Video modem for transmitting video data over ordinary telephone wires

摘要

An apparatus and method is provided for modulating and transmitting full-motion, television-quality color video signals along with digital data signals over a pair of ordinary unshielded twisted pair telephone wires without interfering with normal telephone data on the wires. The invention is characterized by a transmission method involving frequency modulation of a baseband video signal and subsequent filtering to suppress an upper sideband corresponding to a color component of the original video signal. The filtered signal is received from the telephone wires at a different location, filtered, demodulated and provided to a display device. Full-duplex operation over the same pair of wires is possible, such that two video signals may be simultaneously transmitted, each signal having an approximate bandwidth of 6 MHz and shifted to a desirable non-interfering frequency location within the approximately 20 MHz of usable bandwidth on the telephone wires. No pre-emphasis or de-emphasis is required to achieve good quality video transmission. The system has many applications including video distribution, conferencing, and communications.