| CPC H04N 5/50 (2013.01) [G08C 17/02 (2013.01); H04N 21/63 (2013.01); G08C 2201/40 (2013.01)] | 18 Claims |
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1. A system for dynamically tuning and directing received content, the system comprising:
a plurality of tuners, each tuner of the plurality of tuners being configured to receive a broadband multi-program signal, tune to a specified frequency within the bandwidth of the broadband multi-program signal in response to a received tuning command, acquire and demodulate program content, and output the demodulated program content;
a plurality of output ports, each output port connected to a respective peripheral device and configured to deliver the demodulated program content to the respective peripheral device;
a switching fabric that provides a connection between the plurality of tuners and a plurality of output ports and is configured to switchably link the demodulated program content output by each of the plurality of tuners with a selected one of the plurality of output ports;
at least one wireless command receiver configured to receive commands from a plurality of wireless control devices, wherein each command of the received commands identifies particular content to be accessed and includes a wireless controller identifier identifying a particular wireless control device from which the command is received;
at least one memory configured to store information associating each wireless controller identifier of a plurality of the wireless control device identifiers with at least one output port of the plurality of output ports; and
at least one processor configured to:
extract the identity of the content to be accessed and the wireless controller identifier from each wireless command of the wireless commands received at the at least one wireless command receiver;
associate a first wireless command received from a first wireless control device of the plurality of wireless control devices with a first output port of the plurality of output ports using at least a first wireless controller identifier of the first wireless control device extracted from a wireless command received from the first wireless control device and the information stored in the memory;
associate at least a second wireless command received from a second wireless device of the plurality of wireless control devices with a second output port of the plurality of output ports using at least a second wireless controller identifier of the second wireless control device extracted from a wireless command received from the second wireless control device and the information stored in the memory;
generate, based at least in part on the content identity extracted from the first wireless command, a first tuning command instructing a first tuner of the plurality of tuners to tune to a particular frequency and demodulate a first program content;
generate, based at least in part on the content identity extracted from the second wireless command, a second tuning command instructing a second tuner of the plurality of tuners to tune to a particular frequency and demodulate a second program content; and
route, via the switching fabric, the demodulated first program content to the first one of the plurality of output ports, and
route, via the switching fabric, the demodulated second program content to the second one of the plurality of output ports,
wherein a number of the plurality of tuners is greater than a number of the plurality of output ports and, in response to receiving at least a third wireless command from a third wireless control device, and as a result of plurality of tuners outnumbering the plurality of output ports, the processor and switching fabric are configured to direct an output of a third tuner of the plurality of tuners to a single output port of the plurality of output ports such that a peripheral device connected to the single output port displays multiple tuner outputs in a picture-in-picture format or split screen arrangement.
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