Antenna system with individually addressable elements in dense array
View Patent ↗A method and system for capturing, storing, and streaming over the air broadcasts based on user requests is disclosed. The system and method utilize subarrays of antenna elements for receiving over the air broadcasts. Processing pipelines are used to demodulate, transcode and index the content transmissions to produce content data that are streamed to users. In this way, the feeds from antennas can be accessed by users over a network connection.
1. An antenna system comprising:
a two dimensional array of antenna elements for separately receiving over the air broadcasts, the array of antenna elements having a density of at least 10 antenna elements per square meter; and
an encoder system for transcoding over air broadcasts received by the separate antenna elements into content data to be stored in a data storage system.
2. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the antenna elements are omni-directional antenna elements.
3. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the antenna elements are symmetric dual loop antenna elements.
4. The system according to claim 1 , further comprising:
multiple ones of the two dimensional array of antenna elements; and
a housing that supports the two dimensional arrays adjacent to each other.
5. The system according to claim 4 , wherein the two dimensional arrays of antenna elements form a three dimensional array within the housing.
6. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the two dimensional array of antenna elements and at least part of the encoder system are implemented on a common circuit board.
7. The system according to claim 6 , wherein the encoder system comprises demodulators that are implemented on the circuit board.
8. The system according to claim 1 , further comprising radio frequency tuners for tuning the antenna elements of the two dimensional array.
9. The system according to claim 8 , wherein the two dimensional array of antenna elements and radio frequency tuners are implemented on a common circuit board.
10. The system according to claim 9 , wherein the circuit board comprises at least 50 antenna elements.
11. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the antenna elements have a density of at least 50 antenna elements per square meter.
12. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the antenna elements are hemispherical directional antenna elements.
13. A method for receiving over the air broadcasts with an array of antenna elements, the method comprising:
providing two dimensional arrays of antennas elements for receiving the over the air broadcasts, the arrays of antennas elements each having a density of at least 10 antenna elements per square meter;
stacking the arrays to form a three dimensional array of antenna elements;
receiving the over the air broadcasts with the three dimensional array of antenna elements; and
transcoding the over the air broadcasts into content data to be stored in a data storage device.
14. The method according to claim 13 , further comprising implementing the two dimensional arrays of antenna elements and tuners for the antenna elements on a common circuit board.
15. The method according to claim 13 , further comprising providing at least 50 antenna elements in the two dimensional arrays.
16. The method according to claim 13 , wherein the antenna elements have a density of at least 50 antenna elements per square meter.
17. An antenna system comprising:
a plurality of circuit boards, each of the circuit boards including a two dimensional array of antenna elements for separately receiving over the air broadcasts and an encoder system for demodulating the over air broadcasts received by the separate antenna elements, the encoder system transcoding the over the air broadcasts from MPEG4 encoding into content data;
a card cage for housing the circuit boards, and
a data storage system that stores the content data from the encoder system.
18. A method for receiving over the air broadcasts with an array of antenna elements, the method comprising:
providing two dimensional arrays of antennas elements for receiving the over the air broadcasts;
stacking the arrays to form a three dimensional array of antenna elements;
receiving the over the air broadcasts with the three dimensional array of antenna elements; and
demodulating and transcoding the over the air broadcasts from MPEG4 into content data to be stored in a data storage device.