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The present invention relates generally to a method and apparatus for streaming musical and other similar performance content particularly to users having unreliable wireless connections.
Live streaming, where a musical performance is delivered in real-time or near real-time (for example from an archive) over the Internet to a geographically dispersed audience, provides great promise in allowing artists to connect with and cultivate fans in situations where attending a live performance is not practical. In a live streaming event, a performance may be captured using digital audio and video equipment and broadcast over the Internet using a standard such as HTTP live streaming (HLS) receivable by a wide variety of web browsers, media players, and mobile devices. HLS and similar standards provide the ability to send data at different bit rates according to the bandwidth of the receiving device, for example, providing higher bandwidths to high-speed wire or fiber connections and lower bandwidths to mobile devices operating through cellular telephone connections or weak Wi-Fi connections.
In this latter case, the signal can be substantially compressed or limited, significantly affecting the user's experience. Such bandwidth limitations are normally associated with mobile devices without wire connections; however, such devices are increasingly preferred for streaming, substantially affecting the user experience of a substantial percentage of music fans.
The problems of low bandwidth associated with wireless connections are anticipated to be remedied somewhat with new 5G communication protocols; however, such protocols are not currently widely available nor are likely to be available to a wide range of individuals in the near future.
The present inventor has recognized that a user's perception of streaming quality of a musical performance is disproportionately affected by the audio quality as compared to the video quality. That is, with high audio quality, the video quality of the streaming performance may be substantially reduced with limited or no effect on enjoyment.
The present invention accordingly provides a compression protocol offering different encoded bit rates for audio and video that provide successively greater compression of the video signal when the user's bandwidth is limited in favor of retaining the highest quality (least compression) of the audio channel. This is of particular importance because the video bandwidth is often many times that required by the audio bandwidth for the same degree of compression, and so the necessary degree of compression for the wireless channel can be achieved primarily with video compression or reduction. The invention can work within the existing HLS standard thus eliminating the need to modify a large installed base of media players on consumer devices.
These particular objects and advantages may apply to only some embodiments falling within the claims and thus do not define the scope of the invention.
Referring now to
The stream server 24 may provide an encoded stream 28 of the video and audio data via the Internet 26 to a variety of end-user devices 30a-30d representing, for example, cell phones, tablets, home theater systems, and desktop personal computers. Each of the devices 30 may have different capabilities in terms of processing power and display resolution, for example, providing screen sizes that vary between 1920×1080 pixels for high definition video display and 426×240 pixels for a small cell phone. Likewise, each of the devices 30 may be associated with a different wireless or wired channels 32, limiting the bandwidth receivable from the Internet 26 (for example, ranging from a cable or optical fiber connection, through Wi-Fi) driven by the communication protocols, various signal strengths, and possibly intermittent connections.
In one embodiment, the encoded stream 28 may adopt a standard such as HTTP Live Streaming (HLS), a standard developed by Apple, Inc., or MPEG-DASH, a separate standard, that allows adaptive bit rate streaming that can accommodate both different devices 30 and different channels 32. Referring to
Referring also to
In the ladder table 36, bit rates may vary, for example, between 365 kb per second to 7800 kb per second for high definition displays over good Internet connections. Audio bit rates may vary between 32-60 kb per second, for example, for basic stereo using the AAC codec. In part because the rungs of the ladder table 10 are to be designated by device display capabilities, cell phones having lesser display sizes will tend to have higher audio and video compression. The present invention, however, loads the ladder table 36 with a high audio bit rate for all rungs of the ladder despite the fact that this high rate takes a substantial portion of the bit rate for low rungs. Generally, this high bit rate may be above the minimum bit rate for the codec and above 100 kb per second.
Referring again to
As the experience of the playing device 30 changes, for example, in a car moving in and out of cell phone tower range, the device 30 may switch between the stream files 48. In the present invention, as the bandwidth of the channel 32 degrades, however, audio bandwidth is preserved over video bandwidth.
The invention contemplates that the stream server 24 may also archive the resulting stream by either archiving the entire ladder or a high bit rate ladder rung which can be later demultiplex into the ladder.
Referring now to
At process block 54 the stream server 20 then begins streaming the data to the given mobile or remote device, waiting for possible bandwidth updates from that device per process block 56. Upon such an update request, the program returns to process block 52 again to consult the ladder table 36. Otherwise, streaming continues with a monitoring of whether the program has ended per process block 58, after which the program thread may again review requests for streams
It is specifically intended that the present invention not be limited to the embodiments and illustrations contained herein and the claims should be understood to include modified forms of those embodiments including portions of the embodiments and combinations of elements of different embodiments as come within the scope of the following claims. All of the publications described herein, including patents and non-patent publications, are hereby incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.
This application claims the benefit of U.S. provisional application 63/368,117 filed Jul. 11, 2022 and hereby incorporated by reference.
Number | Date | Country | |
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63368117 | Jul 2022 | US |