Subscription Content Delivery for Digital Signage Networks

Resolve Bottlenecks,
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions

Solution Overview

Problem

Conventional digital signage networks face issues with bandwidth inefficiency, limited flexibility in content rendering, and centralized administration, which become bottlenecks as the network grows, especially when handling location-specific data and live content.

Innovation Solution

The introduction of a content generation node with a subscription handler, content selector, and network interface, along with a content receiving node featuring a content request engine, receive queue, processor, and display, allows for decentralized content distribution and rendering, using a common data model and metadata for access control, reducing bandwidth consumption and enabling live data display.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Loss of information

If centralized provisioning transmits all location specific data to each display, then location specific data can be delivered, but bandwidth consumption increases significantly

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvelocation specific data deliveryVSAvoidbandwidth consumption

Core Design Contradiction:

Loss of informationVSLoss of energy

Solution Approach 1:

The patent extracts only the necessary location specific data from the complete data collection and transmits it to individual displays. The system identifies which displays need which location data and sends only that specific portion, rather than transmitting all location data to every display. This selective extraction significantly reduces bandwidth consumption while maintaining complete location specific data delivery capability.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

Solution Approach 2:

The patent implements local quality by customizing data transmission to match individual display requirements. Each display is provisioned with only the location specific data relevant to its physical location, rather than receiving uniform data to all displays. This allows the system to optimize bandwidth usage at each node while ensuring each display receives the correct location information.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #3Local quality

2Reliability

If displays poll centralized content server for new data, then content updates are received, but network traffic increases as network size grows

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvecontent update deliveryVSAvoidnetwork traffic

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSLoss of energy

Solution Approach 1:

The patent inverts the traditional polling model by implementing a push model. Instead of displays continuously polling the centralized server for updates, the server proactively pushes content updates to displays when new data is available. This inversion eliminates the continuous polling traffic and reduces network bandwidth consumption, especially as the network size grows, while maintaining reliable content update delivery.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #13The other way round (Inversion)

Solution Approach 2:

The patent implements periodic action through event-driven content pushing. Rather than continuous polling, the system establishes periodic connections where the server pushes content at appropriate intervals or when changes occur. This periodic push mechanism reduces network traffic compared to continuous polling while ensuring timely content updates to all displays in the network.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #19Periodic action

3Stability of the object's composition

If centralized control maintains content distribution, then content consistency is ensured, but system complexity increases with more displays

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvecontent consistencyVSAvoidcentralized administration

Core Design Contradiction:

Stability of the object's compositionVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent segments the centralized control function into distributed content generation nodes. Instead of a single complex centralized server managing all displays, the system divides content generation and distribution across multiple nodes. Each node manages its own content distribution locally, reducing the complexity burden on any single centralized administrator while maintaining overall content consistency through standardized protocols and metadata.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The patent implements universality through standardized metadata and content protocols that enable multi-functional nodes to perform various content generation and distribution tasks. Content generation nodes can serve multiple displays, and displays can receive content from multiple sources, all while maintaining consistency through universal identification and addressing mechanisms. This reduces administrative complexity by allowing flexible, standardized management rather than custom configuration for each display.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #6Universality (Multi-functionality)

Data Source

PatentUS9245240B2Subscription based content delivery for a digital signage network

Publication Date: 2016.01.26 OMNIVEX CORP

AI summary

A digital signage network employs a common data model and a subscription system to disseminate data gathered from a plurality of data sources to a number of displays. The network nodes interact with each other as content sources, content consumers, or both, with some systems acting as consumers to upstream sources and acting as sources to downstream consumers. The presentation of the data on a digital signage display allows for real-time binding of live data to provide a rich display effect.