Current television studios provide audio/video production facilities allowing a producer to control the content of the audio/video being transmitted. In particular, various displays and user interfaces allow different cameras or archived video sequences to be selected during a live production.

It is known to provide interactive TV content and applications which can be integrated with the traditional audio/video. WO 99/52045 relates to an editing and delivery system for synchronizing the transmission of interactive elements with a video signal. The system uses a graphical user interface. However, this system is intended for the initial creation of a programme.

According to the present invention there is provided an interactive studio system which enables the editing of an interactive application during a broadcast of the interactive application, the studio system including: a display for displaying representations of forthcoming events of the interactive application together with indications of the timings of respective triggers of said events; an interpreter for decomposing the interactive application so as to identify the forthcoming events and provide said representations ; input controls for editing the displayed representations; and a dynamic scheduler for editing said respective triggers in real time during the broadcast according to the edits made to the displayed representations.

According to the present invention, there is also provided a method of editing an interactive application during a broadcast of the interactive application, the method comprising:

displaying representations of forthcoming events of the interactive application together with indications of the timings of respective triggers of said events; providing controls by which the displayed representations can be edited; and editing said respective triggers in real time during the broadcast according to the edits made to the displayed representations.

Thus, the present invention can provide studio tools which permit control of any interactive content to a studio director/technician or even to a show host during a digital TV broadcast.

In this way, during a live broadcast, a studio director is able to see which events, including resources, of the interactive application are due to occur and at what time. By editing the representations as they appear, the studio director is also able to edit the occurrences of the events according to other factors, such as changes in the television show itself or interactive feedback from the end users.

Preferably the controls are capable of at least one of deleting an event, moving an event and replacing an event.

In this way, the studio director can delete or move parts of an interactive application within the television show or even replace parts with new interactive content.

Hence, preferably, forthcoming events are edited in real time during the broadcast according to edits made to the displayed representations.

In order to do this, at least one supplementary event for the application may be stored such that the supplementary event can be added to the interactive application in real time during a broadcast according to the edits made to the displayed representations.

A database of replacement component parts of an interactive application may be prepared such that the studio director may modify the content of the interactive application during a broadcast according to the requirements of the overall television show.

Preferably, the dynamic scheduler reassigns figures to the forthcoming events according to edits made to the displayed representations.

In this way, when the studio director makes changes to the representations, the trigger times are altered accordingly.

Preferably, the dynamic scheduler carries out at least one of deleting a trigger, adding a trigger and reassigning a trigger.

Preferably, the interactive application is stored in a data carousel for transmission and the data carousel is updated according to the edits made to the displayed representations.

In this way, the edited interactive application is provided for transmission.

Preferably, a manual trigger is provided by which the user may manually trigger the event of a displayed representation.

Operation of the manual trigger causes a trigger to be transmitted for the corresponding event.

In this way, a studio director may cause triggering of an event indicated by a displayed representation without waiting for the predetermined trigger point.

Preferably, a plurality of simultaneously running interactive applications may be controlled at once.

Hence, an application control selector may be provided by which selection may be made between the interactive applications.

In this way, the studio director may easily switch between respective display screens indicating the representations for the respective interactive applications.

An embodiment of the invention will now be described by way of example only, and with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 illustrates a broadcasting environment with an interactive studio; Figure 2 illustrates the control panel of an interactive studio; Figure 3 illustrates schematically deletion of an application event; Figure 4 illustrates the functional parts of the interactive studio; Figure 5 illustrates a process for editing interactive elements; and Figure 6 illustrates a process of dynamic scheduling.

The interactive studio is ideally used in the environment as illustrated in Figure 1. The studio 2 provides a digital broadcast transport stream to a broadcast network 4. The broadcast network 4 can include any suitable means for broadcasting the transport stream, such as terrestrial, satellite or cable broadcast. End users with appropriate equipment 6 may then be provided with a return channel 8 for returning upstream data to the studio 2.

The studio 2 includes traditional components of a live studio, namely cameras 10 and an audio video mixer 12. However, in addition, the studio 2 is provided with a director's control panel 14 which is capable of controlling the interactive content of the broadcast.

An interactive application server/carousel 16 may provide the downstream interactive data on a rotational basis, passing this to a digital multiplexer 18. The digital multiplexer 18 then multiplexes the interactive data with the audio/video data and provides this to the appropriate broadcast equipment to be broadcast as a transport stream.

The end users are provided with end user equipment 6 such as integrated TV sets or, as illustrated, televisions 20 and set top boxes 22. These are able to de- multiplex the interactive applications and operate accordingly. They may be MHP compliant television devices.

As will be discussed further below, the interactive application server/carousel 16 also provides triggers with the downstream data. Interactive applications are assigned to particular triggers and the triggers indicate to the end user equipment 6 at what point in time to operate in accordance with the interactive application. For instance, where the interactive application includes questions to be displayed as an accompaniment to a quiz show, the triggers can be used to cause the end user equipment 6 to display the questions at appropriate times through the quiz show.

Figure 1 also illustrates an additional database 24 which contains additional interactive application resources/content. As will be discussed below, this database 24 can be used to provide the control panel 14 with additional interactive content for insertion onto the server/carousel 16 at the control of the director during a broadcast.

In particular, should circumstances change during the broadcast, a director is not

limited to the content of the server/carousel 16 as decided beforehand, but can introduce new interactive applications according to the change in circumstances.

As illustrated in Figure 1, there may also be provided return processing 26.

This is used to receive upstream data from the return channel 8 and provide suitable information to the control panel 14. According to the feedback obtained via the return processing 26, a director can use the control panel 14 to control the broadcast interactive data. The server/carousel 16 might already carry several alternatives to be chosen by the director using appropriate triggers according to the feedback from the end users. Alternatively, the director might use the control panel 14 to introduce new interactive applications from the database 24.

Figure 2 illustrates an example of the control panel 14. This may be embodied in any suitable manner, for instance with dedicated switches or buttons accompanying a display, a touch sensitive display screen or a display controlled by means of a keyboard, mouse, etc.

The illustrated control panel 14 includes a control section 30 and an accompanying keyboard 32. The control section 30 includes an interactive content display panel 34, together with a variety of control buttons to be discussed below.

The display panel 34 is intended to provide the studio director with representations of the events due to take place according to the currently running interactive application. As illustrated, the next four events are indicated. However, the control panel 14 could be configured to display any suitable number of future events or be freely configurable according to the requirements of the studio director.

The events correspond to the triggers mentioned above. In other words, the display panel 34 indicates what will happen according to the interactive application at each of the next successive triggers.

As illustrated, in association with the representation of the forthcoming events, the control section 30 includes manual override buttons 36 and 38 for the specific interactive content or events occurring at the forthcoming triggers. The manual override buttons 36 comprise cancel buttons and the manual override buttons 38 comprise manual trigger buttons.

By actuating one of the cancel buttons 36, it is possible to cancel the corresponding respective interactive content displayed on the display panel 34. Since that content or event has been cancelled, the following interactive contents or events may be moved up to the next trigger point. This is illustrated in Figure 3. In particular, a series of predetermined trigger points t, to t4 are transmitted by the server/carousel 16 so as to cause the end user equipment 6 to display the corresponding interactive content at those trigger times. As illustrated, the interactive application as originally constructed might comprise a series of questions Q1 to Q4 which may be displayed at the respective trigger points tl to t4. If, however, during the television show, the host misses that part of the show relating to question Q2, the studio director can actuate the corresponding cancel button 36 so as to cancel that question. As a result, as illustrated, questions Q3 and Q4 will be moved respectively to trigger points t2 and t3.

TV shows usually have a predetermined number of events during the show so that the shuffling is required. However, on the other hand, an option can be provided allowing the director to decide whether to shuffle up/down or not.

The manual trigger buttons 38 on the other hand allow the studio director to manually trigger a respective content item ahead of its pre-assigned trigger point.

Thus, by actuating one of the manual trigger buttons 38, the corresponding content item displayed in the display panel 34 is triggered on the end user equipment 6. As a result, this content item is removed from the list of forthcoming content items. Thus, the original pre-assigned trigger point is ignored and the other content items are triggered at their pre-assigned trigger point.

As illustrated, the control section 30 is also provided with a replace content button 40 and an add new content button 42 for selecting additional interactive content.

Upon pressing the Replace button, the director could be presented with a choice of what item to replace, or default to the next item; this depends on the particular show. Then the director is presented with a choice of content from the database.

The director will be first presented with a choice of content from the database, then with a choice of trigger to associate the content to.

As illustrated, a viewer results button 44 is also provided. By actuating this button, the studio director can cause the display panel 34 to display the results of any feedback received from the upstream data on the return channel 8. The precise nature of this feedback will vary according to the particular interactive application being run at the time. For instance, during a television program, a survey may be conducted with end users voting for particular options. The display panel 34 can then display the results of this survey, for instance by displaying the voting for each of the options as a percentage. In view of this feedback from the viewers, the program director could then decide to change the content of the interactive application accordingly.

It will be appreciated that a particular television show put together in the studio might be broadcast over several different networks or at least in several different formats. These different formats might call for different types of interactive application to accompany them. Irrespective of this, it is also desirable to be able to simultaneously provide different interactive applications alongside a particular television show.

In order to deal with a number of simultaneous interactive applications, the control section 30 illustrated in Figure 2 is provided with four application buttons 46.

Of course, any predetermined number of application buttons might be provided or the number might be changed according to the needs of the studio director.

Each of the application buttons 46 corresponds to a respective interactive application being broadcast with the television show under production. Upon actuation of a particular application button 46, the control panel 14 acts to control and display a respective interactive application. In this way, the studio director can switch easily and quickly between the interactive applications and review and control them as necessary.

Finally, the control section 30 is provided with a core application control 48 for playing, pausing and stopping the particular interactive application currently under control.

Pause makes the application suspend interaction with the user and possibly clear the output on television. For example, during commercials it is desirable to prevent the consumer at home from doing wrong button presses or continue playing (hence not paying attention to the commercial), and to give maximum space on the screen to the advert. Stop makes the application exit. The main difference between pause and stop is that with pause the application state is conserved and can be resumed (e. g. after the commercial), whereas with stop the application state is lost.

Furthermore, with pause, the time sequence for the triggers is also paused, as triggers occur relative to the total running time. This is necessary as advert insertion is often done in real time and cannot be determined in advance.

Operation of the interactive studio will now be described with reference to Figure 4.

The control panel comprises a user interface 50 with a keyboard 32, display 34 and control buttons 36 to 48.

A display engine 52 is used to provide the display 34 with the display information, such as the forthcoming events of the interactive application and their trigger points. In order to achieve this, the display engine 52 includes a micro processor 54 and RAM 56.

The display engine 52 is configured, preferably with software, to convert resources, i. e. text, images etc. from specific digital TV API formats into a simple text and image format suitable for display on the user interface display 34 of the control panel. In this way, it can provide text or graphical representations of the events occurring within an interactive application and the resources comprising those events.

A database 58 is provided. This stores a variety of interactive content, such as graphics, text, video clips and audio clips. Indeed, it may store content for various digital TV application API's, such as OpenTV, MediaHighway, Liberate etc.

A play out scheduler 60 determines which of the resources in the database 58 are to be broadcast and provides the appropriate triggers for those resources to become the various events of the interactive application at the various trigger points.

Figure 5 illustrates the process conducted by the display engine 52 for extracting resources from the database 58 and also for modifying the resources.

In step 100, the display engine 52 requests a multimedia element, such as text, graphics etc., from the interactive content database 58. This element comprises a resource for the interactive application. In step 102, it then determines which digital TV application API the retrieved element is associated with.

The interactive studio is configured to handle predetermined API types.

Hence, at step 104, it is determined whether or not the display engine 52 includes an appropriate interpreter for the API required for the requested element. If no such interpreter is available, then the process returns to step 100 for requesting another element. However, if an interpreter is available, then, in step 106, the API interpreter is used to produce a representation of the element as discussed above. In this way, in step 108, the process displays the representation of the element on the display 34 of the control panel. At step 110 it is determined whether or not the director requires selection of the displayed element. In other words, the process waits for actuation of an appropriate button. If the element is not required for selection, then the process returns to step 100. However, if the element is selected, then, in step 112, the element is associated with a specified trigger such that it then becomes a part of the interactive application as a forthcoming event at the trigger point specified by the trigger.

In step 114, the details of the trigger and the multimedia element are stored in the trigger database.

The trigger database is part of the play out scheduler. The multimedia element is not stored again. Details of (i. e. reference to) it are stored with trigger to let the application what to do when the trigger is fired.

The interactive database is not the data carousel. The data carousel is held in the broadcast head-end.

As illustrated in Figure 4, the control panel is also configured to include a dynamic scheduling algorithm 62. This will be described in further detail with reference to Figure 6. It operates in real time to handle modifications to the trigger points of the interactive application and, where necessary, to adjust remaining trigger

points. It works in conjunction with the station clock 64, a trigger system 66 and the manual request function 68.

The trigger system manages trigger creation, modification and firing.

As illustrated in Figure 6, the process 62 first determines whether a play out schedule is available in step 200. In other words, it determines whether or not a schedule exists in the play out scheduler 60 for triggering various events of the interactive application. If there is no schedule available, it determines in step 202 whether or not a play out schedule is to be created. Thus, if the director does not wish to use a play out schedule, the process moves to a manual mode 204 in which there is only manual triggering of the events.

If a play out schedule is to be created, in step 206, the process gets relative timing information from the information content triggers. Timing is got from the triggers.

In step 208, the process request a start time.

The start time can be got from either the director or from the system. As triggers are relative, the scheduling algorithm needs the start time to produce correct timings.

In step 210, it is determined whether or not the station clock 64 is available for use. If for any reason, the interactive studio is not able to use the station clock and, hence, is not able to synchronize the events of the interactive application automatically, the process passes to the manual mode 204, such that the events are triggered manually. If the station clock is available then, in step 212, the process sends the next four trigger events for display on the display panel 34 as illustrated in Figure 2.

If a manual trigger is made by the director, for instance by means of the button 38, the process moves from step 214 on to step 216. However, if no manual triggers are made, the process continues to cycle with step 210 and 212 to maintain a view of the next forthcoming trigger event.

Manual triggers are added to the play out schedule. The immediate triggering happens if the trigger happens because the triggers are set to the current time, so the play out system makes them happen immediately.

In step 216, the TV show director decides whether the new trigger is to be inserted as a separate trigger or overlaid on an existing trigger. If overlay is chosen by the director, then, in step 218, the process removes the existing selected trigger from the play out schedule. In step 220, it is determined whether or not the removed trigger is to be replaced with a new trigger.

If it is determined that there is no new trigger to be inserted, then, in step 222, the process moves all subsequent triggers forward to fill up the existing trigger points.

In step 224, it is determined whether or not there are any more triggers in the play out schedule. If so, the process returns to step 210. Otherwise, the process ends.

If, in step 220 it is decided to replace the deleted point with a new trigger, the process moves to step 226 in which the new trigger is added to the play out schedule.

If, in step 216, it is selected to insert a new trigger, then the process moves to step 228. In step 228, it is determined whether or not it has been selected to insert the new trigger between existing trigger points. If so, the process moves to step 226 and adds the new trigger to the play out schedule.

On the other hand, if the new trigger is to be inserted at an existing trigger point, the process moves to step 230 and shuffles the existing triggers away from the selected trigger points so as to make room for insertion of the new trigger at that point. The process then moves to step 226 to insert the new trigger at the selected point.

Returning to Figure 4, it will be seen that the required play out schedule of triggers is provided to the broadcast system control 70 so as to trigger the events of the interactive application according to the requirements of the director. A content manager 72 issues content from the Interactive content database upon order from the play out scheduler, handing the content to the Broadcast system control.

The data for broadcast is provided to broadcast head ends 74. As mentioned above, the interactive application data is preferably provided by a data carousel and the data from this carousel is multiplexed with audio video data to form a transport stream for broadcast.