Methods and apparatus for local channel insertion in an all-digital content distribution network
First Claim
1. Computerized apparatus disposed at a node in a network, said computerized apparatus comprising:
- a receiver apparatus configured to receive an incoming digital signal over at least one radio frequency band;
a data input apparatus configured to receive packetized Internet protocol (IP) data;
a data combination apparatus configured to;
(i) combine said packetized IP data with at least a portion of said incoming digital signal to generate an outgoing digital signal, and(ii) dynamically update a channel map, said update comprising removal of an existing program identifier (PID) associated with said incoming digital signal from said channel map and generation of a PID for said packetized IP data, said generated PID mapped into said channel map; and
a transmission apparatus configured to transmit said outgoing digital signal to a receiver disposed at a premises of a user of said network;
wherein said updated channel map enables a subsequent receiver of said packetized IP data transmitted by said transmission apparatus to access said packetized IP data.
3 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Methods and apparatus for inserting local content of interest in an all digital content delivery network. In one embodiment, the content delivery network comprises a cable television or satellite network, and an RF channel thereof is separated or isolated from an incoming multiplex of all-digital content transmission. The separated RF channel is demodulated to provide a multiplexed transport stream, and packets corresponding to one or more programs from the transport stream are replaced with packets obtained from local compression and encoding of analog programming such as e.g., personal, educational and government (PEG) programming. The inserted programming may also contain closed captioning and emergency data alerts. The resulting encoded transport stream is then re-inserted into the multiplex, modulated, and put back onto the RF channel. In an alternate embodiment, space is reserved within the downstream multiplex so as to avoid having to remove an existing program stream.
-
Citations
20 Claims
-
1. Computerized apparatus disposed at a node in a network, said computerized apparatus comprising:
-
a receiver apparatus configured to receive an incoming digital signal over at least one radio frequency band; a data input apparatus configured to receive packetized Internet protocol (IP) data; a data combination apparatus configured to; (i) combine said packetized IP data with at least a portion of said incoming digital signal to generate an outgoing digital signal, and (ii) dynamically update a channel map, said update comprising removal of an existing program identifier (PID) associated with said incoming digital signal from said channel map and generation of a PID for said packetized IP data, said generated PID mapped into said channel map; and a transmission apparatus configured to transmit said outgoing digital signal to a receiver disposed at a premises of a user of said network; wherein said updated channel map enables a subsequent receiver of said packetized IP data transmitted by said transmission apparatus to access said packetized IP data. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
-
-
7. A computerized method for distributing content over a network, the computerized apparatus comprising:
-
receiving, via a receiver apparatus, first signals over at least one radio frequency band, the first signals comprising digitally rendered content; receiving, via an input apparatus, second signals; combining, via a combination apparatus, the second signals with at least a portion of the first signals to generate outgoing digital data, the combining comprising updating a channel map, the updating comprising (i) removing an existing program identifier (PID) associated with the first signals from the channel map and (ii) generating a PID for the second signals, the generated PID mapped into the channel map; and transmitting, via a transmitter apparatus, the outgoing digital data to a receiver disposed at a premises of a user of the network; wherein the updated channel map enables a subsequent receiver of the second signals transmitted by the transmission apparatus to access the second signals. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
-
-
13. Computer readable apparatus comprising a non-transitory storage medium, the non-transitory medium comprising at least one computer program having a plurality of instructions, the plurality of instructions configured to, when executed on a processing apparatus:
-
receive, via a first receiver apparatus, one or more first program transport streams over at least a portion of a content delivery network; receive, via a second receiver apparatus, a content stream; combine, via a data combination apparatus, the content stream with at least a portion of the one or more first program transport streams to generate a combined digital signal, wherein the combination comprises an update of a channel map, the update comprising removal of existing program identification data associated with at least the portion of the one or more first program transport streams from the channel map and generation of program identification data for the content stream, the generated program identification data mapped into the channel map; and transmit, via a transmission apparatus, the outgoing combined digital signal to a receiver device disposed at a premises of a user of the content delivery network; wherein the updated channel map enables the receiver device of the content stream transmitted by the transmission apparatus to access the content stream. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
-
Specification