Media Asset Duplication Module for On-Demand Delivery
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
The use of DVRs for media asset storage is restrictive due to the risk of missed recordings and storage limitations, and the transition to on-demand delivery mechanisms requires unique copies of media assets for each consumer, leading to high storage costs and logistical challenges.
Innovation Solution
A content delivery system that includes a receiving module, a transcoder to create multiple transcoded versions of media assets in various formats, a data store for storage, and a transmitting module to distribute these versions to devices based on their capabilities, with a duplication module creating duplicates as needed to ensure uniqueness and efficient storage.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If unique copies of media assets are stored for each content consumer in on-demand delivery, then contractual compliance and content uniqueness are ensured, but storage costs and data requirements become extremely large
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates duplicate copies of transcoded media assets in the data store after successful transmission to consumers. This allows the system to comply with contractual uniqueness requirements while efficiently managing storage by duplicating only the necessary transcoded versions rather than storing multiple original copies for each consumer
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments media assets into multiple transcoded versions with different characteristics (resolution, bitrate, format) and stores these segmented versions in the data store. This segmentation allows the system to serve different consumer device capabilities while reducing overall storage requirements compared to storing complete unique copies for each consumer
2Adaptability or versatility
If multiple transcoded versions of media assets are pre-stored in the data store, then delivery flexibility and consumer choice are improved, but storage requirements and costs increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs preliminary transcoding of media assets into multiple versions and stores these transcoded versions in advance in the data store. This preliminary action enables flexible on-demand delivery to various consumer devices without requiring transcoding at delivery time, while the system manages storage by creating duplicates only when needed
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes parameters of media assets by creating transcoded versions with different resolutions, bitrates, and formats. These parameter-changed versions are stored in the data store to match different consumer device capabilities, providing delivery flexibility while optimizing storage usage through selective duplication
3Ease of operation
If a DVR records media assets locally, then consumers can view content at their convenience, but consumers may forget to record assets and storage capacity is limited
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a server-based data store as an intermediary between the content source and consumer devices. This intermediary centrally stores multiple transcoded versions of media assets, eliminating the need for consumers to manually record content locally while ensuring content availability and reliability through centralized management
Data Source
AI summary
A content delivery system comprising: a receiving module for receiving a media asset in a received format; a transcoder configured to transcode the asset to provide a predetermined number of transcoded versions of the asset in at least one consumption format; a data store for storing the predetermined number of transcoded versions; a transmitting module coupled to said data store and configured to retrieve one of the predetermined number of transcoded versions from the data store and transmit the retrieved transcoded version to a media consuming device in response to detecting selection of the media asset by a content consumer associated with the device; a media asset duplication module configured, in response to detecting transmission of each transcoded version of the predetermined number of transcoded versions to respective one or more media consuming devices, to create a duplicate of the transcoded version and store the duplicate in the data store.