sent to one or more remote sites, comprising:

• means for receiving a plurality of programs provided from a plurality of external sources comprising a holder means, connected to storing means, for holding the received plurality of program signals before making the program signals available to the storing means, wherein one or more of the provided programs is individually identified;
• means, connected to the receiving means, for storing at least one of the received and identified programs for subsequent retrieval;
• control means, connected to the receiving means and storing means, for providing communication and control;
• computer assisted means, connected to the control means, for generating a program schedule comprising program identities and associated time for sending one or more of the stored programs to a remote site;
• output means, connected to the control means and storing means, for sending program identities and programs to one or more remote site, wherein the program identities are included in the program schedule and wherein the output means obtains one or more of the stored programs identified in the program schedule from the storing means to send to the remote sites.

An apparatus for use in an operation center for a video-audio program delivery system, wherein the operations center receives a plurality of programs from external sources, stores one or more of the received programs, generates a program schedule, and causes program identities and at least one of the stored programs to be sent to one or more remote sites, comprising:

• means for receiving a plurality of programs provided from a plurality of external sources wherein one or more of the provided programs is individually identified;
• means, connected to the receiving means, for storing at least one of the received and identified programs for subsequent retrieval;
• control means, connected to the receiving means and storing means, for providing communication and control;
• computer assisted means, connected to the control means, for generating a program schedule comprising program identities and associated time for sending one or more of the stored programs to a remote site, comprising:
• means for generating menus wherein program identities are used in generating menus;
• and
• means for editing the generated menus, wherein the edited menus are output to the remote sites for eventual use by the subscribers in selecting program identities;
• and
• output means, connected to the control means and storing means, for sending program identities and programs to one or more remote site, wherein the program identities are included in the program schedule and wherein the output means obtains one or more of the stored programs identified in the program schedule from the storing means to send to the remote sites.

An apparatus for use in an operation center for a video-audio program delivery system, wherein the operations center receives a plurality of programs from external sources, stores one or more of the received programs, generates a program schedule, and causes program identities and at least one of the stored programs to be sent to one or more remote sites, and wherein the remote sites provide subscribers with video on demand programs and the apparatus is capable of supporting the video on demand at remote sites, comprising:

• means for receiving a plurality of programs provided from a plurality of external sources wherein one or more of the provided programs is individually identified;
• means, connected to the receiving means, for storing at least one of the received and identified programs for subsequent retrieval;
• control means, connected to the receiving means and storing means, for providing communication and control;
• computer assisted means, connected to the control means, for generating a program schedule comprising program identities and associated time for sending one or more of the stored programs to a remote site, comprising:
• means for generating video on demand menus with program identities of programs which are available on a video on demand basis, wherein the video on demand menus are sent to remote sites for subscriber use;
• means for determining a time when the generated video on demand menus will be made available to subscriber's at a remote site;
• and
• means, connected to the determining means, for scheduling one or more video on demand programs identified in the video on demand menus to be sent to the remote site, wherein the video on demand programs will be available at the remote site prior to the determined time that the menus with video on demand program identities will be made available to subscriber's at that remote site;
• and
• output means, connected to the control means and storing means, for sending program identities and programs to one or more remote site, wherein the program identities are included in the program schedule and wherein the output means obtains one or more of the stored programs identified in the program schedule from the storing means to send to the remote sites.

An apparatus for use with an operations center which obtains programs from program signal sources and provides customized packaged program signals from the operations center to one or more cable headends, the apparatus comprising:

• a receiver for receiving program signals from program signal sources, the program signals representing programs, the receiver including means for receiving program signals of different signal formats;
• a computer assisted means for generating program control information signals containing customized instructions relating to the packaging of program signals including the identities of program signals destined for one or more specified cable headend;
• a video file server, connected to the receiver and computer assisted means, for storing the received program signals and the program control information signals, comprising:
• a means for spooling stored program control information signals and stored program signals wherein the stored program signals identified in a particular program control information signal are spooled in accordance with the customized instructions in the program control information signal, and wherein the spooling creates a customized package of programs signals;
• and
• a means, connected to the video file server, for transmitting a customized package of program signals with its corresponding program control information signal to one or more cable headends.

A method for packaging programs for delivery from an operations center to one or more cable headends, wherein programs are received from external sources and stored in a storage media at the operations center for subsequent transmission to each cable headend, comprising the steps of:

• receiving a plurality of programs at the operations center which are provided from one or more external sources;
• identifying a first set of programs, the first set of programs comprised of one or more of the received programs;
• storing the first set of programs in a storage media for subsequent retrieval;
• generating a program list comprising the identities of one or more of the stored programs;
• determining a second set of programs, the second set of programs comprised of one or more of the stored programs that are included on the program list;
• retrieving the second set of programs from the storage media;
• encoding the program list and retrieved programs for transmission;
• and
• transmitting the encoded program list and programs from the operations center to one or more cable headend.

A method for packaging programs and a program control information signal for delivery from an operations center to one or more cable headends, using a video file server at the operations center to retrieve, spool and package programs for transmission to one or more cable headends, the method comprising the steps of:

• receiving a plurality of program signals representing a plurality of programs at the operations center, the plurality of program signals presented in one or more signal formats;
• storing one or more of the received program signals in the video file server for later retrieval;
• generating the program control information signal which contains information concerning one or more of the stored program signals;
• storing the program control information signal in the video file server for later retrieval;
• retrieving the stored program control information signal and one or more of the stored programs;
• spooling and packaging the retrieved programs and the program control information signal to form a packaged signal, wherein the program control information signal and programs are packaged to form a continuous packaged signal;
• and
• transmitting the continuous packaged signal to one or more cable headends, wherein packaged programming is provided to one or more cable headends.

An operations center which receives video programs, stores the video programs in a file server, generates a schedule, and outputs the schedule as well as scheduled programs to remote sites, the operations center comprising:

• a video program receiver, comprising at least one of an encoder, converter and input buffer;
• a first file server, operably connected to the video program receiver, having a storage capacity sufficient to store two or more received video programs and having an output connected to one or more distribution ports;
• a system controller containing a processor, connected to the first file server;
• a computer assisted packaging device, in communication with the system controller, running program packaging software and comprising a scheduler;
• and
• output equipment, operably connected to the one or more distribution ports and system controller, comprising at least one of an output buffer and decoder, and wherein the program packages and schedule determined by the computer assisted packaging device are passed to the remote sites.