JP3282968B2 - Karaoke equipment - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an improvement in a method for upgrading a program in a communication karaoke apparatus.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A sound source karaoke apparatus executes a karaoke performance and a background image by processing various application programs in parallel. These application programs are upgraded in accordance with the update of the content or the change of the peripheral device model.

[0003]

However, in the conventional karaoke apparatus, in order to upgrade the application program, it is necessary to write a new program on the hard disk. There is a drawback in that writing work to the hard disk has to be performed, which is extremely troublesome, including the time required for the staff to travel, and that many karaoke apparatuses cannot be maintained.

[0004] It is an object of the present invention to provide a karaoke apparatus that facilitates program maintenance.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides a removable memory cartridge storing a system program, a communication control program, and a file list of the system program, and a built-in memory storing an application program corresponding to the file list. And a hard disk device storing music data, communication control means controlled by the communication control program, new music data and a new program and a new file list from the host station via the communication control means. Control means for downloading and storing the downloaded data in the hard disk device.
At the time of startup, it is determined whether or not a new file list is stored in the hard disk device. If the new file list is stored, an application program including a new program corresponding to the new file list is started and stored. If not, an application program corresponding to the file list stored in the memory cartridge is started.

[0006] The karaoke apparatus of the present invention is provided with control means for downloading music data, and a program such as an application program is also downloaded from the host station via the control means . Since the program is also downloaded in this manner, it is not necessary for the attendant to go to the place where the karaoke apparatus is installed and write the hard disk, and the like, and the work of upgrading the program is simplified.

[0007]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a karaoke apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a memory configuration diagram of the karaoke apparatus. This karaoke device is a so-called communication type sound source karaoke device. The sound source karaoke device is a device that synthesizes a tone signal by inputting tone data to the tone source device to perform a karaoke performance. Also,
The communication type karaoke apparatus is capable of downloading music data including the musical sound data from a host station via a communication line. The hard disk device 15 can store hundreds to thousands of music data, and the downloaded music data is stored here. Various program files other than the music data are also downloaded via the communication line.

A CPU 10 for controlling the operation of the entire apparatus has a built-in ROM 11, a RAM 12, a ROM
Cartridge 14, hard disk storage (HDD)
15, ISDN controller 16, remote control receiver 1
7, display panel 18, panel switch 19, tone generator 2
0, audio decoder 21, DSP 22, character display unit 23,
The LD changer 24 and the display control unit 25 are connected.

The ROM cartridge 14 is connected to a bus via a connector 13. The socket for inserting the ROM cartridge is provided on the back panel of the karaoke apparatus, and can be attached and detached by a maintenance staff reaching out from the front. The ROM cartridge 14 is set when the karaoke apparatus is installed, and then replaced when the specification is changed. The ROM cartridge 14 stores a system program (OS), a communication control program, and a file list (see FIG. 2). OS14a
Is a program that controls the basic operation of this apparatus and data transmission / reception with peripheral devices, such as loading (starting) of an application program . The communication control program 14b is a program for downloading music data and program files from the host station. The file list 14c is a list of a plurality of application programs activated by the load function (loader) of the OS. The built-in ROM 11 is a memory set on the main board when the karaoke apparatus is manufactured. The built-in ROM 11 has an IPL 11a and an application program 11b.
And font data 11c. IPL
Is a program that starts first when the power of the karaoke apparatus is turned on, and is configured to access the head address of the ROM cartridge 14 here. The application program is a peripheral device control program, a sequence program, or the like. The sequence program includes a main sequence program, a tone sequence program, a character sequence program, a voice sequence program, a DSP sequence program, and the like. When performing karaoke, each sequence program is C
The parallel processing is performed by the PU 10, and the generation of a musical sound and the reproduction of a video based on the music data are performed. The font data is for displaying lyrics, song titles, and the like, and stores fonts of a plurality of types of characters, such as a Mincho font and a round Gothic font. A work area 12b is set in the RAM 12, and a new program storage area 12b is set in the RAM 12.
a is set. The new program is a built-in RO
An application program that is not stored in the M11 or an application program that is stored in the built-in ROM 11 but is subsequently upgraded. The new program is downloaded to the HDD 15 via a communication line. The HDD 15 stores the new program 15a, the music data file 15b, and the file list 15c described above. The new file list is a file list that is downloaded from the host station when the application program to be used is changed due to version upgrade or specification change after the ROM cartridge 14 is mounted. CPU 10 (OS
When the new file list is stored in the HDD 15, the new application program loads the new application program from the HDD 15 to the RAM 12 based on the new file list, and
When the new file list is not stored in D15, the application program is started based on the file list stored in the ROM cartridge 14.

Here, ordinary application programs and music data are downloaded via the communication line as described above, and loaded into the RAM 12 by the OS for use. On the other hand, since it is difficult to switch the OS or the communication control program after downloading, the ROM cartridge 14 is replaced to change the OS or the communication control program .

The communication control program is changed mainly at the time of version upgrade. OS changes include version upgrades and changes in communication methods (modem, ISDN, C
(ATV) and peripheral devices to be connected. Peripheral devices to be connected include LD changer and C
D movie player.

When these peripheral devices (including existing devices) are connected, a plurality of commanders (remote controllers) may be required. The emulator can also emulate the commander of this device.

The ISDN controller 16 is a controller for communicating with a host station via an ISDN line. Music data and application programs are downloaded from the host station. I
The SDN controller 16 has a built-in DMA circuit,
The downloaded music data and application program are written directly to the HDD 15 without going through the CPU 10.

The remote control receiver 17 receives the infrared signal transmitted from the remote control 30 and restores the data. Data such as a music selection code is sent from the remote control 30 in response to turning on of a music selection switch or the like. The display panel 14 is provided on the front of the karaoke apparatus, and displays the currently playing music code and the number of reserved music. The panel switch 15 is provided on a front operation unit of the karaoke apparatus, and includes a music code input switch, a key change switch, and the like.

The sound source device 20 forms a tone signal based on music data. The audio decoder 21 receives the audio data, which is ADPCM data, and decodes it into an audio signal (digital data). The digital tone signal and audio signal output by the sound source device 20 and the audio decoder 21 are DS
Input to P22. A microphone 27 is connected to the DSP 22. The signal from the microphone 27 is converted into a digital signal at the input unit. The DSP 22 is a sound source device 2
0, effects such as reverb and echo are applied to the tone signal and the audio signal input from the audio decoder 21 and the microphone 27. The CPU 10 instructs the type and degree of the effect provided by the DSP 22 based on the DSP control data included in the musical sound data. The DSP 21 controls the type and degree of the effect based on this data. The tone signal and audio signal to which the effect has been added are mixed and converted into analog signals, and then output to the amplifier / speaker 26.
The amplifier / speaker 26 amplifies this signal and emits sound.

The character display unit 23 generates character patterns such as song titles and lyrics based on the input character data. The LD changer 24 reproduces the background video of the corresponding LD based on the input video selection data (chapter number). The character pattern and the video data are input to the display control unit 25. The display control unit 25 superimposes these data in superimposition and displays them on the monitor 28. At the start of the karaoke performance, the CPU 10 reads the genre data of the music from the header of the music data. CPU
10 determines which background video is to be reproduced from the genre data, and outputs video selection data for selecting the background video to the LD changer 24. The LD changer 24 contains about five (120 scenes) laser disks, and can reproduce background images of 120 scenes. One background video is selected from among them according to the video selection data.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the operation of the karaoke apparatus. FIG. 7A shows the operation at the time of startup, and FIG. 7B shows the operation when a program maintenance command is received from the host station.

In FIG. 1A, when the power is turned on, the IPL is first activated (n1). The OS is read from the ROM cartridge by the IPL (n2). When the OS starts, the file list of the application program is read. First, it is determined whether a file list (new file list) is stored in the HDD 15 (n)
3). If the new file list is stored in the HDD 15, it is read into the RAM 12 (n3). If the new file list is not stored in the HDD 15, the file list stored in the ROM cartridge 14 is used (n5). Hereinafter, the program files stored in the file list are sequentially read. First, the application program searches the HDD 15 (n6).
If it is in the HDD 15 (n7), this program file is downloaded from the HDD to the RAM 12 (n10),
The start address of this program on the RAM 12 is stored in the program address table (n11). If it is not in the HDD 15, it is determined whether or not it is in the internal ROM 11 (n8). If it is stored in the built-in ROM 11, the start address of the program in the ROM 11 is stored (n9). If this program is not stored in the HDD 15 or in the built-in ROM 11, the program file is downloaded from the host station because it is an application program that has not been downloaded yet. First, the ISDN controller 16 is activated to connect a line (n12). Next, the transmission request message of the file is transmitted (n13). Since the host station transmits the program file in response to the transmission request, the host station receives this file (n14). The received file is stored in the HDD 15 (n15). H
The process advances to n10 to start the program file stored in the DD15. The program is loaded into the RAM 12 and its start address is stored in the program address table (n1
1).

FIG. 2B is a flowchart showing an operation when a program maintenance command is received. The program maintenance command is a command transmitted from the host station to the karaoke device as a terminal device when an application program to be newly sent to the host station is registered. When a program maintenance command is received from the host station, reception preparation such as securing an empty area of the HDD 15 is executed (n20). Next, the file sent from the host station is received (n2
1) The data is stored in the HDD 15 (n22). These operations are performed directly by the ISDN controller 16 using DMA.

With the above operation, transmission and reception of the application program file can be performed via the ISDN line. Further, since programs such as the OS and the communication control program, which are difficult to exchange by download, are supplied in the ROM cartridge 14, these programs can be exchanged by exchanging the ROM cartridge 14.

[0021]

As described above, according to the present invention, the host
Download music data from the station
In, it is possible to maintain the application program for executing the music data online, the communication means for downloading the music data
And the communication line can be effectively used, and the clerk does not need to go to the place where the karaoke apparatus is installed, so that maintenance work can be performed extremely easily and in a short time.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a karaoke apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a configuration of a memory of the karaoke apparatus.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the operation of the karaoke apparatus.

 ────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-6-133070 (JP, A) JP-A-4-315204 (JP, A)

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A removable memory cartridge storing a system program, a communication control program, and a file list of a system program, a built-in memory storing an application program corresponding to the file list, and music data stored therein. A hard disk device; communication control means controlled by the communication control program; and downloading new music data, a new program, and a new file list from a host station via the communication control means to the hard disk device. A karaoke apparatus comprising: a karaoke apparatus comprising: a karaoke apparatus comprising:
If it is stored, the application program including the new program corresponding to the new file list is started, and if not, the application program corresponding to the file list stored in the memory cartridge is started. A karaoke device that is activated.