System and Method for a Shared Media Experience

• US 20130103814A1
• Filed: 10/25/2011
• Published: 04/25/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 10/25/2011
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: CBS Interactive Inc. (Paramount Global (f/k/a ViacomCBS Inc.))
• Original Assignee: CBS Interactive Inc. (Paramount Global (f/k/a ViacomCBS Inc.))
• Inventors: Carrasco, Elizabeth D., Reed, William Edward, Massie, William Ryan, Jouline, Anton V., Frattarola, Joshua Eric, Cavigliano, Nicolas Anthony
• Application Number:
  US13/280,604
• Publication Number:
  US 20130103814A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/4015 where at least one of the additional parallel sessions is real time or time sensitive, e.g. white board sharing, collaboration or spawning of a subconference
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/613 for the control of the source by the destination control signals issued by the client directed to the server or network components specially adapted for selective content distribution H04N21/637

Abstract

Disclosed herein are systems, methods, and non-transitory computer-readable storage media for a shared media experience. Multiple client devices are associated with a group for a shared media experience, such as watching a YouTube video together. The client devices subscribe to a publication/subscription (pub/sub) server that publishes updates for the shared media experience for the client devices. Thus, when a client device makes a change in the shared media experience, such as making a comment, pausing the video, skipping forward or backward, adjusting the volume, inserting an audio or video annotation, tagging the video, switching to a different piece of media, and so forth, the client device notifies a management server. The management server pushes that change to the pub/sub server, which publishes the change to the group. As the changes propagate to the clients, the client software modifies the client side experience accordingly.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving data from a first client that is playing a media event streamed from a network-based source;

determining an action based on the data; and

transmitting instructions to perform the action to a pub-sub server that distributes the instructions to a plurality of clients associated with the first client for execution at each of the plurality of clients in association with local client playback of the media event.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the data comprises at least one of a message, a group identifier, a time stamp, and a client identifier.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising filtering the data based on filter criteria.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising propagating the instructions based on the filter criteria.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of clients are configured to synchronously play the media event.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein each of the plurality of clients streams the media event from a plurality of network-based sources.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the data identifies a user interaction.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the user interaction comprises a comment.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the instructions are associated with an advertisement.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the advertisement is targeted to a specific client.

11. A system comprising:

a processor;

a memory storing instructions for controlling the processor to perform steps comprising;

identifying a plurality of clients, wherein each client of the plurality of clients is playing a local instance of a shared media event;

receiving a message from a controlling server, wherein the message is generated based on data received from one of the plurality of clients; and

based on the message, publishing a command to control the plurality of clients.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein each of the plurality of clients plays a respective local instance of the shared media event substantially synchronously with others of the plurality of clients.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the command is published via posting the command to a network location associated with the plurality of clients.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the command is published via transmitting the command to at least a subset of the plurality of clients.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein the command instructs each of the plurality of clients to modify playback of a respective local instance of the shared media event.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein each local instance of the shared media event comprises a stream of the shared media event from a network source.

17. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions which, when executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to perform steps comprising:

subscribing, at a client device, to a media participation group for sharing a media experience;

receiving, from a server associated with the shared media participation group, information associated with input from a peer client device of the media participation group; and

based on the information, modifying, at the client device, a local presentation of the media experience.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the shared media experience is a network stream.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the network stream is from a first source which is different than a second source used by at least one other client device.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein modifying the local presentation of the media experience comprises at least one of pausing playback, resuming playback, inserting a comment, inserting an animation, inserting audio, and tagging the media experience.