Container Frame Synchronization for Multi-Encoding Video Streaming
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing video streaming technologies fail to adequately synchronize multiple video encodings, leading to discontinuities or 'jumps' in time when switching between encodings or displaying adjacent regions of interest, which affects the smooth transition of objects between these regions.
Innovation Solution
The method involves encoding source video frames into virtual frames with different parameters, forming a container frame with a shared timestamp, and transmitting this container frame, ensuring all virtual frames within it have the same timestamp, thus maintaining synchronization across multiple encodings.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If multiple video encodings are transmitted separately with individual timestamps, then each encoding can be optimized independently, but synchronization discontinuities occur when switching between encodings
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple independently optimized video encodings into a single container frame structure. Each encoding (e.g., different resolutions, regions of interest, or encoding formats) is packaged as a virtual frame within the same container, sharing a common timestamp. This merging approach maintains the benefits of independent encoding optimization while ensuring synchronization continuity through the shared timestamp mechanism.
Solution Approach 2:
The container frame structure serves multiple functions simultaneously: it acts as a synchronization container for multiple encodings, a transmission unit for the video server, and an organizational structure for virtual frames. By making the container frame multi-functional, the system achieves both independent encoding optimization and reliable synchronization without requiring separate mechanisms for each function.
2Loss of energy
If a single encoding is transmitted, then bandwidth usage is reduced, but the system cannot provide multiple regions of interest or resolution options simultaneously
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments a single video source into multiple virtual frames, each representing a different encoding option (different resolutions, regions of interest, or encoding parameters). These segmented encodings are then packaged within a unified container frame structure. This segmentation allows the system to provide multiple encoding options from a single source while maintaining efficient bandwidth utilization through the containerized transmission approach.
3Reliability
If multiple encodings are packaged in a container frame with shared timestamp, then synchronization is maintained, but the container frame structure becomes more complex
Solution Approach 1:
The container frame acts as an intermediary structure that manages the complexity of multiple encodings. It provides a standardized interface for packaging virtual frames with different encoding parameters while maintaining a simple shared timestamp mechanism for synchronization. This intermediary approach encapsulates the complexity within the container structure, leaving the synchronization mechanism itself relatively simple and efficient.
Data Source
AI summary
A system for streaming multiple encodings of a source video stream is disclosed. A source video device system captures and/or receives source video comprising a plurality of source video frames. The source video device system encodes the source video frames into virtual frames, with each of the virtual frames being encoded using at least one different encoding parameter. The source video device system forms a container frame from the virtual frames and transmits the container frame over a network. In an example embodiment, the container frame comprises the virtual frames associated with a particular source frame and a container timestamp applicable to all of the virtual frames in the container frame.