Peer-to-web broadcasting

• US 20080098301A1
• Filed: 02/28/2007
• Published: 04/24/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 10/20/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Netsertive, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Mixpo Portfolio Broadcasting, Inc. (Netsertive, Inc.)
• Inventors: Loucks, James Ormond, Slagboom, Kevin Justin, Black, Tyler James, Harley, Leonard, Stevens, Ronald William, Smith, Colby James Magee, Hansen, Dylan John, O'Connor, Seamus Gregory Davis, Oraas, Brian Charles, Aspestrand, Bryn Adam, Kirkby, Ronald Loren
• Granted Patent: US 8,370,732 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/246
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 15/00 Digital computers in general details G06F1/00 – G06F13/00; Data processing equipment in general
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/08 for authentication of entities cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication H04L9/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1001 for accessing one among a plurality of replicated servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1008 based on parameters of servers, e.g. available memory or workload monitoring of computer activity G06F11/30
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1023 based on a hash applied to IP addresses or costs
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/2885 Hierarchically arranged intermediate devices, e.g. for hierarchical caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/56 Provisioning of proxy services store-and-forward switching systems in data switching networks H04L12/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/566 Grouping or aggregating service requests, e.g. for unified processing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/567 Integrating service provisioning from a plurality of service providers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/5681 Pre-fetching or pre-delivering data based on network characteristics

Abstract

A method for peer-to-portal broadcasting, including providing a web page for a portal, the web page including an inline frame (iFrame), receiving meta-data for media files selected by a user for broadcast to the portal, and dynamically generating source code for the iFrame upon request, the source code including instructions for a web browser (i) to request an XML document that includes meta-data for user-selected media files, (ii) to transform the XML document to an HTML document using an XSLT transformation, and (iii) to insert the resulting HTML document into the web page for the portal. A system and computer-readable storage media are also described and claimed.

Claims

1. A method for peer-to-portal broadcasting, comprising:

providing a web page for a portal, the web page including an inline frame (iFrame);

receiving meta-data for media files selected by a user for broadcast to the portal; and

dynamically generating source code for the iFrame upon request, the source code including instructions for a web browser;

(i) to request an XML document that includes meta-data for user-selected media files;

(ii) to transform the XML document to an HTML document using an XSLT transformation; and

(iii) to insert the resulting HTML document into the web page for the portal.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising dynamically generating the XML document that includes meta-data for the user-selected media files upon request, based on meta-data stored in a database.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the resulting HTML includes source code for placing clickable thumbnail images into the web page for the portal, the clickable thumbnail images being linked to play the user-selected media files.

4. The method of claim 3 further comprising transcoding the user-selected media files for bit-rate targeted streaming.

6. The system of claim 4 wherein the plurality of web objects assembled into the HTML page include clickable thumbnail images, the clickable thumbnail images being linked to play the user-selected media files.

7. The system of claim 4 further comprising a proxy server for proxying streaming of the user-selected media files from the publisher computer to the web client computer.

5. A system for peer-to-portal broadcasting, comprising:

a portal web server for a web portal, the portal web server storing a web page for a portal, the portal web page including an inline frame (iFrame) with a source originating at a broadcast server;

a publisher computer, communicatively coupled with said portal web server, comprising a broadcast tool that enables a publisher to broadcast media files from the publisher computer to the web portal;

a broadcast server, communicatively coupled with said portal web server and with said publisher computer, comprising;

an iFrame source generator for generating source code for the iFrame included in the portal web page, the source code instructing a web browser to transform at least one XML data-container document for broadcast media files, into at least one HTML page that assembles a plurality of web objects; and

an XML document generator for generating XML data-container documents for broadcast media files; and

a web client computer, communicatively coupled with said portal web server, comprising a web browser comprising a dynamic web page generator and assembler, for executing the iFrame source code generated by said broadcast server.

8. A computer-readable storage medium storing program code for causing a computing device:

to provide a web page for a portal, the web page including an inline frame (iFrame);

to receive meta-data for media files selected by a user for broadcast to the portal; and

to dynamically generate source code for the iFrame upon request, the source code including instructions for a web browser;

(i) to request an XML document that includes meta-data for user-selected media files;

(ii) to transform the XML document to an HTML document using an XSLT transformation; and

(iii) to insert the resulting HTML document into the web page for the portal.

9. A broadcaster for publishing media content, comprising:

a video transcoder for transcoding video content from a source format to a target format at at least one target bit-rate;

an image processor, communicatively coupled with said video transcoder, for generating at least one thumbnail image representation of the video content;

a database manager, for managing a table of broadcast channels, a table of media files within channels, and a table of cached media files;

a command sequencer, communicatively coupled with said video transcoder, said image processor and said database manager, for queuing and sequencing commands issued to said video transcoder, said image processor and said database manager; and

a network engine for sending the video content to a proxy server, for streamed delivery to at least one web client on-demand.

10. The broadcaster of claim 9 wherein said video transcoder transcodes the video content to at least one target duration.

11. The broadcaster of claim 9 wherein said video transcoder transcodes the video content to at least one target resolution.

12. The broadcaster of claim 9 wherein the table of media files within channels stores the targeted bit-rates of the media files.

13. The broadcaster of claim 9 wherein the table of media files within channels stores the durations of the media files.

14. The broadcaster of claim 9 wherein the table of media files within channels stores the resolutions of the media files.