Program transmission optimisation.

A SYSTEM AND A METHOD TO OPTIMIZE THE TRANSMISSION OF A PROGRAM TO MULTIPLE USERS OF A DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM, WITH PARTICULAR APPLICATION TO THE VIDEO DEMAND FOR A CATV NETWORK (36). THE SYSTEM INCLUDES, IN A FINAL TREATMENT OF THE CATV NETWORK (36), A PROGRAMMING AND RUNNING COMPUTER (30) TO DIVIDE THE STORED VIDEO PROGRAM IN A FAST LONG STORAGE STORAGE (16) OR IN A QUICK STORAGE STORAGE (18), IN A VARIETY OF PROGRAM SEGMENTS, AND A DISTRIBUTION NODE TO SUBSCRIBERS (24) TO TRANSMIT PROGRAM SEGMENTS IN A REDUNDANT SEQUENCE ACCORDING TO A PROGRAMMING ALGORITHM. IN A RECEIVER (40) OF THE CATV NETWORK (36) A MEMORY BUFFER (42) IS PROVIDED TO STORE THE VIDEO PROGRAM SEGMENTS TRANSMITTED FOR SUBSEQUENT REPRODUCTION, BY WHICH IN USE, THE PROGRAMMING ALGORITHM CAN ENSURE THAT RECEIVER OF A USER (40) WILL RECEIVE ALL THE PROGRAM SEGMENTS THAT ALLOWS A REPRODUCTION OF THE CONTINUOUS AND REAL-TIME PROGRAM. UNDER THE CONTROL OF A CONTROLLER (52), THE RECEIVER (40) DISTINGUISHES THE PROGRAM SEGMENTS RECEIVED BY A SEGMENT IDENTIFIER, SO THAT THE REDUNDANT SEGMENTS CAPTURED IN THE CAPTURE MEMORY (46) ARE STORED THEN IN A MEMORY BUFFER ( 42), FROM WHICH THE SEGMENTS CAN BE RECOVERED AND UNPRESSED IN A DATA DECOMPRESSOR (50) FOR IMMEDIATE OR REAR VIEW.