431results about "Distribution switching arrangements" patented technology

In embodiments, the present invention provides a method and system for delivery of content on a mobile media platform, providing an automated tag processing facility, and delivering content to a mobile device, wherein content delivery is based at least in part on the automated tag processing.

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.

In embodiments, the present invention provides method and system for determining if an existing pass log may be reused. The method may include associating an existing pass log with an encoding profile. The method may further include computing with a processor a signature for the encoding profile and for a target encoding profile. The method may include comparing with the processor at least a portion of the two signatures and based on a result of the comparing, storing in a processor accessible memory at least one of an indication that the pass log file may be used in conjunction with the target encoding profile and an indication that the pass log file cannot be used in conjunction with the target encoding profile.

A method of and apparatus for allowing a user using a communications device to interact with first media material that is broadcast on a first broadcast channel y a first broadcast media source and second media material that is broadcast on a second broadcast channel by a second broadcast media source, the first media material and the second media material include a first media item and a second media item, respectively, the first media item and the second media item are associated with a first representation of the first media item and a representation of the second media item, respectively, that are received and presented by a broadcast reception device while the broadcast reception device is tuned to a third broadcast channel. The method includes maintaining in a temporary storage an item identifier, the item identifier identifies one of a first media item-related information and a second media item-related information. Additionally, when the broadcast reception device is tuned to the third broadcast channel and presents the first representation of the first media item, the method includes providing the item identifier as a basis for identifying the first media item-related information, the first media item-related information is a basis for a response to an interactivity activation made in reaction to presentation of the first representation of the first media item by the broadcast reception device. When the broadcast reception device is tuned to the third broadcast channel and presents the first representation of the second media item, the method includes providing the item identifier as a basis for identifying the second media item-related information, the second media item-related information is a basis for a response to an interactivity activation made in reaction to presentation of the representation of the second media item by the broadcast reception device.

A system for providing broadcasting services is disclosed. The system includes a digital channel database for storing a program from a broadcaster; a computer network for accessing and distributing the program as a data stream; a tower controller for receiving the program data stream from the computer network; and at least one transmitter selected by the tower controller to receive the data stream and to broadcast the program to end-user receivers.

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 system and method is provided for use in connection with delivering content that is targeted to users of a broadcast network. In order to select content that is targeted to users of the broadcast network, signals are received from a plurality of customer premise equipment devices (CPEs) of the network users via a broadcast network interface. Based on the received signals, broadcast assets (e.g., programming, advertisements etc.) are selected from a collection of available asset options. Accordingly, at least a portion of the selected assets are inserted into a content stream of the broadcast network. Once the content stream is broadcast over a broadcast network interface, at least a portion of the selected assets area available for receipt by at least a portion of the CPEs. The CPEs generate reports regarding assets delivered such that asset providers can be billed based on guaranteed targeted impressions.

A digital broadcasting system capable of causing any of physical channels selected by a broadcaster to be received as one of the channels available to users which is different from the physical channel selected by the broadcaster. For each of programs of each of the channels available to said users, a program information record comprising PSI (program specific information) is stored in a data base. The broadcaster is permitted to include, in the PSI, channel mapping information whose mapping destination is a channel (or a program) to be received instead of the channel for which said program information is intended. The program information records is inserted in broadcast transport streams on schedule and, if necessary, immediately after the broadcaster have included the channel mapping information in the PSI data.

A broadcast receiving apparatus, related apparatus and operation methods, and broadcast and telecommunications signals arranged to support selection and receipt of both radio frequency broadcast and webcast channels in a single device. Handoff between radio frequency broadcast and webcast channels may be automated using information carried in broadcasts and/or telecommunications signals or both.

A current mobile multimedia signal time slice is captured using a mobile MM receiver in response to a current mobile multimedia stream-identifying command input. The current mobile multimedia signal time slice contains at least one portion of a currently selected mobile multimedia stream. At least one anticipated mobile multimedia time slice is selectively captured. The at least one anticipated mobile multimedia time slice contains at least one portion of a corresponding anticipated mobile multimedia stream.

In communication transmitting a first stream (intermittent data portion) for burst transmission of packet sets and a second stream (continuous data portion) for transmitting packets at a speed determined by the transmission rate required for the service, the second stream related to the selected service is received and reproduced for the selected service when a service is selected until intermittent data transmitted in the first stream can be received, and reception and playback of the first stream begins when transmission of the intermittent data for the selected service in the first stream begins.

A switched digital video (SDV) system includes an SDV manager for coordinating SDV sessions requested by subscriber terminals associated with at least one service group. The SDV system also includes an input for receiving content to be delivered during the SDV sessions and at least one edge device for receiving transport streams that include an SDV program provided by the input and for transmitting each transport stream over an access network to at least one of the subscriber terminals on one of a plurality of SDV channels. In response to receipt of a message from a subscriber terminal in a first service group indicating that an EAS event is occurring, the SDV manager is configured to suspend reclamation of network resources allocated to the first service group which otherwise occurs when subscriber terminals tune off an SDV channel.

An apparatus for providing a supplementary function of digital multimedia broadcasting includes a control unit that receives a selected instruction message for a digital multimedia broadcasting signal input by a user, a demodulating unit that receives a digital multimedia broadcasting signal corresponding to the selected instruction message by using at least one tuner, a reception sensitivity confirming unit that confirms the reception sensitivity of the received digital multimedia broadcasting signal, and a determining unit that determines whether the received digital multimedia broadcasting signal is output in accordance with the confirmed reception sensitivity.

Aspects of the invention are directed to service discovery in a digital broadcast network. A service discovery descriptor, which may be electronic service guide-provider and cell specific, provides mapping between a service identifier, a logical channel identifier, and a physical channel, which may be characterized by a frame identifier and a slot identifier, that is, each physical channel may have one or more slots within one or more frames. A neighboring service discovery descriptor provides mapping for the service available within neighboring cells. Aspects of the invention are directed to an encapsulation protocol that encapsulates variable length data, including, but not limited to, the service discovery descriptor and the neighboring service discovery descriptor, into fixed length data stream packets.

A technique for controlling the distribution of content via broadcast bearers and non-broadcast bearers is described. A method embodiment of this technique includes the steps of providing a plurality of content channels, each content channel being associated with at least one of a first bearer type and a second bearer type, maintaining mapping information for the content channels, the mapping information being indicative of the bearer associations between content channels and bearer types, and controlling content distribution in accordance with the associations between content channels and bearer types.

An apparatus for receiving and processing a broadcast signal in a mobile broadcasting terminal is provided. A preprocessor receives a broadcast signal, converts the broadcast signal into a baseband signal, and then performs OFDM demodulation, Viterbi decoding, and convolutional deinterleaving thereon. A first Reed-Solomon (RS) decoder RS-decodes the signal output from the preprocessor, and outputs a Transport Stream (TS) packet. A checker checks Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) of the TS packet. A datagram extractor extracts a datagram having a good CRC result. A datagram controller receives the datagram having a good CRC result and outputs the received datagram to an application controller. The application controller decodes the broadcast data using the datagram received from the datagram controller and provides the decoded broadcast data to a user.

A wireless communication system is enhanced to allow for low-latency channel surfing and to enable a user to quickly see the content carried over a selected channel while searching channels for desired content. The techniques for reducing the channel change latency may be implemented in a transmitter, receiver, or in a combination of transmitter and receiver. The wireless communication system is optionally a DVB-H communication system. The transmitter may generate and transmit one or more auxiliary channels, where each auxiliary channel contains reduced resolution content corresponding to one or more channels. The receiver may process the one or more auxiliary channels to present the reduced resolution content while processing the full resolution channel for display. The receiver caches portions of content from one or more non-selected channels and presents the cached content when the channel is selected while concurrently searching and processing the full resolution channel content.