Server-Mediated Video Sharing with Frame-Rate Synchronization
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing digital video conference systems face issues such as video lag, stuttering, and difficulty in dynamically selecting content to share among participants, leading to a suboptimal user experience and inefficient content distribution.
Innovation Solution
A method involving a central server that iteratively retrieves and processes video frames from a storage function, allowing for synchronized and high-quality video streaming with adjustable frame rates and resolutions, independent of client software upgrades.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If video content is shared directly from client devices during collaboration sessions, then sharing functionality is provided, but video lag and stuttering occur deteriorating video quality
Solution Approach 1:
A server is introduced as an intermediary between client devices. The server receives video content from clients, processes it (re-encoding, quality enhancement), and redistributes it to all participants. This mediator architecture eliminates direct peer-to-peer video transmission issues, providing stable video quality while maintaining sharing functionality.
Solution Approach 2:
The server performs preliminary processing of video content before distribution. Video frames are pre-buffered, pre-encoded, and quality-checked on the server side before being sent to participants. This preliminary action ensures that only high-quality, properly formatted video is distributed, preventing lag and stuttering.
2Productivity
If automatic production processes generate output video streams from multiple input streams, then content distribution is improved, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The server is designed with multi-functionality, handling video reception, processing, quality enhancement, frame rate conversion, and distribution all in one system. This universal approach consolidates multiple functions into a single platform, improving content distribution efficiency while managing complexity through integration rather than proliferation of separate systems.
Solution Approach 2:
The system dynamically adjusts video parameters (frame rate, resolution, encoding format) based on participant capabilities and network conditions. By changing parameters adaptively, the system optimizes content distribution for different scenarios without requiring complex manual configuration, balancing productivity gains with manageable system complexity.
3Reliability
If video frames are processed iteratively from storage function, then video quality is enhanced with synchronized streaming, but processing time increases
Solution Approach 1:
The server implements continuous iterative processing of video frames from storage. Instead of batch processing, video frames are continuously retrieved, processed, and prepared for distribution in real-time. This continuous action maintains high video quality through thorough processing while minimizing delays through efficient stream processing pipelines.
Solution Approach 2:
Video processing is segmented into discrete frame-level operations. Each video frame is processed independently through quality enhancement and synchronization steps, allowing parallel processing and efficient resource utilization. This segmentation enables high-quality processing without excessive overall processing time by breaking down the complex task into manageable units.
Data Source
AI summary
A method and a system for managing sharing of a video in a collaboration session are disclosed. A sharing function obtains (B122) a synchronization time stamp of an audio frame of the collaboration session, wherein the audio frame is going to be used for synchronizing the shared video stream with the collaboration session. The sharing function determines, based on a video frame rate difference between the desired frame rate and a source frame rate of the video file, whether more, less or same number of video frames as in the video file are needed in the shared video stream. The sharing function iteratively retrieves (B140) video frames from the video file stored in the storage function (140). The sharing function provides (B160), by the sharing function (112), the shared video stream by sending said one or more generated video frames to the video communication service (110). The video communication service provides (B174), the shared video stream to the two client devices participating in the collaboration session.