Intelligent video streaming system

• US 10,250,922 B2
• Filed: 11/16/2017
• Issued: 04/02/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 04/27/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: TiVo Corporation (Adeia Inc.)
• Original Assignee: CenturyLink Intellectual Property LLC (Lumen Technologies, Inc.)
• Inventors: Casey, Steven M., Kudtarkar, Mayur, Parikh, Nikhil, Castro, Felipe
• Primary Examiner(s): Flynn, Randy A
• Application Number:
  US15/815,503
• Publication Number:
  US 20180091837A1
• Time in Patent Office: 502 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2187 Live feed
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/234309 by transcoding between formats or standards, e.g. from MPEG-2 to MPEG-4 or from Quicktime to Realvideo conversion of standards in analog television systems H04N7/01
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2405 Monitoring of the internal components or processes of the server, e.g. server load allocation of resources in multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/50; performance measurement of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/437 Interfacing the upstream path of the transmission network, e.g. for transmitting client requests to a VOD server flow control in data networks H04L47/10; streaming protocols, e.g. RTP or RTCP, H04L65/65; scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests in data packet switching networks H04L67/60
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6125 involving transmission via Internet transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6405 Multicasting data broadcast and multicast in packet switching networks H04L12/18

Abstract

A system for intelligent video streaming a video controller having at least one processor and non-transitory computer readable media having a set of instructions executable by the at least one processor to receive a playback request from a user device for a live stream, determine, from the playback request, whether source streaming content for the live stream is being transcoded, and allocate an available transcoder to transcode the source streaming content. The system further includes a transcoding having at least one processor and non-transitory computer readable media having a set of instructions executable by the at least one processor to join the multicast stream, retrieve the source streaming content, and transcode the source streaming content, and provide transcoded streaming content for delivery to the user device.

Claims

1. A system for intelligent video streaming comprising:

a user device in communication with a service provider network, the user device generating a playback request for a live stream in response to a user selection to view a channel associated with live stream;

a video controller in communication with the user device and accessible over the service provider network, the video controller comprising;

at least one processor;

non-transitory computer readable media having encoded thereon computer software comprising a set of instructions executable by the at least one processor to;

allocate at least a first transcoder of a pool of transcoders to be continuously active based on analysis of viewing history of a plurality of users;

receive, from the user device, the playback request for the live stream;

determine, from the playback request, whether source streaming content for the live stream is being transcoded; and

allocate, in response to determining that the source streaming content is not being transcoded, an available transcoder from the pool of transcoders to join a multicast stream and transcode the source streaming content;

wherein the available transcoder of the pool of available transcoders further comprises;

at least one processor;

non-transitory computer readable media having encoded thereon a set of instructions executable by the at least one processor to;

generate a join request for the multicast stream of the source streaming content;

join the multicast stream;

retrieve, from the multicast stream, the source streaming content;

transcode the source streaming content for viewing by the user device; and

provide transcoded streaming content for delivery to the user device.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the video controller further comprises instructions to return, to the user device, in response to receiving the playback request, a pre-roll video playlist, wherein the pre-roll video playlist indicates one or more videos to be played before the requested stream is provided to the user device.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the pre-roll video playlist includes one or more of a dynamic advertisement, static advertisement, static video, or other live stream.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the video controller further comprises instructions to track how many transcoders of the pool of available transcoders are in use.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the video controller further comprises instructions to generate an alert if a number of available transcoders in the pool of available transcoders falls below a threshold.

6. The system of claim 4, further comprising at least one transcoder host machine, wherein the transcoders comprise virtualized transcoder instances hosted on the transcoder host machine, wherein the video controller further comprises instructions to dynamically scale the number of virtualized transcoder instances provisioned on the at least one transcoder host machine according to load requirements.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the video controller further comprises instructions to assign idle transcoders in the pool of available transcoders to transcode at least one of video on demand content or adaptive bitrate streaming content, wherein the idle transcoder is an available transcoder that may be dynamically requested by the video controller, wherein in response to being requested, the idle transcoder will switch from transcoding the at least one of video on demand content or adaptive bitrate streaming content to transcoding the source streaming content for the content stream.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the video controller further comprises instructions, which, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the video controller to;

determine that no user devices are viewing the transcoded streaming content of the live stream for a first threshold period;

determine that no requests for the live stream have been received from any user devices for a second threshold period; and

release the available transcoder, in response to determining that no user devices have viewed the transcoded streaming content of the live stream for the first threshold period, and that no requests for the live stream have been received for the second threshold period.

9. An intelligent video streaming controller comprising:

at least one processor; and

non-transitory computer readable media having encoded thereon computer software comprising a set of instructions executable by the at least one processor to;

allocate at least a first transcoder of a pool of transcoders to be continuously active based on analysis of viewing history of a plurality of users;

receive, from a user device, a playback request for a live stream associated with a channel selected by the user device;

determine, from the playback request, whether the source streaming content for the live stream is being transcoded;

allocate, in response to determining that the source streaming content is not being transcoded, an available transcoder from the pool of transcoders;

identify, based on the playback request, a multicast stream for the source streaming content;

retrieve, via the available transcoder, the source streaming content from the multicast stream;

transcode, via the available transcoder, the source streaming content; and

provide, via the available transcoder, transcoded streaming content for delivery to the user device.

10. The video controller of claim 9, further comprising instructions to return, to the user device, in response to receiving the playback request, a pre-roll video playlist, wherein the pre-roll video playlist indicates one or more videos to be played before the requested stream is provided to the user device.

11. The video controller of claim 9, further comprising instructions to track how many transcoders of the pool of available transcoders are in use.

12. The video controller of claim 11, further comprising instructions to generate an alert if a number of available transcoders in the pool of available transcoders falls below a threshold.

13. The video controller of claim 11, wherein the pool of available transcoders comprise virtualized transcoder instances hosted on a transcoder host machine including the available transcoder, wherein the video controller further comprises instructions to dynamically scale the number of virtualized transcoder instances provisioned on the at least one transcoder host machine according to load requirements.

14. The video controller of claim 9, further comprising instructions to assign idle transcoders in the pool of available transcoders to transcode at least one of video on demand content or adaptive bitrate streaming content, wherein the idle transcoder is an available transcoder that may be dynamically requested by the video controller, wherein in response to being requested, the idle transcoder will switch from transcoding the at least one of video on demand content or adaptive bitrate streaming content to transcoding the source streaming content for the content stream.

15. The video controller of claim 9, further comprising instructions to:

determine that no user devices are viewing the transcoded streaming content of the live stream for a first threshold period;

determine that no requests for the live stream have been received from any user devices for a second threshold period; and

release the available transcoder, in response to determining that no user devices have viewed the transcoded streaming content of the live stream for the first threshold period, and that no requests for the live stream have been received for the second threshold period.

16. A method for intelligent video streaming services comprising:

allocating at least a first transcoder of a pool of transcoders to be continuously active based on analysis of viewing history of a plurality of users;

receiving, at a video controller, a playback request for a live stream, the playback request generated by a user device in response to a selection to view a channel associated with the live stream;

determining, at the video controller, whether source streaming content for the live stream is being transcoded;

allocating, in response to determining that the source streaming content is not being transcoded, an available transcoder from the pool of transcoders;

retrieving, via the available transcoder, the source streaming content from a multicast stream of the source streaming content;

transcoding, via the available transcoder, the source streaming content for viewing by the user device; and

providing, via the transcoder, transcoded streaming content for delivery to the user device.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

returning, via the video controller, in response to receiving the playback request, a pre-roll video playlist to the user device, wherein the pre-roll video playlist indicates one or more videos to be played before the requested stream is provided to the user device; and

retrieving, with the user device, the one or more videos of the pre-roll video playlist.

18. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

providing a transcoder host machine;

provisioning, via the transcoder host machine, one or more virtualized transcoder instances;

tracking, with the video controller, virtualized transcoder instance usage; and

scaling, at the transcoder host machine, the number of virtualized transcoder instances according to load requirements for additional virtualized transcoder instances;

wherein the transcoder host machine hosts the pool of available transcoders, the pool of available transcoders having a plurality of virtualized transcoder instances including the available transcoder.

19. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

assigning, via the video controller, idle transcoders in the pool of available transcoders to transcode at least one of video on demand content or adaptive bitrate streaming content, wherein the idle transcoder is an available transcoder that may be dynamically requested by the video controller, wherein in response to being requested, the idle transcoder will switch from transcoding the at least one of video on demand content or adaptive bitrate streaming content to transcoding the source streaming content for the content stream.

20. The method of claim 16 further comprising:

determining, with the video controller, that no user devices are viewing the transcoded streaming content of the live stream for a first threshold period;

determining, with the video controller, that no requests for the live stream have been received from any user devices for a second threshold period; and

releasing, with the video controller, the available transcoder, in response to determining that no user devices have viewed the transcoded streaming content of the live stream for the first threshold period, and that no requests for the live stream have been received for the second threshold period.

21. The method of claim 16, wherein the available transcoder is the first transcoder.