United States Patent (19) 11 Patent Number: 4,890,321 Seth-Smith Et Al
United States Patent (19) 11 Patent Number: 4,890,321 Seth-Smith et al. (45) Date of Patent: Dec. 26, 1989 (54) COMMUNICATIONS FORMAT FOR A 4,636,854 1/1987 Crowther et al. .................... 380/20 SUBSCRIPTION TELEVISION SYSTEM 4,694,491 9/1987 Horne et al. .......................... 380/20 PERMITTING TRANSMISSION OF 4,739,510 4/1988 Jeffers et al. .......................... 380/15 NDIVIDUAL TEXT MESSAGESTO 4,768,228 8/1988 Clupper et al. ....................... 380/20 SUBSCRIBERS OTHER PUBLICATIONS (75) Inventors: Nigel Seth-Smith; Cameron Bates; Lowry, "B-MAC: An Optimum Format for Satellite Samson Lim; William van Rassel; Television Transmission', SMPTE Journal, Nov., Robert Yoneda, all of Toronto; Keith 1984, pp. 1034–1043. Lucas, Richmond Hill, all of Canada The CCIR Study Group Report Document 10-11S/106-E of Sep. 23, 1983. (73) Assignee: Scientific Atlanta, Inc., Atlanta, Ga. Chouinard et al., "NTSC and MAC Television Signals 21 Appl. No.: 253,320 in Noise and Interference Environments', SMPTE 22 Filed: Sep. 30, 1988 Journal, Oct. 1984, pp. 930-949. Primary Examiner-Thomas H. Tarcza Related U.S. Application Data Assistant Examiner-Linda J. Wallace (63) Continuation of Ser. No. 883,310, Jul. 8, 1986, aban Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Banner, Birch, McKie & doned. Beckett (51) Int. Cl'....................... H04N 7/167; H04N 7/10; 57 ABSTRACT H04N 7/04 A subscription television system in which individual (52) U.S. C. ........................................ 380/20; 358/86; decoders are enabled to receive individually addressed 358/145; 358/147; 380/21; 455/4; 455/6 messages is disclosed. The composite signal, including (58 Field of Search ...................
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