Video transmission and control system utilizing internal telephone lines

Claim 1

A communications system adapted for communication over a network of wiring ordinarily used for ordinary telephone communication, said network including a plurality of terminations, said network further including an electrical connection to telephone system electronics that apply telephone signals onto said network and receive signals from said network, wherein the system is adapted for communication simultaneously, of video and audio signals and ordinary telephone signals over the network and said communications system further comprises: a first electronic device (1) located in a first area (51) including: first signal generating means (2) for providing a first video signal, first signal processing means (3 and 4) for providing a second video signal with substantially the same information content as said first video signal, said second video signal confined within a frequency band that is different from the band within which said first video signal is confined; substantially all the energy of said second video signal being confined below frequencies of fifty-four Mhz and above 6MHz, and first transmitting means for transmitting said second video signal onto the network at a first one (50) of a number of terminations, said first transmitting means comprising first filtering means for presenting a high impedance to signals whose energy is concentrated at frequencies used by ordinary telephone communications, while passing said second video signal substantially unaltered; a second electronic device (15) located in a second area (54) including: recovering means (19) for recovering said second video signal from the network at a second one of said terminations (53), said second electronic device including a second signal processing means for converting said second video signal to a third video signal in a frequency band that is within the tunable range of ordinary televisions, said recovering means comprising second filtering means for presenting a high impedance to signals whose energy is concentrated at frequencies below the highest frequency used for communication by ordinary telephone devices while passing said second video signal substantially unaltered, and second transmitting means for transmitting said third video signal to a television receiver (22) in said second area, wherein at least one of said first and second electronic devices further comprises: a supplemental termination (5,18) for connecting ordinary telephone equipment, and a path for transmission of electrical energy, said path connecting between said supplemental termination and said network of wiring, said path including filter means (9,24) for allowing energy concentrated at frequencies used by ordinary telephone devices (10,11,25,26) to pass substantially unaltered while attenuating energy at frequencies wherein the energy of said second video signal is concentrated, said filter means diverting energy of said second video signal away from said telephone equipment, and wherein said second electronic device further includes control signal receiving means (16) for receiving a control signal, and third transmitting means (17) connected to said second termination, said third transmitting means transmitting said control signal onto the network, said third transmitting means comprising third filtering means for presenting a high impedance to signals whose energy is concentrated at frequencies below the highest frequency used for communication by ordinary telephone devices, while allowing said control signal to transmit substantially unchanged, and said first electronic device further includes control signal recovering means (6), connected to said first termination, for recovering said control signal from the network wiring, said control signal recovering means comprising fourth filtering means for presenting a high impedance to signals whose energy is concentrated at frequencies below the highest frequency used for communication by ordinary telephone devices, while allowing said control signal to transmit substantially unchanged.