The present invention relates to a content management system that allows delivery of program content in several time frames while also managing the user's available viewing of the program content based on a categorization of the content.
In multicast and broadcast applications, data are transmitted from a server to multiple receivers over wired and/or wireless networks. A multicast system as used herein is a system in which a server transmits the same data to multiple receivers simultaneously, where the receivers form a subset of all the receivers up to and including all of the receivers. A broadcast system is a system in which a server transmits the same data to all of the receivers simultaneously. That is, a multicast system by definition can include a broadcast system.
Kwon describes advance delivery with a scheduled playback time but has no advance viewing. The advance delivery of Kwon is only in the context of augmentation information not the entire content. Merrill, Wiser, Watson and Song describe time opportunistic content delivery in non-real time. Merrill describes non-real time delivery of content with real-time viewing of the content. Wiser describes broadcasting some of the content and using methods other than broadcast, such as unicast, for delivery of other portions of the content. Wiser enables an affiliate that has received at least a portion of corrupted or missing programming content to repair or reconstruct the programming content before distributing or broadcasting to viewers, by forming a peer to peer network among the affiliates and the affiliate and broadband distribution system. Watson provides viewers access to a library of movies, or any other audio/video content available for viewing at anytime. The content is pushed by the service provider to set top boxes in users's premises and available for a specified period of time. Song provides for non-real time (time opportunistic) transfer of content to a user (user's premises) for later real-time reproduction. No known prior art teaches or suggests advance delivery with a scheduled playback time and advance viewing permitted.
As used herein program content (also simply called “content” herein) may be audio content, video content or a combination of audio and video content or may be multimedia content of any sort that can be broadcast, multicast or unicast over wireless or wired lined communication systems. New broadcast content delivery mechanisms permit delivery of program content at a rate faster than it is consumed. Some content may be advantageously delivered at off-peak times. However, some content may need to be controlled so that an earlier receipt of the content does not necessarily also allow earlier consumption. Such a scenario exists with content that is delivered for a wide audience to provide feedback (e.g., reality or game/contest shows or season premieres). The present invention provides a solution to this type of problem.
New approaches to broadcast content delivery mechanisms (e.g., ATSC 3.0) permit delivery of content in more than one timing scenario. The present invention relates to a content management system that allows delivery of content in several time frames while also managing the user's available viewing of the content based on a categorization of the content.
A method for a content provider to manage broadcast content including selecting content to be broadcast, determining a category of the selected content, tagging the selected content and transmitting the tagged selected content to a content aggregator for broadcasting. Also described is a method for a content aggregator to broadcast content including receiving selected content from a content provider, determining when to broadcast the selected content and determining whether to broadcast any part of the selected content prior to a schedule time and broadcasting the selected content responsive to the determining step.
The present invention is best understood from the following detailed description when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. The drawings include the following figures briefly described below:
The new ATSC 3.0 standard is being discussed and worked on with the goal of broadening connectivity in home and at the link layer. Other goals include audio and video compression. ATSC 3.0 is also looking at variations of MPEG. The goal is to capture or re-capture the broadcast audience. A digital connection, such as a network connection between the Internet and the receiver device would be useful for the user.
The principal thrust is for in home devices rather than small (mobile) devices. The present invention may further take advantage of the broadcasters cooperating together using a single orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) band. In such a broadcast network, a plurality of transmitters simultaneously broadcast the same signal over the same frequencies. This would give broadcasters a very large shared channel and, using the currently available broadcast antennas, improve multipath insensitivity. This would have the effect of essentially making the broadcasters into content providers and possibly create a new entity whose sole purpose was to transmit the content supplied by the broadcasters (content providers) over the single channel. This would have the further effect of increasing the bandwidth available to each of the broadcasters (content providers). Such a scheme would also eliminate co-channel issues as well as near/far issues. Near/far issues result in some markets because transmission (broadcast) antenna placement may be too far for some customers. In such a situation, customers (users/receivers) living on one side of town receive broadcast transmissions from certain channels but may want to view other channels having transmission (broadcast) antennas on the other side of town to no avail. The content aggregator would be the new entity, the ownership of which might be vested in the content providers based on some equitable arrangement such as audience share. Legal issues would have to be addressed.
As a result, the content delivery mechanism may be able to deliver media content at a rate that easily exceeds the consumption rate of consumers. In other words, non-real time content (regular television programming) could be delivered (broadcast) to customer premises, which may include businesses, earlier than the scheduled time slot. Some content must remain delivered in real time (sports events, news). Still other content may be delivered ahead of time but not consumed (available to the user) until the scheduled time slot (reality shows, games, contests, and the like which involve audience participation). Finally, still other programming may be delivered untimed, or opportunistically. The user is then notified that this programming is available. The entire structure also relies on a media storage system, such as a hard drive, in order to “temporarily” store and maintain the delivered content. The content may also be delayed in consumption if desired. Content could be tagged in some manner based on the four possible categories. Tagging, for example, may be metadata or part of the program description.
The four categories are:
Supplementing the aggregation of content through a network interface is also a possibility. Possible interfaces include wired or wireless Ethernet and Multimedia over Coax Alliance (MoCA). If networking interfaces are available, it could be possible to speed up the downloading of content by using these interfaces in addition to the wideband tuner that is used to gather the terrestrial broadcast data. If networking interfaces are available and connected, they could be put to use, though they would have to be supplemental interfaces due to the nature of the customer premises equipment (CPE) (e.g. if the user does not have access to the Internet, the CPE would still need to function in the way described in this document). There is also the possibility that an interface exists and is connected but is currently in use for another purpose (e.g. watching a video from the home network over Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA)).
The media storage system (e.g. HDD) would need to have some sort of management system (most likely driven by the UI of the EPG) to maintain recorded material for later viewing. Unlike a traditional PVR, much of the content in this system would be recorded by the system in order to fulfill future programming (effective real time and non-real time content) and “on demand” programming (opportunistic content) needs. In the case where the storage system space is limited, there is a need to manage the deletion of unwanted content. This could be done using a conventional algorithm, based on content type and status (whether the program in question has already passed its timeslot requirements or the oldest “on demand” content that has been stored). In addition, it may be possible to provide to the user the ability to flag what types of content to keep or delete, based on content metadata (such as genre) or even based on program or episode title. It may be possible to give the user as much or as little control as desired by the management system creator. There are many limitations regarding what may be recorded, including but not limited to: total space of the storage system; available space on the storage system; and availability of interfaces to get data from (in the case of limits on the available bandwidth of the wideband tuner or availability of a networking interface to supplement data loading). Management storage system(s) may be made available free as downloads or for a nominal fee or a monthly fee.
The data coming into the CPE could also contain supplemental information, possibly in the form of additional packet headers or as proprietary/open EPG data. This information could contain fields that help the storage system such as the dates of broadcast (which could be helpful to tell when non-real time or opportunistic content will be finished loading), the dates/times when the content is to be displayed (including the first time of display as well as future times of display, which can be used to determine when content is free to be deleted instead of deleting and re-downloading content for a future display). This will also help to keep fragmentation down on the storage system. Even a date/time that the broadcaster (content provider) wishes the CPE to stop storing the content (potentially requiring deletion regardless of the CPE's own storage settings) can override the CPE management storage system.
In the case of non-real time and effective real time content, it is very likely that it will be required to rebroadcast the content at the time the program is intended to be “live.” If there is an error in the storage procedure, it should still be possible for the user to watch a show that is listed in the EPG, just as they do now. If the program has already been recorded, the rebroadcast packets may be dropped and the program watched from the storage medium or the program may be watched live but not re-recorded or the program may be watched live and re-recorded and the previous recording deleted. This may be an interesting scenario due to the possibility that different advertising may be included at different broadcast times.
The broadcast procedure may be done using an algorithm to determine when a program is broadcast. It is quite likely that the same program may be broadcast many times in order to mitigate any issues in the recording process. It is possible that some content may be rebroadcast more than others, based on the preference of the broadcasters (shows that the broadcaster wants to make sure are properly recorded) or based upon some sort of perceived interest level, which could change based upon geographic location, for example. A program about hockey may be rebroadcast more often in the northern half of the country where the sport is more popular. There may be other rebroadcasting algorithms as well, and the possibility of no rebroadcasting at all.
The design of the system will have to take into account limits on the various parts of the system. In particular, there are limits on the size/speed of the storage medium, limits on the amount of data that can be broadcast, limits on the types of broadcast (different systems could use different modulation methods, all of which the CPE could support—true for TV tuners now), limits on the bandwidth of the tuner(s), and limits on the processor in the CPE in general. The system as a whole will have to take these limits into account and provide a base set of specifications that must be met in order to comply. Things like the content management algorithm mentioned above would help these “base” systems, while systems that exceed the base will have more ability, much the same as many current consumer electronics products.
It is to be understood that the present invention may be implemented in various forms of hardware, software, firmware, special purpose processors, or a combination thereof. Special purpose processors may include application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), reduced instruction set computers (RISCs) and/or field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). Preferably, the present invention is implemented as a combination of hardware and software. Moreover, the software is preferably implemented as an application program tangibly embodied on a program storage device. The application program may be uploaded to, and executed by, a machine comprising any suitable architecture. Preferably, the machine is implemented on a computer platform having hardware such as one or more central processing units (CPU), a random access memory (RAM), and input/output (I/O) interface(s). The computer platform also includes an operating system and microinstruction code. The various processes and functions described herein may either be part of the microinstruction code or part of the application program (or a combination thereof), which is executed via the operating system. In addition, various other peripheral devices may be connected to the computer platform such as an additional data storage device and a printing device.
It is to be further understood that, because some of the constituent system components and method steps depicted in the accompanying figures are preferably implemented in software, the actual connections between the system components (or the process steps) may differ depending upon the manner in which the present invention is programmed. Given the teachings herein, one of ordinary skill in the related art will be able to contemplate these and similar implementations or configurations of the present invention.
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
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PCT/US13/34263 | 3/28/2013 | WO | 00 |