Method and system for live video production over a packeted network

• US 20080122986A1
• Filed: 09/19/2006
• Published: 05/29/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 09/19/2006
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Florian Diederichsen
• Original Assignee: Florian Diederichsen
• Inventors: Diederichsen, Florian
• Application Number:
  US11/522,993
• Publication Number:
  US 20080122986A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/705
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2343 involving reformatting operations of video signals for distribution or compliance with end-user requests or end-user device requirements video transcoding H04N19/40; media packet handling at the source H04L65/762
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/242 Synchronization processes, e.g. processing of PCR [Program Clock References] arrangements for synchronising broadcast or distribution via plural systems in broadcast distribution systems H04H20/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2665 Gathering content from different sources, e.g. Internet and satellite
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6125 involving transmission via Internet transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82

Abstract

A method (and system) for live video production upon video signals transported over a packeted network, includes a master clock providing a packeted time code signal to the packeted network, and a video source having a source clock that is synchronized to the master clock based upon the packeted time code signal from the master clock.

Claims

1. A system for live video production on video signals over a packeted network, the system comprising:

a master clock providing a packeted time code signal to the packeted network; and

a video source having a source clock that is synchronized to the master clock based upon said packeted time code signal from the master clock.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein said source clock is synchronized based upon a propagation delay between said video source and said master clock across said packeted network.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein said video source is repeatedly synchronized until an average of propagation delay reaches a predetermined level of certainty.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein said video source is synchronized again if a packeted time code signal from said master clock arrives at said video source outside of a predetermined range of time.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein said video source provides a packet, including a video signal and video source clock time code, to said packeted network.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein said packet further comprises a video source identification code.

7. The system of claim 5, wherein said packet further comprises metadata about said video signal.

8. The system of claim 5, wherein said packet further comprises data regarding a condition of said video source.

9. The system of claim 5, wherein said video signal is encoded within said packet.

10. The system of claim 5, wherein said video signal comprises a watermarked video signal.

11. The system of claim 5, wherein said video source comprises a plurality of said video sources.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein said master clock comprises one of said plurality of video source clocks.

13. The system of claim 11, further comprising a production switch that receives packeted video signals from each of said plurality of video sources.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein said production switch produces a video signal based upon said packeted video signals by synchronizing said video signals based upon said packeted time code signals.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein said video source is synchronized periodically.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein said video source is synchronized repeatedly until an adjustment to said source clock is less than a predetermined amount.

17. The system of claim 1, wherein said packeted network comprises an Ethernet network.

18. The system of claim 1, wherein said packeted network comprises the Internet.

19. A video source for use in live video production on video signals over a packeted network, the source comprising:

a source clock; and

a clock adjuster that adjusts said source clock based upon a propagation delay between said video source and a master clock across the packeted network.

20. A video production switch for use in live video production on video signals received via a packeted network, the switch comprising:

a buffer that receives video signal packets from a plurality of video sources via the packeted network, wherein said video signal packets comprise a time code that indicates a time indicated by a corresponding video source clock; and

a transformer that synchronizes the video signals from the video signal packets based upon the time codes.

21. A method for live video production on video signals over a packeted network, the method comprising:

providing a packeted master clock time code to the packeted network from a master clock; and

synchronizing a video source clock at a video source to said master clock based upon said packeted master clock time code.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein said synchronizing said video source clock comprises determining a propagation delay between said master clock and said video source clock over said packeted network.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein said determining said propagation delay comprises:

receiving said packeted master clock time code at said video source clock;

adjusting said video source clock based upon said packeted master clock time code;

sending a request packet including a first time code from said video source clock to said master clock;

receiving a response from said master clock at said video source clock;

determining a propagation delay based upon said first time code and a current time of said video source clock; and

adjusting said video source clock based upon said propagation delay.

24. The method of claim 22, wherein said adjusting said video source clock comprises adding said propagation delay to said current time of said video source clock.

25. The method of claim 21, further comprising providing a synchronized packeted video signal to said packeted network from said video source.

26. The method of claim 21, wherein said video source comprises a plurality of video sources, and wherein said master clock comprises one of said plurality of video source clocks, the method further comprising receiving a packeted video signal and time code from each of said plurality of video sources at a production switch.

28. A method for live video production on video signals over a packeted network, the method comprising:

providing a packeted master clock time code to the packeted network from a master clock;

determining a propagation delay across said packeted network between said master clock to a video source; and

synchronizing a video source clock at the video source to said master clock based upon said propagation delay.

27. The method of claim 28, further comprising producing a synchronized video signal at said production switch based upon said plurality of packeted video signals and time codes.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein video source comprises one of a remote and a local unsynchronized video source.

30. The method of claim 29, wherein the time code is embedded in the network.

31. A method for live video production on video signals over a packeted network, the method comprising:

providing a packeted master clock time code to the packeted network from a master clock;

determining a propagation delay from a first video source to a production switch based upon said time code and an arrival time of a video signal from said first video source; and

synchronizing the video signal from said first video source at said production switch to a second video signal received from a second video source.