221 results about "Video delivery" patented technology

The present invention provides a system that creates virtual events within a virtual world. A virtual event may be akin to a real event, but is completely computer generated within a computer-generated world and is based on statistical measures, either real world or created. Numerous characteristics about the competitors and the competition location parameters are available before a competition event. Based on the known parameters about the location of an event and the characteristics of the participants and their historical past performances in similar events enable bettors to make informed wagers on an event that greatly enhances the satisfaction and involvement in a competition event. As such, Histories of virtual events are maintained on actual virtual performance data of competitors in the virtual world. The histories can include all relevant virtual data about a competitor and the past events the competitor competed.

The virtual event may be created by an event engine, scheduled, and broadcast or simulcast in real-time through-out the real-world using existing and conventional video transport media, such as web, TV, satellite, telephone network, and cable. A video delivery system is used that will allow high quality high definition video to be broadcast worldwide with very low bandwidth requirements (<20 kb/s).

Individuals throughout the real-world may place wagers (e.g., bets) on the outcome of either a pari-mutuel event or a fixed odds event, utilizing either pari-mutuel, exchange wagering or fixed odds wagering systems. The virtual event may be any type of sport, or skill based game that is usually between competitors.

A system and method for displaying still video images related to video content in an interactive broadcast television system. The system and method of the present invention may also be used for simulating an Internet home page on an interactive television system. The present invention thus supports hyperlinked web-like navigational capabilities in an interactive television system. According to the method of the present invention, the video delivery system provides or broadcasts one or more audio/video channels each comprising video content and also provides or broadcasts at least one still image channel comprising a plurality of still video images, preferably MPEG-2 compressed still images. The user or viewer can select options displayed on the television screen to view desired information. When the set top box receives user input selecting an option to view one of the linked still images, the set top box captures the requested image from the still image broadcast channel, stores the image in memory, and displays the captured still video image corresponding to the selection. The still image being displayed may have associated interactive program content for displaying further selections, wherein these selections may be for viewing other images or content, for ordering information, or purchasing products. The user can thus selectively navigate between the video content and stills in a web-like hyperlinked fashion. In one embodiment, when a user is navigating through still images, the television program or video content which was being viewed is displayed in a small window overlaid on the still image being displayed. Also, when the set top box captures a requested image from the still image broadcast channel, the set top box preferably also pre-caches or pre-loads other related still images based on the probabilty that these related images will be subsequently requested by the user. The invention also includes an embodiment which provides user requested still images "on demand" on a dedicated "search" channel.

Described herein are techniques, including methods and systems, including computer program products, for a video delivery module. A broadcast program and a video-on-demand program are ingested by a video delivery module. At least a portion of the broadcast program and at least a portion of the video-on-demand program are stored. The broadcast program, the video-on-demand program, or both are delivered as a unicast video stream to a first single subscriber through a multiplexer connected to a plurality of subscribers.

A system and method are disclosed for improved video transmission, particularly in security settings. An improved security controller combines the interfaces and functionality for high quality video delivery over often less-than-perfect wireless networks, multi-camera analog/digital video controllers and encoders, multi-frequency wireless camera support, connectivity for serial controllers, network switching, and distributed digital video recording with optional object and motion detection. The video transmission in enhanced using wireless adaptive video encoding, mobile viewing optimization, and wireless bandwidth improvement.

A system and a method are disclosed for delivering a video to a destination device using multiple sources and multiple protocols. The video can be on demand or a live video. A video is divided into several chunks distributed across devices and servers in the network. A node is selected for delivering a video chunk based on criteria including the cost of delivery of the chunk from the node to the destination node. This also improves the throughput of the entire system. Different nodes can use different communication protocols for delivering chunks of videos. Portions of videos are forward-cached to a node before a request for the video is made by the node. Activities associated with a device are gathered to determine a profile for the device. The profile of the device is used to select videos to be forward-cached to the peer device.

A system and method for displaying still video images related to video content in an interactive broadcast television system. The system and method of the present invention may also be used for simulating an Internet home page on an interactive television system. The present invention thus supports hyperlinked web-like navigational capabilities in an interactive television system. According to the method of the present invention, the video delivery system provides or broadcasts one or more audio/video channels each comprising video content and also provides or broadcasts at least one still image channel comprising a plurality of still video images, preferably MPEG-2 compressed still images. The user or viewer can select options displayed on the television screen to view desired information. When the set top box receives user input selecting an option to view one of the linked still images, the set top box captures the requested image from the still image broadcast channel, stores the image in memory, and displays the captured still video image corresponding to the selection. The user can also request to view an image which is not currently being transmitted by the video delivery system. In this instance, the system provides user requested still images “on demand” on a dedicated “search” channel. The user can thus selectively navigate between the video content and stills in a web-like hyperlinked fashion.

An on-demand video delivery system, comprising: a program center having a content server for receiving and storing media signals representing humanly perceptible video programs and for converting the media signals into coded media data suitable for streaming over the Internet; and a plurality of delivery servers, each connected to the content server and the Internet for establishing an unicast link over the Internet with a respective one of a plurality of set top boxes (STBs) to deliver, upon request made from an STB for a video program, the requested video program by streaming over the Internet using Internet Protocol (IP), wherein each of the STBs includes: a buffer for receiving and temporarily storing a requested video program streamed from a delivery server over the Internet; a decoder for converting the coded media data to humanly perceptible video, and a processor for coordinating presentation of the humanly perceptible video to play on a television while the buffer receives packets of downstream coded media data from the respective delivery server.

In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, a method for monitoring usage of a channel, including monitoring upstream information, and determining usage of the channel in response to the monitoring is disclosed. In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, a service module for monitoring usage of a channel includes a data input operative to monitor upstream information, and a processor that determines usage of the channel in response to the data input is disclosed. In accordance with another aspect of present invention, the method and module also include monitoring video delivery path performance and detecting potential denial-of-service (DoS) attacks to video servers is disclosed.

In a video delivery context, collection and analysis of viewing data can provide insight into viewer interaction with video and the Internet. The viewing data can be transmitted in a controlled manner to a data repository. The system can selectively target specific viewers/households to obtain viewing data, which can be combined with demographics, anonymized, and encrypted. Embodiments enable precision selection of media opportunities, by determining detailed characteristics associated with broadcasts including movement of audiences and specific viewer behavior, such as visits to websites on the Internet. The effective yield of broadcasts, including promotional spots and advertisements, can be determined and predicted based on concrete data at a level of detail down to individual viewers. Accordingly, embodiments enable improvement of the effectiveness and return on investment for programming, promotional spots, and advertisements.

There is provided with an apparatus including: a video stream receiver configured to receive a first video stream encoded by a first coding scheme from a video providing apparatus via a network; a video stream generator configured to generate a second video stream obtained by converting a coding scheme of the first video stream from the first coding scheme to a second coding scheme; a client capability information acquirer configured to acquire decoding capability information representing whether a client apparatus can decode a video image encoded by the first coding scheme; and a video stream processing determiner configured to transmit the first video stream to the client apparatus when the client apparatus can decode the video image encoded by the first coding scheme, and configured to transmit the second video stream to the client apparatus when the client apparatus cannot decode the video image encoded by the first coding scheme.

Techniques for serving a manifest file of an adaptive streaming video include receiving a request for the manifest file from a user device. The video is encoded at different reference bitrates and each encoded reference bitrate is divided into segments to generate video segment files. The manifest file includes an ordered list of universal resource locators (URLs) that reference a set of video segment files encoded at a particular reference bitrate. A source manifest file that indicates the set of video segment files is identified based on the request. An issued manifest file that includes a first URL and a second URL is generated based on the source manifest file. The first URL references a first domain and the second URL references a second domain that is different from the first domain. The issued manifest file is transmitted to the user device as a response to the request.

A circular buffer in a video delivery server tracks a second copy of a live video stream to provide instant replay capability. When an end-user initiates the instant replay function, the circular buffer is copied to an instant-replay buffer, from which a replay of the video is sent to the end-user. During replay the end-user can use playback functions such as pause, slow-play, freeze frame, etc. Upon leaving the replay function the end user rejoins the live stream. The circular buffer also enables transmission of delayed copies of the live stream, time-shifted by predetermined intervals, which copies are multicasted to end-users. Upon request, an end-user may join a delayed version of interest. This allows the user to replay interesting content by jumping to a time-delayed version without missing the show and to catch up with real-time during e.g. commercial breaks.

A method includes provisioning joint bandwidth in a software defined passive optical network PON based mobile backhaul MBH and cache management on base stations for video delivery across the network, the provisioning in each time unit includes grouping bandwidth utilization in the network into a first category used to support video requests which cannot directly be served by caches on base stations, the first category video requests being high priority, and if bandwidth remains after the high priority requests remaining bandwidth being used to deliver some videos that are low priority to caches.

A cable provider could offer a promotional feature, such as live pause of video, above and beyond a tier of service to which the customer subscribes, limiting the feature to being activated only upon occurrence of one or more events. In a network video delivery context, a set-top box plays live video, including an ability to pause live video upon the occurrence of an event. The system can detect an event, including an event unrelated to video, and prompt a user to pause. The system can include configuration settings enabling, for example, detection of various events, prompting the user to pause live video, and/or automatically pausing the live video. The system enables the user to play a time-shifted video corresponding to resuming the paused video playback. The system can include a Digital Video Recorder (DVR) local to the user, to facilitate the time-shifted video. The system is also compatible with a RS-DVR, where DVR functionality and time-shifted video is provided remotely from a head-end of a network video system. Additionally, the system is compatible with non-DVR network video delivery systems configured to provide live pause.

Described herein are techniques, including methods and systems, including computer program products, for unicast delivery of multimedia content. A broadcast program and a video-on-demand program are ingested by a video delivery module. At least a portion of the broadcast program and at least a portion of the video-on-demand program are stored. The broadcast program, the video-on-demand program, or both are delivered as a unicast video stream to a first single subscriber through a multiplexer connected to a plurality of subscribers.

Methods and systems for delivering scalable media content from a server to a client are provided. A server index is provided to a media server for indexing the layers of scalable content in the form of media data groups. The client transmits at least one media request comprising a scalable media presentation identifier, a requested quality identifier and a requested layer identifier. Based on the at least one request, the server identifies the requested media data groups and transmits the requested media data groups to the client. The client receives the requested media data groups, which may be a subset of all available media data groups, and reorders the media data into decoding order for subsequent decoding and playback.

A video delivery apparatus for delivering a video stream with a property according to a request from a client. The video delivery apparatus includes reception means for receiving a delivery request from one client, first estimation means for estimating a current processing load by calculating a sum total of the processing loads for other clients connected to deliver a video stream upon reception of the delivery request from the one client, second estimation means for estimating a processing load upon delivering the video stream to the one client according to the delivery request, and delivery control means for performing the delivery control of the video stream on the basis of at least one of the current processing load estimated by the first estimation means and the processing load upon delivering the video stream to the one client according to the delivery request, which is estimated by the second estimation means.

A system and method for processing and transmitting signals. The system includes a first encoder configured to receive a digital video signal and encode the digital video signal based on a first encoding format, a second encoder configured to receive the digital video signal and encode the digital video signal based on a second encoding format, and a control system configured to receive a first encoded digital video signal and a second encoded digital video signal and output an third encoded digital video signal.

The present invention is a system or method that facilitates smart decision makings at the client side for adaptive video streaming over a video delivery network by making use of perceptual video quality-of-experience predictions performed during the video preparation stage, at the video hosting or cache server side, or inside the video delivery network, and then transmitted to the client. Compared with prior art approaches of adaptive bitrate video streaming, the present invention can result in one or more of the following benefits: 1) save the overall bandwidth for the delivery of the video content without scarifying the client users' quality-of-experience; 2) create better overall visual quality-of-experience of the client users; 3) create smoother visual quality-of-experience of the client users; and 4) reduce the probability of rebuffering or stalling events at the client user side.

A video delivery platform includes codec code for decoding video data, video play information access code for obtaining video play information associated with a webpage file, and graphics driver code for presenting one or more video images on the end-user computer according to both the video data and the play information. The video play information may be contained in one or more variables within the webpage file, and permits presentation effects of the video to be changed by simple corresponding changes to the webpage. The video delivery platform may also include a built-in interactive user interface to immediately obtain information from the user.

Systems, apparatus and methods are provided for generating, delivering, processing and displaying video data to preserve the video creator's creative intent. Metadata which may be used to guide the processing and display of the video data is dynamically generated and embedded in the video data throughout a video delivery pipeline. The metadata may be embedded in the guard bits or least significant bits of chrominance channels of video data. Methods are provided for managing the encoding, delivery and decoding of the metadata to avoid unintentional communication of reserved words, minimize image artifacts which may result from overwriting least significant bits with metadata, prioritize delivery of metadata in the event of limited metadata bandwidth, and facilitate timely delivery of metadata to a downstream device.

Techniques described herein provide for cloud-based media delivery that accepts or ingests media content, transcodes it according to various media profiles to create a plurality of video files, and provides notification that at least a portion of the video files is ready for delivery. The notification can be provided using a notification Unique Resource Locator (URL), which can be provided in a request to prepare the media content for delivery. Business rules can be used to customize the cloud-based media delivery based on any of a variety of factors, such as requesting party, media type, and the like.

A method is provided for displaying an immersive video content according to eye movement of a viewer includes the steps of detecting, using an eye tracking device, a field of view of at least one eye of the viewer, transmitting eye tracking coordinates from the detected field of view to an eye tracking processor, identifying a region on a video display corresponding to the transmitted eye tracking processor, adapting the immersive video content from a video storage device at a first resolution for a first portion of the immersive video content and a second resolution for a second portion of the immersive video content, the first resolution being higher than the second resolution, displaying the first portion of the immersive video content on the video display within a zone, and displaying the second portion of the immersive video content on the video display outside of the zone.