Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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TITLE OF THE INVENTION
NEWS PROGRAM BROADChSTING SYSTEM
BhCKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a news
program broadcasting system and, more particularly, to
that suitable for application to a television
broadcasting system.
Description of the Prior Art
The news program in television broadcasting
has an aim to transmit a wide variety of news sources to
the viewers promptly and accurately, and it i6 made out
by compiling news sources such that they are put on the
air according to the edited order in units of seconds
within a length of time limited by predetermined
criteria.
In preparing a news program practically, it is
necessary to provide scenes having atmospheres that
viewers will accept with interests and, according to the
kind of the news to be broadcast, to arrange the scenes
to be easy to understand to the degree as required, and
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further, the pro~ram must be accurately contained within
a limited length of time. lt is also necessary to have
ever occurring news sources included in the news progrsm
as soon QS possible.
In order to compile such news sources
involving unexpected facts and occurring at unexpected
times and places into R news program within a
predetermined period of time, it is necessary for the
reporters, editors, and other news staff members to be
able to compile those materials forming news sources
into a news program as simply and accurately as possible
and also to have tlle thus compiled news program
transmitted sequentially and uninterrupted. If there is
provided SUCII a system meeting the above mentioned
reguirements and, further, capable of changing order of
transmission in each program, as required, when a matter
of urgency occurs, it will become possible to broadcast
a news program enhancing the reliability of the viewers
on it.
In producing a news program, it is necessary
that news sources to be broadcast are selected quickly
and accurately from the whole of a wide variety of news
sources Witll various conditions such as urgency of the
news sources and interests of the viewers in them taken
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into consideration, and therefore, even while a news
program iæ on the air or immediately before it, it is
desired that the news staff are enabled to manually
chec~ the stste of the transmission as required or make
necessary changes irl the program.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention was mede in view of the
above points and it is an object of the invention to
provide a news program broadcssting system ensbling the
reporter, editor, snd other news staff to keep collected
news materials of a wide variety in good order and, when
they consider it necessary to broadcast some of them, to
incorporate them into a news program positively and with
a simplest possible operation.
In order to solve these problems, the present
invention, in a news program broadcasting system (NEWS)
for sequentially transmitting a plurality of news
materials SMl - SMN according to a cue sheet CUS,
comprises the steps of adding first reference codes, at
the time of preparing the cue sheet CUS, to each of the
news materials SMl - SMN forming the cue sheet CUS,
adding second reference codes being the same as the
first reference codes, at the time of editing news
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materisls SMl - SMN forming the cue sheet CUS, to these
news materials, snd automatically checking, at the time
of transmitting the edited news materials SMl - SMN, the
first reference codes added to the news materials SMl -
SMN specified in the cue sheet CUS with the second
reference codes added to the edited news materials SMl -
SMN.
According to the present invention, since it
is arranged such that the same reference codes as those
added to the news materials SMl - SMN when a cue sheet
CUS is prepared are added to the news material SMl - SMN
when these are edited and the first and second reference
codes are automatically checked with each other when the
news materisls SMl - SMN are transmitted, the news
material SMl - SMN specified in the cue sheet CUS are
ensured to be sequentially transmitted, and further,
siDCe the control of the news material SMl - SMN during
the course from the edition of the news materials SMl -
SMN to the transmission thereof is made possible to be
performed based on the reference codes, a news program
broadcasting system capable of prompt and positi~e
processing of news materials SMl - SMN can be realized.
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In accordance with one aspect of the present
invention, there is provided a television program transmission
system for sequentially transmitting a plurality of materials
for transmission according to a cue sheet, said television
program transmission system comprising; ID code assignment
means for assigning an ID code to the name of a material for
transmission in said cue sheet; material-to-be-transmitted
registration means for assigning an ID code to a material for
transmission to be actually transmitted and registering it in
the system; check means for checking said ID code assigned to
the name of a material for transmission with said ID code
assigned to the material to be transmitted, and passing said
material to be transmitted when said two ID codes are the
same; arrangement means for arranging said materials passed by
said check means for transmission in the order according to
said cue sheet; and display control means for simultaneously
displaying said arranged plurality of materials for
transmission on a single display device as they are arranged
in the order.
In accordance with another aspect of the present
invention, there is provided a transmission system of a news
program constituted of a plurality of news items, each news
item being formed of a plurality of materials for transmission
arranged according to a cue sheet, said news program
transmission system comprising: ID code assignment means for
assigning an ID code to the name of a material for
transmission in said cue sheet; material-to-be-transmitted
registration means for assigning an ID code to a material for
transmission to be actually transmitted and registering it in
the system; check means for checking said ID code assigned to
4a
,~
... "~,
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the name of a material for transmission with said ID code
assigned to the material to be transmitted, and passing said
material to be transmitted when said two ID codes are the
same; arrangement means for arranging said materials passed by
said check means for transmission in said news item in the
order according to said cue sheet; and display control means
for displaying said arranged plurality of materials for
transmission in a first news item to be transmitted in the
first place out of said plurality of news items at the upper
portion of display means and displaying said arranged
plurality of materials for transmission in a second news item
to be transmitted in succession to said first news item at the
lower portion of said display means.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
,'` ~
1 37~8~8
FIG. 1 is a system diagram showing a
classification of news data used in a news program
broadcasting system according to the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an
embodiment of a news program broadcasting system
according to the present invention;
FIG. ~ is a flow chart showing an ID contro]
procedure at the time of news production;
FIG. 4 is A flowchart showing a procedure for
producing a news program;
FIG. 5 to FIG. 10 are schematic diagrams
showing display screens of workstations;
FIG. 11 and FIG. 12 are schematic diagrams
showing display screens of a material monitor;
FIG. 13 and FIG. 14 are schematic diagrams
showing display screens of an item monitor;
FIG. 16 to FIG. 18 are schematic diagrams
showing display screens of a material monitor of another
embodiment;
FIG. l9 is a schematic diagram showing a
further embodiment of the display screen of a material
monitor; and
FIG. 20 and FIG. 21 are schematic diagrams
showing a still further embodiment of a material monitor
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and an item monitor.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
An embodiment of the preæent invention will be
described below with reference to the accompanying
drawings.
News source data to be transmitted in news
programs are classified into three levels of "program",
"item", and "material" as shown in FIG. 1. All the news
materials are assigned, to specify each news material,
with reference data (hereinafter, to be called "ID
data") formed in accordance with such classification and
the news materials are controlled and processed
according to the ID data.
News programs in a broadcasting station for a
day are classified into the iirst, second, ... Lth
"program" data according to the sequence of the times of
day when they are broadcast, and each program is cal]ed
by a program name, such as "News/Sports", "The Morning
News", ... , "Special Program", and assigned with
individual program codes PRl, PR2, ... , PRL.
The first, second, ... , Lth "program" data
are each made up of the first, second, ... , Mth "item"
data, and each "item" data is called by an item name
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indicating the contents of the news such as "The
Strengthenéd Yen Passes ~120-line", "D Air Lines", ... .
"We8ther Report", each being sæsigned with a specific
item code ITl, IT2, ... , ITM.
Each "item" contsinæ "materisls" such as "VTR"
video, "Still picture" graphic, "Csmera" video, ... .
"Network" video, snd esch of the "materials" is assigned
with a msterial code such as SMl, SM2, SM3, ... SMN and
a number code NO.
The material number code is provided to
distinguish between data when there are included plursl
dsta in the ssme "msterisl".
In practice, esch item dats is msde up of a
set of cue sheet data, in which the pertinent materials
are arranged according to the order of time, and news
scripts to be announced, and each cue sheet data is made
up of pieces of material data and switcher data.
Thus, each news material of news programs can
be specified by an ID code made up of the program code
PRL (L = 1, 2, ... , L), item code ITM (M = 1, 2, ... .
N), material code SMN (N = 1, 2, ... , N), and material
number code (NOl, NO2, ... ). In the news program
broadcasting system according to the present embodiment,
processing of the materials is carried out based on the
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ID data.
~ eferring to FIG. 2, NEWS denotes the whole of
a news progrsm broadcasting system, wherein pieces of
"item" data constituting each "program" data are
prepared under the control of a host workstation 1 and,
at an on-air period, pieces of "material" data included
in the prepared "item" data are transmitted one by one
by an automatic controller 2 through a program switcher
3 as a main line output BDoUT.
The news program broadcasting system NEWS has
workstations 5A, 5B, ... , 5K connected to the host
workstation 1 through a local transmission line 4. The
reporter in charge of each item processes collected
"material" data using the workstation ~A, 5B, ... , 5K
to prepare a cue sheet CUS for each item and stores the
data for the cue sheet CUS in the host workstation 1.
Here, the cue sheet CUS is a sheet in which
the times of transmission of the pieces of "material"
data for each "item" are arranged as a schedule, and,
dependent on it, the pieces of "material" data included
in each item are transmitted at the on-air period.
In practice, the news desk in a news
department controls the overa].l organization of the news
program, decides the "items" of each "program", and
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sssigns the reporter in charge and time to each "item".
The reporter assigned to each item makes a plan of
material organizatior~ for the "item" and makes out the
contents of the item (i.e., news materials, time, news
script to be announced) and feeds them back to the news
desk.
Generally, the desk decides a final version of
the itemwise data allotment after the above described
operations have been repeated several times. The
reporter prepares a cue sheet based on the final version
and, according to the material organization plan, sends
requests to an electronic video editing room (ENG
editing room) for edition of electronic video material
(ENG material) and a computer graphics editing room (CG
editing room) for producing telops, still pictures, and
so on. Thus, materials included in the final version of
the itemwise data allotment are edited.
The electronic video material is prepared in
editing booths lZA, 12B, 12C by editing material tapes
llA, llB, llC gathered at collection of data into a tape
for transmission 13, and the tape for transmission 13 is
loaded on a tape recorder (VTR) cart system 14 and it is
transmitted through the program switcher 3 at the on-air
period.
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An urgent tape 15 cnrried in after urgent data
gathering is directly loaded on the VTR cart system 14
as a tape for urgent transmission 16.
The telops and still pictures are produced in
a still picture manipulator 21 by operating a computer
graphics 22, character generator 23, and opaque
pro3ector 24 and stored into a still picture master file
26 through a still picture temporary storage 25.
The thus stored still picture material is read
by the still picture manipulator 21 out of the still
picture master file 26 through the still picture
temporary storage 25 at the on-air period, and delivered
through a still picture transmission system 27 to the
program switcher 3.
The camera video material is put together with
information to be announced ANN obtained from an
announcement table 31 and delivered through a studio
camera system 32 to the program switcher 3.
Further, ~y reading data from a private line
33 through a modem 34 into a weather report camera
system 35, and by supplying weather report camera data
acquired from a microwave line 37 throug~l a material
dividing switcher 36 to the weather report camera system
35, "Weather Report" data is delivered to the program
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switcher 3.
The "Network" information is supplied from the
microwave line 37, network 38, external line 39 directly
to the program swi.tcher 3 through the material dividing
switcher 36.
In practice, the data from the material
dividing switcher 36 is taken in by the control of a
line contro]ler 40 responding to line reserve
informat.ion Sl supplied from the host workstation 1.
In the present embodiment, urgent information
previouæly stored in an urgent transmission system 41 is
adapted to be delivered, according to the need, to the
program swi.tcher 3 under the control of the automatic
controller 2.
The host workstation 1 has a handwriting input
tablet IOl, mouse I02, image reader I03, and a printer
I04 as its input/output devices lX.
In the news program broadcasting system NEWS,
control of news materials in news production is
performed according to an ID data control procedure RTO
shown in FIG. 3.
At step RTl, the news desk inputs the name of
a news program to be produced and the names of items
forming the news program by handwriting using the host
1 33 5 838
workstation 1 and registers these after confirmation.
At the time of the registration, a program code PRl,
PR2, ... , PRL iB given to the "program" and the item
codes ITl, IT2, ... , ITM sre given to the "items" in
the order of their arrangement.
At the next step RT2, the news desk assigns a
reporter to each news item, and then, the assigned
reporter prepares a news script for each news item and
collects news materials such as still pictures and VTR
tapes.
At the next step RT3, the reporter based on
the collected news materials contemplates a story to be
transmitted in the "item" and, thereupon, determines the
"materials" and the effects to be provided at the time
of transmission.
As the order of transmission of the
"materials" is thus determined, the material codes SMl,
SM2, ... , SMN are determined according to their order
of transmission, and also, the number codes NO for each
"material" are determined.
The reporter, nt the next step RT4, registers
material codes and number codes in an ID file provided
in the host workstation 1 using the workstation 6A - 5K
and thereby effects the coding.
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In the following step RT5, the reporter sends
a request for edition of the ~materis1s" to the news
room, whereupon the news room edits the "materials". At
this time, the editing booths 12A - 12C and the still
picture manipulator 21 in the news room are in receipt
of code data DCoDE indicating each of the "material"
codes SMl - SMN and the "material number" codes NO sent
from the host workstation l, and the news room adds the
material code and number code to the "materials" edited
thereby and stores them in the VTR cart system 14 and
the still picture master file 26.
The reporter, sending out the above request
for edition, prepares a cue sheet CUS using a
workstation 5A - 5K at step RT6.
The cue sheet CUS is the order of transmission
of the materials at the on-air period and the effects to
be added to the materials programmed according to the
order of time. The reporter selects the program and
also selects engineering items constituting the program
and thus sequentially inputs the materials constituting
the news item.
More particularly, the reporter reads the
names of the program and the item, which are already
registered in the host workstation l by the news desk,
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through the local transmission line 4 from the
workstation 5A - ~K, and thereupon sequentially inputs
the "materials" constituting the "item" to thereby make
out the cue sheet CUS.
Each of the "materials" constituting the thus
prepared cue sheet CUS is provided with the program
code/item code/material code/number code, and thus, it
follows that the cue sheet has material IDs formed of
combinations of these codes arranged thereon according
to the order of transmission at the on-air period.
The data representative of the thus prepared
cue sheet CUS is transferred to the host workstation l
to be stored therein, and the host workstation l mskes
out from the cue cheet a device control file (wherein
the order of control of the devices and effects to be
provided at the time of switching of the switcher are
stated) and a material ID file (wherein material IDs are
arranged according to the order of control) and retains
the$e files.
At the period of transmitting the news
materials, a news staff member causes the automatic
controller 2, by means of the host workstation l, to
carry out automatic ID checking of the material IDs in
the cue sheet CUS with the material IDs of the edited
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"materials" and confirms the results of checking by
having them displayed on a monitor at step RT7, and
thereafter, puts the "materials" on the air at step RT8.
Thus, the procedure for controlling the ID data is ended
at step RT9.
In the news program broadcasting system NEWS
of ~IG. 2, the automatic control system centering around
the automatic controller 2 installed together with the
host workstation 1 in the news sub executes the working
procedure shown in FIG. 4, associated with manual
operation of the news staff member, and thereby, it
automatically executeæ production of the information to
be transmitted and processing for putting the
information on the air, having the program switcher 3
and instruments connected thereto automatically
controlled. Through the course of such automatic
control, the news staff member is enabled to easily
confirm the production condition of the "materials"
constituting each "item" and the contents of the
"materials" being prepared for transmission by having
these displayed on a monitor.
First, at step SPl in FIG. 4, the news desk
inputs by handwriting "programs" and "items" using the
handwriting input tablet IOl (FIG. 7) and a mouse I02 of
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the host workstation 1.
The inputting is effected by handwriting the
name of an item to be registered (for example, "The
Strengthened Yen Passes ~120-line 3:00") on the display
screen DSIN of the handwriting input tablet I01 as shown
in ~IG. 7 and placing the cursor on "Program Register"
input display portion DSl and "Program Display" input
portion DS2 (they are displayed on an initial screen) on
the display screen DDS of the host workstation 1, and
then clicking the button of the mouæe (this will be
cslled "click input").
More particularly, on the initial screen (FIG.
5) of the host workstation 1, if the "Program Register"
input display portion is click input, then the name of
the program handwritten on the tablet I01 is registered
in the host workstation 1, and following such
registering procedure, the names of the first, second,
... , Lth "programs" (FIG. 1), i.e., "News/Sports", "The
Morning News", ... , "Special Program", and their
broadcast times can be registered.
In contrast, if the "Program Display" input
diæplay portion DS2 on the display screen DDS is click
input, the host workstation 1 displays the registered
program names and broadcast times, according to, for
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1 335838
example, the order of the times of day as shown in FIG.
6, and also displays "Item Register" input display
.
portion DS3, "Item Display" input display portion DS4,
and "Quit" display portion DS~.
In FIG. 6, if the "Item Register" input
display portion DS3 and the program name are clip input,
then the name of the item from the handwriting input
tablet I01 (for example, "The Strengthened Yen Passes
Y120-line 3:00") constituting the program having that
program name is displayed on the display screen DDS and
it is also registered (FIG. 7).
The items thus registered in the host
workstation 1 can be displayed 811 together on the
display screen DDS as shown in FIG. 8 when the "Item
Display" input display portion DS4 in FIG. 6 is click
input.
If the "Quit" input display portion DS5 in
FIG. 6, or DS14 in FIG. 7, is click input, the host
workstation 1 is reset to the initial display screen as
shown in FIG. 5.
In the case of FIG. 8, it is shown therein
that eight "items", i.e., "The Strengthened Yen Pssses
Y120-line 3:00", ~n Air Lines, Interview with K 5:00",
... , "Weather Report ~:00", are already registered for
, _ 1 3358-~8
the "program" by the name of "The Evening News".
Tlle news program producing work (FIG. 4) from
the above step, attained by the news desk inputting the
"items" by handwriting using the host workstation 1,
proceeds to the next step SPZ.
In the step SP2, the reporter who was assigned
to each "item" prepares the news script for the "item"
and also selects "materials" for it and sends requests
for editing the "materials" in the next step SP3,
whereupon the news room edits the "materials" and then,
in step SP4, adds ID codes to the "materials". Thus,
the edited "materials" are brought into a registered
state in the news program broadcasting system.
In succession thereto, the reporter prepares a
cue sheet CUS in step SP5 for each allotted item using
the workstation 5A, 5B, ... , 5K.
This work is started, as described above with
reference to FIG. 6 and FIG. 8, by reading out the
"item", registered in the host workstation 1 by the news
desk, from the workstation 5A, 5B, ... , 5K through the
local transmission line 4. Then, the same list of items
as described above with reference to FIG. 8 is displayed
on the display screen DDSX of the workstation 5A, 5B,
... , 5K. Then, the reporter c]ick inputs the name of
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the item, for example, "The Strengthened Yen Passes
~120-line 3:00" wllich is now intended to be produced and
alsD click inputs the "Cue Sheet" input display portion
DS21.
Then, on the display screen DDSX of the
workstation 5A - 5K is displayed an image of a cue sheet
CUS as shown in FIG. 9.
The image of the cue sheet CUS has displays of
the program name "Tlle Evening News" and the item name
"The Strengthened Yen Passes Y120-line 3:00" and,
additionally, a display of vertically arranged several
horizontally-elongated spaces each thereof indicating
the allotted period of time to each material, i.e.,
"Studio Camera", "VTR", "Still Picture", "Network",
"Telop", and "Switcher". Namely, in this cue sheet CUS
is given an arrangement according to the time of the
"materials" used in the "item".
In preparing the cue sheet CUS, the reporter,
according to the need, click operates "Insert", "Move",
"Delete", "Change", "~ ", and "Print" input
display portions DS31, DS32, DS33, DS34, DS35, DS36, and
DS37.
When the "Insert" input display portion DS31
is click input, a window is opened on the right-hand
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side of the cue sheet CUS as shown in FIG. 10, whereby
the reporter is enabled to select "materials" or
"switcher effects".
In the present embodiment, four studio cameras
Cl - C4, four VTRs Vl - V4, four still pictures Sl - S4,
two network pictures NETl and NETZ, two telops FPUl and
FPU2 are arranged for selection as the "msterials" and
12 effects sre arranged to be selected. Since selecting
marks of these "materials" and "switcher effects" are
arranged in the window WD, when the reporter click
inputs a selected "material" or "switcher effect", the
cursor moves to the period-of-time space for the
selected "material" or "switcher effect", so that it
becomes possible to click input the starting time and
ending time of the "material" or "switcher effect".
In the csse of the embodiment shown in FIG.
10, the item "The Strengthened Yen Passes ~120-line
3:00" is formed of an arrangement of 3 minutes of
materials, of which use of the studio camera Cl is
registered for the period from "0:00" to 1 minute 10
seconds ("1:10") within the period of time for "Studio
Camera", use of the VT~ Vl is registered for the period
of 1 minute 10 seconds ("1:10") from the end of the use
of the studio camera C] at "1:10", and use of the relay
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network NETl is registered from the end of the use of
the YTR Vl at 2 minutes 20 seconds ("2:20") to the
ending time of the item at "3:00", and in the meantime,
interrupting insertions of 10 seconds of the still
picture Sl and 5 seconds of the telop Tl together with
the relative "switcher effects" are registered.
The registered data of the arrangement
according to the time of the "materials" expressed on
the cue sheet CUS are represented by time codes
indicating the arrangement according to the time and
material codes allotted to each of the "materials" and
"switcher effects". When the preparation of the cue
sheet CUS is finished, the cue sheet data are
transmitted from the workstation 5A - 5K through the
local transmission line 4 to the host workstation 1 and
stored therein.
In FIG. 9 and FIG. 10, if the "Move" input
display portion DS32 is click input and also a click
input action is made after the cursor has moved onto the
display of a "material" or "switcher effect" which is
already input, then the "material" or "switcher effect"
is rendered movable along the time axis (i.e., to the
left or right) on the screen. By making a click input
action after moving the display to a desired position,
Zl
- 1 335838
the movement of the "material" or "æwitcher effect"
along the time axis is effected.
By click inputting the "Delete" input display
portion DS33 and making a click input action after
moving the cursor onto the display of a "material" or
"switcher effect" which is desired to be deleted, the
"material" or "Switcher effect" can be deleted.
If the "Change" input display portion DS34 is
click input and, then, a first and second "material"
displays or "switcher effect" displays which are desired
to be exchanged are successively click input, the
"materials" or "switcher effects" can be changed for
each other.
The " " and "-~" input display portion DS35
and DS36 make it possib]e to move the cursor forward or
backward along the time RXiS during the click inputting
operation.
When the "Print" input display portion DS37 is
click inpu-, the cue sheet CUS on the display screen
DDSX can be printed out as it is.
When the preparation of the cue sheet CUS is
finished through the above operations and the "Quit"
input display portion DS38 is click input, the display
screen DDSX is reset to the initial picture as shown in
`- 1 3 3 5 8 3 8
FIG. 5.
When the thus prepared cue sheets CUS8 using
the workstation 5A - 5K are registered snd stored in tbe
host workstation 1, the host workststion 1, at step SP6
(FIG. 4), sutomatically checks the ID codes of the
"materials" constituting the cue sheet CUS prepared for
each "item" with the ID codes added to the "materials"
edited at the steps SP3 and SP4 for any disagreement
therebetween.
If they are in sgreement, it means that the
"materials" used in the cue sheet CUS are being
registered in their edited states, and this further
means that the "msterials" are in a stand-by state so
that they can be successively transmitted according to
the cue sheet CUS.
Whether the "materials" on the cue sheets CUSs
for each "item" are in the stand-by state or not is
confirmed in the steps at and after the step SP7.
More particularly, at the step SP7 and
following steps (which correspond to steps during the
on-air period), the news staff member according to the
need is enabled to confirm whether the "materials" to be
transmitted according to the cue sheets CUSs are in
stand-by states or not for each "material" and "item",
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and, taking the possibility of occurrence of a change in
the "item" in an urgent case into consideration,
transmits the "materials" constituting each "item" one
by one by operating a take key TAKE (a switch for
transmission) according to the order indicated in the
cue sheet CUS.
In the case of the present embodiment, the
automatic controller 2 has sn item monitor MRl and a
material monitor MR2, and it is thereby made possible to
confirm at the step SP7 whether tlle "materials" included
in each "item" are already in stand-by states or not
by having index images formed of still pictures
displayed by taking the following procedure.
In the case of the present embodiment, if, in
the state of the host workstation 1 with the item images
as shown in FIG. 8 displayed thereon, the display of an
item, for example "Chairman H of Committee on the
Budget, the House of Representatives 1:30" is click
input and also the "Material Monitor" input display
portion DS26 is click input, then an image of a table of
materials as shown in FIG. 11 or FIG. 12 is displayed on
the material monitor MR2.
The image of the table of materials as shown
in FIG. 11 includes a display of the item "Chairman H of
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Committee on the Budget, the House of Representatives
1:30" and meterial name displays of the "materials"
arranged as a table of the "materials" used according to
the cue sheet CUS prepared ~or that item, i.e., "Camera
l", "Still Picture l", "Still Picture 2", and "VTRl".
At this time, for the material of which the
material code on the cue sheet CUS hss not agreed with
the material code of tlle edited material as the result
of the automatic checking of the ID codes at the above
step SP6, the display for the material name is left as a
display of characters as shown in FIG. 12 (this image
will be called "material name image")
In contrast, when those materials which have
agreed at the sutomatic checking are generated, each
time one of these appears, a material index image INDlX,
IND2X, IND3X is displayed, as the material display, at
the position where the material name image INDl, IND2,
IND3 was displayed, whereas if there still is a material
which does not agree at the automatic ID checking, it is
left as a material name image IND4.
Here, as the material index images INDlX,
IND2X, IND3X, those images simply and plainly indicating
the contents of the "item", such as still pictures
formed of a first picture are used so that the news item
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can be known st a glance.
By so doing, the state of the production in
progress of the msterisls forming the item, i.e.,
whether they sre completed snd in a stand-by state or
not, can be easily checked by watching the materisl
monitor MR2 of the automatic controller 2.
Such confirmation is attained at step SP8 by
observing that the material images for all the items are
in the stand-by state.
Such processing at the step SP8 is performed
in the host workstation 1, with the item image as shown
in FIG. 8 displayed on its display screen, by
successively click inputting the displays of the items.
Then, the displays on the material display MR2 sre
switched from one to another.
At the same time, the sutomatic controller 2,
st step SP9, monitors using the item monitor MRl as to
whether or not each "item" is brought into a stand-by
state by using sn index image to eacll "item", for
example the index image of the first msterial.
The item monitor MRl constantly holds on the
display screen thereo the item name images HEDl - HED8
srranged in a table as shown in FIG. 13 and FIG. 14 from
when the item names were registered by handwriting input
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in the host workstation 1 (FIG. 13).
When all of the "materials" for an "item" are
brought into the stand-by state, the item name image
HEDl which has heen displayed up to that time is
exchanged, at the same position, with ao item index
image HEDlX, which is, for example, formed of the first
index image INDlX out of the index images INDlX, IND2X,
IND3X for sll the "materials" included in the item, in
the same way as described with reference to FIG. 12.
Thus, the news staff member can easily grasp
the state of production of the overall news program in
progress by watching the item monitor MRl.
In this way, when all the images forming the
table of the items on the item monitor MRl have been
exchanged with the item index images, it is meant
thereby that the "materials" for the "item" are all in
the stand-by state. Then, the news staff member, at
step SP10, operates the take key TAKE provided on the
automatic controller 2, whereby the "materials" included
in the "item" constituting the cue sheet are transmitted
through the program switcher 3 as the main line output
BDoUT one by one from the first "material" each time the
take key TAKE is operated.
In such an on-air state, if, for example, an
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urgeot tspe 1~ is brought in, then, as described with
reference to FIG. 2, the tape is mounted on the VTR cart
system 14 as a tape 16 for urgent transmission withoùt
any ID data given, and it is thereby urgently registered
in the news program broadcasting system NEWS.
Then, the news staff member, according to the
need, operates the host workstation 1 at step SPll to
carry out item exchanging work.
More particularly, in the host workstation 1
with the item images read out thereon as described with
reference to FIG. 8, the "Change" input display portion
DS22 is click input, and then, the items that are
desired to be exchanged are click input in succession.
By making such an exchange operation, the
materials included in the item, having the IDs
designated to be exchanged, of the material IDs written
in the material ID file in the host workstation 1 are
exchanged all together with the urgent file.
Thus, when an urgent news item is carried in
at an on-air period, it can be specially transmitted by
replacing the "materials", which have already been
registered and given certain IDs, with such an urgent
material.
According to the above described arrangement,
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a reporter gives material IDs to the "materials" prior
to the edition and then prepares a cue sheet CUS using
the material IDs, and, thereafter, the "materials", of
which material IDs in the cue sheet CUS and the material
IDs of the edited materials have been determined to be
in agreement at the automatic ID checking, are
transmitted as the main line output BDoUT. Thus, the
news program broadcasting system NEWS as a whole allows
easier control of "materials".
As a result, confirmation as to whether the
production of the materials to be transmitted have been
completed or not, replacing normally prepared materials
with an urgent material, etc. can be performed based on
the material IDs added to the "materials". Tllus,
processing of news materials can be promptly and
accurately executed by the news program broadcasting
system, combined with decision made as reguired by the
new$ staff member through the manual monitoring
operations.
In the above embodiment, the news materials
whose order of transmission is specified in the cue
sheet CUS are adapted to be displayed on the material
monitor MR2 as an image of a table of materials arranged
in the order of transmission, and hence, the state of
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the production in progress of the news materials
constituting each item can be firmly grasped frnm the
material monitor MR2.
Further, in the above embodiment, in
displaying the "materials" as an image of a table of
materials on the material monitor MR2, it is adapted
such that index images are displayed at the positions of
the "materials" which have been determined to be in
agreement at the automatic ID checking. Hence, the news
materials which are brought into a stand-bay state can
be positively observed at a glance. In such
arrangement, for a news material not in agreement at the
ID checking, ttle fact that it has not yet passed in the
ID checking is adapted to be indicated by some way (in
the case of the above described embodiment, for example,
the character display as input by handwriting is left
displayed as a material name image IND4 (FIG. 12)), and
therefore, the "materials" which are in the stand-by
state can be confirmed much easier.
In the sbove described embodiment, there is
provided an item monitor MRl, and the news items used in
a news program are adapted to be displayed thereon in an
arrangement to indicate their order of transmission, and
further, the displays at the positions indicating the
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news items whose production has slready been completed
are adapted to be replaced with index i~ages such as the
index image HEDlX (FIG. 14), and therefore, the state of
production in progress of the pertinent news program can
be easily and certainly observed, and thus the news
program can be put on the air without fear.
Although the case where only one material
monitor MR2 was used for the material monitor was
described above with reference to FIG. 11 and FIG. 12,
two material monitors MRll and MR12 can be provided,
instead, as shown in FIG. 1~ and FIG. 16, wherein a
first material monitor MRll is arranged to display those
"materials" of the news item to be currently put on the
air, i.e., the on-air item ONAIR as an image of a table
of materials, and, in addition thereto, to display the
"materials" constituting the news item to be transmitted
in the next place, i.e., the next item NEXT as an image
of another table. The second mPterial monitor MR12 is
arranged to display the "materials" constituting the
news item to be transmitted as the next item but one,
i.e., the second item SECOND as an image of a table of
materials.
Then, as shown in FIG. 17 and FIG. 18
corresponding to FIG. 1~ and FIG. 16, images of the
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tables of "materials" for the on-air item ONAIR, next
item NEXT, and second item SECOND are arranged to be
observable at a glance. Thus, the stand-by states of
not only the news items to be currently put on the air
but also the news items to be successively transmitted
in the "next" turn as well as in the "next turn but one"
can be visuolly confirmed, and the transmission of the
news program can be carried out with a much secured
feeling.
In so doing, if there arises a need for
changing the order of transmission of news items while
putting an item on the a.ir, the material table image for
the replacing "materials" can be displayed as that for
the second item SECOND, and thuæ, their stand-by state
can be easily confirmed and, further, this exchange of
itemæ is prevented from affecting the display of the
item currently put on the air, the on-air item ONAIR.
In the above described embodiment, it W85
arranged, as shown in FIG. 11 and FIG. 12, such that,
for the materials determined to be in agreement at the
automatic ID checking, the index images INDlX - IND3X
were displayed at: the same posi.tions as those of the
material name images INDl - INn3 to supersede them, and
further, as shown in FIG. 13 and FIG. 14, the item index
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image HEDlX was displayed at the same position -as that
of the item name image HEDl to supersede it. However,
the wsy of display of the material index image and item
index image is not limited to such but various changes
can be made.
For example, in displaying a materisl table
image and an item table image on the material monitor
MR2 and the item monitor MRl as shown in FIG. 20 and
FIG. 21, image display areas ARAl and ARAll can be
provided snd, additionally, in the vicinity of them, for
example below them, there can be provided a material
name display area ARAZ and an item name display area
ARAl2, so that, in the first place, there are displayed
the material name images and the item name images in the
image display areas ARAl and ARAll, respectively, and in
the next place, the material index images and the item
index images appear on the display.
By so arranging, the displayed po~itions in
the material name display area ARA2 and item name
display area ARA12 are not changed even if the contents
of the displayed images are changed, and therefore, the
materials and items can be confirmed much easier.
In this embodiment, such an arrangement may
also be possible to have the material index images and
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item index images displAyed as blank images until
agreement is determined in the automatic ID checking.
As to inputting "programs" snd "items", thè
case where they were input from a tablet by handwriting
was described in the embodiment shown in FIG. 6 and FIG.
8, but a keyboard or character recognition means may be
used for the inputting to obtain similar effects as
obtained in the above described case.
According to the present invention as
described so far, ID codes the same as ID codes assigned
to the materials constituting a cue sheet are given to
the edited "materials" and production of the news
materials is controlled bssed on the ID codes, and thus,
a news program broadcasting system, in which news
materials are automatically processed until they are put
on the air, combined with confirmation of the states of
the progreæs manually made by news staff members as
required, can be easily embodied.
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