Advertising in a digital media playback system

• US 10,061,742 B2
• Filed: 01/26/2010
• Issued: 08/28/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 01/30/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sonos, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Sonos, Inc.
• Inventors: Lang, Jonathan, Kuper, Ron
• Primary Examiner(s): Netzloff, Eric R
• Assistant Examiner(s): Stroud, Christopher
• Application Number:
  US12/694,212
• Publication Number:
  US 20130254340A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,136 Days
• Field of Search: 705 14
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 15/16 Combinations of two or more digital computers each having at least an arithmetic unit, a program unit and a register, e.g. for a simultaneous processing of several programs coordinating program control therefor G06F9/52; in regulating and control system G05B
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/58 of audio determination or detection of speech characteristics in general G10L25/00; speech recognition in general G10L15/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/74 using programme related information, e.g. title, composer or interpreter
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2368 Multiplexing of audio and video streams
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4331 Caching operations, e.g. of an advertisement for later insertion during playback
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/43615 Interfacing a Home Network, e.g. for connecting the client to a plurality of peripherals home Audio Video Interoperability [HAVI] data switching networks H04L12/2805
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4394 involving operations for analysing the audio stream, e.g. detecting features or characteristics in audio streams arrangements characterised by components specially adapted for monitoring, identification or recognition of audio in broadcast systems H04H60/58

Abstract

Techniques pertaining to advertising through a digital data network are disclosed. Advertisement information is embedded in multimedia data stream as structured metadata, and transmitted through networks. Multimedia players installed in different locations, or zones, in a data network are configured to receive the stream data, and detect the presence of the embedded metadata. Through a network interface in the player, the metadata information is transmitted to and displayed on a controller. A user input interface in the controller allows a user to response to the displayed metadata and select to obtain the desired information accordingly.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

instantiating, at a zone audio playback device, a zone group configuration, the zone group configuration causing the zone audio playback device and a second zone audio playback device to be organized according to a zone group such that the zone audio playback device and the second zone audio playback device are configured to play back audio in synchrony, and wherein the zone audio playback device and the second zone audio playback device are communicatively coupled by a first network, wherein each of the zone audio playback device and the second zone audio playback device comprises at least one speaker;

sending, by the zone audio playback device, a request for media content to a service provider, the request comprising a uniform resource indicator (URI) associated with the media content;

based on the request, retrieving, by the zone audio playback device from the service provider, a streaming audio signal comprising an audio stream and a tag, wherein the audio stream retrieved by the zone audio playback device is based on selection of a song from a playlist of songs displayed on a controller device that is communicatively coupled to the zone audio playback device by a second network, wherein the zone audio playback device is in a zone group with the second zone audio playback device according to the zone group configuration, and wherein the controller device controls playback operations of the zone audio playback device and the second zone audio playback device;

parsing, by the zone audio playback device, the received streaming audio signal to identify the audio stream and the tag in the streaming audio signal;

after the tag is identified and based on the identified audio stream, playing, by the zone audio playback device in synchrony with the second zone audio playback device in the zone group according to the zone group configuration, at least a portion of the audio stream;

based on the identified tag, causing, by the zone audio playback device, an advertisement to be inserted into the playlist of songs being played back and a voiceover related to the advertisement to be included in the playback of at least the portion of the audio stream by the zone audio playback device, the playlist of songs displayed on the controller device, wherein the advertisement inserted into the playlist of songs is associated with an email corresponding to the advertisement, and wherein causing the advertisement to be inserted into the playlist of songs being played back comprises transmitting, by the zone audio playback device, the tag to the controller device;

receiving, by the zone audio playback device from the controller device, an indication that the advertisement inserted into the playlist is selected, wherein the selection of the advertisement inserted into the playlist of songs comprises scrolling the playlist to display the advertisement, wherein scrolling the playlist comprises scrolling the songs in the playlist which causes the advertisement in the playlist to scroll; and

wherein the selection of the advertisement does not affect playback of the at least the portion of the audio stream by the zone audio playback device; and

sending, by the zone audio playback device via a third network, a message to a server affiliated with the service provider of the audio stream to trigger the server to send the email corresponding to the selected advertisement;

wherein the advertisement is based on an interest of a user provided by the user to the service provider when the user signed up for an audio service of the service provider.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the email is sent to a user account associated with controller device of the zone audio playback device.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the advertisement comprises information associated with the audio stream.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

playing, by the zone audio playback device, the audio stream,

wherein the zone audio playback device sends the message without affecting playback of the audio stream at the zone audio playback device.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

relaying, by the zone audio playback device, the audio stream from the streaming audio signal to the second zone audio playback device in the zone group to play back at least a portion of the audio stream in synchrony with the zone audio playback device.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving, at the zone audio playback device from the controller device, an instruction to instantiate the saved zone group configuration at the zone audio playback device.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein retrieving, by the zone audio playback device from the service provider, the streaming audio signal further comprises retrieving, by the zone audio playback device based on the saved zone configuration, the streaming audio signal from the service provider.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein sending, by the zone audio playback device via a third network, a message further comprises triggering the server to send the advertisement to an email account of a user of the zone audio playback device pier.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the second network is the first network.

10. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium including instructions for execution by a processor, the instructions when executed implementing a method comprising:

instantiating, at a zone audio playback device, a zone group configuration, the zone group configuration causing the zone audio playback device and a second zone audio playback device to be organized according to a zone group such that the zone audio playback device and the second zone audio playback device are configured to play back audio in synchrony, and wherein the zone audio playback device and the second zone audio playback device are communicatively coupled by a first network, wherein each of the zone audio playback device and the second zone audio playback device comprises at least one speaker;

sending, by the zone audio playback device, a request for media content to a service provider, the request comprising a uniform resource indicator (URI) associated with the media content;

based on the request, retrieving, by the zone audio playback device from the service provider, a streaming audio signal comprising an audio stream and a tag, wherein the audio stream retrieved by the zone audio playback device is based on selection of a song from a playlist of songs displayed on a controller device that is communicatively coupled to the zone audio playback device by a second network, wherein the zone audio playback device is in a zone group with the second zone audio playback device according to the zone group configuration, and wherein the controller device controls playback operations of the zone audio playback device and the second zone audio playback device;

parsing, by the zone audio playback device, the received streaming audio signal to identify the audio stream and the tag in the streaming audio signal;

after the tag is identified and based on the identified audio stream, playing, by the zone audio playback device in synchrony with the second zone audio playback device in the zone group according to the zone group configuration, at least a portion of the audio stream;

based on the identified tag, causing, by the zone audio playback device, an advertisement to be inserted into the playlist of songs being played back and a voiceover related to the advertisement to be included in the playback of at least the portion of the audio stream by the zone audio playback device, the playlist of songs displayed on the controller device, wherein the advertisement inserted into the playlist of songs is associated with an email corresponding to the advertisement, and wherein causing the advertisement to be inserted into the playlist of songs being played back comprises transmitting, by the zone audio playback device, the tag to the controller device;

receiving, by the zone audio playback device from the controller device, an indication that the advertisement inserted into the playlist is selected, wherein the selection of the advertisement inserted into the playlist of songs comprises scrolling the playlist to display the advertisement, wherein scrolling the playlist comprises scrolling the songs in the playlist which causes the advertisement in the playlist to scroll; and

wherein the selection of the advertisement does not affect playback of the at least the portion of the audio stream by the zone audio playback device; and

sending, by the zone audio playback device via a third network, a message to a server affiliated with the service provider of the audio stream to trigger the server to send the email corresponding to the selected advertisement;

wherein the advertisement is based on an interest of a user provided by the user to the service provider when the user signed up for an audio service of the service provider.

11. The computer readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the email is sent to a user account associated with the controller device of the zone audio playback device.

12. The computer readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the advertisement comprises information associated with the audio stream.

13. The computer readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the method further comprises:

playing, by the zone audio playback device, the audio stream,

wherein the zone audio playback device sends the message without affecting playback of the audio stream at the zone audio playback device.

14. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein sending, by the zone audio playback device via a third network, a message further comprises triggering the server to send the advertisement to an email account of a user of the zone audio playback device.

15. The computer readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the second network is the first network.