ENTERTAINNENT SYSTEMSThis invention relates to entertainment systems and more particularly to so called pay-television systems of the kind that are installled in hotels to enable a guest to view a feature film (or other programme) by the payment of a fee.
In such systems a film (or other programme) is run at a central location usually on a video player and signals representative of the film (or other programme) are connectable to a number of receiving units (usually television sets) in the guests bedrooms through an associated number of switches which are normally open. In order to enable a guest in a particular hotel room to view the film (or other programme) it is necessary for that guest to operate a control which has the effect of closing the aforementioned associated switch to allow the signal to be received by the television set and at the same time to automatically cause the guest's account to be debited by a predetermined sum. The automatic debiting is effected by means of a computer which forms part of the system.
In such systems the control which has to be operated by the guest is located in the guest bedroom and normally takes the form of a separate control panel positioned on or adjacent the television set.
Such known systems are relatively expensive and therefore tend only to be installled in the more expensive type of hotel. The present invention is concerned with providing a system which is cheaper to install and therefore is suitable for cheaper hotels.
According to the present invention a system of the kind which comprises:(a) means for centrally running a film and generating signalscharacteristic of the film;(b) a plurality of receivers electrically connected to (a) through anassociated plurality of normally open switches;(c) control means associated with each receiver and switch whereby an operator can close the associated switch so that the receiverwill receive a signal; and(d) means for signalling the closing of the switch to a computerforming part of a central billing system whereby the operator'saccount will be automatically debited;characterised in that the switch is embodied in a telephonehandset so that when the operator "dials" a pre-determinednumber, the switch is closed and a signal is sent to theautomatic billing system.
By this arrangement a relatively cheap system is provided because the existing hotel telephone system is utilised to control the signal between the central film unit and the receiver.
According to another aspect of the present invention the hotel's existing automatic telephone exchange and its associated computer system for automatically billing guests when they use the telephone is incorporated into the system of the present invention instead of having a separate computer.
Bow the invention may be carried out will now be described by way of example only and with reference to the single figure of the accompanying drawings which is a block diagram of an entertainment system incorporating the present invention.
The hotel has a private automatic branch exchange, known as a PABX and indicated at 1 in the drawing. Associated with the PABX is a management system and billing computer 2 which logs the telephone calls and those which are to be charged to a guest have signals representative of them fed to a front-of-desk computer 3.
There is a central unit 4 which consists of one or more so-called video players upon which one or more films or other programmes can be played, the unit 4 being electrically connected by line 5 to coaxial cable 6 which runs from a central television aerial 7.
The coaxial cable 6 is connected to an aerial socket in each of the guests bedrooms, only one of which is shown in the drawing. The aerial socket is combined with a filter unit (described later) to form a combined unit 8.
Each guest bedroom is provided with a television set 9 and a telephone handset 10, the latter being connected to the PABX via a telephone socket 11.
The essence of the present invention is that access to the central video unit 4 is controlled by the telephone handset 10 and a single channel filter unit 11 which acts as a normally open switch so that the signal from the video unit 4 would not normally reach the television set 9, the filter unit being part of the combined unit 8.
In known PABX systems the cabling between the PABX itself, 1, and the telephone socket 11 in the guest's bedroom would normally comprise six wires SJ kl eand f. However, only four of the wires, 3, kI cand d are in fact utilised as far as the telephone system itself is concerned. The present invention makes use of the two spare wires e and f.
The way in which the system of the present invention operates will now be described.
In order to enable a guest to access the signals coming from the video unit 4 he would "dial" a pre-determined number on the telephone handset 10 This would cause a signal to be fed to the PABX, 1, via the wires , ts c and d.
The PABX would then pass a signal to the management system 2, via a line 12.
The management system 2 would then carry out two substantially simultaneous functions. The first would be to send a signal to the hotel's front-of-desk computer 3 via a line 13. The second would be to send a signal to the filter unit 8 via the two wires e and f.
The first operation has the effect of automatically billing the guest's account for accessing the video unit 4. The second function has the effect of closing the normally open filter unit 8 to thus enable the signals from the video unit 4 to reach the television set 9.
The telephone handset 10 thus in effect controls signals going to the management system 2 and also signals coming from that system to the filter unit 8. This use of the telephone handset 10 to control two-way signals between itself and the telephone management system 2 is a key element of the present invention.
The filter unit 8 is designed so that the signals from the television aerial 7 will normally pass to the television set 9 thus enabling the hotel guest to view normal television programmes without having to pay a fee in order to do so.
However the frequency of the signals emanating from the video unit 4 are such and the design of the filter unit 8 is such that the video signals will not normally pass to the television set 9.