U.S. patent number 3,761,888 [Application Number 05/277,492] was granted by the patent office on 1973-09-25 for broadcast station logger and printout system.
This patent grant is currently assigned to Broadcast Products, Inc.. Invention is credited to Gary M. Flynn.
United States Patent |
3,761,888 |
Flynn |
September 25, 1973 |
BROADCAST STATION LOGGER AND PRINTOUT SYSTEM
Abstract
A system for providing a printed log of program materials
broadcast by a broadcast station, wherein data taken from a clock,
from a programmed sequence controller, and from recorded program
material sources is assembled and printed in the real time sequence
in which the various source materials were commenced, the
disclosure further including means for efficiently tagging the
recorded sources with the data necessary to provide a complete
printed log.
Inventors: |
Flynn; Gary M. (Atlanta,
GA) |
Assignee: |
Broadcast Products, Inc.
(Rockville, MD)
|
Family
ID: |
23061114 |
Appl.
No.: |
05/277,492 |
Filed: |
August 3, 1972 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
710/18 |
Current CPC
Class: |
H04H
20/14 (20130101); H04H 60/06 (20130101) |
Current International
Class: |
G06F
17/40 (20060101); H04H 9/00 (20060101); H04H
7/00 (20060101); G06k 003/00 (); G05b 019/00 () |
Field of
Search: |
;340/172.5 |
References Cited
[Referenced By]
U.S. Patent Documents
Primary Examiner: Henon; Paul J.
Assistant Examiner: Woods; Paul R.
Claims
I claim:
1. A system for logging data relating to materials which are
programmed to sequentially emanate from plural sources, the sources
being identified by data and commencing their materials at
successive real-time moments which are also identified by data, and
some of the sources, reading out tag data concerning their
materials, the system comprising:
a. plural buffer memory means each capable of storing the data to
be logged with respect to one source;
b. buffer-input multiplexer means operative when actuated to select
an available buffer memory means;
c. priority register means;
d. input means responsive to the commencing of a new source to
actuate the multiplexer means to select a buffer memory means, to
enter real-time data and source identification data therein, and to
store in the priority register means the address of that buffer
together with previously-selected buffer addresses chronologically
in the sequence of source commencements;
e. means for entering in the selected buffer memory means any tag
data read out from the corresponding source;
f. means for logging the data which is stored in the buffer memory
means; and
g. buffer output means operative to couple to the logging means the
data from the buffer memory means whose address appears
chronologically next in said priority register means.
2. The system as set forth in claim 1, wherein said input means and
said entering means also include means responsive to the completion
of input of all data concerning a particular source into its
selected buffer memory means to tag the latter "full;" and wherein
said logging means includes means for indicating when it has
completed logging of all data stored for a previous source; and the
buffer output means is responsive to the logging means having
completed logging of the data concerning the previous source and to
the next source being tagged "full" to couple the buffer memory
means corresponding with the next source to the logging means.
3. A system for providing a printed log of program materials which
are actually boradcast by a broadcast station, wherein the logging
system is supplied with data identifying the various sources and
indicating the real times at which each commenced and wherein at
least some of said sources comprise recorded program material
including tag data read out either during or after the program
material, the system comprising:
a. first and second data receiving means, the first means being
connected to accept data from sources which read out their data
after the program material and the second means being connected to
accept data from sources which read out their data during the
program material;
b. multiple first and second buffer memory means respectively
connectible to said first and second data receiving means for
storing data to be logged and relating to a time of commencement,
the source, and the identity of the materials relating thereto;
c. first and second buffer-input multiplexer means, the first
multiplexer means being operative when actuated to select one of
said first buffer memory means and connect it to receive data from
the first data receiving means, and the second multiplexer means
being operative when actuated to select one of said second buffer
memory means and connect it to receive data from the second
receiving means;
d. input-logic means operative in response to the commencement of a
new source to actuate the appropriate multiplexer means to select a
buffer memory means and to enter the time of commencement data and
the identification of source data therein;
e. priority register means operative to receive the address of each
buffer memory means as it is selected in response to the
commencement of a new source and to preserve these addresses in the
chronological order of said commencements;
f. printout means for printing data stored in said buffer memory
means; and
g. buffer-output logic means responsive to completion of printing
of data from one buffer memory means for selecting for output to
the printout means the buffer memory means whose address appears
chronologically next in said priority register means.
4. The system as set forth in claim 3, including means for manually
presetting which data is to be input into the buffer memory means
for each of the possible sources of broadcast material and
comprising, means for decoding source identifying data when a new
source commences and for energizing one input to said presetting
means corresponding with that source; manually selectible means
connected to each of said inputs and operative to select the
various types of data available to be entered in the buffer memory
means selected for that particular source, the selectible data
comprising fixed data including time and source data, and
comprising variable data including recorded tag data.
5. The system as set forth in claim 4, wherein said sources include
various recording playback means, network program sources, studio
sources, time announcer and special event sources, and some of
these sources have no tag data associated therewith; a fixed
message generator operative to generate fixed-message data
descriptive of various materials and sources; and said manual
presetting means being operative when actuated to select one of
said fixed messages to be entered in the buffer memory means
together with fixed data.
6. The system as set forth in claim 5, including timer means
started by the commencement of a new source and timing an interval
within which tag data should be received, and means responsive to
failure to receive tag data within said interval to actuate the
fixed message generator to enter a no-data message in the buffer
memory means selected for that source.
7. The system as set forth in claim 5, wherein said fixed message
generator includes the capability of generating data identifying
networks acting as sources, and local sources such as a studio
source, time announcer, and special event sources; and said manual
presetting means initiating the generation of fixed messages
appropriate to these sources.
8. The system as set forth in claim 5, wherein said manual
presetting means comprises a crossed conductor plugboard in which
the conductors in one direction represent various possible sources
and the conductors crossing them in the other direction
respectively represent the various selectible data that can be
entered into the buffer memory means.
9. The system as set forth in claim 4, wherein said broadcast
station includes a silence sensor operative to deliver a failure
signal responsive to failure of audio supplied from a source, and
further includes an air monitor operative to deliver a failure
signal responsive to failure of the broadcast station to actually
transmit material from a source, said failure signals comprising
additional data to be logged, and the system having storage means
for storing such failure signals and accessible to the printout
means for logging such failure when logging other data relating to
the same source.
10. The system as set forth in claim 4, wherein the manual
presetting means includes means indicating a source in which the
tag data is read out after the program material and means
responsive thereto for actuating the first multiplexer means to
store that data in a first buffer memory means, and the system
storing all data relating to other sources via the second
multiplexer means in the various second buffer memory means.
11. The system as set forth in claim 10, including means for
tagging each buffer memory means "full" when the data relating to
the source for which it was selected is completely entered therein;
and said output logic means including means for sequentially
advancing the buffer memory addresses contained in the priority
register means and checking the corresponding buffer memory means
to determine when the sequentially-next buffer memory means is
tagged "full;" and means to delay selection for output to the
printout means of the sequentially next memory means until it is
tagged "full."
12. The system as set forth in claim 11, wherein said priority
register means is a circulating loop shift register, said means for
scanning the buffer memory addresses including means for
circulating the addresses therein and for opening the loop to
delete an address when the corresponding buffer memory means has
been read out for printing of its contents.
Description
This invention relates to a system for logging and printing in
natural language format a record of the entire content of the
programs of a radio station, event-by-event, in the chronological
order in which they are broadcast, the system having particular
utility with respect to, but not limited to, the logging of the
program content of automated broadcast stations. The disclosure
also includes a novel way of cueing recorded sources with logging
data.
Most of the radio programming which is broadcast at the present
time is either pre-recorded or is taken from network lines, and
only a small proportion of the programming is live. The recorded
content is generally taken from tapes which are played by various
types of automatic tape machines, including reel-to-reel tape
transports and/or cartridge and cassette machines which
automatically handle and play one of many stored cartridges or
cassettes selected by addressing a particular machine to play
whatever tape unit is stored at a certain one of its compartments
or trays. These tapes usually have two or more recording tracks on
them. For instance, the reel-to-reel tapes often have two tracks
which can be used as right and left stereo channels or which, in a
mono system, can have one selection recorded for play in one
tape-motion direction and a different selection for play when the
tape is driven in the other direction. Most cartridges, according
to standards set by the National Association of Broadcasters, not
only have audio tracks, but also have one additional and separate
track known as a cueing track. Stereo cartridges therefore have
three tracks. Both reel-to-reel and cartridge types of tape are
used in broadcast stations, and these tapes are generally provided
with "start" and "stop" signals which mark the beginnings and
endings of the materials recorded on the tapes for the purpose of
automatically controlling the tape machines at the proper instants.
Usually reel-to-reel machines are used as sources of recorded music
or lengthy pre-recorded programs, and since they usually do not
have a separate cueing channel, the cueing signals are recorded in
one channel, generally the left channel after the recorded material
has concluded. However, where identification data is also included,
it has been the practice to record the data over the audio in one
channel using superimposed supersonic frequencies. On the other
hand, the cartridge tapes are generally used for recording not only
musical selections but most of the commercials, the station-breaks
including the F.C.C. call letters and station location, the time
signals, various special event messages and announcements, etc.
Since the cartridge tapes have separate cueing tracks or channels,
the cueing signals as well as the identification tags are recorded
therein. It is the general practice in the industry to record these
tags near the beginnings of the recorded materials which they
identify. It is one object of the present disclosure to teach a
technique wherein, with respect to the reel-to-reel two-channel
tapes, these are cued and identified after one selection of the
recorded material has been concluded, and before the next is
commenced.
In automated stations, the present practice for control of the
station, whatever the manner of cueing and identifying the tapes,
is to have the cueing signals read from the tapes and delivered to
some type of programmed control system, which in the case of an
automated station takes the form of an automatic sequencer which
automatically turns on the various sources from which the program
material is to be taken according to a preset sequence, also
switching the audio appropriately, and then changes to the next
source in the sequence when the cueing signal of the preceding
source indicates the end of the message. The automatic sequencer
also receives real-time clock input from a clock source and
interrupts the sequence at appropriate times, i.e. on the hour and
the half-hour, for station breaks, time signals, weather summaries,
and/or network materials. Automatic sequencers are in general use
at the present time and are manufactured by several different
companies to perform approximately as outlined above.
It is the principal object of this invention to provide an improved
automatic system for accepting data from the various sources of
material being broadcast, organizing it into the chronological
sequence in which it actually went on the air, and printing a log
of the material actually broadcast along with the real time at
which the broadcast message commenced, such printing being in the
form of the natural-spoken language as distinguised from a
machine-language.
Another major object of the invention is to provide a system in
which the real time sequence of broadcast is preserved in the log
even though the identification tags on the tapes may be read into
the system chronologically out of the sequence in which they were
actually broadcast, it being noted from the above background
discussion that, where for example a reel-to-reel tape selection is
immediately followed by a cartridge selection which may even
overlap it somewhat as in a "hard-rock" format of broadcast, it is
likely that the tag near the beginning of the cartridge selection
may be read at an earlier time than the tag which follows the
preceding reel-to-reel tape selection, or it may even be read
concurrently therewith. There are other ways in which the logger
system may be fed data in a real time succession which differs from
the actual broadcast sequence, but in any event this data must be
temporarily stored, sorted out, and organized for printing in the
correct real time sequence.
Yet another primary object of this invention is to provide a system
which is able to keep up with a very fast paced broadcast sequence
by faithfully printing all of the information from the various
program-material sources without loss of information, while at the
same time using a conventional printer whose printing rate is very
much slower than the rate at which data characters to be printed
are often read into the logger. Basically, the problem results from
the fact that the information tends to enter the logger in bursts,
even though there may also be relatively long times between such
bursts during which no characters arrive, perhaps as much as three
or four minutes while a musical selection is being played. In one
practical embodiment of the invention the printer prints only ten
characters per second, but the identification tags are read out at
the rate of about 128 characters per second. Moreover, at certain
other times in a program there are many such tags read out during a
span of only several minutes, for instance where the station
broadcasts in rapid succession several spot-commercials followed by
station identification, followed by a series of "jingles" and
"stingers" each of which only lasts for a few seconds but is
identified by a 128-character tag which must be logged. This
invention employs a number of temporary buffer memory registers and
logic circuitry for organizing the information and presenting it to
the printer in the real-time sequence in which it was
broadcast.
The data to be logged includes, for example, fixed data including
real-time, event number, print control function and indication of
source, i.e. whether network, studio, or tape machine and which
one; and further includes variable data read from a tape source
which is being broadcast to indicate the message content, i.e.
commercial content and sponsor, or musical selection and licensing
agency, A.S.C.A.P. or B.M.I., etc. Other information to be logged
may also include certain fixed messages which are locally generated
to indicate source, such as "studio," "network" identity, "time
announcer," station identification when broadcast, nature of
program content, i.e., non-commercial, news, commercial, special
event, contingency, etc. A contingency mode covers unusual
situations, perhaps temporarily affecting the station's ability to
meet its obligations, such as a power failure, a failure of the
broadcast transmitter, a special event interruption of the
pre-determined sequence, or a failure of a tape to deliver a proper
cue signal, which failure is detected after a brief interval by a
silence detector which advances the sequencer to the next event,
etc.
It is another major object of the invention to provide the above
improved logger and printer system in cooperation with improved
means for tagging the tapes using a high-speed phase encoding which
not only packs a very large amount of information into a short tape
running time, about 128 eight-bit characters in less than one
second, but also uses the optimum frequency range of the audio
tapes and provides a type of modulation which is rather insensitive
to variations in the play-back speed or amplitude output from the
tape. Moreover, maximum recovery of information despite momentary
dropouts in insured by providing a synchronizing signal at the
beginning of each new character. Since a full 128 character
sequence can be included within one second, it is not necessary to
tag tapes which have no separate cueing channel by logging over the
selections at sub-sonic or supersonic rates. The logging can be
placed between selections, since there is conventionally more than
one second separation therebetween.
Yet another major object of the invention is to provide means for
printing out natural-language logs which: first, meet the FCC legal
requirements pertaining to station identification records; second,
provide proof to the sponsors that their commercials were in fact
broadcast including the times thereof and the billing rates
applicable; and third, keep full records of all musical selections
played including their titles, royalties payable, and the licensing
agency to which they should be paid. The system can be interfaced
with a computerized book-keeping and billing system to complete the
automation of the station.
Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent
during the following discussion of the drawings, wherein: pp FIG. 1
is a block
showing a broadcast station including a logger and printer
according to the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a drawing showing a typical three-channel cartridge tape
with a cue channel recorded thereon;
FIG. 3 is a drawing showing a two-channel reel-to-reel or cassette
tape with cue signals and tag signals recorded in its left
channel;
FIG. 4 is a drawing showing the message format of the variable-data
tag signals recorded on tape according to the present
invention;
FIG. 5 is a drawing showing a timing pulse series located above a
typical eight-bit character with synchronizing bits recorded by
high speed phase encoding as taught by the present invention;
FIGS. 6, 7 and 8 when read together side-by-side comprise a block
diagram showing in greater the components of the logger by which
the various information is sorted out and presented chronologically
to the printer; and
FIG. 9 shows a typical printout log prepared in accordance with the
present system.
Referring now to the drawings, FIG. 1 shows the combination of a
typical broadcast station and a logger and printer according to the
present invention. The broadcast station includes a transmitter 10
coupled with a suitable broadcast antenna system 11. The
transmitter is fed audio on a wire 12 by a pre-programmed sequence
controller 14 which in the present example will be assumed to
comprise an automation system.
This programmed sequence controller receives input from a number of
different audio sources, various types of which are shown in FIG.
1. The sources include input from telephone network lines 16
through a network switching means 18 which delivers network audio
on the lines 20 to the program sequence controller 14. The
controller controls the network source lines 16 using its own
internal control means. Another source of audio comprises a
cartridge or cassette machine 24 which, for instance, may be of the
popular "Carousel" variety including a rotating selection bin 26
having separate compartments or trays to hold tape cartridges such
as the cartridges 28. The source 26 is controlled by the program
sequence controller 14 by way of the cable 30 which delivers input
into the machine 24 to indicate which tray location is to be
played, the audio then passing through the wire 32 into the program
sequence controller where it is internally switched onto the audio
wire 12 when that source is being selected for playing. Although a
single cartridge machine has been illustrated at 24 in FIG. 1, it
is to be understood that there may be more than one, or there may
be other types of multiple tape cassette or cartridge machines
which perform a similar function, and these other machines are
interchangeably usable in a broadcast system of the general type
being discussed herein.
Another source of taped audio comprises the reel-to-reel machine 34
having individual tapes carried by reels 36, each tape 38 being
started and stopped by the control cable 40 extending from the
programmed sequence controller, and the audio from the tapes 38
being coupled into the controller 14 on the wire 42 when a
reel-to-reel machine 34 is selected. The broadcast station also
includes a real-time clock 44 which delivers time signals on the
wire 46 into the programmed sequence controller 14 and into the
logger unit 50.
The controller 14 can be one of any number of units currently
available on the market for controlling broadcast stations
automatically. For instance, Model AR 2000 manufactured by the
Boradcast Products, Inc., is a unit which performs well in this
particular setup. The controller of the type to which the present
discussion refers is a device which selects among the various
sources such as the typical sources 16, 24, and 34, starting and
stopping them and switching them at appropriate sequential times,
and in addition indicating which of the various selections are to
be played in the case of machines capable of playing a number of
different recordings, such as the machine 24. The program
controller 14 ordinarily starts and stops the various sources in
the sequence in which they are called for by a preset program, but
the controller also can use the real time clock input on wire 46 to
overide the sequence set within the controller and make station
breaks at the correct real time, as well as perform other real time
necessities such as joining the network lines at prescribed
moments. The equipment described to-date is widely used in the
broadcast industry and for present purposes is considered to be the
prior art environment to which the present logger and printer
system is applied.
The logger 50 receives binary real-time signals on the cable 46 as
one of its inputs, but it also receives other inputs on the digital
data line 52 coming from the programmed sequence controller 14.
This digital data includes the broadcast event number (sequential)
as well as the identification of the source which has just
commenced for broadcast. Moreover, the logger receives on the lines
54 the identification tag data taken from the audio channels of the
various input sources, for instance from the tapes 38 or from the
cartridges or cassettes 28, whatever at the moment is being played.
Finally, the cable 53 includes a group of control and sensor
signals delivered to the logger from the programmed sequence
controller for purposes which will become apparent during the
discussion of FIGS. 6, 7, and 8.
In order to understand the manner in which the tapes are tagged, it
is useful to discuss various typical tapes as currently used in the
industry. Such tapes are illustrated in FIGS. 2 and 3, in which
FIG. 2 shows a typical three-track cartridge tape and FIG. 3 shows
a typical two-track reel-to-reel or cassette tape. Referring
particularly to FIG. 2, the tape 60 used in typical cartridges of
the type employed to record entertainment material as well as
commercial and functional materials comprises tracks 61 and 62 on
which the material is recorded, frequently in stereo. Ordinarily,
the left-channel is on top in the track 61 and the right-channel is
below it in track 62. The tape also includes a third track 63 which
is the cueing track, and the industry varies somewhat as to the
manner in which cue signals are recorded thereon. However, perhaps
the most typical type of cueing includes stop signals comprising a
1 KHz audio signal of about one second duration located at the
beginning of each selection, which also serves to stop the tape
machine when it reaches the leading edge of the corresponding
cueing signal of the next selection. Moreover, near the end of each
selection there is a 150 Hz end-of-message tone which usually lasts
for about three seconds, this tone being used to control several
different functions. The 1 KHz stop tone is labelled 64 in FIG. 2
and has a leading left-edge which can be used both to stop the
present tape, and also to indicate the start of the next selection.
The 150 Hz tone lasts about three seconds and is shown at 65 in
FIG. 2. The trailing edge 66 of this tone is used to kill the audio
output from that tape machine just after the message ends as shown
in the drawing by the termination of the signal in the tracks 61
and 62. On the other hand, the 150 Hz end-of-message signal has a
leading edge 67 which is available to start the next selection
chosen by the sequence controller 14 just before the present
message ends where overlap of the messages is desired. What has
been described to date is prior art.
Between the two tone cueing signals in the track 62 there is a
considerable span of time, except in the shortest of messages, in
which the tape can be tagged as to the content of the message.
Other manufacturers have used this space to tag the message using
systems different from the one proposed for the present system, but
in general the rate at which they have been able to put messages on
the tape has been so slow that it has been difficult to get enough
characters on the tape to tag a recorded message of brief duration,
such as a spot commercial or a station break, and one of the
advantages of the present system is the ability to place 128
characters on the track 63 within a span of one second running time
of the tape. This tag according to the present invention appears at
68. The tag 68 begins about 1.4 seconds after the stop signal 64
commences, the stop signal being located just ahead of the message
recorded in the tracks 61 and 62. The tag signal then lasts about
one second, just long enough to get the 128 character format
recorded thereon, the format being discussed hereinafter in
connection with FIGS. 4 and 5.
FIG. 3 shows a typical reel-to-reel tape 70 which has only two
recording tracks, the upper track 71 serving to record the
left-channel sound in a stereo system and the right-channel sound
being recorded in the track 72 below it. There is no third cue
track separate from the tracks 71 and 72 in this type of tape. The
cue signal according to industry standards is generally recorded on
the left-track 71 either superimposed upon the message near its
end, or else right after the end of the message appearing in the
track 71, and according to industry standards comprises a 25 Hz
tone 75 shown herein is beginning at 73 and ending at 74. The
beginning of the tone 75 at point x in the track is used to actuate
the sequence controller to start the next source, and in the prior
art systems the end 74 of the 25 Hz tone at point y is used to kill
the audio from the present source. Usually there is a delay system
in a present-day reel-to-reel machine which stops the tape just
after the audio source is killed.
According to the present invention, the tag signal is applied just
after the 25 Hz tone ends, and is labelled with the reference
character 76 in FIG. 3. As in FIG. 2, the tag lasts for about one
second, and therefore ends at the point z 77 just before the tape
reel is actually stopped at 78. In general, the delay in the
machine is such that the tape actually stops moving about six
seconds after the audio is switched off of the audio bus at point
74. Since the same sudio head is also used to read the log
contained in the tag 76, the audio from that machine is switched by
the controller 14 into the logger 50 so that the latter will
receive the tag message 76 which is applied to the tape according
to the invention as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5.
Referring now to FIG. 4, this figure illustrates a typical variable
logging tag format, such as the tag 76 in FIG. 3 or the tag 68 in
FIG. 2, these tags giving the content of the message with which
they are associated on tape, and other information as follows. The
entire duration of the tag 80 shown in FIG. 4 is equal to or less
than one second, and the tag contains the portion of the
information which is variable and which follows the first 28
characters which comprise the fixed data which, itself, does not
come from the tape but from the clock 44 and the controller 14. The
variable data from the tape includes the characters 29 up to 128,
but these are not all evenly spaced on the tape. Instead, they are
bunched up toward the beginning of the tag message on the tape so
that they use only as much as the total character capability as is
necessary to provide all of the information required for that
particular tag. At the conclusion of each entry, the tag includes a
tabulating character TAB which then advances the printer to the
next column as will be described hereinafter in connection with
FIG. 7 which shows a typical printout. The last character in the
message is always a "STOP" character. In the present example, it is
assumed that the printer 56 comprises a teletypewriter, and
therefore the tag 80 illustrated in FIG. 4 is designed to cooperate
with such a machine.
In starting a new line of print beginning with fixed data, at the
beginning of the message there will appear a carriage return
character, followed by a line feed character, followed by a first
tabulating character TAB which then places the carriage in the
right position to print the first series of characters to appear.
After the fixed data is printed in the sequence to be described in
connection with FIG. 6, then variable data appears as shown in FIG.
4, following a TAB character. This first variable data character
group comprises the group NCA entered for the purpose of indicating
whether or not the following tag refers to a commercial or
non-commercial broadcast message. If it is a commercial message,
the NCA column can be used to activate the automated billing system
so that it makes an entry to take care of the billing for the
commercial message. After the NCA character group concludes, there
is another tabulating character which moves to the next column for
the purpose of entering a series of characters indicating the
content of the tape message in greater detail, for instance, the
title of a musical selection or the content of a commercial
message, etc. This message will appear in the space 83, but it may
be preceded by a second tabulating signal 82 which can cause the
content of the message to be indented. This satisfies a rule of the
FCC with regard to logging which states in effect that where
material is separately logged within a larger program, it should be
indented on the log page so as to distinguish it and make it clear
that the program material being entered was broadcast within a show
whose title appears above. This might be illustrated by a playing
of a musical selection within a disc jockey show which is listed at
a heading located on an earlier line of the log. After the message
has been entered in space 83 of the tag 80, there is another tab
signal TAB which then moves the printer to the next column 84 which
indicates the duration of the message in minutes or seconds, for
instance, indicating that it is a 10 second commercial or it is a
30 minute variety show, etc. The entry 84 is followed by another
tabulating signal TAB which moves the printer to the column 85
which contains billing material, this entry being used to indicate
the name of the sponsor and the rate at which the program material
should be billed. This portion of the tag is of course variable to
suit individual billing procedures, but any event it is followed by
a TAB which moves the printer to the column 86. In this column the
program type is listed by encoded letters for showing what type of
show the material was broadcast within, this column being required
by the FCC and indicating among other things whether the show is an
educational program, a news show, an entertainment show, etc. The
next TAB character moves on to the column 87 which indicates
whether the source of the show is live, recorded, etc. After the
appropriate letter code has been entered in the column 87, the next
TAB signal moves the printer to column 88 which can be used by the
broadcaster for the purpose of entering such other data as he may
wish concerning the source from which the material was taken.
Finally, there is another TAB signal which moves the printer to the
last print column of the present illustration, this column being
required by the FCC to indicate the class of information contained
within that portion of the tape to which the present tag refers.
The class of material appears in column 89 and again includes a
code made up of letters to indicate the nature of the content of
the particular portion of the tape just broadcast. For instance,
the letters C.A. indicate commercial announcement, and there are a
number of other such designations as indicated by the FCC Rules and
by useage in the broadcast industry. The information contained in
the class column 89 differs from the information contained in the
type column 86 to the extent that the type information is used to
indicate the type of overall show in which the material appeared,
whereas the class column is used to indicate the nature of the
material specifically referred this by teis tag and constituting
only a part of the show referred to in the type column. Of course,
where the material referred to by the present tag is broadcast
alone, and not as a part of a larger show, the type column will be
blank. Likewise, when an entry on the log refers to an overall show
rather than to a particular announcement or selection made during
the show, then the class column may be left blank. Some of this
discussion will be gone over again in connection with FIG. 9 which
is discussed hereinafter.
Referring now to FIG. 5, this figure is used to describe the manner
in which the tags are encoded upon the tags. Other manufacturers
have in the past encoded tags upon the tapes, for instance, using
FSK (frequency shift keying) encoding in which two tones are
employed, one indicating a mark and the other indicating a space.
This type of recording of the tags suffers from a number of
difficulties, most serious of which is the slow speed at which the
encoding is accomplished. Where audio tones are used, multiple
cycles of each tone are required before the audio devices which
sense these tones can operate. If about 5,000 cycles per second is
used as the highest tone, this being a practical upper frequency
because of limitations in response of a tape system, then it
requires a considerable length of tape in order to record, for
instance the 128 characters which are recorded using the present
novel system. Moreover, two-tone encoding is sensitive to tape
variations both with respect to speed of the tape and amplitude
variations which invariably occur when using audio tapes because of
the fact that their quality is not as good as digital tapes. The
present system seeks to overcome these difficulties by using phase
encoded direct-digital recording employing reversing square wave
levels as shown in FIG. 5. FIG. 5 includes two related waveforms as
illustrated, the top waveform showing 4 KHz timing marks which are
accordingly spaced by 1/4 millisecond. The square wave levels shown
in the waveform below can change at any one of these timing marks.
Each character to be recorded has 8 bits, plus a synchronization
interval plus one synchronizaton character on each side of the
eight bits. For instance, before each character begins there is a
synchronization interval comprising 4 negative levels followed by
four positive levels, the synchronization interval itself being
labelled 90 in FIG. 5. Immediately following the synchronization
interval 90 is a negitive-to-positive synchronization character 91,
and this synchronization character is followed by eight information
characters. These characters are finally followed by another
negative-to-positive synchronization character 92. Each one of the
information cycles comprises a two level signal according to
standard Manchester encoding in which the transition from positive
to negative comprises a binary one and the transition from negative
to positive comprises a binary zero. Thus, in FIG. 5, the first
character labelled 93 comprises a binary zero, whereas the next
character, being from positive to negative, comprises a binary one
and is labelled 94. The character 95 and each of the following
characters comprises a binary zero since it is a transition from
negative to positive. Thus, the character shown between the two
synchronization characters 91 and 92 comprises eight bits as
follows: 01000000.
These various level transitions occur so rapidly that they are
themselves at an audio rate of 2 KHz maximum or 1 KHz minimum, and
are therefore at a very excellent response frequency for most autio
tapes. Accordingly, no carrier frequency is required. The present
system puts 128 characters on the tape in one second, each
character having not only eight bits comprising 16 different levels
but also comprising two synchronization characters each having two
levels and a synchronization interval including eight timing mark
intervals as shown at 90. Thus, each character actually occupies 28
timing mark spaces of 250 microseconds each as shown in FIG. 5.
There are various prior art teachings which appear to broadly
resemble this technique but they are essentially digital recording
techniques, i.e. as in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,573,770 and 3,228,016 and
3,237,176, whereas the present technique allows a high speed
digital waveform to be generated, recorded and recovered from a
much simpler type of tape transport which is designed, not for
digital recording, but for analog recording the audio range.
One of the big advantages of the type of tagging shown in FIG. 5,
aside from its speed, is that it provides reliable recovery of the
information even in the presence of tape anomolies such as splices,
bits of dust, dropouts, etc. Naturally, where a dropout occurs the
information which would have been in that portion of the tape is
lost, however, in view of the fact that each character has its own
synchronization interval with it, as soon as the signal from the
tape is regained the characters are read reliably, instead of being
lost because of loss of initial synchronization. Other advantages
include immunity from tape speed variations due to the manner in
which the waveform is regenerated, and immunity from the effects of
tape said variation which adversely affect prior art frequency
shift detection devices. The signal is filtered before recording,
and then after recovery is filtered just enough to remove high
frequency differentiating-kick components, and thereby the
recovered signal is nearly sinusoidal. In this way high frequency
components which tend to leak between channels of the tape are
eliminated. This method of recording of the tags on tapes works
very well on unequalized tapes as well as on equalized tapes.
LOGGER AND PRINTER (FIGS. 6, 7 AND 8)
FIGS. 6, 7 and 8 show a block diagram of the logger system which
receives and organizes the information, and feeds it to the printer
in the proper sequence for printing. There are several reasons why
the information must be organized and temporarily stored in various
memory buffers 200. In the first place, the information comes from
several different sources, some of it comprising what was referred
to above as fixed data which is taken partly from the programmed
sequence controller 14, for instance the sequential event number
arbitrarily assigned to the particular material being logged and
the identification of the source of the program material, such as
network, reel-to-reel source, or cartridge or cassette source; and
the fixed data also including the time that the source went on the
air as taken from the digital time clock 44. The information to be
logged also includes information referred to above as variable
data, this data format being shown in FIG. 4 and being taken mostly
from the tapes themselves, for instance, from tags of the type
shown in FIGS. 2 and 3.
A second reason making it necessary to organize and temporarily
store the information to be printed resides in the fact that the
printer cannot possibly keep up with the rate at which characters
to be printed are received by the logger. The characters can arrive
at the logger at the rate of 128 characters per second, but the
printer can only print 10 characters per second. Sometimes there
will occur three or four events in a row, each of which is very
brief duration, but each of which requires the printing of an
entire line as shown in FIG. 9. When this occurs, the printer may
have more material than it can print in a minute or more all
arriving at the logger within a relatively few seconds. Therefore,
the logger shown in FIGS. 6, 7 and 8 includes in the illustrative
embodiment six buffer memories which are not only accessible for
loading fixed and variable data material thereinto from different
sources, but which also serve to store the data and feed it in an
organized manner to the printer as the printer is ready for it and
in the chronological order in which the various events were
broadcast.
A third reason for the necessity of organizing and temporarily
storing the material to be printed resides in the fact that the
material is not always read into a buffer to complete its contents
in the same sequence in which its source was broadcast. It
frequently occurs that a portion of the data to be printed
concerning one broadcast event will arrive mixed up time-wise with
data relating to another event which is currently being broadcast.
In other words, the only information which arrives in the exact
sequence in which the events were broadcast is the fixed data
comprising the event number and identity of the source and the
real-time at which the broadcast thereof began. The variable data
taken from tags of the type shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 arrives at
whatever times these tags are read into the logger from the various
sources, and these real-time readings may be out of sequence with
respect to the begin times at which the sources were actually
broadcast.
In view of the fact that the difficulty involved in organizing the
material so that each bit of data goes into the same buffer which
is storing other data pertaining to the same braodcast event is
attributable to the mixing up sequentially of the various different
sources, such as cartridge sources and reel-to-reel sources whose
tags are not at the same locations on the tapes; the organizing and
storing means shown in FIGS. 6 and 7 includes certain buffer memory
registers 201 and 202 which store only data from reel-to-reel
machines, and other buffer memory registers 203, 204, 205 and 206
which are connected so that they store only data taken from
cartridge machines. The logger system also incluqes a priority
register 213 serving to remember the sequential order in which the
events were actually put on the air, and this sequence is used by
the output logic of the system to deliver the data, on register at
a time, into a final printer buffer which directly feeds the
printer 56 to print the log shown in FIG. 9. Thus, a number of
buffer memories are provided which can be accessed selectively and
non-sequentially for entering data, and can then be held for a
sufficient length of time for the printer to catch up, assuming a
sudden burst of input information. As pointed out above, there are
long intervals of time during which no information is entered, for
instance, during the playing of ordinary recorded musical
selections. FIGS. 6, 7 and 8 when placed side-by-side form a
composite diagram showing the logger and printer, the purpose of
which is merely to record the events as they happen at the
broadcast station under the control either of a human operator or
of the programmed sequence controller 14 in an automated station as
shown in FIG. 1, and therefore the diagrams shown in FIGS. 6, 7 and
8 have no output except for the printed log sheet which is shown in
FIG. 9. However, the logger does have a number of inputs from the
various station units shown in FIG. 1, and these inputs all appear
along the left-hand margin of FIG. 6. Some of these inputs are
taken from the sequence controller 14 and include data showing
which sources originated the program material presently being
broadcast, the event number, and other control and indicating
signals as will be discussed below. The real time at which each
event commences is taken from the time clock 44, this data
appearing on wires 46 at the bottom of FIG. 6. There are two
additional inputs 42 and 32 which appear in the cable 54 near the
top of FIG. 6 and these inputs respectively come directly from the
tag tracks of the reel-to-reel machines and of the cartridge
machines. These two inputs differ from those appearing below them
on the left-hand margin of FIG. 6 to the extent that the latter
comprise fixed data, whereas the two top inputs comprise variable
tag track data from the tapes themselves. Each time a new source of
program material goes on the air, the system freezes in buffer 107
the time when it commenced as appears on the clock time bus 46, and
also freezes in buffer 105 the designation of that particular
source and its chronological event number assigned by the program
sequence controller 14, this information appearing on the cable 52.
This data is used to establish the real time sequence in which the
programs are to be logged. In FIG. 7 there appear six buffer
memories 200 which comprise the registers 201 through 206 inclusive
in which the data for each printed log is organized. The registers
201 and 202 never record anything except reel-to-reel source data,
but the registers 203 through 206 inclusive record data from all
other sources including cartridge sources. One of these buffer
memories is selected for each new source by the multiplex circuit
209 each time such a source comes on the air. The holding register
211 contains two memory stages which remember the addresses of the
particular buffer memories now being loaded from current sources,
and these addresses are then passed on to the priority register 213
which comprises a sift register into which the addresses of the
loaded buffer memories 200 are sequentially entered in the precise
order in which the those sources went on the air. It is from the
priority register that the output logic controlling the printing
means is able to cause it to print the information contained in the
various buffer memories in the exact sequence in which they went on
the air.
As pointed out above, the factor complicating the logger circuitry
is that the various sources do not necessarily read out their
information in the same order in which they went on the air, and
therefore, the various buffer memories will be receiving
information non-sequentially. The circuitry shown in FIGS. 6 which
serves the purpose of organizing the input of the data into the
correct buffer memories 200 under the control of the input control
logic circuit 101, but it is the purpose of the output control
logic 301, shown in FIGS. 7 and 8 and operating independently, to
retrieve the information for printing by sequentially removing the
data from the various buffer memories 200, one complete buffer
memory at a time, in the sequence in w hich the various sources
represented by those memories went on the air.
DATA INPUT TO BUFFER MEMORIES
The inputting of data to the buffer memories 200 is considered
separately from a subsequent heading relating to the outputting of
data from the buffer memories to the printer because of the fact
that there is substantially no temporal relationship between the
sequence in which the data is input to the memories and the
sequence in which it is taken therefrom for the purpose of
printing.
Each time the program sequence controller 14 in FIG. 1 starts up a
new source, whether it be a special event, network, cartridge or
cassette source, or reel-to-reel source, etc., the program sequence
controller 14 puts out an MRB signay on wire 103 indicating a new
source has just commenced, and this source is designated by an
encoded designation thereof appearing on the calbe 52. For
instance, all of the reel-to-reel sources begin with a zero first
digit, their second and third digits indicating which reel-to-reel
machine was started, whereas for cartridge sources the first digit
is not zero but indicates which cartridge machine was selected, and
the second and third digits indicate which tray of that cartridge
machine was selected. For instance, the designation 217 would
indicate that it was cartridge machine No. 2, tray 17, that was
just selected. Moreover, the real time appears on the cable 46 from
the clock 44 and indicates real time in hours, minutes and seconds,
AM or PM. The MRB signal 103 is delivered to the START of a
sequence counter 102 and steps it to step No. 1 which delivers an
output to actuate two temporary storage registers 105 and 107
appearing in the fixed data formatter 109. Thus, the designation of
the event number and the particular source just started is frozen
in the register 105 and the real time is frozen in the register 107
and temporarily preserved, i.e. until the next MRB signal freezes
new data into these registers. The source identifying data is also
delivered on cable 111 to a source decoder 113 which decodes the
binary indication of the source which has just been put on the air
and enables one of the wires in the group 115 going to a manually
presettable plugboard 117. This plugboard has a number of vertical
columns, one for each source represented by one of the wires in the
bundle 115, and each respective column being energizable by the
corresponding wire. For instance, if there are 30 different sources
available on this plugboard, the decoder will energize the vertical
column conductor attached to whichever one of these sources has
just been put on the air. These sourses may for example be the
various cartridge and reel-to-reel machines, as well as certain
networks, time announcers, etc. These vertical columns, of which
the column 119 is typical actually comprise electrical conductors
which pass in near proximity to other horizontal row conductors,
such as the conductor 121. There is a hole in the plugboard at each
crossing so that when a metal plug is inserted in the hole it
contacts that particular vertical column conductor and that
particular horizontal-row conductor and connects them together. It
is by means of this plugboard that station personnel can program in
advance what is to be done by way of logging with respect to each
of the individually selectible sources. For instance, the top row
when energized serves to enable a punch tape machine, in addition
to the teletypewriter printer, whenever that particular vertical
column has a pin inserted in the top hole, whereby the information
is not only printed in the printer but it also punchded upon a
tape. This is convenient for the broadcast station because it gives
a separate record for certain data, for example suitable for
automatic billing of various clients. Thus, a time announcement
source which is unsponsored would not have a pin in the top hole
because nobody is to be billed for making the time announcement,
whereas a commercial announcement taken for example from cartridge
source 217, meaning cartridge machine No. 2, tray No. 17, is to be
billed to a particular sponsor of that commercial announcement and
therefore a pin should be placed in the top row corresponding with
that particular source.
The second horizontal row on the plugboard 117 is used for
indicating that the particular source is to be fully logged by
taking the information from the tag track of the tape itself when a
pin appears in the second row. The third row when including a pin
indicates that fixed data only is to be logged, i.e. perhaps
relating to a non-taped source for example, this fixed data merely
including the time evencnumber and the source. This might for
example be the case where a time announcement was made, and no
other data need be logged because no one is to be either billed or
paid royalities for the time announcement. The fourth row in this
embodiment specifies that this is a reel-to-reel source, whereas
the fifth row is used to specify that this is a cartridge source,
and one pin will be inserted in the plugboard 117 if the source is
indeed of either kind. A series of the other rows across the
plugboard provide for a three bit binary indication of a selected
one of several available fixed messages which are provided by a
prerecorded fixed message generator 131. For example, one possible
combination of pins in a column and intersecting several fixed
message rows might designate one of the major networks, such as
ABC, NBC, CBS or MBS, and the fixed message generator will then
deliver a fixed message indicating that a certain network was on
the air serving as that particular source. Other fixed messages
include such possible indications as "time announcer," "power
failure," "studio program," "special event," or other useful
messages such as "no data," etc. Thus, each time a source is
selected by the source decoder 113 and one of the vertical source
wires is energized thereby, certain routine steps are called for by
the plugboard depending upon pins which appear in the various
holes, as will be further discussed hereinafter.
Each one of the buffer memories 201 through 206 inclusive comprises
a register capable of accepting 1024 bits including data
characters, appearing in a sequence which forms a message of fixed
format. The first 16 of these characters comprising the fixed data
are formatted by the formatter circuit 109 which sequences these
first characters and reads them into whatever buffer memory 200 is
selected by the multiplxer 209 at the beginning of a new source in
a manner hereinafter to be explained. The first character in the
format is taken from the top horizontal row of the plugboard 117
and is either a one or a zero depending on whether a pin is located
in the top row or not. If there is no pin in the row, the first
character is a zero indicating that the paper tape punch 350 will
not be used to record this data source, but if there is a pin in
the top row of the plugboard 117 the first character will be a one
and teis will indicate that the tape punch 350 is to be used. The
second and third characters are the hours digits taken from the
temporary real time storage 107. The fourth and fifth characters
are the minutes digits taken from the register 107, followed by
characters six and seven which show the seconds, followed by
characters eight and nine which register either AM or PM as may be
appropriate, all taken from the real time storage 107 which shows
the time frozen at the beginning of the present source selection.
Characters, ten, eleven, twelve and thirteen comprise the event
number in thousands, hundreds, tens and units taken from the
temporary storage 105. Character thirteen is followed by the source
number appearing as characters fourteen, fifteen and sixteen to
indicate the identity of the source being logged. Both the event
number and the source number come from the register 105. Finally,
characters seventeen through one-hundred twenty seven are reserved
for printing either the tag data taken from the tape on wires 32 or
42, or else for printing one of the various fixed meassages
contained within the fixed message generator 131 as mentioned above
during the discussion of the plugboard 117. Such a fixed message is
printed right after the fixed data format, if called for by pins in
the bottom three rows of the plugboard. The last designation
entered into a buffer memory is always the "stop" signal indicating
that this is the end of the message contained within that register,
and the printer can therefore stop and become available for the
printing of data contained in the next buffer memory to be
sequentially printed under the control of the output control logic
301 which will be discussed in connection with FIGS. 7 and 8.
The discussion now turns to a sequential description of the manner
in which the system performs the logging of each new source whose
commencing is indicated by a new MRB signal delivered to the logger
in cable 53 coming from the programmed sequence controller 14. This
MRB signal appears on the wire 103 at the left-hand margin of FIG.
6 and actuates the sequence counter 102 to move to step No. 1 and
deliver an output serving to actuate the two temporary storage
registers 105 and 107 to freeze the real time at which the new
source commended, as well as the event and source numbers. At this
point, the holding register 211 will still contain in its first
stage the address of whichever buffer memory 200 was being accessed
for the purpose of storing the data from the immediately previous
source. If the previous source was a cartridge source, the data in
the buffer memory should already be complete because the cartridge
source has a separate cue track which is read off near the
beginning of the selection in the cartridge. However, if the prior
source was a reel-to-reel source, the data will not have been read
from the previous reel at the time that a new MRB signal appears
indicating the start of a new source, because the data on a
reel-to-reel tape chronologically follows the program material. As
stated previously, assuming that the first stage of the holding
register 211 still contains the address of the buffer memory
selected for the next previous source, this address comprising
three parallel digits, in which the first digit will be a zero if
it is a reel-to-reel source or a number if a cartridge source, it
is therefore possible to determine by looking at the first digit in
the first stage of the holding register 211 whether it is a
reel-to-reel source or not. The step No. 1 output on wire 108 is
therefore connected to a flipflop 110 which is clocked thereby so
that the output of the first digit of the holding register on wire
214 representing the previous source will move the flipflop to a
"set" condition if it is a reel-to-reel source or to an "unset"
condition if it is a cartridge source. In this case assuming that
the previous source is a reel-to-reel source, the data will not
have been read into the associated buffer memory as of the present
time. The discussion of the delayed entry of the reel-to-reel data
into the correct buffer appears under the subsequent heading
entitled "REEL-TO-REEL DATA ENTRY."
Each of the buffer memories 200 has an output from a status bit
indicating whether that memory is full or not, these outputs going
via the cable 216 to the multiplexer. In turn, the multiplexer has
an output on wire 216a indicating the status of the buffer
currently selected by the address appearing in the first stage of
the holding register 211. The output on wire 216a goes to an AND
gate 135, and if the source was a cartridge source, the gate
receives an input from the "unset" output of the flipflop 110. If
the signal on wire 216a indicates that the buffer memory is full,
then no output will be delivered from the AND gate 135 to the fixed
message generator 131, this being true because wire 216a indicates
that the buffer memory has completed receiving the data from that
cartridge and is "full." On the other hand, if the cartridge of the
previous source has not delivered data to the buffer memory, this
fact indicates a defective condition because that cartridge has
already read out its tag data and it was not delivered to the
buffer. Therefore the output of the gate 135 is used to drive the
fixed message generator to deliver a "no data" output through the
multiplexer into the buffer memory of the previous source, thereby
completing the buffer memory to show that no data was in fact
received from that particular source. This "no data" message is
followed by a stop character which then completes the buffer memory
by showing that it is full.
A stepper 100 is used to step the sequence counter 102 after it is
started, and this stepper now advances the counter 102 to step No.
2 which will deliver an output on wire 134. This output performs
several functions. In the first place, it causes the content of the
first stage of the holding register 211 to be shifted into the
second stage of the holding register 211. Both the holding register
and the priority register 213 comprise at each stage five parallel
bits, three of which hold the address of a particular buffer memory
200 containing data from a particular source, the fourth stage
holds a bit indicating whether or not the silence sensor 13 has
operated and the fifth bit holds an indication as to whether the
air monitor 15 has concurred. These last two bits will be described
hereinafter.
At the same time the content of the first stage of the holding
register is shifted into its second stage, the second stage
contents are shifted into corresponding five bits of the first
stage of the priority shift register 213. The shift of information
out of the first stage of the holding register is followed by
clearing of that first stage. The step No. 2 output of the sequence
counter 102 on wire 134 is also used to enable the horizontal rows
of the plugboard 117 thereby enabling their outputs for use by the
fixed data formatter 109. This fixed data formatter is also enabled
by the output on wire 134, and it steps through the first 28 digits
of the format described above. As a result of the enabling of the
rows of the plugboard 117 by the output on wire 134, the rows 132
and 133 are both enabled. Therefore, one of the wires 132 or 133
enables either the upper multiplexer circuit 209a if the new source
is a reel-to-reel source or the lower multiplexer circuit 209b if
it is a cartridge source, and the enabled multiplexer then steps on
to the next available buffer memory 200 of the appropriate type.
When this buffer memory is located, its address is delivered upon
the cable 218 into three digit positions of the first stage of the
holding register 211. Thus, at this point a buffer memory of the
appropriate type has been selected and its address entered into the
holding register's first stage. Now the system is ready to begin
taking data from the tag on the source which was started up
concurrently with the latest MRB signal. The purposes and functions
of the holding registers and the priority registers will be further
discussed hereinafter. Moreover, the manner in which the tag data
from a previous reel-to-reel source is entered into the buffer
whose address is now in the second stage of the holding register
211 will also be discussed below. Recapitulating, at this point a
new MRB signal has just been received indicating that a new source
has started up, and the event number as well as the number of this
source and also the real time of its commencing are all contained
within the registers 105 and 107. The new source is also decoded by
the decoder 113, and in this example it will be assumed that it is
a cartridge source corresponding with wire 114. This source
energizes the third vertical column of the plugboard 117. The fixed
data formatter, having been enabled by the wire 134, reads out the
digits of the fixed data into the selected buffer memory via the
cable marked F.D. The first row crossing the wire 114 has a pin in
it thereby entering a "punch" symbol as the first digit in the
buffer memory. Also, since a cartridge contains information to be
logged a pin will be in the second horizontal row indicating that
logging is to be carried out. This source has more than mere fixed
data and therefore there will be no pin in the third row. The
source is not a reel-to-reel source, and therefore, there will be
no pin in the fourth row, but since it is a cartridge source there
will be a pin in the fifth row. Since the cartridge source contains
its own data, presumably no fixed message will be necessary in
connection with this source, and therefore the succeeding three
rows will all be empty. Conversely, if this had been a source
requiring no logging of variable data, the "log" row would not have
had a pin in it, and therefore, output on wire 149 in the cable 116
from the plugboard would have comprised a "stop" message to the
sequence counter causing it to cease further counts and wait to
start over again when the next MRB message is received. The fixed
data formatter 109 also delivers to the selected buffer memory the
remainder of the fixed data as described above including real time,
event number, and source number. The fixed data formatter also
delivers a "pause" signal on wire 109a to disable the stepper 100
until the fixed data is all entered in the selected buffer
memory.
CARTRIDGE SOURCE DATA ENTRY
The procedure for entering into the buffer memory 200 data from a
cartridge source differs from the procedure for entering date from
a reel-to-reel source, and therefore, they will be separately
considered. The fact that there is a pin in the cartridge row of
the patchboard, the fifth row from the top for the source enabled
by wire 114, causes the multiplexer 209b to be actuated by the wire
133 to step through the appropriate buffer memories 203 to 206 to
the next memory in sequential order, which memory is always
presumed to be unused at the present time or perhaps to contain
obsolete data relating to a source which has previously been fully
logged. The multiplexer delivers the three bits indicating which of
the buffer memories has been selected via the cable 118 into the
first stage of the holding register so that it will contain the
address of this particular buffer memory. Moreover, having selected
this memory the multiplexer will put out a signal on wire 138 to
clear the selected memory of whatever data it previously
contained.
A program can be interrupted at any time for a special event, and
therefore, when such an event occurs a signal will come true on the
"special event" wire SE from the programmed sequence controller 14
in cable 53. This special event wire is connected to a circuit 140
which is operative either to enable an appropriate data gate from a
cartridge or reel source, or alternatively to block all such gates
during a special event. There is a data gate 142 for controlling
the flow of reel-to-reel tag data, and there is a data gate 144 for
controlling the flow of cartridge tag data, and these gates are
selectively enabled or blocked by the circuit 140 whose several
inputs include the special event line SE and two inputs labelled
146 and 136 from the flipflop circuit 110 which indicates whether
it was a reel-to-reel source or a cartridge source which was
previously started up. Depending upon the indication furnished on
wires 146 and 136 in the absence of a special event signal on the
wire SE, either the AND gate 142 or the AND gate 144 will be
enabled at one of their inputs. There is another enable wire to
each of the gates 142 and 144 which will be discussed
hereinafter.
On the other hand, if there is a special event input on the wire SE
then the special event wire will block the enabling either of the
gate 142 or of the gate 144 by disabling the wires 141 and 135 for
the duration of the special event and actuating the fixed message
generator to enter "special event" in the selected buffer memory
200. Whichever type of event has just started, whether it be a
special event or a reel-to-reel or cartridge source, there will be
fixed data appearing in the fixed data formatter 109 and especially
in the registers 105 and 107 containing the event number, the
source, and the time that the source commenced. At this point,
actuated by the wire 134, the fixed data formatter 109 will read
out the fixed data from the storage 105 and 107 into the
multiplexer which will in turn enter this fixed data into the
selected buffer memory. The precise format of this fixed data has
already been described covering the first 18 characters entered
into the selected buffer memory 200 in connection with the previous
description of the patchboard 117. The fixed data having been
entered into the selected buffer memory and the special event wire
SE still being unenergized, the system will proceed to step No. 3
of the sequence counter 102 as a result of the "pause" signal being
removed from the wire 109a by the fixed data formatter 109. In step
No. 3, a signal appears on wire 147 which, if no signal appears on
the wire SE also entering the generator 131, enables the fixed
message generator 131 to deliver any fixed messages which may be
called for by the plugboard 117, namely the bottom three rows
thereof whose outputs appear in the wire group 148. These fixed
messages cover a variety of selectible wordings, some of which have
already been mentioned including the identifications of the various
networks which can become sources, a time announcer, power failure,
studio program, etc. These fixed messages, if any, as called for by
pins in the plugboard are then entered through the multiplexer 109b
into the succeeding character positions of the buffer memory which
has been chosen by that multiplexer. If there are no pins in the
plugboard requiring a fixed message, the system does nothing until
the sequence counter 102 moves on to step No. 4.
If there is no pin in the "log" row of the plugboard, after a
required fixed message has been entered, nothing further is to be
done, and a stop character from the fixed message generator 131 is
entered through the multiplexer 109b into the next character
position of the buffer memory 200 and the logging of that source is
complete. On the other hand, if after the fixed message has been
entered, there is also tag data to be logged as indicated by a log
pin in the second row of the plugboard 117, then the data from the
tag channel of that cartridge source is logged. It is also possible
to have a pin in the third row of the plugboard 117 indicating that
only fixed data is to be logged, and if this position has a pin in
it, the logging will have been completed and a stop character
written in the buffer memory following it. In this event, there
will be an output on wire 149 from the plugboard cable 116, and
this output will pass through an OR gate 150 and stop the counter
102 via the wire 104, indicating the log to be fully completed.
However, in this example it will be assumed, since it is a
cartridge source as indicated by a pin appearing in the cartridge
row of the patchboard 117, that the data-gate enable circuit 140
will have been actuated by output on wire 145 from step No. 4 of
the counter to enable the input 135 to the cartridge data-gate 144.
The appropriate variable tag data comes from the cartridge decoder
circuit 152, which does two things. First, the decoder includes a
circuit 154 which recognizes binary data appearing on the tag track
audio line 32 from the cartridge tape, this recognition occurring
whenever a new-character synchronizing signal interval 90 as shown
in FIG. 5 appears on the wire 32. Thus, each time a new data
character is about to begin on the tape, the recognition circuit
154 puts out a squelch signal on wire 156, this squelch signal
comprising the other enabling input to the cartridge data gate 144
which is now fully enabled. However, the data coming into the
cartridge decoder 152 on wire 32 is in serial form and must be
converted to parallel form. Therefore, the other function performed
by the cartridge data decoder 152 is to convert the serial data
into parallel form, for instance, using a shift register as is well
known in the prior art, and this converter 157 puts out the tag
data in parallel-bit form to the data gate 144, such data being
passed therethrough to cable 158. This data is then read out and
entered into the selected cartridge buffer memory 200 through the
multiplexer 209b. The data actually read from the tag track of the
cartridge includes a "stop" character at the end of it, and when
this stop character appears it is read into the buffer memory along
with the other data and comprises the "full" entry in that buffer.
As a result, the buffer provides a signal on wire 216a which is
ANDED in the gate 216b with the counter output in step No. 4 to
deliver a stop signal through the OR gate 150 and wire 104, and the
system then stops and waits for the next MRB signals to arrive.
REEL-TO-REEL DATA ENTRY
Going back to an earlier stage in the sequence of steps, when a new
source is started up as indicated by a new MRB signal starting the
sequence counter 102 and delivering output on the wire 103 to
freeze the real time as well as the event number and the source
number in the registers 107 and 105. The source decoder 113 then
decodes the frozen source designation on cable 111 and enables one
of the wires extending vertically from it. In the previous
paragraphs it was assumed to be the wire 114 representing a
cartridge source. Suppose, however, that the new source is not a
cartridge source, but is a reel-to-reel source as indicated by the
enabling of the wire 122. Typically, the plugboard 117 has a plug
in the "punch" hole in the top row if there is data to be recorded,
and it also has a pin in the "log" hole since there is data to be
logged from the tape. There is, however, probably no pin in the
"fixed data only"hole since variable data is to be recorded from
the tape, but there will be a pin in the reel-to-reel hole in the
fourth row since that is the kind of source assumed in this
instance. Finally, there might be a pin in one or more of the fixed
message holes.
In step No. 1 of the counter 102, the output on wire 108 leaves the
flipflop 110 unset because the previous source was a cartridge
source, but this output also freezes the fixed data, real time,
source number and event number of the new source. Moreover, the
reel-to-reel output from the plugboard 117 on wire 132 actuates the
multiplexer section 209a to select one of the two selectible buffer
memories 201 or 202. Since there are only two such memories the
multiplexer first checks memory 201 to determine whether or not it
is "full," again this determination being entered into the
multiplexer by the wires 216. If the buffer memory 201 is full, the
multiplexer then checks buffer memory 202. One or the other of
these buffer memories should always be available in view of the
fact that the reel sources are not expected to follow each other in
rapid sequence in normal broadcasting, as is often the case with
cartridge sources, which may include quick stingers and brief
announcements or commercials sometimes appearing in very rapid
succession. However, if both registers are full, then there is an
abnormality and in order to prevent the system from being hung-up
at this point the register A is arbitrarily selected and cleared
via wire 138 from the multiplexer. The stepper 100 then steps the
sequence counter 102 on to step No. 2, which energizes the wire
134. Whichever of these registers is selected by the multiplexer,
however, its address is entered in the first stage of the holding
register 211 via the cable 218, the holding register having just
had its first-stage contents transferred to its second stage as a
result of output on the wire 134. Also, while still in step No. 2,
the sequence counter 102 also enables via wire 134 the fixed data
formatter which then proceeds to enter the fixed data comprising
the first 18 bits into the selected buffer memory, including time,
event number and source number. However, as pointed out previously,
the variable tag data will not be read from the reel-to-reel source
until after the next succeeding source is started up. Therefore the
step No. 2 output on wire 134 is ANDED in gate 123 with the
reel-to-reel output on wire 132 and with the next stepper 100
output to send a pulse through the OR gate 150 and stop the
sequence counter 102. At this point, the data input system remains
dormant while the reel-to-reel source plays its complete selection,
but it is actuated by the next MRB signal entered into the system
which again moves the counter 102 to step No. 1, thus energizing
the wire 108. This time, the wire 108 clocks the flipflop 110 to
"set" condition because the address of the prior source was
reel-to-reel as indicated by the first digit appearing on wire 214,
being a zero. The flipflop 110 therefore puts out an output on wire
146 which drives the enabling circuit 140 to enable the
reel-to-reel gate 142. The reason that this succeeding MRB signal
is used to ultimately enable the gate 142 is that the presently
running reel-to-reel source does not read out its variable data
from the tag end of its track until after the next source has
actually started. The reel-to-reel data appearing on the cable 160
is then entered through the multiplexer into the buffer memory 201
or 202, whichever one has been selected by the multiplexer. This
data is taken from audio channel 42 of the reel-to-reel source
through the reel-to-reel decoder 162 which includes two functions:
the first comprising a recognition circuit 164 for recognizing the
synchronization interval 90 shown in FIG. 5 at the beginning of
each character and putting out a squelch signal on the wire 166
which enables the other input to the AND gate 142, and the second
function being a serial-to-parallel data converter 167 which
converts the code shown in FIG. 5 into parallel characters to be
recorded in the buffer memory. As stated above the last character
recorded in the data tag channel is a stop character, and this
character is delivered when in the buffer memory 200 via the cable
216 to the multiplexer 209a to disconnect that buffer memory. When
the enable data circuit 140 puts out a signal on wire 141 for
enabling the aforementioned data gate 142, the signal on wire 141
also goes to a 20 second timer whose purpose is to determine after
that interval whether or not data has actually been taken from the
reel-to-reel source tag track or whether for some reason or other
the data has failed to come through. If after 20 seconds no data
has been recognized coming from the serial-to-parallel converter
167 as determined by integrating circuit 169, an output appears
from the circuit 169 on the wire 170 and this output is delivered
back to the enable circuit 140 to close the gate 142, and it is
also delivered to the fixed message generator causing it to write a
"no data" fixed message in the buffer register 201 or 202,
whichever is currently being addressed. Incidentally, since the
next source will have started up before the data is read into the
register 201 or 202 from the previous reel-to-reel source, the
latter source will now have its address appearing in the second
stage of the holding register 211.
The important thing to notice is that, although the input control
logic system has entered the data relating to any particular source
which has been run into any one of the buffer memories assigned to
that type of source, it has entered the addresses of those memories
into the holding and priority registers in the precise
chronological sequence in which the sources were run; and,
conversely, that the output control logic 301 removes this
information from the buffer memories one at a time in the same
sequence in which the addresses of those registers are sequentially
passing through the holding register stages and the priority
register stages, which are about to be described. In this way,
information can be randomly entered in various buffer memories 200,
even out of the sequence in which the sources were started, but it
is always read out of these buffer memories by the output logic
control 301 by selecting the buffer memories in the succession in
which the sources were actually started as preserved in the
priority register.
The holding registers 211 and priority registers 213 both have two
additional bits in each stage, one of which is used as hereinafter
explained to indicate whether the silence sensor 13 was actuated,
and the other being used to indicate whether the program actually
went on the air or not as determined by the air monitor 15. The
silence sensor 13 in FIG. 1 is contained within the programmed
sequence controller. This sensor monitors the audio channel 12
going to the transmitter and is responsive to periods of silence
exceeding three seconds after a new source starts up, such silence
being attributable to a variety of sources, for example, such as a
broken tape. The silence sensor signal appears on the wire SS and
is delivered directly into the holding registers first stage to
access the silence sensor bit by entering a high signal therein
when silence on the audio channel is sensed. Likewise, the system
includes an air monitor 15 shown in FIG. 1 and comprising a
separate receiver which actually receives the broadcast program of
the station through the air. If the station fails to broadcast the
subject matter of the present source, the air monitor will detect
such failure and will put out a signal on the wire labelled Air
Mon, and this signal will be fed directly into the appropriate bit
position of the first stage of the holding register 211 to raise
the level of the air monitor register bit thereby indicating such
failure. These two bits are transferred along with the address bits
through both stages of the holding register and then into the
priority register where the output logic will recover them as will
be described shortly.
DATA OUTPUT FROM MEMORIES TO PRINTER
As pointed out above, there is very little relationship between the
time when the output control logic 301 takes the contents of a
buffer memory for the purpose of printing it, and the time when the
input control logic 101 loads the buffer memory. Generally
speaking, a buffer memory is loaded whenever the information which
belongs in that memory is being read off of a tape track as tag
data or when it is emanating from another source such as the fixed
data formatter 109 or the fixed message generator 131. Conversely,
a buffer memory is read out to the printer whenever the printer has
completed printing of the data taken from the next previous buffer
memory and whenever the next buffer memory is actually ready for
readout because it is tagged "full."
The priority register 213 actually includes five parallel shift
registers 221 through 225, each having eight successive bit
positions. The first three parallel bits are used as the addresses
of the buffer memories 201 through 206, the fourth bit is the
silence sensor bit and the fifth bit is the air monitor bit. All
five of these registers are circulated through a return loop 226,
and the writing into these registers, the reading out of their
content, and the eliminating of data which is obsolete all take
place incident to the circulation of their content. The stepping of
these registers 213 through their eight positions is controlled by
the clock 228 shifting the register through the AND gate 229 and OR
gate 230. The clock 228 also pulses a divided-by-sixteen counter
227. The first eight counts of the clock 228 usually circulate the
registers 221 through 225 completely through their eight
bit-positions starting in an initial position and ending in the
same position so that the data in the 5 parallel registers all
shifts to the right through the loop 226. After these first eight
counts, 0-7 in the counter 227, an output comes true on wire 227a
in the last stage of the counter which signal persists for the next
eight clock pulse counts 8-15, and this output blocks the AND gate
229 causing the priority register 213 to stop shifting and pause
for eight counts. Thus, the registers 213 alternately shift for
eight clock pulses and then pause for eight clock pulses.
During the pause interval of 8 clock pulses when the wire 227a is
true, the AND gate 231 is enabled as well as the AND gate 233 so
that new parallel date from the dable 211a can pass through the AND
gate 233 into the left stages of the registers 213 via the OR gate
238, and be clocked into the first stages of the register 213 by
the next pulse on wire 134 which also actuates the holding register
211 stages to shift right. This pulse enters through the AND gate
231 and the OR gate 230 and shifts the registers 213 one position
to the right. Because of the above sequence in which data is
entered and because of the way in which data is deleted from the
registers 213, as will presently be discussed, after it is read out
to the printer system, the first data positions of the register 213
are empty, and the remaining data in the register 213 is crowded
toward the left-hand end thereof.
New data is read into the register 213 only while it is in a pause
state, the AND gate 229 being blocked. Conversely, data in the
right-most occupied bit position of the register 213 is only read
out to the output circuit 234 during the eight clock pulse
intervals between pauses when the AND gate 229 is not blocked and
the register 213 is circulating through the loop 226. During these
8 clock pulses the data shifts right, and since it was initially
crowded toward the left, several shifts usually occur until an
occupied bit position is recognized by the output circuit 234,
which recongizes an address in the register 213 because not all
five register bits are zeros. When an address is recognized, an
output on wire 236 actuates the circuit 239 and the address is
delivered from the circuit 234 to the circuit 239 which compares it
with indications appearing on the wires in the cable 216 to
determine whether or not the corresponding buffer memory 200 is
tagged "full." If the address corresponds with a cartridge source,
the buffer memory should already be full, but if the address
corresponds with a reel-to-reel source, then the addressed buffer
memory may still be waiting to be filled. If it is tagged "full",
an output appears on wire 240 and enables the AND gate 303, and the
address is delivered from the wires 235 via the wires 305 to the
selector circuit 307 which serves the purpose of selecting that
particular buffer memory and passing its content through to the
printer register 309, which is the last register to hold the data
prior to actual printing thereof. The output on wire 240 also
actuates the printer control circuit 316 to deliver a "printer
busy" signal on wire 351. Moreover the output on the wire 240 also
blocks the AND gate 237 during that one clock pulse interval and
thereby momentarily interrupts the recirculation loop 226 so that
the data in that position of the register 213 is lost and its
position in the shift register becomes all zeros. On the other
hand, if the particular buffer memory register 200 which is being
addressed is not yet "full," as may very well be the case where a
reel-to-reel source has not yet finished playing the material
recorded on the tape prior to the data tag, then the wire 240 fails
to come true to enable the gate 303. The output on wire 236 when
unaccompanied by output on wire 240 actuates AND gate 250 to set a
flipflop 252 which puts out an output on wire 254 through the OR
gate 352 to inhibit the recognition circuit 234 for the remainder
of the eight shifts and until the next pause signal on wire 227a
resets the flipflop 252, which thereby permits the register 213 to
go on shifting to the right through the remainder of the eight
positions until it returns by circulation to its initial position,
where it pauses for eight clock pulses. After the pause the circuit
239 tries again as outlined above to find that same buffer memory
"full" during the next recirculation. This continues until that
buffer memory is tagged "full," and then the gate 303 is enabled so
that the content of the selected buffer memory is transferred to
the printer register 309. When eventually the transfer is made, the
signal on the wire 240, which is of one clock count duration,
blocks the AND gate 237 for that one count, thereby deleting the
just-used address from the circulating data in the priority
register 213.
Each time an output appears on wire 240, the printer puts out a
signal on wire 351 indicating that it is busy and cannot accept
more data, and this output is introduced through the OR gate 352 to
inhibit the recognition circuit 234 and cause the addresses in the
priority register 213 to keep recirculating without effect until
the printer is ready for the next source-data to be taken from a
buffer memory.
Going back to the situation where the memory 200 whose address
appears at the AND gate 303 is tagged "full," the selector
circuitry 307, being a simple switching arrangement, switches to
the addressed buffer memory 201 through 206 and thereby couples the
output of that addressed register into the memory 309. This
register then retains the data to be printed until called for, at
which time a converter 311 converts this data to the proper
encoding for the particular printer machine being used. This
printer may typically be of the teletypewriter variety, although
not necessarily, and in the particular embodiment currently
manufactured it comprises a printer made by EIA, Electronic
Industries Associates, which is a standard type of machine
requiring eight parallel input lines 314 containing encoded
data.
The printer can accept data from the converter 311, or from the
last two bit-positions of the priority registers including a
silence sensor bit and an air monitor bit. However, the necessary
functional information such as line feed, tabulating signals,
punctuation, and stop signals are generated in the printer control
circuit 316 which includes a locally clocked counter, also
delivering clock signals on wire 318 to the printer register 309 to
clock its output. The printer control 316 uses a fixed
internally-sequenced printing format as follows:
The printing format in its first step takes from the printer
register 309 its first data character indicating whether or not to
also turn on a paper tape punch machine 350. If so, it outputs an
enabling signal on wire 319, and the paper tape punch machine then
records data from the converter circuit 311 appearing on the wires
314. The printer control 316 then locally generates a carriage
return and a line feed signal. Next, it clocks the two hours
characters from the printer register 309, locally inserts a colon,
clocks the two minutes characters from the register 309, inserts
another colon, and clocks the two seconds characters followed by AM
or PM into the printer. The printer control 316 then locally
generates a TAB signal which moves the carriage to the next column,
whereupon it takes the four characters representing the event
number from the printer register 309 and prints them, followed by a
locally generated dash, followed by the three characters
representing the source number which it clocks from the printer
register 309. Next, it locally generates another tab signal which
moves the carriage to the next column position. In this column
position, the print control checks the silence sensor bit taken on
wire SS from the output circuit 234 of the priority register 213,
and it either enters an X or leaves this column blank. It then
locally generates another TAB signal and moves on to the next
column, wherein it checks the AIR MON.bit taken from the output
circuit 234 of the priority register 213, and again either enters
an X in that column or leaves it blank, depending upon whether the
program has failed to be broadcast, or not. If the printer is so
equipped, a failure as indicated by an X in the AIR MON column can
also shift the printing ribbon to red. The printer control 316 then
generates another internal TAB signal, and proceeds then to clock
out the variable data or fixed message data content remaining in
the printer register 309 until it is all read out and printed. At
this point, the "printer busy" signal disappears from the wire 351,
and the priority register circuitry 213 begins searching for the
chronologically-next buffer memory address to start the process all
over again.
Referring now to FIG. 9, this figure shows a page of a log printed
out according to the present invention to show a sequence of
typical program events. The events listed in the first two columns
on the left are so-called fixed data events, fixed in the sense
that they are not taken from the tapes themselves, but instead are
taken from fixed circuitry including an event counter located
within the programmed sequencer 14 and indicating the events in the
sequence of their occurrence. The illustrated log in the first
column lists the real time taken from the digital clock 44. In the
second column it lists the events 1001 through 1019. Next to each
event listing there is a dash followed by a three digit number
indicating the source which the sequencer has enabled in order to
deliver that event. The source listing is three digits, of which
the first indicates the source machine itself and the second and
third digits indicate the particular position within that source.
For example, sources listed as 101+ are the station's own
identification tape also including time announcements, whereas the
source 401 may be the fourth cartridge machine, other machines
being represented as sources whose first digit is 0, 2, 3, or 5.
Thus, the material in the first two columns of FIG. 9 comes from
the sequencer 14 itself. The material appearing in the third column
is from the silence sensor 13 and will comprise either an X or a
blank. The fourth column is the air monitor column which also will
either be blank or else include an X to indicate a failure. The
material appearing in the other columns to the right of the first
four columns comprises material from the fixed message generator
131 or from the tape tags, for instance, as shown in FIG. 4. The
column 91 corresponds with material taken from the tape position 81
shown in FIG. 4. This column is headed with the letters NCA and
serves to indicate the type of program for billing purposes. In the
event that the tag which is read from a tape is to actuate an
automatic billing machine, the information listed in the column 91
can also serve to turn on an automatic billing machine to take down
the entry for billing purposes. On the other hand, if the NCA
column 91 is blank then the billing system will remain dormant, and
the information will simply be printed in the logger.
The column 92 corresponds with the tag position 83 and states the
content of that portion of the program. Moreover, if it is
sponsored content, the name of the sponsor is printed in the log
after a slant bar. This portion of the message is of course
variable in length. It always starts, however, at one of two
possible positions in the column 83. The TAB signal appearing right
after the position 81 of the tag in FIG. 4 moves the printout
carriage to the position just within the column 93. However, if the
tag also includes a TAB signal in the position 82, then the
material in the column 93 will be further indented, for instance,
as shown in the 3rd through 12th rows in the column 93. Such
indentation indicates that the material printed therein is part of
the unindented program located in the column just above, for
instance in the third row in column 93. After the program content
material and possible sponsor's name have been printed, the next
column 94 includes a two-digit number indicating the number of
seconds of duration of the message which is located in that
particular row. In the fifth row, the eye-shadow commercial is 30
seconds long. However, it should also be noted that the 15 minutes
referred to at the end of the third entry in column 93 indicates in
minutes the duration of that whole program including the individual
program events indented thereunder. Column 95 serves to list for
billing or crediting purposes the various events of the show which
require either billing or else the payment of royalties. For
instance, in the fourth row a musical selection is played, and the
licensing agency for that particular selection is BMI. The billing
information is represented by some arbitrary code illustrated by
the indication 3A35. Thus, the musical selection played will be
automatically listed in such a way as to facilitate the payment of
royalties due for putting that musical selection on the air.
Conversely, on the 5th line in column 95 there is indicated a code
showing the sponsor and the billing rate for putting that
particular commercial on the air. In this way, all information
required for billing a particular client is contained on this one
printout.
Column 96 satisfies an FCC requirement that the type of show should
be designated in the log, and for this purpose the talk-show listed
on the 3rd line including the items indented thereunder is listed
as educational, using the letter E, whereas the news show listed on
line 14 is designated as a news broadcast by the letter N. The
source column 97 provides an entry of either the letter R
representing recorded material, or the letter L representing live
material.
Finally, the column 99 is also provided to satisfy an FCC
requirement and indicates the class of event given, for instance,
it being a live program event PGM or a commercial announcement
CA.
The above entries are of course merely illustrative of the type of
material which can be entered into a log, and this typical printout
can of course be varied either by adding the information or
omitting certain items as is required to suit the needs of a
particular station. Present working embodiments of the system have
a 128 character capability, whereas the amount of information shown
on the most crowded line of the previous printout still shows only
about 60 characters.
The present invention is not to be limited by the illustrative
embodiments, since these embodiments can be varied within the scope
of the following claims.
* * * * *