Transmission announcement system and method for announcing upcoming data transmissions over a broadcast network
First Claim
1. A transmission announcement system for announcing upcoming multimedia transmissions to be delivered over a broadcast network, comprising:
- a server and a client;
the server being configured to create announcements containing information pertaining to upcoming multimedia transmissions to be delivered over the broadcast network and to make the announcements over a secondary link to the client that is separate from the broadcast network; and
the client being configured to;
(a) automatically receive the announcements from the secondary link; and
(b) responsive to receiving the announcements, automatically filtering the announcements using at least one filter, the filter parsing the announcements to determine whether the announcements match predefined expressions or satisfy a predefined rule.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
In a broadcast system in which computer data and other content are delivered from multiple content servers to multiple clients at least partly over a broadcast network, a transmission announcement system announces upcoming broadcast transmissions and instructs the clients on how to receive the broadcast transmissions. Announcement servers (which may or may not be the same as the content servers which serve the data for the broadcast transmissions) generate announcements containing information specifying how associated upcoming transmissions are to be delivered over the broadcast network. The announcement server makes the announcements available to the clients over the broadcast network or over a secondary link other than the broadcast network. As possible examples of the secondary link, the announcement servers might send the announcements to a multicast address over a public network, such as the Internet, or post the announcements at a publicly accessible site on a data network, such as a Web site on the Internet. The clients receive the announcements via the broadcast network or the secondary link. The clients filter the announcements according to predetermined criteria, keeping the announcements satisfying the criteria and discarding the rest. The client searches the announcements that are kept to extract information pertaining to retrieval of the broadcast transmission (e.g., a broadcast protocol, a broadcast locator, a transmission time, etc.). The client then tunes a broadcast receiver to the broadcast locator and launches a receiving application to receive the transmission according to the broadcast protocol.
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Citations
55 Claims
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1. A transmission announcement system for announcing upcoming multimedia transmissions to be delivered over a broadcast network, comprising:
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a server and a client;
the server being configured to create announcements containing information pertaining to upcoming multimedia transmissions to be delivered over the broadcast network and to make the announcements over a secondary link to the client that is separate from the broadcast network; and
the client being configured to;
(a) automatically receive the announcements from the secondary link; and
(b) responsive to receiving the announcements, automatically filtering the announcements using at least one filter, the filter parsing the announcements to determine whether the announcements match predefined expressions or satisfy a predefined rule. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
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7. In a system having a broadcast network over which data transmissions served by a server are broadcast to multiple clients, each client and server having a computer-readable medium, the computer-readable media on the server and at least one client having computer-executable instructions for performing steps comprising:
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generating announcements, at the server, containing information specifying how associated upcoming transmissions are to be delivered over the broadcast network, the announcements being made available to the clients via means other than the broadcast network;
automatically creating a filter by calling an application program interface (API);
responsive to automatically receiving the announcements;
automatically filtering, at the client, the announcements received from the server using the filter; and
automatically preparing the client to receive at least one of the transmissions based on the announcements. - View Dependent Claims (8, 48, 49, 50)
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11. In a system having a broadcast network over which multimedia data transmissions served by a server are broadcast to multiple clients, each client having a computer-readable medium, the computer-readable media on each client having computer-executable instructions for:
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automatically receiving an announcement comprising information specifying how associated upcoming multimedia transmissions are to be delivered over the broadcast network; and
,responsive to receiving the announcement, automatically preparing to receive certain ones of the transmissions; and
automatically launching a software application to receive said certain ones of the transmissions from the broadcast network. - View Dependent Claims (51)
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12. A method for announcing delivery of upcoming multimedia data transmissions over a broadcast network, comprising the following steps:
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multicasting announcements containing information pertaining to the upcoming multimedia data transmissions;
automatically receiving the announcements; and
responsive to receiving the announcements;
automatically filtering each announcement; and
automatically preparing to receive at least one of the upcoming multimedia data transmissions from the broadcast network based upon the information contained in an announcement that survives the filtering. - View Dependent Claims (14, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 52)
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23. In a system where multimedia transmissions are broadcast over a broadcast network and announcements of the multimedia transmissions are made available prior to the broadcasts, a method for handling one of the announcements comprising the following steps:
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automatically defining criteria based upon user behavior;
responsive to automatically receiving the announcement;
(a) automatically evaluating the announcement based on the criteria;
(b) in an event that the announcement complies with the criteria, searching the announcement for information specifying how to receive the multimedia transmission over the broadcast network; and
(c) using the information from the announcement to prepare to receive the multimedia transmission over the broadcast network. - View Dependent Claims (25, 26, 27, 28, 29)
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33. In a system for sending multimedia data transmissions over a broadcast network, a method for announcing an upcoming transmission comprising the following steps:
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constructing an announcement comprising information specifying how to receive the upcoming transmission over the broadcast network; and
storing the announcement at an accessible site on a data network separate from the broadcast network. - View Dependent Claims (34, 35)
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36. A method for announcing delivery of upcoming multimedia data transmissions over a broadcast network, comprising the following steps:
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forming, at a server, announcements comprising information pertaining to upcoming data transmissions, the information including a broadcast protocol for broadcasting the transmissions;
sending the announcements from the server in multicast packets to a predetermined multicast address;
monitoring the multicast address from a client to automatically receive the multicast packets containing the announcements; and
responsive to receiving the announcements, automatically;
filtering the announcements at the client to retain certain announcements that satisfy a list of acceptable transmissions or a set of predefined rules;
searching the certain announcements to extract the broadcast protocol; and
using the broadcast protocol to prepare to receive upcoming transmissions associated with the certain announcements from the broadcast network. - View Dependent Claims (37, 38, 39, 40, 53)
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41. (Twice Amended) A method for announcing delivery of upcoming multimedia data transmissions over a broadcast network, the method comprising the following steps:
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making broadcast announcements available on the broadcast network, the broadcast announcements containing information pertaining to upcoming data transmissions;
responsive to automatically receiving the broadcast announcement, automatically launching a software application to receive at least one upcoming data transmission from the broadcast network. - View Dependent Claims (54)
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42. A device comprising:
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a first receiver to receive transmissions delivered over a multimedia broadcast network;
a second receiver to automatically receive an announcement from a secondary link that is separate from the broadcast network, the announcement corresponding to an upcoming transmission to be delivered over the broadcast network; and
at least one filter to automatically filter the announcement responsive to reception of the announcement, the filter parsing the announcement to determine whether the announcement matches a predefined expression or satisfies a predefined rule. - View Dependent Claims (43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 55)
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Specification