On-Demand Selection of Transcoding Formats for Multimedia Broadcast Streams

• US 20130054827A1
• Filed: 08/22/2012
• Published: 02/28/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 08/25/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: Ustream Incorporated (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Feher, Gyula, Gyimesi, Akos, Ponekker, Zoltan, Palffy, Daniel, Hodicska, Gergely, Nemeth, Zoltan
• Granted Patent: US 9,088,804 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/231
• 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: H04L 65/762 at the source reformatting of additional data in video distribution servers H04N21/2355
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/765 intermediate
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/234336 by media transcoding, e.g. video is transformed into a slideshow of still pictures or audio is converted into text
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25833 involving client hardware characteristics, e.g. manufacturer, processing or storage capabilities allocation of resources considering hardware capabilities in multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/5044; allocation of resources considering software capabilities in multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/5055

Abstract

An on-demand multimedia stream processing system receives multimedia streams from broadcasters and processes the streams for viewing on a wide range of client devices. To decrease the use of computing resources, processing jobs are started and stopped based on user demand. When a multimedia stream is received from a broadcaster, the processing system does not start processing the multimedia broadcast stream until a request for a processed stream is received. The processing system automatically terminates processing jobs when the audience of a processed stream drops to zero or some other stop condition is met.

Claims

1. A method of transcoding a streaming multimedia item, the method comprising:

at a computing device, receiving a plurality of streaming multimedia items in a first format from a plurality of broadcasters, wherein one or more streaming multimedia items is received from each broadcaster;

for each of the received streaming multimedia items;

receiving requests from a plurality of remote user devices for the streaming multimedia item;

responsive to detecting that one or more of the requesting remote user devices is not capable of reproducing the streaming multimedia item in the first format, transcoding the streaming multimedia item into a second format, the second format differing from the first format in at least one multimedia setting; and

simultaneously transferring the transcoded streaming multimedia item in the second format to the plurality of requesting remote user devices over a network, the transcoded streaming multimedia item capable of being reproduced on the plurality of remote user devices.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein one or more of the streaming multimedia items is not transcoded responsive to detecting that each of the plurality of requesting remote user devices is capable of reproducing the streaming multimedia item in the first format.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the computing device receives the streaming multimedia items in real-time.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the computing device transcodes the streaming multimedia items and transfers the streaming multimedia items to the plurality of requesting remote user devices in real-time.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising packetizing the transcoded streaming multimedia items into multimedia packets of a predetermined length.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving information describing the multimedia playback capabilities of the remote user devices.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising choosing multimedia formats that are capable of being played back by the requesting remote users as the second format based on analysis of the information describing the multimedia playback capabilities of the requesting remote user devices.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising stopping the processing of the streaming multimedia item responsive to satisfying a stop condition on the computing device.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the stop condition for a streaming multimedia item is satisfied when the computing device detects that no remote users have been receiving the processed streaming multimedia item for a predetermined length of time.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the stop condition for a streaming multimedia item is satisfied when the computing device detects that the broadcaster for the streaming multimedia item has disconnected.

11. A computing system for transcoding a streaming multimedia item, the computing system comprising:

a streaming component configured to receive a plurality of streaming multimedia items in a first format from a plurality of broadcasters, wherein one or more streaming multimedia items is received from each broadcaster;

a transcoding component configured to transcode the streaming multimedia items into a second format, the second format differing from the first format in at least one multimedia setting; and

a request processing component configured to receive requests from a plurality of remote user devices for the streaming multimedia item and simultaneously transfer the transcoded streaming multimedia items in the second format to the plurality of requesting remote user devices over a network, the transcoded streaming multimedia item capable of being reproduced on the plurality of remote user devices.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the transcoding system is further configured not to transcode one or more of the streaming multimedia items responsive to detecting that each of the plurality of requesting remote user devices is capable of reproducing the streaming multimedia item in the first format.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the streaming component is further configured to receive the streaming multimedia items in real-time.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the transcoding component is further configured to transcode the streaming multimedia items in real-time

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the request processing component is further configured to transfer the streaming multimedia items to the plurality of requesting remote user devices in real-time.

16. The system of claim 11, further comprising a packetizing component configured to packetize the transcoded streaming multimedia items into multimedia packets of a predetermined length.

17. The system of claim 11, wherein the request processing component is further configured to receive information describing the multimedia playback capabilities of the remote user devices.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the transcoding component chooses multimedia formats that are capable of being played back by the requesting remote users as the second format based on analysis of the information describing the multimedia playback capabilities of the requesting remote user devices

19. The system of claim 11, wherein the transcoding component is further configured to stop the processing of the streaming multimedia item responsive to satisfying a stop condition on the computing system.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the stop condition for a streaming multimedia item is satisfied when the computing device detects that no remote users have been receiving the processed streaming multimedia item for a predetermined length of time.

21. The system of claim 19, wherein the stop condition for a streaming multimedia item is satisfied when the computing device detects that the broadcaster for the streaming multimedia item has disconnected.

22. A non-transitory computer readable medium configured to store instructions, the instructions when executed by a processor cause the processor to:

receive a plurality of streaming multimedia items in a first format from a plurality of broadcasters, wherein one or more streaming multimedia items is received from each broadcaster;

for each of the received streaming multimedia items;

receive requests from a plurality of remote user devices for the streaming multimedia item;

responsive to detecting that one or more of the requesting remote user devices is not capable of reproducing the streaming multimedia item in the first format, transcode the streaming multimedia item into a second format, the second format differing from the first format in at least one multimedia setting; and

simultaneously transfer the transcoded streaming multimedia item in the second format to the plurality of requesting remote user devices over a network, the transcoded streaming multimedia item capable of being reproduced on the plurality of remote user devices.

23. The computer readable medium of claim 22, wherein one or more of the streaming multimedia items is not transcoded responsive to detecting that each of the plurality of requesting remote user devices is capable of reproducing the streaming multimedia item in the first format.