Dynamic Manifest Data for Live Media Stream Metadata
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Solution Overview
Problem
Live streaming content often faces challenges in providing necessary metadata for playback when a client device requests content during periods of scheduled secondary content, such as advertisements, leading to potential playback issues due to differing metadata requirements.
Innovation Solution
The solution involves generating dynamic manifest data that includes content protection information and other metadata for live content, ensuring it is provided to the client device regardless of the request timing, even during advertisement periods, by using a media server that identifies and inserts necessary metadata into the manifest data.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If secondary content (advertisements) is dynamically inserted into the live stream, then advertising efficiency and revenue are improved, but metadata availability for client devices requesting content during advertisement periods deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system pre-generates and caches metadata for both primary live content and secondary advertisement content before they are needed. When a client requests content during an advertisement period, the pre-prepared advertisement metadata is already available in the cache, eliminating the information gap without requiring real-time metadata generation during the ad insertion window.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary metadata management system that sits between the content delivery system and client devices. This intermediary maintains a metadata cache that bridges the gap between primary content metadata and secondary content metadata, ensuring continuous metadata availability regardless of what content segment is currently being delivered.
2Productivity
If content protection information is provided only in initial manifest data, then data transmission efficiency is improved, but playback reliability during advertisement periods deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
Content protection information is pre-included in the initial manifest data and cached alongside other metadata. When clients request content during advertisement periods, the protection information is already prepared and available in the cache, ensuring reliable playback without requiring re-transmission of protection data.
Solution Approach 2:
The manifest data structure is designed to be universal, incorporating content protection information that applies to both primary live content and secondary advertisement content. This multi-functional manifest template ensures that protection information remains valid regardless of whether the client is receiving live content or advertisement content.
Data Source
AI summary
Techniques are described for providing metadata corresponding to primary content of live media streams that include secondary content inserted into the streams.