Remote Selection App for Set-Top Box Video Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional set-top boxes provide rudimentary user interfaces for video on demand (VOD) services, limiting user navigation and selection capabilities, whereas IP devices offer richer features and navigation capabilities, but lack integration with high-bandwidth video delivery systems.
Innovation Solution
A remote selection application on a personal communication device, such as a smartphone, allows users to select video content independently and 'push' the chosen content to a set-top box or QAM device via a hybrid fiber coax (HFC) network, bypassing the need for manual upstream requests and leveraging advanced search and UI capabilities.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If conventional set-top boxes are used for VOD services, then integration with high-bandwidth video delivery systems is achieved, but user interface capabilities and navigation features are limited
Solution Approach 1:
The system separates the user interface function (remote selection application on personal communication device) from the video delivery function (set-top box and QAM device). This segmentation allows each component to be optimized independently - the remote application provides rich UI capabilities while the set-top box maintains its video delivery expertise.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary mechanism (the remote selection application acting as a mediator) that bridges the personal communication device and the set-top box. This intermediary enables communication and control between devices that would otherwise be incompatible, allowing IP-based devices to control HFC network video delivery.
2Ease of operation
If IP devices with advanced navigation capabilities are used, then user experience is improved, but direct integration with video delivery systems is lost
Solution Approach 1:
The remote selection application serves as an intermediary that enables IP devices to reliably control video delivery systems. It translates user selections into commands that the video delivery system can execute, ensuring reliable service delivery while maintaining advanced navigation capabilities.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the traditional mechanical control system (remote control pointing to set-top box) with an electronic/software-based system (remote selection application over IP network). This substitution enables advanced navigation capabilities while maintaining control reliability through software-based command and control mechanisms.
3Device complexity
If set-top boxes handle all VOD requests, then control and management is simplified, but user interface features remain rudimentary
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments control functions from the set-top box to a remote selection application on personal communication devices. This segmentation moves the burden of providing rich user interface features away from the set-top box while maintaining simplified control management through the remote application's ability to present content selections and receive user input.
Data Source
AI summary
A video server delivers video on demand (VOD) and other video services responsive to a remote selection application over an IP network from a personal communication device of a user, such as a cellphone or smartphone. The remote selection application drives a user interface of available content, and transmits a user selection request to the video delivery server via a public access network such as the Internet. The video server correlates the identity of the requesting user with a video services channel in communication with a settop box or similar device of the user, and delivers the content to the client video device for rendering. In contrast to conventional VOD, in which the video services request emanates from the settop box on the same communication path (QAM channel) as the downstream signals containing the VOD content, the remote selection application is independent of the client device on an HFC network.