System and method for media distribution

Abstract

To provide a method and a system that distribute audio instructions from an administrator site at a client site.SOLUTION: A method is so adapted that predetermined information for associating a plurality of labels with client site-specific identifiers of respective time schedules, audio zones and audio sources is accessed for one or each of a plurality of client sites, and a generalized audio instruction generates an audio instruction specialized for the one or each of the plurality of client sites by using the predetermined information, and the audio instruction specialized for the client site includes a client site-specific identifier associated with a plurality of labels in the generalized audio instruction. As final means for distributing audio instructions at the one or each of the plurality of client sites, the specialized audio instruction generated for the client site is executed.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 3

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention generally relates to the field of media distribution, and more particularly, to a method and system for distributing audio commands from an administrator site to a client site.

Background Art

[0002] The use of background music and audio announcements in retail is well established. Current state-of-the-art technology in music streaming has made it possible for most people to generate playlists relatively easily, at least in their private domains. However, in the case of retail chains, and in a commercial environment, the situation can be slightly more complex. Retail chains may include branches in different parts of a country or even in different countries, and the stores within the branches may be targeted at different customer segments or may include different departments. A simple example is a clothing retail chain. The chain may have stores in different countries on different continents. Each store may include clothing for men, women, teenagers, and children, located in different parts of the store. Musical preferences vary between countries, continents, and generations, and retail chains would like to add mixed public announcements that cater to these different preferences and are directed at all or some of the expected listeners. The type of music and what it conveys should be within the value range of the retail chain, and local rules and regulations regarding royalties should be complied with.

[0003] This makes it difficult for a central store to arrange the audio lists for all stores, i.e., most are done at the individual store level and are subject to the discretion of local staff. This is time-consuming for local staff and, for example, makes it difficult for the retail chain to ensure that all conditions are met with respect to corporate values and royalties.

[0004] Part of the problem and part of the solution are presented in U.S. Patent No. 7,945,636, which relates to a “multi-industry enterprise-level application” for delivering customizable music and advertising to remote retail stores. However, the presented solution lacks some of the desired flexibility and adaptability, and therefore the present invention aims to provide and improve upon the method. [Overview of the project]

[0005] Further features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent upon consideration of the appended claims and the following description. Those skilled in the art will understand that different features of the present invention can be combined without departing from the scope of the invention to create embodiments other than those described below.

[0006] According to a first aspect, the present invention provides the method described in claim 1. According to a second aspect, the present invention provides the device described in claim 10. Further embodiments of the present invention are disclosed in dependent claims.

[0007] Various aspects of the present invention, including their specific features and advantages, will be readily apparent from the following detailed description and accompanying drawings. [Brief explanation of the drawing]

[0008] [Figure 1] This conceptually illustrates a distribution audio system including an administrator site and multiple client sites, according to an embodiment. [Figure 2] This shows a model of the same invention. [Figure 3] A flowchart shows another embodiment of the present invention. [Modes for carrying out the invention]

[0009] A good starting point for understanding the present invention is to first observe it in terms of the objectives to be achieved. Subsequently, the nodes, such as the administrator site and the client site, are described, followed by a description of the flow from the administrator site to the client site. As is typical, the following description relates to one or more specific embodiments of the present invention, and some alternative forms or generalizations can be made without inventive step.

[0010] Figure 1 shows a system 100 in which embodiments of the present invention may be operational. Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of an administrator site 102 and three client sites 104A, 104B, and 104C connected to the administrator site 102 via a network 106 such as the Internet. The system 100 can be managed from a device at the administrator site 102. As described, this includes configuring the client sites 104A-104C, defining labels that are global in the audio system, and generating audio commands to play audio in one or more of the client sites 104A-104C. Each client site 104A-104C is associated with a site identifier that the administrator site 102 can deal with. The identifier may be, for example, in the form of a number or name of the client site. The client sites 104A-104C are remote from the administrator site 102 and may be located in different parts of a country, different countries, or different continents. However, typically they belong to the same store chain or the same organization, i.e., circumstances where there may be an advantage in streamlining audio delivery for reasons such as those described in the background technology section. Each client site contains several audio zones 108, 110, 112, and 114 (designated A, B, and C respectively), and each speaker symbol represents an individual audio zone. Each audio zone 108, 110, 112, and 114 of a client site is associated with a local identifier that the client site's local control unit (CU in Figure 2) can use to address audio zones 108, 110, and 112, for example, to play music in the audio zone. An audio zone typically consists of one or more (active IP) speakers and may be represented by a set of MAC addresses. The identifier of an audio zone may be a unique identifier (UID) of the set of MAC addresses.

[0011] The objective to be achieved by the present invention is to enable operators at management site 102 to deliver tailor-made audio or rather audio commands to each client site 104A-104C with minimal effort required.

[0012] This is achieved by the operator constructing generalized audio commands at administrator site 102, as detailed in the following paragraphs, and the generalized audio commands are filtered through local filters that adjust the generalized audio commands into tailor-made, dedicated audio commands for client sites 104A-104C. As a result, specific audio is played in target-specific zones 108-114 of each target-specific site. As a result, the schedules included in the audio commands will also be adapted to local operating hours and other locally defined priorities, as described below. An audio command is “dedicated” if it contains commands that are directly applicable to a particular client site. Specifically, the commands are interpretable to the client site, thereby enabling the command to be executed. An audio command is “generalized” if it contains commands that relate to one or more client sites, but the commands are not directly applicable to or interpretable to a particular client site. Specifically, instructions within generalized audio instructions are expressed with a higher level of generality than instructions within specialized audio instructions, and therefore need to be adapted for each client site so that the instructions are interpretable at the client site. For example, generalized audio instructions may be expressed in terms of categories of audio zones or audio sources, while specialized audio instructions may include identifiers for audio zones or audio sources at the client site.

[0013] In particular, as shown in Figure 1, different client sites include varying numbers of zones 108–114. In a real-world situation where client sites are associated in some organizational way, some zones will overlap in the sense that at least some zones in different client sites correspond to the same audio zone category, such as similar types of site areas. An example from the background art section relates to a retail chain where site areas containing clothing for different ages or genders may be zones, and is an easily recognizable example. While this is an example used herein, those skilled in the art will undoubtedly understand that the present invention can be useful as long as there are multiple sites, each having multiple zones.

[0014] The following delves a little deeper into the details of the invention, starting from the administrator site 102, where the system framework is controlled. Referring to Figure 2, which should be read in conjunction with the following table, the administrator site 102 is configured to include several sets of labels 120. These labels are global in the audio system and are common to the entire audio system 100. Some labels may be pre-existing in the software, but in principle, the user interface includes the possibility for the operator to add labels (or tags), as well as various logical extractions of labels (including groups of labels). Examples of this are shown in Tables 1-4 below. TIFF2023168255000002.tif79170

[0015] There are time labels (Table 1) that indicate time schedule categories and enable the creation of time schedules. A time schedule typically defines when audio should be played and is defined in general terms. For example, business hours may differ between different client sites, but this general instruction is specified later.

[0016] Additionally, there are labels indicating the location of client sites, known as "site labels," as shown in Table 2. The minimum building block of each site label is the name or identifier of the individual client site. However, these building blocks can be assembled according to different criteria to form site labels for client site categories. An example of this is the definition of two sites in Stockholm in Table 2, representing stores located in two different locations in the city of Stockholm. Since these two stores are both located in Stockholm, it makes sense from an organizational standpoint to have a label that includes all sites in Stockholm (see #Stockholm in Table 2). Along with the Gothenburg store, which can be found as a separate label, they represent stores available in Sweden, and they are all collected under the label #Sweden, with the aim of allowing selection of all stores in Sweden (also shown in Table 2).

[0017] Extraction levels do not need to be specified by geography. Sites in New York and London can be clustered under the label #English speakers, just as sites in various European countries can be clustered under #French speakers, #German speakers, etc., and under any combination that essentially makes organizational sense within the context of audio distribution. Thus, client sites can be grouped into site categories according to different parameters such as region, country, continent, language, and organizational branch.

[0018] Administrator site 102 also manages labels referencing audio zone categories (Table 3) and audio source categories (Table 4). Zone labels are business-related and site-related, reflecting different categories of audio zones, such as different areas present on client sites. Source labels represent different categories or types of audio, such as different genres of music. For ease of use, these zone and source labels should be self-evident.

[0019] From the perspective of client sites 104A to 104C, the labels 120 (Tables 1 to 4) defined at administrator site 102 become available for selection at client sites 140A to 140C. As described here, information can be generated for each client site 104A to 104C that associates the labels 120 with client site-specific data regarding locally defined time schedules, audio zones, and audio source identifiers.

[0020] During the installation phase, the operator at the client site clusters the available speakers into zones (108-114 in Figure 1). Each zone may have a local identifier, which may be in the form of a number or name. However, "Customer Cafeteria" is then associated with a zone label available to the operator at the client site, for example, "#Restaurant".

[0021] The client site operator also pre-configures available source labels, i.e., associates #environment with identifiers of their preferred audio sources that are appropriate for the local client site in terms of language or style, for example. Thus, the client-side operator can define which audio source identifiers to associate with the label #environment. The audio source may be one or more user-defined playlists stored locally 122 or remote 124, such as links to streaming services, digital music services, radio stations, remote or local music libraries, etc. Thus, source labels may be associated with different audio sources in different client sites 104A-104C. In this way, the audio is locally tailored to the intended audience, which may correspond to top lists such as relevant country or region or age category.

[0022] At client site 104, information regarding local time schedules, such as business hours (i.e., weekly or yearly schedules of business hours) and local time, may be added by the client site operator or automatically assembled by the system from client site data, depending on which is more convenient. This information item may be named (locally) using an identifier, or it may be associated with a centrally defined label, i.e., a time label. In this way, a chain of time label ranges defined at administrator site 102 can be associated with specific local time schedules applicable at individual client sites 104A-104C. Each local time schedule may be represented by an identifier, such as the local name of the time schedule. The same applies to site labels, which are most likely to be set when client site 104 is added to the system from administrator site 102. Label extraction may generally only be available at the administrator site.

[0023] For illustrative purposes, Tables 5 and 6 below show examples of information generated for two client sites, summarizing the settings for the two Stockholm sites. In particular, for all other examples, tables are simply a convenient format for presenting information. The actual interface for collecting information, or the system for storing and transferring information, can be implemented in any suitable way. Typically, the client site interface takes the form of a client site administrator application, containing all the necessary tools for managing the site locally, independently of the central administrator site, and also receiving and implementing detailed instructions from the administrator site, thereby also executing audio instructions. TIFF2023168255000003.tif96170

[0024] Information regarding local business hours under the heading "Time" can be conveniently entered on the client site by using a calendar-style user interface. This is a simple and recognizable format for adding opening and closing times for each day of the week, groups of days (e.g., Monday - Friday, weekends), as well as information regarding local or national holidays, or other days with shifted business hours. The zone identifier (under the heading "Zone") is simply a text string with a name familiar to the operator of the client site and is associated with the speaker group of the client site. Also, the audio source named under the heading "Source" ultimately includes an association to an audio source added by the client site operator.

[0025] When information regarding the association between label 120 and client-site specific data is assembled at client sites 140A - 140C, it may be stored in audio system 100 as predetermined information. For example, it may be uploaded to administrator site 102, stored locally at client sites 104A - 104C, or stored on a remote server. For the purposes of this specification, the predetermined information is uploaded to administrator site 102 (or the administrator-site control application) to enable local adaptation. Local adaptation can also be performed at client site 102 (or the client-site control application), but making local adaptation available at administrator site 102 is considered more convenient as it means that all the information necessary to generate specialized audio commands from generalized audio commands is available in a single location or at least within a single application.

[0026] Referring back to FIG. 2, an operator connected to the administrator site 102 can prepare to input a generalized audio command 128. The generalized audio command is expressed in terms of a plurality of labels selected from the set of labels 120. Specifically, the generalized audio command 128 may include a site label, a time label, an audio zone label, and an audio source label. As described above, these respectively indicate a client site category, a time schedule category, an audio zone category, and an audio source category. Thus, a general audio command generally defines when to play the audio, where to play the audio, and which audio to play. Continuing with the above example, the generalized audio command 128 can be summarized as follows: TIFF2023168255000004.tif39170

[0027] This generalized audio command 128 undergoes local adaptation 126 and is processed with local priorities, i.e., predetermined information, to generate a specialized audio command. During this processing, each label within the generalized audio command 128 is processed (or transformed) into a local client - specific identifier using the associations within the predetermined information, as exemplified in Tables 5 and 6. The effect is that each client site receives a tailor - made (or specialized) audio command and can then execute it at the client site. Using the details of the illustrated example, the downtown site plays "Best of Astrid Lindgren" in the children's department and "Swedish Top 50" in the women's department, which is executed during regular business hours. At the coastal site, "Ultimate Jazz Radio" is played in the adult area and the playlist "Kids Hits" is listened to in the youth area. In particular, the operator of the administrator site does not need to worry about local priorities or prepare detailed playlists because local priorities or detailed playlists are taken into account at the client site.

[0028] In any of the client sites 104A-104C, the schedule may include the regular or irregular addition of advertisements. The #ADV label may also be pre-configured locally in the given information, or transferred from central storage (e.g., downloaded or streamed) if related to a linked campaign. Furthermore, the schedule may include public announcements such as closing announcements ("The store will close in 15 minutes"), in which case the announcement may be scheduled in relation to a time schedule associated with a time label in a general audio command 128. For example, a general audio command 128 may specify that the audio should be played at "closing time minus 15 minutes". Closing announcements, as well as any other public announcements, may be selected locally in the given information and thereby may be specific to a particular client site. Since both opening and closing times are specified in the client site's preferences (under "Business Hours"), the relative time "closing time minus 15 minutes" is converted to an absolute time that does not include additional work performed by the client site's operator. The entire schedule is also timestamped in relation to the client site's business hours, thus conveniently handling different business hours and time zones.

[0029] Figure 3 is a schematic flowchart illustrating the method of the present invention according to an embodiment of the method of the present invention. In step 140, a set of labels is defined at administrator site 102, and in step 150, a generalized audio command containing multiple labels from the defined set of labels is received via user input. In step 160, predetermined information is accessed to associate the labels with client site-specific data, and the generalized audio command is adapted or adjusted using the predetermined information to generate a dedicated audio command for the client site. Subsequently, in step 170, the dedicated audio command is sent to client site 104. In particular, each dedicated audio command may be sent to the client site identified in the dedicated audio command. The flow at client site 104 starts with step 180 and site setup. In setup, the selection of labels defined in step 140 is pre-configured along with local data and preferences to generate predetermined information, thus defining the site shown as step 190. The predetermined information is transmitted to step 160 and used as input when adapting the generalized audio command as described above. Client site 104 receives a dedicated audio command and executes it in step 200, i.e., plays audio according to the dedicated audio command. This includes collecting audio files from the identified audio source 210 and playing the collected audio files in the identified audio zone according to the identified time schedule. Apart from illustrating a series of events at different sites as described above, Figure 3 also shows several relationships, namely how label assignments are used in site setup and how defined site details are communicated to where local adaptation is performed, i.e., where the dedicated audio command is generated. The steps for adapting the command are drawn with hatched lines because their location in the flow is not necessarily where it is located in the diagram.It can also be performed after the scheduled transmission (a typical schedule). Additionally, the step of assigning labels is indicated by hatching lines because the labels need to be in place for setup, but it is not a step that needs to be performed in actual audio delivery.

[0030] It should be understood that steps 140, 150, 160, and 170 can be performed by a device at administrator site 102. That device may include circuitry adapted to perform these steps. In a software implementation, the circuitry may be in the form of a central processing unit adapted to execute computer code instructions stored in a non-temporary computer-readable medium. These computer code instructions may be adapted to cause the central processing unit to perform method steps 140, 150, 160, and 170. Hardware implementations of the device are also possible. In that case, the device may include dedicated circuitry, such as application-specific integrated circuits, for performing each of steps 140, 150, 160, and 170. A combination of software and hardware implementations is also conceivable, where some steps are performed in software and others in hardware.

[0031] There are several advantages to being able to prepare generalized audio commands for a group of sites and then convert those generalized commands into tailor-made playlists. However, there are also potential issues that need to be addressed, but there are simple workarounds for these issues.

Claims

1. 1. A method for distributing audio instructions from an administrator site (102) to client sites (104A, 104B, 104C) in a distributed audio system having multiple client sites, comprising: receiving, via user input at the administrator site, generalized audio instructions for playing audio at one or more client sites, the generalized audio instructions being global in the audio system and including a plurality of labels indicating time schedule categories of a time schedule defining when audio should be played at the one or more client sites, audio zone categories of audio zones of one or more speakers at the one or more client sites where the audio should be played, and audio source categories representing which categories of audio should be played at the one or more client sites; accessing, for each of the one or more client sites, locally collected predetermined information indicating a table associating the plurality of labels indicating time schedule categories, audio zone categories, and audio source categories with time schedules in which audio is to be played at the client site, audio zones of one or more speakers at the client site in which the audio is to be played, and client site-specific identifiers of audio sources in which audio files are to be collected; Adapting the generalized audio instructions by processing them with the predetermined information to generate specialized audio instructions for each of the one or more client sites, the specialized audio instructions for a client site including the client site-specific identifier associated with the plurality of labels in the generalized audio instructions in accordance with the locally gathered predetermined information for the client site; executing, at each of the one or more client sites, the specialized audio instructions generated for the client site; A method comprising:

2. the plurality of labels in the generalized audio instructions further include a label indicating a client site category, and the predetermined information associates the label indicating a client site category with the one or more client sites, the method comprising: Using the predetermined information to identify that audio is to be played at the one or more client sites associated with the label indicating a client site category. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the predetermined information associates the label indicating a client site category with several client sites based on a common parameter.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the generation of the customized audio instructions is performed at the administrator site.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the generation of the specialized audio instructions is performed completely or partially at the client site.

6. 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the client site-specific identifier of an audio zone includes several audio zones, each including a local address to a plurality of speaker groups, and each audio zone is associated with a label indicating an audio zone category.

7. defining a set of labels that are global in the audio system, the labels in the set of labels indicating time schedule categories, audio zone categories, and audio source categories, and the labels in the generalized audio instructions being a subset of the set of labels; generating, for each client site within the audio system, the predetermined information by associating the labels indicating time schedule categories, audio zone categories, and audio source categories with client site-specific identifiers of time schedules, audio zones, and audio sources, respectively; The method of claim 1 further comprising:

8. 8. The method of claim 7, wherein the labels in the set of labels further indicate client site categories, and wherein in the step of generating predetermined information, each label indicating a client site category is associated with one or more client site identifiers.

9. The method of claim 7 or 8, wherein the set of labels is defined at the administrator site.

10. 1. A device for distributing audio instructions from an administrator site (102) to client sites (104A, 104B, 104C) in a distributed audio system having a plurality of client sites, comprising: A circuit comprising: receiving generalized audio instructions for playing audio at one or more client sites of the plurality of client sites; the generalized audio instructions are global in the audio system and include a plurality of labels indicating a time schedule category for a time schedule defining when audio should be played at the one or more client sites, an audio zone category for audio zones of one or more speakers at the one or more client sites at which the audio should be played, and an audio source category representing which category of audio should be played at the one or more client sites; accessing, for each of the one or more client sites, locally collected predetermined information indicating a table associating the plurality of labels indicating time schedule categories, audio zone categories, and audio source categories with time schedules in which audio is to be played at the client site, audio zones of one or more speakers at the client site in which the audio is to be played, and client site-specific identifiers of audio sources in which audio files are to be collected; adapting the generalized audio instructions using the predetermined information to generate specialized audio instructions for each of the one or more client sites, the specialized audio instructions for a client site including the client site-specific identifier associated with the plurality of labels in the generalized audio instructions according to the locally collected predetermined information for the client site; transmitting to each of the one or more client sites the customized audio instructions generated for the client site; A circuit configured as follows: A device comprising:

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