IP-BASED STREAM SPLICING WITH CONTENT-SPECIFIC SPLICE POINTS

• US 20090217318A1
• Filed: 05/01/2009
• Published: 08/27/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 09/24/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Triton US VP Acquisition, Co.
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Pickens, John, Connery, Glenn, VerSteeg, William, Kollmansberger, Kurt
• Granted Patent: US 9,197,857 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/32
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23424 involving splicing one content stream with another content stream, e.g. for inserting or substituting an advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2668 Creating a channel for a dedicated end-user group, e.g. insertion of targeted commercials based on end-user profiles information retrieval from the Internet by querying with filtering and personalisation G06F16/9535; arrangements for replacing or switching information during the broadcast H04H20/10; push services over packet-switching network H04L12/1859; adaptation of message content in packet-switching networks H04L51/063
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/64322 IP
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/165 Centralised control of user terminal subsequent to an upstream request signal H04N7/17345; Registering at central by two-way working H04N7/17309

Abstract

A method and system for conditioning a media stream for splicing are disclosed. In an embodiment, content-specific splice points, which correspond to a possible playout splice point within an original media stream, are identified for both audio and video components of the original media stream. Once the audio bitstream and video bitstream splice points are identified, the audio bitstream in the vicinity of the audio bitstream splice point is packetized into IP packets containing only audio with one of the audio-containing IP packets having an IP packet boundary that corresponds to the audio bitstream splice point and the video bitstream in the vicinity of the video bitstream splice point is packetized into IP packets containing only video with one of the video-containing IP packets having an IP packet boundary that corresponds to the video bitstream splice point. The conditioned original media stream is then transmitted downstream to a splicer.

Claims

1. A method for conditioning a media stream for splicing, the method comprising:

receiving a media stream, wherein the media stream includes an audio bitstream and a video bitstream;

identifying a possible playout splice point within the media stream;

identifying an audio bitstream splice point within the audio bitstream as a function of the possible playout splice point;

packetizing the audio bitstream into audio IP packets with one of the audio IP packets having an IP packet boundary that corresponds to the audio bitstream splice point;

identifying a video bitstream splice point within the video bitstream as a function of the possible playout splice point, wherein the video bitstream splice point is temporally different from the audio bitstream splice point;

packetizing the video bitstream into video IP packets with one of the video IP packets having an IP packet boundary that corresponds to the video bitstream splice point;

generating a reference to the audio bitstream splice point;

generating a reference to the video bitstream splice point; and

transmitting the audio bitstream splice point reference, the video bitstream splice point reference, the audio IP packets, and the video IP packets to a splicer.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the audio bitstream splice point temporally leads the video bitstream splice point.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the audio bitstream splice point temporally leads the video bitstream splice point by an encoder-specific time interval.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the audio bitstream splice point reference, the video bitstream splice point reference, the audio IP packets, and the video IP packets are transmitted in MPEG-TS compliant flows.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the audio bitstream splice point reference and the video bitstream splice point reference are transmitted to the splicer in a stream of packets that is separate from the audio IP packets and the video IP packets.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the audio bitstream splice point reference and the audio IP packets are transmitted to the splicer in a first combined stream and the video bitstream splice point reference and the video IP packets are transmitted to the splicer in a second combined stream.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the audio bitstream splice point reference is transmitted in the header of a transport layer packet of the first combined stream and the video bitstream splice point reference is transmitted in the header of a transport layer packet of the second combined stream.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the audio bitstream splice point reference and the video bitstream splice point reference are carried in an RTP header using RTP header extensions.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising identifying multiple possible playout splice points within the media stream and identifying separate audio and video bitstream splice points for each of the multiple possible playout splice points.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the audio bitstream splice point reference temporally leads the audio bitstream splice point in the transmission to the splicer and wherein the video bitstream splice point reference temporally leads the video bitstream splice point in the transmission to the splicer.

11. The method of claim 1 further comprising signaling a clock discontinuity at each splice point.

12. The method of claim 1 further comprising embedding a pointer into an RTP header that points to PCR/PTS/DTS references within the media stream.

13. The method of claim 1 further comprising transmitting a reference to a currently playing program, including an original program or a spliced program.

14. A method for conditioning a media stream for splicing, the method comprising:

receiving a media stream, wherein the media stream includes an audio bitstream and a video bitstream;

identifying multiple possible playout splice points within the media stream;

for each possible playout splice point, identifying, as a function of the possible playout splice point, a content-specific splice point for the audio stream and a content-specific splice point for the video stream, wherein the content-specific splice point for the audio stream is temporally different from the content-specific splice point for the video bitstream;

packetizing the audio bitstream into audio IP packets with the audio IP packets having IP packet boundaries that correspond to the audio bitstream splice points;

packetizing the video bitstream into video IP packets with the video IP packets having IP packet boundaries that correspond to the video bitstream splice points;

generating references to the audio bitstream splice points;

generating references to the video bitstream splice points; and

transmitting the audio bitstream splice point references, the video bitstream splice point references, the audio IP packets, and the video IP packets to a splicer.

15. A system for conditioning a media stream for splicing, the system comprising:

a conditioner configured to;

identify a possible playout splice point within a media stream, wherein the media stream includes an audio bitstream and a video bitstream;

identify an audio bitstream splice point within the audio bitstream as a function of the possible playout splice point;

packetize the audio bitstream into audio IP packets with one of the audio IP packets having an IP packet boundary that corresponds to the audio bitstream splice point;

identify a video bitstream splice point within the video bitstream as a function of the possible playout splice point, wherein the video bitstream splice point is temporally different from the audio bitstream splice point; and

packetize the video bitstream into video IP packets with one of the video IP packets having an IP packet boundary that corresponds to the video bitstream splice point;

a point of interest producer configured to;

generate a reference to the audio bitstream splice point; and

generate a reference to the video bitstream splice point; and

a transmitter configured to transmit the audio bitstream splice point reference, the video bitstream splice point reference, the audio IP packets, and the video IP packets to a splicer.

16. The system of claim 15 wherein the audio bitstream splice point temporally leads the video bitstream splice point.

17. The method of claim 15 wherein the audio bitstream splice point temporally leads the video bitstream splice point by an encoder-specific time interval.

18. The system of claim 15 wherein the audio bitstream splice point reference and the video bitstream splice point reference are transmitted to the splicer in a stream of packets that is separate from the audio IP packets and the video IP packets.

19. The system of claim 15 wherein the audio bitstream splice point reference and the audio IP packets are transmitted to the splicer in a first combined stream and the video bitstream splice point reference and the video IP packets are transmitted to the splicer in a second combined stream.

20. The method of claim 19 wherein the audio bitstream splice point reference is transmitted in the header of a transport layer packet of the first combined stream and the video bitstream splice point reference is transmitted in the header of a transport layer packet of the second combined stream.