Decoupled Media Slicing and Remote Encoding
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current adaptive streaming methods for media content require significant computational resources and bandwidth to encode and deliver multiple quality levels of media slices, which is costly and impractical for live events or file-based content, especially due to the need for large encoding hardware and specialized delivery mechanisms.
Innovation Solution
A decoupled slicer that separates the process of slicing media content into temporal chunks from the encoding process, allowing slices to be created at the source location with minimal computational resources and delivered over standard internet connections, with encoding occurring at a remote data center, reducing the need for on-site hardware and specialized delivery mechanisms.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If media content is sliced and encoded at the source location for adaptive streaming, then the quality of viewer experience is improved, but the computational resources and space requirements at the event location increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the encoding function from the source location and relocates it to a remote data center. The decoupled slicer at the source location only performs slicing operations, while the actual encoding of multiple quality levels is performed remotely, eliminating the need for large encoding hardware at the event location.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the adaptive streaming preparation process into two independent parts: slicing (performed at source location with minimal resources) and encoding (performed at remote data center). This segmentation allows each component to be optimized independently, reducing on-site computational requirements.
2Manufacturing precision
If media content is sliced and encoded at the source location for adaptive streaming, then the quality of viewer experience is improved, but the power consumption at the event location increases significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the power-intensive encoding operation from the source location and relocates it to a remote data center with adequate power infrastructure. Only the low-power slicing operation remains at the event location, dramatically reducing local power consumption requirements.
3Adaptability or versatility
If multiple quality levels are encoded at the source location, then adaptive streaming capability is improved, but the bandwidth required to transfer encoded content increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates multiple quality level copies of each temporal slice at the remote data center rather than at the source location. This allows the source location to transmit only the original source content, while the multiple quality copies are generated remotely, reducing the bandwidth burden at the source location.
4Manufacturing precision
If encoding hardware is deployed at the source location for adaptive streaming, then the quality of viewer experience is improved, but the device complexity at the event location increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the complex encoding hardware requirements from the source location and relocates them to a remote data center. The source location only needs to run a decoupled slicer with minimal computational resources, dramatically simplifying the device complexity at the event location.
Solution Approach 2:
The remote data center serves as a universal encoding facility that can process multiple source contents and generate multiple quality levels for different platforms, replacing the need for dedicated encoding hardware at each source location.
Data Source
AI summary
A method and system for decoupling slicing and encoding of media content is described.