Media Break Window for Seamless Ad Insertion
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current systems for inserting targeted advertisements into media streams, such as radio or television programs, can result in poor-quality audio streams for internet listeners due to delays in selecting suitable advertisements, leading to gaps or interruptions during commercial breaks.
Innovation Solution
A method and system for managing media playout that involves signaling the duration of commercial breaks in advance to a server entity, searching for content that matches the break duration, and transmitting primary programming alongside targeted advertisements using different mechanisms to ensure seamless integration and minimal disruption.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If targeted advertisements are selected and served individually to internet listeners during commercial breaks, then advertising effectiveness is improved, but audio stream quality deteriorates due to gaps and interruptions
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by pre-fetching and buffering advertisement content before the commercial break begins. The media server receives and stores advertisement data in advance, so when the break occurs, the content is already available for immediate playback without gaps or interruptions to the audio stream.
2Adaptability or versatility
If advertisement selection and serving is performed in real-time during commercial breaks, then advertising relevance to individual listeners is improved, but timing precision deteriorates leading to gaps or interruptions
Solution Approach 1:
The system determines the duration of the commercial break in advance and pre-selects advertisement content that precisely matches this duration. By performing the selection and preparation before the break occurs, the system ensures that the advertisement content will fit perfectly into the allocated time slot, eliminating timing precision issues during actual playback.
3Reliability
If multiple content items are stored and selected to match break duration, then seamless advertisement insertion is improved, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a media server as an intermediary component between the broadcast facility and internet listeners. This media server handles the complex tasks of receiving break duration signals, selecting appropriate advertisement content, buffering the content, and managing the switch between program and advertisement playback. By centralizing these functions in a dedicated intermediary system, the complexity is contained and managed rather than distributed throughout the entire system.
Data Source
AI summary
A method for playing out a media program including a primary programming. The method includes storing the primary programming; forming first and second sets of content for play-out during a break in the primary programming, where the second set's duration differs by less than a predetermined amount from the duration of the first set of content transmitting, by a first mechanism, a base program including the primary programming and subsequently, during the break, the first set of content, and after the break, the primary programming; and transmitting, by a second mechanism, the primary programming at a first time offset to the transmitting by the first mechanism before the break and subsequently, during the break, the second set of content and after the break, the primary programming at a second time offset to the transmitting by the first mechanism, after the break, the first and second time offsets being different.