REAL-TIME MEDIA DELIVERY WITH AUTOMATIC CATCH-UP

• US 20110246657A1
• Filed: 04/01/2010
• Published: 10/06/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 04/01/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Xcira Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Auction Management Solutions Incorporated
• Inventors: Glow, Andy
• Granted Patent: US 8,402,155 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/231
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1063 Application servers providing network services systems providing special services to telephonic subscribers H04M3/42
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/611 for multicast or broadcast systems for broadcast or conference H04L12/18; arrangements for broadcast or distribution combined with broadcast H04H20/00; arrangements for broadcast applications with a direct linkage to broadcast information or to broadcast space-time H04H60/00; selective distribution of broadcast services, e.g. multimedia broadcast multicast service [MBMS], H04W4/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2187 Live feed
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44004 involving video buffer management, e.g. video decoder buffer or video display buffer
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6125 involving transmission via Internet transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6547 comprising parameters, e.g. for client setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6581 Reference data, e.g. a movie identifier for ordering a movie or a product identifier in a home shopping application

Abstract

Live media content is delivered in substantially real-time to a player device from a streamer and through a content delivery network. The streamer receives live media content and encodes and streams the content over the content delivery network. The content delivery network is configured to provide minimal buffering. A player device accessing the streaming channel receives media frames and buffers the frames while rending the received frames in order of receipt. If the buffer is loaded to the point that the currently rendered data lags the actual live feed by more than a threshold amount of time, the player skips over one or more video frames to bring the rendered content more current. For instance, the buffer can be flushed and more recent content can be received from the content delivery network.

Claims

1. A method for rendering media content with delays of approximately one second or less, the method comprising the steps of:

a player device operating on a computing platform, accessing a media stream through a network;

commencing the reception of media content from the media stream;

placing received media content into a buffer;

rendering media content stored in the buffer;

monitoring the amount of media content stored in the buffer; and

deleting a sufficient amount of media content from the buffer if the amount of media content represents more than a threshold period of time to ensure that that the amount of media content is below the threshold period of time.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of deleting a sufficient amount of media content further comprises ensuring that a minimum amount of media content remains in the buffer.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the network is a content delivery network and the step of deleting a sufficient amount of media content further comprises issuing a command to the network to receive the most recent media content, and overwriting the buffer with the most recent media content.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the step of accessing a media stream further comprises accessing a specific URL associated with a desired media stream.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the URL is associated with a streamer that is streaming live video.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of deleting a sufficient amount of media content further comprises skipping an amount of the media content currently stored in the buffer of the player device.

7. A system for delivering real-time media, the system comprising:

a media capture device configured to capture live media;

a streamer communicatively coupled to the media capture device and configured to encode media content received from the media capture device and begin the transfer of the encoded media content to a delivery system;

a user device including a media player and a rendering device, configured to;

interface to the delivery system;

receive the encoded media content from the streamer through the delivery system;

decode the media content;

store the media content in a buffer;

render the media content to the rendering device;

monitor the amount of media content stored in the buffer; and

flush the buffer and reload with current media content if the amount of time represented by the media content in the buffer exceeds a threshold amount of time.

8. The system of claim 7, further comprising an application server communicatively coupled to the streamer and the user device, the application server being configured to maintain an information store including parameters associated with the encoded media content that is available from the streamer and, the user device is configured to obtain the parameters from the application server when interfacing to the delivery system.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the media player is the ADOBE FLASH PLAYER and the delivery system is a content delivery network, wherein the user device is configured to flush the buffer by issuing a seek command to the content delivery system.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the parameters of the seek command are selected to ensure that the buffer content after the reload invoked by the seek command will be less than the threshold time but, more than a minimum time.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the threshold amount of time is approximately 0.6 seconds and the minimum time is approximately 0.2 seconds.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein the flush may include one or more seek commands.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein the content delivery network is configured to buffer a minimum amount of media content.

14. The system of claim 8, wherein the user device is configured to flush the buffer by skipping media content that has been stored in the buffer.

15. A method for presenting live media content in substantially real-time, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving media content from a live feed over a content delivery network, the media content to be rendered on a rendering device;

buffering the media content as it is received;

rendering the media content on the rendering device in the order of its receipt; and

skipping over a portion of the media content if the currently rendered media content is a threshold amount of time delayed from the actual live feed.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the step of receiving media content from a live feed further comprises the step of sending a request to a content delivery network, the request identifying a media stream presenting the media content.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the step of sending a request further comprises the steps of:

accessing an application server to obtain setup parameters for a particular media content stream; and

including setup parameters in the request.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising the steps of:

obtaining media content feed at a live event;

encoding the media content feed and presenting the encoded media content feed to a content delivery network; and

storing information in an application server that identifies access information associated with the media content feed.

19. The method of claim 15, wherein the media content includes video content delivered in blocks of video data and the step of rendering the media content is performed at least in part by a video player operating on a computing platform, and the step of skipping over a portion of the media content further comprises the steps of:

monitoring the number of video blocks that are stored in the buffer;

detecting when the number of video blocks in the buffer represent the threshold amount of time; and

jumping ahead to the most recent video blocks and continue the step of rendering the media content from the most recent video block.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the video player is the ADOBE FLASH PLAYER and, the step of jumping ahead to the most recent video frame comprises the video player issuing a seek command to the content delivery network.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the step of detecting when the number of video blocks in the buffer represent the threshold amount of time further comprises detecting when the buffer includes approximately 0.6 or more seconds of video blocks.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the step of issuing the seek command includes issuing a seek command with parameters that will cause the buffer to contain approximately 0.2 seconds or less of video blocks.