SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DELIVERING VIDEO AND AUDIO CONTENT OVER A NETWORK

• US 20070143493A1
• Filed: 12/04/2006
• Published: 06/21/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 12/04/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Turner Broadcasting System Incorporated (Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Turner Broadcasting System Incorporated (Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc.)
• Inventors: Sultan, Anwer, Mullig, Richard, Tighe, Aaron
• Granted Patent: US 7,930,419 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/232
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/40 of multimedia data, e.g. slideshows comprising image and additional audio data retrieval of still image data G06F16/50; retrieval of audio data G06F16/60; retrieval of video data G06F16/70
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1101 Session protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/612 for unicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/613 for the control of the source by the destination control signals issued by the client directed to the server or network components specially adapted for selective content distribution H04N21/637
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/70 Media network packetisation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/752 adapting media to network capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/765 intermediate
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2187 Live feed
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/234354 by altering signal-to-noise ratio parameters, e.g. requantization
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4316 for displaying supplemental content in a region of the screen, e.g. an advertisement in a separate window
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4325 by playing back content from the storage medium reproduction of recorded television signals H04N5/76; reproduction of recorded television signals H04N9/79
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47202 for requesting content on demand, e.g. video on demand
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

A content delivery system according to various embodiments of the invention substantially concurrently streams a plurality of live videos to a client computing device over a network, allowing the user to view two or more live videos at the same time. In a particular embodiment, the system is configured to display a high resolution version of a live video feed in a “primary” pane of a main display dialog window and one or more additional live video feeds in low resolution in “preview” panes of the main display dialog window substantially concurrently, wherein the additional live video feeds are different from the first video feed and each other. In this particular embodiment, the system allows the user to preview the additional videos while the first video is playing. In addition, according to one embodiment, the live video feeds may be from independent sources.

Claims

1. A content delivery system for streaming live video content to one or more client computing devices over a network, said system comprising:

a content delivery server configured for streaming video content for two or more live videos over a network substantially concurrently, wherein a first live video is streamed over the network by said content delivery server at a resolution higher than a second live video streamed over the network by said content delivery server; and

at least one client computing device in communication with the content delivery server over said network, said client computing device running a client application, the client application having a media player component configured for receiving the video content from said content delivery server, decoding the video content, and displaying at least the first and second live videos substantially concurrently to a user, the first live video being displayed at a higher resolution than the second live video.

2. A content delivery system according to claim 1 wherein the first video is displayed in a first pane and the second video is displayed in a second pane, the first pane and the second pane being displayed as part of a single user interface window.

3. A content delivery system according to claim 2 wherein the displayed videos further comprise a third video, the third video being streamed to the at least one client computing device in a resolution lower than the resolution of the first live video and displayed in a third pane that is part of the single user interface window, and wherein:

said content delivery server is further configured for;

streaming a high resolution version and a low resolution version for each of the first, second, and third live videos, and the client application is further configured for;

receiving a selection of one of the first, second, third live videos from a user,

in response to receiving the selection, requesting said content delivery server to stream the high resolution version of the selected live video and the low resolution versions of the non-selected live videos to the client application,

receiving the high resolution version of the selected live video and the low resolution versions of the non-selected live videos from said content delivery server, and

in response to receiving the high resolution version of the selected video and the low resolution versions of the non-selected videos, decoding and displaying the high resolution version of the selected video in the first pane.

4. A content delivery system according to claim 3 wherein the low resolution versions of the non-selected live videos are decoded and displayed in the second pane and a third pane, the second and third panes being smaller than the first pane.

5. A content delivery system according to claim 3 wherein:

each of the first live video, the second live video, and the third live video are associated with audio content,

said content delivery server is further configured for streaming the audio content associated with the selected live video to the client application substantially concurrently with the video content of the selected live video, and

the client application is further configured for receiving, decoding, and playing the audio content substantially in synch with the display of the selected live video.

6. A content delivery system according to claim 5 wherein the audio content is streamed to said content delivery server from a source independent of a source of the selected live video.

7. A content delivery system according to claim 3 wherein:

each of the first live video, the second live video, and the third live video are associated with audio content,

said content delivery server is further configured for encoding the audio content associated with the selected video and the selected video content with time stamps and streaming the encoded audio content and the encoded selected video content to the client application substantially concurrently, and

the client application is further configured for receiving, decoding, and playing the audio content substantially in synch with the selected video content by comparing the time stamps of the audio content and the selected video content and playing the audio content and the selected video content such that the time stamps of each substantially correspond.

8. A content delivery system according to claim 3 wherein:

said content delivery server is further configured for;

receiving a selection of a live video chosen from the two or more live videos from one or more users of said one or more client computing devices;

maintaining a record of the live videos selected by the one or more users;

determining which of the live videos is requested most often by the one or more users;

generating a list of the one or more live videos determined to be requested most often; and

transmitting the list to the client applications running on each of said one or more client computing devices for display to the user of each of said client computing devices.

9. A content delivery system according to claim 8 wherein the client application is configured for:

receiving the selection of the live video chosen from the two or more live videos from the user of said client computing device running the client application, each live video being associated with metadata identifying one or more genres to which the live video belongs;

maintaining a record of the live videos selected by the user and the one or more genres to which each selected live video belongs;

determining which genre the user tends to prefer based on the record of the live videos selected by the user and the one or more genres to which each selected live video belongs;

generating a list of additional live videos within the genre determined to be preferred by the user; and

displaying the list of the additional live videos to the user.

10. A content delivery system according to claim 3 wherein the user interface window further comprises a text pane, and the client application is further configured for displaying text in the text pane.

11. A content delivery system according to claim 10 wherein the text is information related to the selected live video displayed in the first pane.

12. A content delivery system according to claim 10 wherein the text information is a hyperlink to a website related to the selected live video displayed in the first pane, and wherein the client application is further configured for instructing said client computing device to launch a new browser to display the website in response to selection of the hyperlink by the user.

13. A content delivery system according to claim 10 wherein the text information is a link to an on-demand video related to the selected live video displayed in the first pane, and wherein the client application is further configured for displaying the on-demand video in response to selection of the link by the user.

14. A content delivery system according to claim 10 wherein the text information is a blog of comments received from said content delivery server, the blog of comments being synchronized with the selected video content.

15. A content delivery system according to claim 2 wherein the first pane is smaller than the second pane.

16. A content delivery system according to claim 2 wherein the low resolution version of the first video is received by said content delivery server from a first source and the high resolution version of the first video is received by said content delivery server from a second source, the first source and the second source being independent of each other.

17. A content delivery system according to claim 2 wherein the client application is further configured for:

receiving a request from the user to browse through live video content available for viewing;

in response to receiving the request, generating a request for said content delivery server to stream an additional live video in low resolution to said client computing device, the additional live video not being currently displayed on said client computing device at the time the request is received from the user;

in response to receiving video content associated with the additional video, decoding and displaying the video content for the additional live video in low resolution within the single user interface window.

18. A content delivery system according to claim 17 wherein the client application is further configured for displaying the additional live video in the second pane and ceasing display of the second video.

19. A content delivery system according to claim 17 wherein the client application is further configured for displaying the additional live video in a third pane that is part of the single user interface window.

20. A content delivery system according to claim 19 wherein the third pane is adjacent the second pane.

21. A content delivery system according to claim 17 wherein the client application is further configured for displaying the additional live video and ceasing display of at least one live video that was being displayed in low resolution at the time the request was received from the user.

22. A content delivery system according to claim 1 wherein the user interface comprises two or more scrollable ribbons, each scrollable ribbon comprising at least one pane for displaying one or more available live videos, and each scrollable ribbon being collapsible and expandable, wherein the client application is configured for displaying the one or more available live videos associated with an expanded scrollable ribbon in a pane in the expanded scrollable ribbon and not displaying the one or more live videos associated with a collapsed scrollable ribbon.

23. A content delivery system according to claim 22 wherein each of the scrollable ribbons are associated with a particular category of videos to be displayed within the scrollable ribbon.

24. A content delivery system according to claim 1 wherein the client application is configured for:

displaying at least one scrollable ribbon, each scrollable ribbon comprising one or more panes and each of the one or more panes displaying an available live video;

receiving a request from the user to scroll through the available videos on one of the at least one scrollable ribbons; and

in response to receiving the user'"'"'s request to scroll through the available live videos on the scrollable ribbon, moving the location of the panes and the live videos displayed therein through the scrollable ribbon such that at least one new pane displaying a live video that was not displayed when the request was received by the client application is displayed.

25. A content delivery system according to claim 1 wherein the first video is received by said content delivery server from a first computing device in communication with said content delivery server and the second video is received by said content delivery server from a second computing device in communication with said content delivery server, the first computing device being independent from the second computing device.

26. A content delivery system according to claim 1 wherein said content delivery server is configured for streaming one or more on-demand, pre-recorded videos substantially concurrently with the live videos.

27. A content delivery system according to claim 1 wherein one or more of the live videos are associated with audio content, said content delivery server is further configured for streaming the audio content with the one or more live videos, and the client application is configured for receiving, decoding, and playing the audio content substantially in synch with the live video being displayed.

28. A content delivery system according to claim 1 wherein the network is the Internet.

29. A content delivery system according to claim 1 wherein the media player component of the client application is Windows Media Player™

, QuickTime™

, RealPlayer™

, and Adobe Flash Player™

.

30. A content delivery system according to claim 1 wherein the client application is configured for receiving alert content from the content delivery server, the alert content providing information to the user related to one of the videos available to be displayed to the user.

31. A content delivery system according to claim 30 wherein the alert content is text, and the client application is configured for displaying the text on said client computing device.

32. A content delivery system according to claim 30 wherein the alert content is audio content streamed to said client computing device from said content delivery server, and wherein the client application is further configured for receiving, decoding, and playing the audio content of the alert when the alert is received.

33. A content delivery system according to claim 32 wherein the client application is configured for muting any audio content associated with the first video that is being played when the audio content of the alert is received.

34. A content delivery system according to claim 32 wherein the client application is configured for reducing a decibel level of any audio content associated with the first video that is being played when the audio content of the alert is received.

35. A content delivery system according to claim 32 wherein the client application is configured for receiving a request from the user to mute the play of the audio content of the alert, and in response to receiving the request, ceasing the play of the audio content of the alert.

36. A content delivery system according to claim 30 wherein the client application is configured for:

receiving from the user of said client computing device a preference indicating whether the user prefers to receive textual or audio-based alert content;

in response to receiving the preference from the user and the preference indicating that the user prefers to receive textual-based alert content, displaying the textual-based alert content to the user when the textual-based alert content is received from the content delivery server; and

in response to receiving the preference from the user and the preference indicating that the user prefers to receive audio-based alert content, playing the audio-based alert content to the user when the audio-based alert content is received from the content delivery server.

37. A content delivery system according to claim 30 wherein the client application is configured for:

receiving from the user of said client computing device a preference indicating whether the user prefers to receive alert content;

in response to receiving the preference from the user and the preference indicating that the user prefers not to receive alert content, not presenting the alert content when the alert content is received from the content delivery server; and

in response to receiving the preference from the user and the preference indicating that the user prefers to receive alert content, presenting the alert content to the user when the alert content is received from the content delivery server.

38. A content delivery system according to claim 30 wherein the alert content comprises announcements of changes in the video content to be displayed, upcoming news, or breaking news.

39. A content delivery system according to claim 1 wherein the client application is configured for:

retrieving one or more operating specifications of said client computing device;

comparing the operating specifications to a set of minimum operating specifications;

in response to the one or more operating specifications not meeting a particular minimum specification, ceasing to stream video content associated with one or more of the live videos.

40. A content delivery system according to claim 1 wherein the client application is configured for:

retrieving one or more operating specifications of said client computing device;

comparing the operating specifications to a set of minimum operating specifications;

in response to the one or more operating specifications not meeting a particular minimum specification, notifying the user that the particular operating specification is not met.

41. A content delivery system according to claim 1 wherein metadata identifying a subject matter of each live video is associated with each live video and wherein the client application is configured for:

receiving a request from the user to search for videos related to a particular subject matter;

in response to receiving the request from the user, sending a request to said content delivery server for a list of videos related to the particular subject matter;

receiving the list of videos related to the particular subject matter; and

displaying the list videos related to the particular subject matter to the user.

42. A content delivery system according to claim 41 wherein the client application is further configured for:

receiving a request from the user to play one of the videos included in the list of videos;

in response to receiving the request from the user, sending a request to said content delivery server to stream the requested video to said client computing device;

receiving the video content for the requested video from said content delivery server; and

decoding and displaying the video content for the requested video.

43. A content delivery system for streaming a plurality of live videos to one or more client computing devices and displaying at least two of the live videos substantially concurrently, said content delivery system comprising:

a client application running on each of the one or more client computing devices, said client application configured for;

receiving and decoding streams of video content for two or more live videos, the streams of video content being transmitted over a network from a remote computing device;

storing the decoded video content in a temporary storage on the client computing device running the client application for a predetermined time;

receiving a request from a user to record the video content for at least one of the live videos; and

in response to receiving the request to record the video content, storing the video content stored in the temporary storage to a nonvolatile storage of the client computing device and storing newly received video content to the nonvolatile storage.

44. A content delivery system according to claim 43 wherein said client application is further configured for determining whether the user has rights to record the video content prior to storing the video content to the nonvolatile storage.

45. A content delivery system according to claim 43 wherein the video content is associated with metadata indicating whether the user has rights to store the video content, and said client application is configured for determining from the metadata whether the user has rights to store the video content.

46. A content delivery system according to claim 43 wherein said client application is further configured for allowing the user to pause, rewind, playback, fast forward, resume play, and stop play of the one or more live videos stored in the temporary storage or the nonvolatile storage.

47. A content delivery system according to claim 43 wherein said client application is configured for allowing two or more videos to be paused, rewound, played back, fast forwarded, stopped, and resumed substantially concurrently.

48. A content delivery system according to claim 43 wherein the temporary storage is a buffer file.

49. A content delivery system according to claim 43 wherein said client application is further configured for receiving and decoding streams of audio content associated with the streams of live video content, playing the audio content substantially in synch with the display of the associated live video content, and storing the audio content with the associated live video content in the temporary storage or the nonvolatile storage.

50. A content delivery system according to claim 43 wherein the video content comprises a plurality of frames, the plurality of frames comprising a first frame and a second frame, the first frame being associated with metadata indicating the first frame is a start frame in the video content, and the second frame being associated with metadata indicating the second frame is an end frame in the video content, wherein said client application is further configured for:

identifying the first frame;

in response to identifying the first frame, storing the video content between the first frame and the second frame in the nonvolatile storage;

identifying the second frame; and

in response to identifying the second frame, ceasing to store the video content in the nonvolatile storage.

51. A content delivery system according to claim 43 wherein the video content comprises a plurality of frames, each frame being associated with a time stamp, and said client application is further configured for:

receiving a request from the user to rewind play of the video content of a first video to a particular frame;

in response to receiving the request, rewinding the video content of the first video to the particular frame requested, the particular frame being associated with a particular time stamp, and

in response to receiving the request, rewinding the video content of a second video to a frame associated with the particular time stamp, such that the first and second videos are rewound substantially in synch.

52. A content delivery system according to claim 43 wherein the video content comprises a plurality of frames, each frame being associated with a time stamp, and said client application is further configured for:

receiving a request from the user to fast forward play of the video content of a first video to a particular frame;

in response to receiving the request, fast forwarding the video content of the first video to the particular frame requested, the particular frame being associated with a particular time stamp, and

in response to receiving the request, fast forwarding the video content of a second video to a frame associated with the particular time stamp, such that the first and second videos are fast forwarded substantially in synch.

53. A content delivery system according to claim 43, wherein said client application is further configured for:

receiving a request from the user to record video content associated with an alert, and

in response to receiving the request from the user, storing the video content to the nonvolatile storage of the client computing device.

54. A content delivery system according to claim 43 wherein said client application is further configured for:

receiving a request from the user to record video content associated with alerts related to a particular category; and

in response to receiving the request from the user, storing video content associated with the alerts related to the particular category to the nonvolatile storage of the client computing device.

55. A content delivery system according to claim 43 wherein said client application is further configured for:

tracking the user'"'"'s selection of video content over a particular time period;

identifying one or more categories of video content as categories of content that the user is likely to have interest based on the user'"'"'s previous selections;

in response to identifying one or more categories of video content, recording new video content associated with the one or more categories to the nonvolatile storage of the client computing device.

56. A content delivery system for streaming live video content to one or more client computing devices, said system comprising:

a client application running on a client computing device, the client computing device in communication with a content delivery server over a network, said client application configured for;

receiving, decoding, and displaying two or more live videos in a single user interface on the client computing device, the two or more live video being streamed substantially concurrently to the client computing device from the content delivery server over the network;

determining whether a user of the client computing device is actively viewing at least one of the two or more live videos;

in response to determining that the user is not actively viewing at least one of the two or more live videos, notifying the content delivery server to cease streaming of the videos; and

in response to determining that the user is actively viewing at least one of the two or more live videos, notifying the content delivery server to continue streaming of the videos.

57. A content delivery system according to claim 56 wherein said client application is configured for determining whether the user of the client computing device is actively viewing the two or more live videos by requesting the user to provide an input and receiving the input from the user.

58. A content delivery system according to claim 56 wherein said client application is configured for determining whether the user of the client computing device is actively viewing the two or more live videos by monitoring input by the user over a particular time period.

59. A content delivery system according to claim 56 wherein said client application determines that the user of the client computing device is not actively viewing the two or more live videos in response to the user minimizing the user interface from an active window to a minimized window.

60. A content delivery system according to claim 56 wherein said client application is further configured for determining whether the user of the client computing device resumes viewing of the two or more live videos, and in response to determining that the user resumes viewing the two or more live videos, notifying the content delivery server to resume streaming of the videos.

61. A content delivery system according to claim 60 wherein said client application determines that the user of the client computing device resumes viewing of the two or more live videos in response to the user restoring the user interface to an active window from a minimized window.

62. A content delivery system for streaming live video content to one or more client computing devices, said system comprising:

a client application running on a client computing device, the client computing device in communication with a content delivery server over a network, said client application configured for;

receiving and decoding two or more live videos, the two or more live videos being streamed to the client computing device from the content delivery server over the network;

substantially concurrently displaying the two or more live videos in a single user interface window on the client computing device in a first display mode;

receiving a request from a user to display a selected live video from the two or more live videos in a second display mode, wherein the user interface window displayed in the second display mode is different than the user interface window displayed in the first display mode;

in response to receiving the request, displaying the selected live video in the second display mode;

wherein said client application is configured for substantially maintaining synchronicity and continuous play of the selected live video when switching from the first display mode to the second display mode.

63. A content delivery system according to claim 62 wherein said client application is further configured for receiving a request from the user to switch from the second display mode to the first display mode, and in response to receiving the request, displaying the two or more live videos in the first display mode while substantially maintaining synchronicity and continuous play of the selected live video when switching from the second display mode to the first display mode.

64. A content delivery system according to claim 62 wherein said client application is further configured to instruct an operating system running on the client computing device to continuously display the user interface window while the user is using another application.

65. A content delivery system according to claim 62 wherein said client application is further configured for:

receiving audio content associated with the selected live video from the content delivery server, wherein the audio content and the selected video are embedded with time stamps by the content delivery server;

decoding the audio content and the selected video; and

playing the audio content and displaying the selected video substantially in synch such that the time stamps of each correspond.