Data transmission system for distributing video and music data

A data transmission system for transmitting information from a central control unit toward a plurality of terminals connected to the central control unit via a transmission line, the data transmission system comprising:

• a central control unit;
• and
• a plurality of terminals connected to said central control unit via a transmission line,
• wherein said central control unit includes data transmission means for serially transmitting a plurality of information data units of a plurality of individual information to each of said plurality of terminals via the transmission line, data multiplexing transmission means for dividing the plurality of information data units to a plurality of channels and serially transmitting them to each of said plurality of terminals via the transmission line over the corresponding channels and channel information transmission means for transmitting channel information that indicates which of the plurality of channels each information data unit is transmitted on to each of said plurality of terminals, and
• wherein each of said plurality of terminals includes:
• data selecting means for selecting an information data unit of a desired information from the plurality of information data units serially transmitted from said central control unit;
• temporary data storage means for temporarily storing the information data unit selected by the data selection means;
• output means for processing the information data unit stored in the temporary data storage means and outputting the desired information;
• request input means for inputting a request for receiving the information data unit of the desired information, the data transmission means of the central control unit serially and repeatedly transmitting the plurality of data units regardless of whether a request is inputted by the request input means of each terminal;
• and
• judging means for determining which of the plurality of information data units is the data unit of the desired information in accordance with the inputted request.

A data transmission system for transmitting information from a central control unit toward a plurality of terminals connected to the central control unit via a transmission line, the data transmission system comprising:

• a central control unit;
• and
• a plurality of terminals connected to said central control unit via a transmission line,
• wherein said central control unit includes:
• data input means for inputting a plurality of new information data inputs of a plurality of new information;
• data transmission means for serially transmitting the plurality of new information data units inputted to the data input means to each of said plurality of terminals via the transmission line;
• data multiplexing transmission means for dividing the plurality of new information data units to a plurality of channels and serially transmitting them to each of said plurality of terminals via the transmission line over the corresponding channels;
• and
• channel information transmission means for transmitting channel information that indicates which of the plurality of channels each new information data unit is transmitted on to each of said plurality of terminals, and
• wherein each of said plurality of terminals includes:
• memory means for previously storing a plurality of original information data of a plurality of original information, the memory means storing the plurality of new information data serially transmitted from the data transmitting means;
• data selection means for selecting an information data unit of a desired information from the plurality of original information data units and the plurality of new information data units stored in the memory means;
• output means for processing the information data unit selected by the data selection means and outputting the desired image;
• and
• request input means for inputting a request for receiving the data unit of the desired information, the data transmission means of the central control unit serially transmitting the plurality of new information data units regardless of whether a request is inputted by the request input means of each terminal, the data selection means of each terminal selecting the information data unit indicative of the desired information in accordance with the inputted request.

A data transmission system for transmitting, to each of a plurality of terminals, information which each terminal desires to receive, the data transmission system comprising:

• a central control unit;
• and
• a plurality of terminals connected to said central control unit via a transmission line,
• wherein said central control unit includes data storing means for storing a plurality of data units and data multiplexing transmission means for serially transmitting the plurality of data units, each indicative of an individual information, over several channels via the transmission line to each of the plurality of terminals via the transmission line, the data multiplexing transmission means including modulating means for modulating each of the plurality of data units into an alternating current signal of a frequency band corresponding to one of the several channels, to thereby transmit the each data unit over the corresponding channel and channel information transmission means for transmitting, to each of the plurality of terminals, channel information that indicates over which of the several channels each of the plurality of data units is transmitted, and wherein the channel selecting means of each of the plurality of terminals selects the channel over which the data unit indicative of the desired information is transmitted, in accordance with the channel information, and
• wherein each of the plurality of terminals includes:
• selecting means for selecting a data unit, indicative of information that the each terminal desires to receive, from the plurality of data units transmitted from the central control unit, each selecting means including:
• channel selecting means for selecting a channel over which the data unit indicative of the desired information is transmitted;
• data selecting means for selecting one data unit indicative of the desired information out of the plurality of data units transmitted over the channel selected by the channel selecting means, the data storage means storing the selected data unit at least temporarily until the output means processes the data unit;
• judging means for determining which of the plurality of data units transmitted from the central control unit is indicative of the desired information;
• and
• data input means for storing, into the data storage means, one data unit judged to be indicative of the desired information, the data storage means temporarily storing the data unit, the output means processing the data unit stored in the data storage means to output the desired information;
• and
• request input means for inputting a request for receiving the data unit of the desired information, the data transmission means of the central control unit serially and repeatedly transmitting the plurality of data units regardless of whether a request is inputted by the request input means of each terminal, the judging means judging, in accordance with the inputted request, which of the plurality of data units is the data unit of the desired information;
• output means for processing the data unit selected by the selecting means and for outputting the desired information;
• and
• data storage means for storing at least the data unit selected by the selecting means, the data storage means storing the selected data unit at least temporarily until the output means processes the data unit.