191results about "Broadcast information switching/replacement" patented technology

A system is described for maintaining synchrony of operations among a plurality of devices that have independent clocking arrangements. The system includes a task distribution device that distributes tasks to a synchrony group comprising a plurality of devices that are to perform the tasks distributed by the task distribution device in synchrony. The task distribution device distributes each task to the members of the synchrony group over a network. Each task is associated with a time stamp that indicates a time, relative to a clock maintained by the task distribution device, at which the members of the synchrony group are to execute the task. Each member of the synchrony group periodically obtains from the task distribution device an indication of the current time indicated by its clock, determines a time differential between the task distribution device's clock and its respective clock and determines therefrom a time at which, according to its respective clock, the time stamp indicates that it is to execute the task.

A viewer interface for a television program delivery system is described. The innovation relates to methods and devices for viewer pathways to television programs. Specifically, the interface involves hardware and software used in conjunction with a television at the viewer home to create a user friendly menu based approach to television program access. The device is particularly useful in a program delivery system with hundreds of programs and a data signal carrying program information. The disclosure describes menu generation and menu selection of television programs.

A technique for allocating bandwidth in a digital broadband delivery system (DBDS) using a bandwidth allocation manager to dynamically assign a content delivery mode to a plurality of digital transmission channels based on an allocation criteria received from a subscriber is disclosed herein. The bandwidth allocation manager determines a bandwidth allocation schedule for a predetermined bandwidth based on allocation criteria comprising a criteria received from a subscriber. The allocation criteria received from the subscriber may comprise a subscriber reservation request which is processed by the bandwidth allocation manager to determine the bandwidth allocation schedule.

A method and system for presenting targeted advertisements to a subscriber includes extracting probabilistic information about subscriber activities from one or more source and processing the probabilistic information about subscriber activities to generate a subscriber characterization vector.

A database of consumer profiles is generated from multiple sources of information including demographic databases identifying demographic attributes of the consumers and transaction records for the consumers. The transaction records are processed to generate transaction attributes and interests of the consumer. The consumer profiles identify deterministic and probabilistic attributes about the consumer, but do not contain privacy violating information such as raw transaction records. The consumer profiles may be maintained in a plurality of distributed databases. Advertisers generate profiles that identify attributes of an intended target market of the advertisement. The advertisement profiles are in the form of operators that can be applied to the database of consumer profiles to determine applicability of advertisements to the subscribers. The operators may only be applied to or make measurements on certain “observables”. The operators will not be able to obtain private information from the database of consumer profiles.

An expanded television program delivery system is disclosed which allows viewers to select television and audio program choices from a series of menus. Menus are partially stored in a set-top terminal in each subscriber's home. The menus may be reprogrammed by signals sent from a headend or from a central operations center. The system allows for a great number of television signals to be transmitted by using digital compression techniques. An operations center with computer-assisted packaging allows various television, audio and data signals to be combined, compressed and multiplexed into signals transmitted on various channels to a cable headend which distributes the signals to individual set-top terminals. Various types of menus may be used and the menus may incorporate information included within the video / data signal received by the set-top terminal. A remote control unit with icon buttons allows a subscriber to select programs based upon a series of major menus, submenus, and during program menus. Various billing and statistics gathering methods for the program delivery system are also disclosed.

A television signal substitution system that replaces standard video segments with selected replacement portions. Video segments such as advertisements are detected using techniques such as fingerprinting or manual detection. The detected video segment is replaced with a selected replacement portion and output to an output device.

An ad in a movie can be a static ad having a position in the movie that cannot be moved, or a dynamic ad having a position in the movie that can be changed. When a viewer of the movie wishes to skip a portion of the movie containing the ad, the playback system determines whether the ad is static or dynamic. If the ad is static, then only the portion of the movie preceding the static ad can be skipped, that is, the ad is unskippable; this technique is referred to as “bounceback” since the end of the skip bounces back to the start of the static ad. If the ad is dynamic, then the ad is moved to after the end of the skip; this technique is referred to as “slip-ad” since the ad slips to later in the movie. When a movie has multiple ads, some can be static and some can be dynamic.

Various embodiments of the invention provide the ability for a subscriber to define personal broadcast channels. Such personal broadcast channels can allow a subscriber to define a play order for a plurality of sets of content (including without limitation video content, audio content, various alerts and / or other data, and the like). In some cases, the content might be on-demand content; in other cases, real-time content may be integrated as well. In an aspect, some embodiments thus provide a subscriber with heretofore unknown flexibility in determining what content, and in what order, the subscriber wishes to be provided (e.g., from a content provider's network). In some cases, this functionality might be provided by a networked personal video recorder. In other cases, a subscriber (or another) might be allowed to distribute (perhaps for a fee), a personal broadcast channel for use by others.

Advertising is marked with a code in a way which makes it difficult to fool the system. The advertising is marked with a code at the time the advertising is produced. Then, when the advertising is broadcast, the code on the advertising is analyzed. Different security measures can be used, including producing the code in the closed captioning so that many different people can see the code, or comparing codes in one part of the signal with a code in another part of the signal. Measures are taken to prevent the code from being used to detect commercials. According to another part of this system, a paradigm for a clearinghouse is disclosed in which the user signs up with the clearinghouse, obtains a line of credit, and the advertiser, the agency, and the ad producer also subscribe to the service. When the ad is actually aired, the payment can be automatically transferred.

Monitoring subscriber viewing interactions, such as television viewing interactions, and generating viewing characteristics therefrom. Generating at least one type of subscriber profile from at least some subset of subscriber characteristics including viewing, purchasing, transactions, statistical, deterministic, and demographic. The subscriber characteristics may be generated, gathered from at least one source, or a combination thereof. Forming groups of subscribers by correlating at least one type of subscriber profile. The subscriber groups may correlate to elements of a content delivery system (such as head-ends, nodes, branches, or set top boxes (STBs) within a cable TV system). Correlating ad profiles to subscriber / subscriber group profiles and selecting targeted advertisements for the subscribers / subscriber groups based on the correlation. Inserting the targeted ads in place of default ads in program streams somewhere within the content delivery system (head-end, node, or STB). Presenting the targeted ads to the subscriber / subscriber group via a television.

Content-based clustering, recognition, classification and search of high volumes of multimedia data in real-time. The invention is dedicated to real-time fast generation of signatures to high-volume of multimedia content-segments, based on relevant audio and visual signals, and to scalable matching of signatures of high-volume database of content-segments' signatures. The invention can be implemented in any applications which involve large-scale content-based clustering, recognition and classification of multimedia data, such as, content-tracking, video filtering, multimedia taxonomy generation, video fingerprinting, speech-to-text, audio classification, object recognition, video search and any other application requiring content-based signatures generation and matching for large content volumes such as, web and other large-scale databases.

A media presentation and distribution system includes a verification server that handles dynamic verification of playback of media assets on a client device. The client device receives an asset stream of media assets that comprises one or more tags embedded in the media assets. The client device detects an asset identifier associated with each of the media assets during playback of each media asset on the client device, based on identification of a tag of the one or more tags. The verification server verifies the playback of the media assets on the client device based on received support information from the client device. The playback of the media assets are verified to satisfy defined asset delivery criteria and to identify and debug a deviation or one or more errors with the playback of the media assets.

A novel multiple channel architecture is designed to allow targeted advertising directed to television terminals connected to an operations center or a cable headend. Advertisements are displayed during commercial breaks in the television programs. Such advertisements may be broadcast on the same channel as the television program. In addition, feeder channels may carry alternate advertising that may be better suited for certain viewing audiences. The operations center or the cable headend generate a group assignment plan that assigns the television terminals to groups, based on factors such as area of dominant influence, household income and other demographic data, and programs watched data gathered by the television terminals. A switching plan is then generated that instructs the television terminals to remain with the program channel or to switch to one of the alternate feeder channels during the program breaks. The television terminals record which channels were viewed during the program breaks, and report this information to the cable headends and the operations center. The reported information is used to generate billing for commercial advertisers, and to analyze viewer watching habits. The invention uses upstream data reception hardware, databases and processing hardware and software to accomplish these functions.

A “media stream customizer” customizes buffered media streams by inserting one or more media objects into the stream to maintain an approximate buffer level. Specifically, when media objects such as songs, jingles, advertisements, etc., are deleted from the buffered stream (based on some user specified preferences), the buffer level will decrease. Therefore, over time, as more objects are deleted, the amount of the media stream being buffered continues to decrease, thereby limiting the ability to perform additional deletions from the stream. To address this limitation, the media stream customizer automatically chooses one or more media objects to insert back into the stream, and ensures that the inserted objects are consistent with any surrounding content of the media stream, thereby maintaining an approximate buffer level. In addition, the buffered content can also be stretched using pitch preserving audio stretching techniques to further compensate for deletions from the buffered stream.

Content with a plurality of treatments, in the form of a movie, video, text, animation, music, etc., is stored on a network, each treatment having a storyline connection with all the other treatments. Subscribers to the content are classified in a subscriber tier based on subscription fee amounts. A top-level tier is capable of choosing a first and second sub-set of elements of a main presentation, e.g. a movie. The elements, in the example of a movie, may include characters and movie genre. Each subscriber's choice, within a tier, is registered and the majority of the top level determines a first element in the movie. Each subscriber in the second highest level is able to adjust the storyline, which includes a first element determined by the first tier, by choosing a second element. A further tier of subscribers views the content as determined by the higher level tiers.

A method and apparatus are provided for suppressing display of advertisements within a video over IP stream provided by a content provider. Metadata is prepended to advertisements within the stream. When the stream is received by an access aggregation point, the access aggregation point compares the metadata of an advertisement with preset criteria provided by an enterprise subscriber, and suppresses the advertisement if a comparison of the metadata and the preset criteria indicate that the advertisement is undesirable to the enterprise subscriber. The access aggregation point suppresses the advertisement by switching to a second video channel within the stream for the duration of the advertisement. In this way, the access aggregation point can control display of content provider advertisements without manipulating data within the stream, so as to allow the enterprise subscriber to prevent display of undesirable advertisements to endpoints within the enterprise subscriber site such as set-top boxes within hotel rooms.

A method and system whereby conventional television advertisements (i.e., those delivered to viewers while they watch television programming) can be delivered in conjunction with and correlated with advertisements that are presented to viewers in the Interactive Program Guide (IPG). Moreover, the invention described herein provides for delivering highly targeted ads to viewers in both conventional programming avails and in the IPG, and for linking the targeted ads in these two media to provide for enhanced and highly effective advertising campaigns.

A system and method for providing targeted advertising messages to a user, in particular users viewing Internal TV or broadcast programs. Advertising data files from one or more advertising entities are stored in a centralized location, such as a server or similar platform. Data relating to the user is acquired from the user's device settings and / or identification, so that a targeted advertising message may be selected from one of the stored advertising data files. The content data is transmitted to the user, the data having a cue for insertion of the selected targeted advertising message prior to or after the content file has been transferred.

A digital radio stores advertisements for substitution during a broadcast for a bumpable advertisement within the broadcast. Upon detecting a bumpable advertisement within a predetermined broadcast period, the digital radio checks for higher priority stored advertisements—such as advertisements which were broadcast when the digital radio was not tuned to the station being monitored—and substitutes advertisements according to a priority scheme. Prioritization includes whether the advertisement has been played to the listener at least once during the broadcast period, and may extend to fee-based priority enhancements and tie-breakers or to selection based upon geographic location and / or direction of travel of a vehicle in which the digital radio is located.

Exemplary systems and methods include a distribution device that maintains a clock rate and distributes a series of tasks to a group of execution devices. Each task has a plurality of samples per frame associated with a time stamp indicating when the task is to be executed. The execution devices execute the series of tasks at the times indicated and adjust the number of samples per frame in relation to the clock rate maintained by the distribution device.