Patent ID: 8483239

Claim:
An internet protocol (IP) broadcast system comprising: a transmitting side which converts a plurality of transport streams (TSs) into a plurality of real-time transport protocol (RTP) packets for IP network transmission, and transmits the converted plurality of RTP packets to a broadcast network on an IP network, the TS including packet structures different in program and reproduction clock, wherein the transmitting side comprises a multiplexer which multiplexes the converted plurality of RTP packets to generate a standardized multiplex frame including at least a header field and an information field, and wherein the multiplexer comprises: a plurality of input buffers configured to temporarily store the plurality of RTP packets for each program; a rate detector which detects a transmission rate of each of the plurality of RTP packets; an arithmetic unit to determine a delay amount based on a buffer occupation amount of each of the plurality of input buffers, and read out the plurality of RTP packets from the corresponding plurality of input buffers based on the delay amount, wherein the arithmetic unit determines a program including the highest transmission rate as a master program among the plurality of programs based on a detection result of the rate detector, and multiplexes a plurality of corresponding RTP packets at a rate equal to a product of the transmission rate of the master program and the number of programs; a header generator which generates data of the header field of the multiplex frame based on the plurality of RTP packets; and an output buffer which stores the plurality of RTP packets and the data in the header field of the multiplex frame to output the multiplex frame; and a receiving side which receives the plurality of RTP packets from the broadcast network, extracts a reproduction clock from each of the plurality of RTP packets, and reproduces a program from the TS in each of the plurality of RTP packets based on the reproduction clock, wherein the receiving side comprises: a buffer which temporarily holds the multiplex frame received from the broadcast network; and a program reproducer which retrieves and analyzes the multiplex frame from the buffer, extracts the reproduction clock shared by the plurality of programs, demultiplexes a plurality of TSs for each program from the multiplex frame and reproduces the program from each TS based on the reproduction clock.