WO2011144824A1

WO2011144824A1 - Universal remote control device for a wire microphone

Info

Publication number: WO2011144824A1
Application number: PCT/FR2011/000296
Authority: WO
Inventors: Emmanuel Perille
Original assignee: Emmanuel Perille
Priority date: 2010-05-19
Filing date: 2011-05-16
Publication date: 2011-11-24
Also published as: FR2960361A1; EP2572517A1; FR2960361B1; EP2572517B1

Abstract

The invention relates to a universal remote control device for a wire microphone (2), including an output wire connection (1) enabling the use of the wire connection of said microphone (2) for transmitting both the data of said remote control and the sound signal of said microphone, and, with a view to enable the use of said microphone (2) without said remote control, by transmitting said sound signal in an analog manner through said wire connection (1), at least when using the microphone without the remote control. Said device includes, inserted in said wire connection, a transmission device (3, 4, 6, 9) which can be connected to said microphone (2), comprises a remote control keyboard (3), and includes a management and encoding unit (4) of said keyboard (3) to analyze and serialize the data of the remote control, a transmission means (6) for simultaneous transmission of said serialized data and the sound signal (8) of said microphone (2), and a transmission means (9) for transmitting the resultant through said wire connection. The disclosed remote control device also includes a receiving device (10, 11, 12) including a duplexer (10) for restoring said analog sound signal (8) and dissociating the signal from said serialized data, a decoding device (11) for decoding said data, and at least one means (12) for restoring said decoded data.

Description

UNIVERSAL REMOTE CONTROL DEVICE FOR WIRED MICROPHONE

A universal wired microphone remote control device for using the wired link of the microphone to transmit both the data of the remote control and the sound signal of the microphone, and to allow the use of the microphone without the remote control transmitting at least in this case the sound signal analogically on the wired link to remain compatible with any existing sound equipment.

The patent application CN201167402 describes a microphone with a remote control function. The microphone and its remote control are here specifically related to one another to form one and the same particular material. Unlike the invention, this is not a universal remote control for any type of wired microphone.

Also known is US-5677669 patent application which describes an audio illuminator which is an integrated system providing directional lighting with a sound system with speakers and amplification, all controlled by a remote control where is connected a microphone.

Also known is the patent application DE-102005042047 which describes a microphone made to be held in the hand and incorporating a remote control to communicate with a computer to control for example the PowerPoint ™ viewer.

Patent application JP-2005287050 describes a microphone remote control to which the phantom power is applied by varying the bias voltage of the acoustic cell of the microphone according to the remote control.

Patent application JP-7212886 is still known which describes a microphone incorporating a remote control for karaoke. Also known is the patent application CN-2264455 which describes a wireless microphone incorporating a remote control keypad, the audio signal and the remote control information being transmitted by frequency multiplexing all modulated in FM by a single carrier wave.

However, the integration of a remote control keypad to the body of the microphone makes it very sensitive to the slightest mechanical noise generated during the pressing of the keyboard keys by the user.

The object of the present invention is to use the wired link of a wired microphone to be able to remotely control a hardware or software application connected to a sound equipment by means of a keyboard inserted in the connection rather than in the body of the wired microphone.

Another object of the invention is to be able to use only the wired microphone without the remote control function without having to worry about the difference of the equipment to which the analog audio signal microphone is connected.

Yet another object of the invention is to preserve the bandwidth performance of the transmission chain of the microphone sound signal.

Another object of the invention is to visualize the connection and the proper functioning of this remote control.

Yet another object of the invention is to avoid the acoustic propagation mechanical noise of key presses on the remote control keyboard towards the microphone membrane.

The invention therefore relates to a universal remote control device for a wired microphone comprising a wired output link allowing the use of the wired link of said microphone to transmit both the data of said remote control to the sound signal of said microphone, and to allow the use of said microphone without said remote control by transmitting at least in this case said sound signal analogically on said wired link, characterized in that it comprises inserted on said wired link: a transmitting device connectable to said microphone and comprising a remote control keyboard, and including a management and encoding unit of said keyboard for analyzing and serializing the data of said remote control, means for simultaneously transmitting said serialized data with the sound signal; said microphone, and means for transmitting the resultant on said wired link, and

a reception device including a duplexer for reproducing said analog phonic signal and dissociating it from said serialized data, a decoding unit of said data, and at least one means for restoring said decoded data.

According to another characteristic of the invention, the receiving device includes a power supply unit with means for transmitting an electrical source via said wired link to said transmission device in order to supply the latter with energy.

According to yet another characteristic of the invention, the reception device includes means for detecting the presence of said transmission device inserted on said wired link.

According to yet another characteristic of the invention, the reception device includes means for displaying the presence of said transmission device inserted on said wired link.

According to yet another characteristic of the invention, the receiving device includes a charge impedance switching unit of said wired link controlled according to the detection of the presence of said transmitting device inserted on said wired link.

According to yet another characteristic of the invention, the reception device includes an amplification unit of said sound signal with controlled adjustable gain according to the detection of the presence of said transmission device inserted on said wired link.

According to one characteristic of the invention, said sound signal is transmitted in differential mode with said serialized data transmitted in common mode on said wired connection when it consists of at least three electrical conductors.

According to yet another characteristic of the invention, the transmission device includes a modulator of said serialized data before simultaneously transmitting them with said sound signal, and the receiving device includes a demodulator for reproducing said serialized data preceding a decoding unit.

According to yet another characteristic of the invention, the receiving device includes means for sampling and quantizing said analog sound signal from said duplexer to convert it into a digital sound signal, and a digital communication bus interface for retransmission. said data of the remote control with said digital sound signal.

According to yet another characteristic of the invention, the transmission device includes means for sampling and quantizing said analog sound signal of said microphone to convert it into a digital sound signal, and an encoding unit for serializing said sound signal. digital and transmit it simultaneously with said remote control data in a digital transmission signal, and the reception device includes means for decoding said digital transmission signal from said duplexer and extracting the digital sound signal and dissociating said data from the remote control.

According to yet another characteristic of the invention, the receiving device includes means for converting back to analog form said digital sound signal.

According to yet another feature of the invention, the receiving device includes a digital communication bus interface for retransmitting said data from the remote control.

According to yet another characteristic of the invention, said duplexer of the reception device restores the analog phonic signal by a commutation of the wired link in order to separate it from the transmission signal. digital, said switching being controlled according to the detection of the presence of said transmitting device inserted on said wire link.

According to yet another characteristic of the invention, the receiving device includes means for transmitting a synchronization clock signal in common mode over the wire link, and in that the transmitting device includes a means of extracting the clock signal, and means for controlling, as a function of the clock signal, the bit rate of the digital transmission signal transmitted in differential mode on the wired link when it consists of at least three electrical conductors.

According to yet another characteristic of the invention, the receiving device includes means for sampling and quantizing said analog sound signal from said duplexer to convert it into a digital sound signal, a means for selecting the digital sound signal and an interface digital communication bus for retransmitting said remote control data with said selected digital voice signal.

According to yet another characteristic of the invention, the reception device includes means for setting the audio parameters of the sound signal from the transmission device.

According to yet another characteristic of the invention, the transmission device includes a rotary displacement slider.

According to yet another characteristic of the invention, the transmission device includes a touch-sensitive sensor.

According to yet another characteristic of the invention, the transmission device includes a cryptographic method of the remote control data, the reception device a method of decrypting said data.

Advantageously, the transmission device is equipped with a means for carrying it on oneself.

The device according to the invention is particularly useful for remote control from a stage of a show, a oratory or an amphitheater of audio-visual equipment or stage equipment through the existing sound equipment, in this case via the wired connection of the stage microphone.

The device according to the invention also offers freedom for the user, artist or speaker, only on stage to pilot himself via a device compatible to any sound equipment a software or hardware application of his choice without having to systematically require the assistance of a sound engineer, or a Disc Jockey for a single rapper on stage for example.

The importance that stage performers' autonomy for live performance, including karaoke, has for the stage performer's independence of sound equipment has led some manufacturers to design microphone-related remote controls. .

Other characteristics, details and advantages of the invention will be better understood on reading the additional description which follows of preferred embodiments given in a non-limiting manner in relation to drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the device according to the invention,

FIG. 2 illustrates a frequency multiplexing embodiment,

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of the device for receiving the power supply of the remote control via the wired link, the detection of the connection of the remote control, and the gain and load impedance switches,

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of the reception device with a digital communication bus interface,

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of the device according to the invention, more particularly for a remote control with digital transmission of the microphone sound signal, and FIG. 6 is a block diagram of the device according to the invention of the time-division multiplex transmission device with the regulation of the digital transmission rate, of the reception device integrating the two time and frequency multiplexings, and of the transmitting the synchronization signal on the wired link by the receiving device.

The present invention will be more specifically described.

FIG. 1 shows a transmitting device and a reception device on either side of the wired link 1. The transmission device connected to a wired microphone 2 comprises a remote control keypad 3 with its control unit. management and encoding 4 which reads the data of the remote control 5 to code and transmit them in series 7, a means of superimposing 6 these serialized data 7 with the analog sound signal 8 of the microphone 2, and a means of emitting the result 9 on the wired link 1. The receiving device comprises a duplexer 10 connected to the wired link 1 to separate the reception of the analog voice signal 8 from the serial data transmission 7, a decoding unit 11 of the data of the remote control 5, and a means of rendering 12 of these same data.

The remote control keypad 3 of the transmitting device can also be completed with a rotary displacement cursor, for example an incremental encoder, which transposes any action of manual rotation of the cursor into angular relative displacement information in the form of two logic signals. binary translating a number of increments with the direction of rotation, binary signals that said management and encoding unit 4 can transmit in series 7 and that said decoding unit 11 of the receiving device can interpret into commands parameter settings which , for an application such as a sound reinforcement software, could correspond to mixing levels, tones or gains.

Similarly, the transmitting device may include a touch-sensitive sensor in addition to said keyboard 3. For this purpose, said management and encoding unit 4 may integrate a touch-sensitive sensor controller, such as for example the integrated circuit AT42QT4120 manufactured by ATMEL which translates the electrical signals of a capacitive touch-sensitive surface into information of events and two-dimensional positioning of the bearing zone on said sensor. In the case of the circuit AT42QT4120, said management and encoding unit 4 will have to be connected to it via a serial communication bus interface type I2C or "Inter Integrated Circuit" configured in master mode, said information transmitted by the device of emission and then decoded by said decoding unit 11 of the receiving device can serve a purpose similar to that previously described in the case of the rotary displacement slider.

For the transmission device, it will be noted later that the means 6 may be a simple adder for summing the two signals provided that the frequency spectrum of the serialized data 7 emits no frequency in the 0-20 kHz band of the sound signal 8, otherwise the sound on reception would be parasitized by the transmission of data, and the data itself tainted with transmission errors.

The means 6 may also be a transmission duplexer, that is to say a summator which dissociates the two frequency bands to be superposed, comprising, upstream, a low-pass filter on the analog sound signal side and a high-pass or pass filter. a band centered on the carrier frequency of the serialized data 7 transposition, the whole being then added.

In fact with an analog sound signal, it is necessary to carry out a frequency multiplexing and thus to transpose the modulation spectrum of the serialized data 7 towards a carrier frequency, according to FIG. 2.

For connecting the wired microphone 2, the transmitting device can integrate a small low-noise audio signal amplifier to increase the low level of the microphone 2 and reach a signal level Analogue sound 8 sufficient for the transmission on the wired link 1. It may also be envisaged to provide this amplifier with a means of biasing the microphone 2 with a so-called phantom continuous supply voltage in order to be able to use different types of microphones such as the electrets requiring a bias current for their acoustic cell.

Several choices of types of electronic components are possible for the realization of the management unit and encoding 4 as for the decoding unit 11 in the receiving device: technologies such as programmable logic circuits of the PLD type, for example. (Programmable Logic Device) or FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array), or else programmable microcontrollers such as DSP (Digital Signal Processor) or PIC ^® microcontroller.

The management and encoding unit 4 transmits and encodes the data read 5 from the remote control 3 into a serial frame 7. This unit 4 can be designed so that it transmits said frame only when a state change occurs. data 5 of the keyboard 3 or systematically synchronously, that is to say with a clock information continuously transmitted and superimposed on the data 5 for decoding on reception.

For this, a Manchester type Bi-phase code may be perfectly suitable with a frame start header, followed by a corresponding binary data sequence when reading each key of the keyboard, and concluded with parity information. of transmission to reinforce the validity of the reception of the data 5 on the wired link 1.

A first embodiment of the means for superimposing the serialized data 7 with the sound signal 8 can be performed, when it is decided to keep said sound signal 8 in its original analog form, by frequency multiplexing as described in relation to the figure 2.

In this case, a modulator 19 performs a frequency translation of the frame signal 7 upstream of a duplexer of frequencies 6 which superimposes the thus modulated signal 29 with the analog acoustic signal 8 of the microphone 2. Here the transmission means 9 on the wired link 1 is in fact constituted of two amplifiers placed just before the duplexer 6, one of type BF, or low frequencies, analog sound signal side 8, the other type HF or high frequency modulated signal side 29.

Preferably, a minimum value of transposition frequency, or carrier frequency, will be chosen such that the modulation spectrum does not impinge on the desired bandwidth of the transmission chain of the microphone sound signal. All this in order to guarantee, on the one hand, performances of audio bandwidths sometimes higher than those of certain microphones but corresponding to sampling frequencies of 96 kHz or 192 kHz commonly used in certain professional digital audio equipment, and on the other hand, with less modulation spectrum width limit constraints the possibility of significantly increasing the serialized data transmission rate 7 if necessary.

The modulation may be of FSK type, "Frequency Shift Keying" or also frequency hopping modulation, generally performed by a phase locked loop commonly called PLL (Phase Locked Loop) to which the loop filter can be adjusted so as to to reduce the spectral bulk of the modulation sidebands sufficiently to avoid, as far as possible, any interference on the wired link 1 with the analog phonic signal 8. In addition, a bi-phase coding for the frame 7 facilitates modulation and demodulation synchronous data.

In order to allow the use of the wired microphone 2 without the remote control function, that is to say without having to systematically insert the transmission device into the connection of the microphone 2, the reception device includes a frequency duplexer 10 which of the wired link 1 renders on one side the analog phonic signal 8 and on the other the serialized data 7. In the case of the frequency multiplexing, it is first the modulated signal 30 that the duplexer 10 provides before a demodulator 20 restores the serialized data 7.

Next, a decoding unit 11 receives the serialized data 7 and can check for consistency of transmissions such as clock, stub and frame parity information before extracting and decoding the received data for their data. restitution 12.

The reproduction 12 of the information or data of the remote control can be carried out, for example, in a parallel form, that is with each binary data item corresponding to the state of each of the keys. the keyboard 3 an electrical interface of optoelectronic coupler type that offers the advantage of a simple operation of "all or nothing" and universal type with galvanic isolation of remote-controlled signals. Another embodiment of said rendering 12 of the data 5 of the remote control 3 is to transmit them in serial form by a digital communication bus interface.

When the wired link 1 consists of at least three electrical conductors, as is very generally the case for audio equipment of show scenes whose connections are XLR type connectors with three pins, it is preferable to transmit in differential mode between two hot spots of the wired link 1 the analog phonic signal 8, and in common mode at the ground potential the modulated signal 29, this in order to keep the compatibility of the electrical connection of the microphone 2 without the insertion of the transmitting device, c ' that is to say without remote control, and to ensure the least annoying crosstalk possible between the two transmitted signals.

For this, the low frequency amplifier, or BF, of the transmission means 9 preceding the duplexer 6 may consist of two symmetrical outputs in phase opposition, with the reception duplexer 10 followed for example by a differential amplifier for reconvert the analog phonic signal 8 in common mode, the two duplexers 6 and 10 being similar with as access a differential mode for the audio signal 8 and a common mode for the modulated signal 29.

It will be noted that the duplexer 10 is not an adder unlike the duplexer 6. The duplexer 10 comprises, for a frequency multiplex transmission, only the low-pass and high-pass / bandpass filters to separately restore the phonic signal. analog 8 serialized data 7.

FIG. 3 shows a synoptic subset of the reception device concerning the power supply of the remote control via the wired link 1, the detection of the connection of the remote control and the switching of gains and load impedance for the signal. analog phonic 8.

An electric power supply and transmission unit 13 supplies a sufficient supply current to the transmitting device, which current can be distributed identically over the two hot-spot wires of the wire link 1 when the latter is of the type XLR 3-pin, as is very generally the case.

For this purpose, a load impedance switching unit 16 of the wire link 1 makes it possible to reduce the load impedance at low frequencies so as to transmit to the transmission device inserted on the wire link 1 its supply current without having to use a phantom power supply voltage that is too high online that would create security and compatibility issues with existing microphones.

On the transmitting device side, the low line impedance at the low frequencies of the receiving device justifies the use of the amplifier BF of the transmission means 9 previously mentioned, otherwise the sound signal 8 of the microphone 2 could not be transmitted as is without a significant loss of transmission level knowing that a microphone has a characteristic impedance several hundred to a thousand ohms. This relative high impedance of a microphone therefore justifies that the load impedance switching unit 16 can switch back to a higher impedance of the order of one kilo ohm when the microphone 2 is connected directly to the wired link. 1 in the absence of insertion of the transmitting device.

This in turn involves providing a means of detecting the presence or absence 14 of the transmitting device for controlling said impedance switching, and at the same time also adjusting the gain 18 of the differential amplifier previously cited and following the reception duplexer 10, in order to ensure equal levels of the received sound signal 8 according to whether the transmitting device is inserted or not on the wired link 1.

Specifically, for each of the two hot-spot wires of a 3-pin XLR link, the transmission of the electrical source 13 and the load impedance switching unit 16 may be performed with a switching transistor of the supply current, type Darlington transistor for example. This transistor short-circuits a resistance of one kilo Ohm connected between the power supply and another resistor, which is of low value and connected in series to the output of the reception duplexer 10 on the sound signal side 8.

At this same output potential, a voltage comparator performs the presence detection 14 of the remote control inserted on the wired link 1 by measuring the average (or half-sum) of the two DC potentials present on the two hot-spot wires, eliminating thus in this measurement the influence of the phonic signal 8 in phase opposition between these two points, and by comparing this average with a reference voltage proportional to the supply voltage for the electrical source 13. or the absence of the remote control on the wired link 1 by measuring a current of supply current flowing in said series resistors of low values. The output 17 of this comparator can then drive the bases of the two Darlington transistors and drive a mini electromechanical relay that switches the adjustable gain resistance of the differential amplifier 18. A connection capacitor can provide the differential amplifier with potential isolation. power supply present at the output of the duplexer 10 to restore the phonic signal 8.

Preferably, and more precisely, it will be possible to use as a voltage comparator a double threshold voltage device with hysteresis, this on the one hand so as not to make false detection of the presence of any other device connected to the wired link. which would only be designed to operate with a phantom power current limited to a few milliamperes such as active direct boxes for 48 volt phantom power, and secondly to prevent any oscillation of the comparator output 17 at start up of the transmitting device. For this, when at the beginning the comparator does not detect any supply current flowing in the wired link, it will ensure that it operates with a first detection such that it is only sensitive to a current intensity significant to easily separate the transmitting device from a simple direct active box connected to the wired link. Once the transmission device has been detected, the comparator must then immediately change the detection threshold so that it returns to its initial state only when it detects only a current intensity that is insufficient to power the transmission device. In this way, any detection instabilities at start-up are likewise avoided.

If it is desired to provide the transmission of the electrical source 13 for the emission device of a 48 Volts phantom power supply to supply other devices such as active direct boxes for example, we can insert a wired switching diode in series in each circuit of said resistances series of low values, and connect each of said two hot-spot son to a 48Volts phantom power via an internal resistance of a generally used value of 6800 ohms downstream cathode side of said switching diodes which thus isolate the transmission of the electrical source 13 of 48Volts phantom power in the absence of the transmitting device.

The receiving device 10, 11, 12 includes means for displaying the presence of said transmitting device 3, 4, 6, 9 inserted on said wire link. This means 15 must indicate the proper operation of the data transmission in addition to the presence detection state. For this, the decoding unit 11 provides this result because it analyzes the coherence of various information extracted from the decoded data 5 as well as a good reception of the clock and the headers of the transmitted frames in the case of a synchronous detection. Continually active visualization is synonymous with the proper operation of equipment and connections.

Indeed, this same output 17 of the comparator can be used to visualize the detection of the transmission device, unless it is decided otherwise, that this detection information of the remote control is rather provided by the decoding unit 11. even from the good reception of the serialized data 7, that is to say more precisely the data 5 of the remote control correctly decoded by the decoding unit 11 according to the validation of the reception frames (clock and headers well detected and parity of transmission correctly received), this in order to reassure on the good overall operation of the remote control.

FIG. 4 shows a synoptic option of the reception device integrating a digital communication bus interface 23 for retransmitting, for example to a computer, an MP3 player or a mobile telephone, the sound signal 8 with the data of the remote control 5, all in an entirely digital form. This option is particularly interesting for making the receiving device a material realization of a similar nature to that of an external sound card from a computer, an MP3 player or a mobile phone.

For this purpose, an analog-to-digital converter 21 samples and quantizes the analog phonic signal 8 coming from the gain-gain amplifier unit 18 mentioned above, the converter 21 being of course and normally preceded by anti-aliasing or anti-aliasing filters. anti-aliasing of the analog signal. These filters are analog low-pass filters found in digitizing devices to clean the signal before performing analog-to-digital conversion. The anti-aliasing filter makes it possible to prohibit any presence, before sampling, of frequencies greater than Fe / 2, Fe being the sampling frequency. The theoretical explanation of the need for such filtering is given by Shannon's theorem.

The digital communication bus interface 23 receives on the one hand the digital sound signal 22 coming from said converter 21, and on the other hand the data 5 of the remote control 3 decoded by the decoding unit 11.

It is also conceivable that the same digital communication bus interface 23 can be connected and shared between several receiving devices 10, 11 and 12.

The communication bus will for example commonly be of USB or "Universal Serial Bus" type, and there are several references of components that can satisfy this function, such as the MAX3421E reference circuit manufactured by the MAXIM company which integrates ports logical inputs / outputs to be able to read the data 5 of the remote control 3 as well as a serial interface of the Serial Peripheral Interface Bus (SPI) type to connect said converter 21 which may be part of the digital analog audio converters equipped with an interface SPI compatible series.

Of course, and as recommended by the circuit manufacturer MAX3421E, the programmable micro controller needed to implement this USB interface circuit may be of the type of digital signal processing processor commonly called DSP or "Digital Signal Processor" suitable for taking the digital sound signal 22 from the converter 21 via for example a synchronous serial communications port type SSC or "Synchronous Serial Controller", and retransmitting it to the circuit AS3421E via its interface port SPI, these two communication ports SSC and SPI being generally already present and integrated on most programmable processor circuits DSP.

The programming of the DSP microcontroller will thus make it possible to configure the SPI port of the DSP in a master SPI interface to both control and manage the communication of the USB interface of the MAX3421E circuit, to read the data 5 of the remote control 3 accessible via the ports D logic inputs of the MAX3421E, and if necessary adjust some audio parameters of the converter 21, such as volumes, gains, sampling frequency or quantization of the digital sound signal 22.

This same programming will also make it possible to configure the USB interface of the circuit MAX3421E in peripheral mode or "device" with for example at least two separate software interfaces, that is to say two classes of USB communication: an audio class to transmit the device. digital sound signal 22 and a class called HID or "Human Interface Device" to transmit the data 5 of the remote control 3.

Among the four possible USB transmission channels available to the MAX 3421E circuit, commonly called "pipe" or "end point" channels, it will be possible, for example, to reserve the EP3 channel in interrupt mode to achieve the HID class of the data 5 of the remote control 3, the EPO channel in control mode as agreed according to the USB bus standard, and the EP2 channel in interrupt mode for transmitting the digital sound signal 22 in the form of audio sample packets punctuated by the synchronization signal SOF or "Start Of Frame" present on the bus USB, with the audio class of the EP2 channel configured in synchronous mode.

If it is nevertheless desired to be able to transmit the digital sound signal 22 without having to risk the slightest temporal jolt at its restitution during its transmission on the USB communication bus, it will be possible to opt for another similar USB interface circuit, allowing the configuration of an end-point channel in isochronous mode for the audio class of the digital sound signal 22. Such a circuit may be, for example, the AT91SA circuit 7S256 manufactured by the ATMEL company which, although it is not of the DSP type, has SSC and SPI ports and sufficient processor resources (memory size and execution speed) to design in a similar embodiment the same audio and HID software interfaces mentioned above.

The same digital communication bus interface 23 may be shared by several different reception devices. For this, in the example of the MAX3421E circuit, the set of data 5 of each remote control 3 can be collected on the same logic input port by the implementation of logic selection circuits. The data may thus be multiplexed on the logic input port of the MAX3421E circuit and selected for each remote control 3 from control signals that may be provided by the logic output port of the MAX3421E circuit.

With regard to the concentration of the digital tone signals 22 of each receiving device on the same digital communication bus interface 23, it is possible to connect several converters 21 operating for example according to the standard AC 97 or "Coded Audio ^λ 97" on the same bus type SSC. USB bus side, we can provide several separate software USB interfaces according to the number of digital sound signals 22 to be sent on different "pipes".

In comparison with what has just been described above in the embodiment of the receiving device with a USB bus, when it is only desired to restore the data 5 of the remote control 3 via the bus interface of FIG. digital communication 23 without wishing to add the sound signal 8, it will be sufficient to change the software configuration of the USB communication bus interface circuit 23 to keep only the class HID of the remote control data 3, and omit the converter 21.

If it is desired to remotely control software applications that are more particularly music-oriented or computer-assisted music rather than simple audio or video playback software, it may be preferable to configure said USB data interface 5 of the remote control 3 for a class "Musical Instruments Digital Interface" (MIDI) rather than an HID class with a consumer mode (media).

Of course, in addition to the example of the previously described USB communication bus, it is also possible to design this same option of the reception device represented by FIG. 4 but with another type of competing digital communication bus, such as the FireWire according to the IEEE 1394 standard. It will be sufficient for this purpose to make the choice of the similar component for this other communication bus.

FIG. 5 represents another embodiment of the invention, referred to as time-division multiplexing transmission, which consists of transmitting on the wired link the data of the remote control with the sound signal of the microphone previously converted in the transmission device into a digital audio signal for transmitting an entirely digital transmission signal. This signal is then dissociated by the receiving device into two distinct digital information, firstly the reconstructed remote control data and secondly the phonic signal restored in digital form or also converted back into its original analog form.

In this case, the transmission device includes a first digital-analog converter 21 to sample and quantify the sound signal 8 from the microphone 2 into a digital sound signal 22. The converter can implicitly integrate its prior functions of filtering anti ^¬ folding audio signals, as already explained about the converter 21 as described in connection with FIG. 4, with the sound signal 8 possibly also coming from an amplifier of small low noise audio signals with a phantom power supply voltage for the microphone cell 2.

The encoding and serialization unit 24 of the data 5 of the remote control keypad 3 integrates the same management and encoding unit function 4 of the keyboard previously described in relation with FIG. 1 with in addition a means of serializing and to transmit said data 5 in a multiplexed manner with the digitized sound signal 22 in the same digital transmission signal 25 then submitted to the transmission means 9 on the wired link 1.

For a wired link of the 3-pin XLR type, for example, the digital transmission 25 can be performed in common mode with a single RF amplifier as a transmission means 9, without the transmission device having to simultaneously transmit the transmission. less analog tone signal in differential mode. This then simplifies this embodiment of the constitution of the transmission device due to the absence of the dual amplifier BF in phase opposition and the necessary transmission duplexer and already described in the case of frequency multiplexing.

However, unlike the frequency division multiplex transmission device where the in-line supply current can be recovered via a shock inductance in series with a resistor producing low line impedance at low frequencies, it will be useful to provide for the time-division multiplexer transmission device a certain minimum duplexer for simply recovering via a shock inductor, for example the in-line supply current on one side by isolating it from the transmitted RF signal from the other with a connection capacitor .

To generate the digital transmission signal 25 from the digital sound signal 22, it will be possible to use an existing format for transmitting digital audio data, for example that of the SPDIF (Sony / Philips Digital InterFace or IEC-958), a format itself. from the AES / EBU (Audio Engineering Society / European Broadcasting Union) professional digital audio standard, which also makes it possible to simultaneously transmit to the digital audio data additional "user" data with a low bit rate by exploiting a time window designated "bit U". "Entering the composition of the digital frames of this transmission format.

Since the SPDIF transmission is synchronous with a clock integrated in its Manchester Bi-Phase coding, it is sufficient to use this "bit U" time window of the SPDIF encoder to sample and transmit the serialized data 7 produced by the management unit and encoding 4 of the remote control data 5. The management unit and encoding unit 4 with the SPDIF encoder thus constitutes the said encoding and serialization unit 24.

FIG. 5 also shows the reception device in its time division multiplexing version by first integrating, for the sake of compatibility, the same type of duplexer 10 as that suitable for the frequency division multiplexing version described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2 , since it must always be possible to separate from the digital transmission signal 25 the analog phonic BF signal 8 of the microphone 2 when the latter is connected to the wired link 1 without the insertion of the remote control. In this case, the embodiment of the receiving device can then be improved by integrating the other functions specific to the embodiment of the frequency division multiplexing version to allow compatibility of operation of the receiving device with any type of transmission device connected to the wired link 1.

In the opposite case where it is simply desired to be able to connect to the wired link 1 a transmission device, which is only only of the time division multiplexing type, where only the digital transmission signal 25 passes on the wired link 1 when the remote control is inserted, it will be preferable to realize the reception duplexer 10 by a switching the wire link 1 which, in one position, outputs the analog phonic signal 8 of the microphone 2, and in the other, the digital transmission signal 25 thus dissociated, said switching being controlled according to the detection of the presence of said transmission device inserted on said wired link 1, detection means such as that 14 of Figure 3 previously cited and described.

A simple embodiment of said switching may be an electromechanical relay, given that most analog electronic switching integrated circuits do not generally guarantee a minimum level of thermal noise that is sufficient to avoid degrading signal-to-noise performance. audio frequencies of the differential amplifier 18 of the analog tone signal 8. In this embodiment of the reception duplexer 10 by pure switching, it is possible to connect on the wire link 1 via a "shock" self-inductance in series the same phantom power of the remote control as previously described with its various options corresponding to Figure 3.

A digital audio decoder circuit of the same format as that of the transmission device will restore the digital sound signal 22 as well as, through the "U-bit" time window when it is SPDIF, the serialized data 7 subsequently submitted. to the decoding unit 11 for restoring the data of the remote control 5. The decoding unit 4 and decoder SPDIF thus composes a decoding means of the digital transmission signal 26.

Preferably, an analog converter 27 will be added to reconvert the digital tone signal 22 coming from the digital transmission 25 into an analog tone signal 8 when, for example, the receiving device is integrated in this time-division multiplex version in an analog device such as a showroom mixing console. In reality, to obtain the same common 8 analog audio signal, it will be sufficient to add the one from the analog converter 27 of the transmission. 25 with the one from the duplexer 10 when the remote control is not inserted into the microphone connection 2.

Similarly, when this embodiment of the receiving device is integrated for example in a sound card external to a computer, it may be preferable to add a digital communication bus interface 23, type USB FireWire or other, to retransmit to a computer, a reader P3 or a mobile phone, a digital sound signal 22 associated with the data of the remote control 5, as described in the case of the frequency multiplexing version according to FIG.

In this case, it will also be preferable to add a selection means 28 for the right digital sound signal 22 to be retransmitted on the communication bus following the detection of the transmission device 17 inserted on the wired link 1 as described with reference to FIG. For this, an analog digital converter 21, with its implicit anti-aliasing functions of the audio signals, transforms the analog sound signal 8 from the duplexer 10 into a digital tone signal 22 which will then be switched by the selection means 28 with the digital sound signal 22 coming from the digital transmission 25.

Similarly to the frequency multiplexing version, it is also conceivable that the same digital communication bus interface 23 can be connected and shared between several receiving devices 10, 26, 21, 28.

Of course, the embodiment of the reception device shown in FIG. 5 in its time division multiplex version can be further improved by integrating the functions specific to the embodiment of the frequency division multiplexing version in order to allow said reception device to to decode both types of transmissions of the wired link which have just been described. It suffices to equip the device with receiving both the demodulator 29 according to Figure 2 and the SPDIF type digital audio decoder.

For example, it is possible to integrate the decoding means of the digital transmission signal 26, all with a decoding unit 11 capable in both cases of authenticating the validity of the serialized data 7 according to the criteria mentioned above in relation with FIGS. 2 concerning transmission coherences such as clock, stub and frame parity information before extracting and decoding the received data for restitution thereof.

FIG. 6 represents an alternative embodiment of the invention in its time division multiplex version of digital audio transmission in differential mode of the sound signal, where the reception device transmits in common mode on the wired link a synchronization clock signal that the transmitting device can extract to control the rate of said digital audio transmission, thus avoiding that the phonic signal digitized by the transmission device then requires the implementation of a method of changing the sampling frequency during it is restored by the reception device when it is desired to synchronize the digital audio transmission rate with that of, for example, an external digital communication bus, or to synchronize several transmission devices on the same sampling frequency of the sound signals.

In particular, the reception device represented here integrates the two time and frequency multiplexings to work with the two possible types of transmission devices. In addition to a differential digital audio transmission 25 with a common transmission of said synchronization clock signal 31 back on a wired link 1 consisting of at least three conductors, an embodiment designed for the classical case of a wired connection of three conductors, where it will also transmit in differential mode the analog phonic signal 8 of the microphone 2 connected without insertion of the remote control, and in common mode the modulated signal 30 of a frequency multiplex transmission device.

For this, the decoding means 26 of the digital transmission signal 25 generates from a synchronization setpoint information 35 a synchronization clock signal 31 to the reception duplexer 10. The embodiment of the duplexer 10 is based on around the model for frequency multiplexing with a double differential output, one low-pass filter side BF reproducing the analog sound signal 8, the other high-pass filter side HF returning the modulated signal .30 in common mode via an adder bridge two resistors of the same value.

As has been previously described for FIG. 3, it will be possible to keep the phantom power supply connected in a split manner to the differential output of said low-pass filter of the duplexer 10. The demodulator 20 receives said modulated signal 30 in order to restore the serialized data 7 when an analog phonic signal transmission device is frequency-multiplexed, is connected to the wired link 1. The decoding means 26 integrates the decoding unit 11 to extract from said serialized data 7 the data 5 of the remote control and produce a display information 36 attesting the good reception and decoding of the modulated signal 30.

Since a transmission device of the digital audio type, therefore with time division multiplexing, must also be able to connect to the wired link 1, the reception duplexer 10 integrates a differential amplifier with a video bandwidth of a few megahertz, which provides in common mode by decoding means 26 the digital transmission signal 25.

It will be possible to inject the synchronization clock signal 31 on the wire link 1 by means of a balanced resistive splitter connected on either side of the differential output HF of the duplexer 10, the midpoint of said splitter being the point of contact. injecting said signal. Preferably, the value of the two resistors said splitter to that of the characteristic impedance HF of the wired link 1.

Controlled in opposite switching mode, two electromechanical relays with coupled double switch may form an integral part of the reception duplexer 10, one inserted on the output side BF to silence the analog phonic signal 8 when the digital transmission signal 25 is relayed from the receiver. Another output side HF where, upstream, is always the resistive resistor bridge of the modulated signal 30.

Thus, regardless of the command 37 that will be applied to the two relays, the decoding unit 11, 26 can permanently monitor the absence or the presence on the wired link 1 of said modulated signal 30. And, depending on a information for detecting the presence 17 of a transmission device on the wired link 1, the decoding unit may activate said command 37 in the event of the presence information 17 detected and the absence of modulated signal reception 30, here by deduction the default case of a digital audio transmission device.

Once said command 37 is activated, the transmission on the wired link 1 of the synchronization clock signal 31 can then be started, a signal which, devoid of any modulating signal, can not be interpreted by the demodulator 20 in the wrong manner as being a modulated signal 30.

The so-called time-multiplexed digital audio transmission device includes a synchronization duplexer 32 for transmitting the digital transmission signal 25 in differential mode, extracting from the wired link 1 the received synchronization signal 33, and if necessary also extract the phantom power currents supplied by the receiving device.

The transmitting means 9 can be realized with an amplifier of a video-type bandwidth and provided with two symmetrical outputs in phase opposition with low impedance, each of said outputs being connected to the wired link via a link resistor. a value which can correspond to that of the characteristic impedance HF of the wired link 1.

A balanced resistive adder bridge on the wired link makes it possible to extract in common mode said received synchronization signal 33 before applying it to the coding and serialization unit 24. The encoding unit preferably integrates a circuit PLL phase lock loop for reconstituting from said received synchronization signal 33 a stabilized clock signal 34. The sampling and quantizing means 21 producing the digital tone signal 22 may receive this signal 33.

Specifically, the frequency of said stabilized clock signal 34, proportional to that of said received synchronization signal 33, may correspond to a multiple of the sampling frequency of the analog sound signal 8, and to a multiple of the bit rate of the digital transmission signal Such that the ratio between said bit rate and said sample rate corresponds to the number of bits of digital audio frames transmitted per audio sample, ie, for example 32 bits per monophonic sample for SPDIF type digital audio transmission.

On the receiving device side, said synchronization setpoint information 35 may be, for example and non-exhaustively, either an internal clock signal or an external clock signal of the type commonly referred to as "World Clock". with its 75-ohm BNC connector, or either synchronization signals from a digital communication bus interface such as a programmable microcontroller circuit incorporating a USB interface configured as an audio-class device with a control protocol the flows of the exchanges digital audio data on said USB bus.

Although the invention is a universal remote control that can be dedicated to any application, it is conceivable that part of the operation of said remote control is particularly dedicated to adjusting the audio parameters of the sound signal 8. For this, the receiving device includes a sound signal processing means 8 to be able for example to change the gain, tone or volume, and includes a control interface of said processing, which interface, integrated with the decoding unit 11, to control said parameters audio of the sound signal 8 according to a particular decoding of said data 5 of the remote control 3 of said transmitting device.

Thus, said control interface can interpret the keypad of the remote control 3 into adjustment commands after, for example, having been able to decode a first sequence of several keys pressed simultaneously to activate the "adjustment" mode before a second sequence allows the decoding unit 11 to leave the same mode.

By way of example, an integrated circuit capable of producing said processing means may be the TDA7439 circuit manufactured by the company ST Microelectronics, which has means for adjusting the gain, the volume, the low mid and high tone as well as the selection of the signal. sound with a multiplexing circuit with four analog inputs. In the case of frequency multiplexing, it is possible to directly insert said sound signal processing means 8 at the audio output of said reception duplexer 10, and more precisely just at the output of the adjustable gain differential amplifier 18. For the circuit TDA7439, said control interface integrated in the decoding unit 11 will be a master type I2C interface.

Preferably, if it is desired to be able to customize the device according to the invention by restricting the compatibility of all the possible connections of the same set of transmission devices to another set of reception devices, it will be possible to include in each device transmission of the same cryptographic process of the data of the remote control 5 which will then be decrypted by the same decryption method included in each receiving device of the same set.

For this, in the transmission device, the management and encoding unit of the keyboard 4 may integrate said cryptographic method for scrambling the data of the remote control 5 with for example keys randomly generated and themselves scrambled, the set (keys + data) can then be encoded in said serialized data 7.

In the receiving device, the decoding unit 11 can integrate a decryption method of said transmitted keys in said serialized data 7. Once decrypted, said keys can then be used to the same decryption method to decrypt said data of the remote control 5 to from said serialized data 7 transmitted.

From a practical point of view, when using the device according to the invention on a show stage, it is preferable to equip the transmission device with a means of carrying it on oneself, for example by carrying a shoulder strap or well equipped. Velcro ™ or Velcro strips to attach to a hand-held body at arm's length for easy and effortless access to the remote control keypad 3 with the free hand that does not hold the microphone. This prevents acoustic propagation, the mechanical noise of actions on the keypad keys of the remote control to the microphone membrane by physically separating the remote control microphone handheld.

Claims

A universal remote control device for a wired microphone (2) comprising an output wired link (1) allowing use of the wired link of said microphone (2) for transmitting both the data of said remote control and the sound signal of said microphone , and in order to allow the use of said microphone (2) without said remote control by transmitting at least in this case said sound signal analogically on said wire link (1), characterized in that it comprises inserted on said wired link :

a transmitting device (3, 4, 6, 9) connectable to said microphone (2) and comprising a remote control keyboard (3), and including a unit (4) for managing and encoding said keyboard (3) for analyzing and serializing the data of said remote control, means for simultaneously transmitting (6) said serialized data with the sound signal (8) of said microphone (2), and transmission means (9) of the resultant on said wired link, and

a reception device (10, 11, 12) including a duplexer (10) for reproducing said analog audio signal (8) and dissociating it from said serialized data, a decoding unit (11) of said data, and at least one means ( 12) for restoring said decoded data.

Device according to claim 1, characterized in that the receiving device (10, 11, 12) includes a power supply unit (13) with means for transmitting a power source via said wire connection (1) to said power supply device. emission (3, 4, 6, 9) in order to supply the latter with energy.

Device according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the receiving device (10, 11, 12) includes means (14) for detecting the presence of said transmitting device (3, 4, 6, 9). inserted on said wired link (1).

Device according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the receiving device (10, 11, 12) includes a display means (15). the presence of said transmitting device (3, 4, 6, 9) inserted on said wire link (1).

5. Device according to claim 3 or 4, characterized in that the receiving device (10, 11, 12) includes a load impedance switching unit (16) of said wired link (1) controlled according to the detecting the presence of said transmitting device (3, 4, 6, 9) inserted on said wire link (1).

6. Device according to claim 5, characterized in that the receiving device (10, 11, 12) includes an amplification unit of said sound signal (8) with an adjustable gain controlled according to the detection of the presence of said device transmission (3, 4, 6, 9) inserted on said wired link (1).

7. Device according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that said sound signal (8) is transmitted in differential mode with said serialized data transmitted in common mode on said wire link (1) when it consists of at least three electrical conductors.

8. Device according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that said transmitting device (3, 4, 6, 9) includes a modulator (19) of said serialized data before transmitting simultaneously with said sound signal, and in that said receiving device (10, 11, 12) includes a demodulator (20) for reproducing said serialized data preceding a decoding unit (11).

9. Device according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the receiving device (10, 11, 12) includes a means for sampling and quantizing (21) said analog sound signal (8) from said duplexer ( 10) to convert it into a digital voice signal (22), and a digital communication bus interface (23) for retransmitting said remote control data with said digital voice signal (8).

10. Device according to any one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that said transmitting device (3, 4, 6, 9) includes a means for sampling and quantizing (21) of said analog phonic signal (8). ) of said microphone (1) to convert it to a digital tone signal, and an encoder unit (24) for serializing said digital tone signal and transmitting it simultaneously with said remote control data into a digital transmission signal (22), and in that the receiving device (10, 11, 12) includes means (26) for decoding said digital transmission signal from said duplexer (10) and extracting the digital sound signal (22) therefrom and disconnecting said data from the remote control .

11. Device according to claim 10, characterized in that the receiving device (10, 11, 12) includes means (27) for reconverting in analog form said digital sound signal (22).

Device according to claim 10 or 11, characterized in that the duplexer (10) of the receiving device (10, 11, 12) outputs the analog tone signal (8) by switching the wire link (1) for the dissociating from the digital transmission signal (25), said switching being controlled according to the detection of the presence of said transmitting device (3, 4, 6, 9) inserted on said wire link (1).

13. Device according to any one of claims 10 to 12, characterized in that the receiving device (10, 11, 12) includes means for transmitting in common mode on said wired link (1) a clock signal. of synchronization, and in that the transmitting device (3, 4, 6, 9) includes means for extracting said clock signal, and means for controlling, as a function of said clock signal, the bit rate of said signal of digital transmission (22) transmitted in differential mode on said wired link (1) when it consists of at least three electrical conductors.

14. Device according to any one of claims 1 to 8 and 10 to 13, characterized in that the receiving device (10, 11, 12) includes a digital communication bus interface (23) for retransmission of said data from the remote control.

15. Device according to any one of claims 10 to 13, characterized in that the receiving device (10, 11, 12) includes a means for sampling and quantizing (21) said analog sound signal (8) from said duplexer (10) for converting to a digital voice signal (22), means (28) for selecting the digital voice signal (22) and a digital communication bus interface (23) for retransmitting said data of the remote control with said digital sound signal (22) selected.

Device according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the receiving device (10, 11, 12) includes means for setting the audio parameters from the transmission device (3, 4, 6, 9). sound signal 8.

Device according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the transmitting device (3, 4, 6, 9) includes a rotary displacement slider.

18. Device according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the transmission device

(3, 4, 6, 9) includes a touch-sensitive sensor.

Device according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the transmitting device (3, 4, 6, 9) includes a cryptographic method of the data of the remote control 5, and in that the receiving device ( 10, 11, 12) includes a method of decrypting said data.

20. Device according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that said transmitting device (3, 4, 6, 9) is equipped with means for carrying it on oneself.