SYSTEM, METHOD, AND INFRASTRUCTURE FOR REAL-TIME LIVE STREAMING CONTENT

• US 20130198005A1
• Filed: 01/27/2012
• Published: 08/01/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 01/27/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.), Sony Network Entertainment International LLC (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Xiong, True, Pedlow, Leo, Mehta, Viral, Holcomb, Eric
• Granted Patent: US 9,875,480 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14.66
• 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 21/47202 for requesting content on demand, e.g. video on demand
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6175 involving transmission via Internet broadcast-related systems characterised by the transmission system being the Internet H04H60/82
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8543 using a description language, e.g. Multimedia and Hypermedia information coding Expert Group [MHEG], eXtensible Markup Language [XML] information retrieval of semistructured data, the underlying structure being taken into account, e.g. mark-up language structure data G06F16/80
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8586 by using a URL processing chained hypermedia data for information retrieval G06F16/94; information retrieval from the Internet by using URLs G06F16/955; URL in broadcast information H04H20/93; Web-based protocols H04L67/02

Abstract

Provided are systems and methods for using an existing management server infrastructure to deliver video-on-demand or streaming content, including real-time live streaming Existing client content playback devices, such as IPTVs, may be employed to stream content items, obtain advertisements, track user'"'"'s viewing behaviors, and the like. By reusing existing client devices, there is no need for additional hardware purchases on the user side. By reusing existing management server infrastructures, capital expenses are also reduced. In such a system, a user can watch both video-on-demand and streaming audiovisual content.

Claims

1. A method for hosting assets and metadata about assets from service providers, the assets for streaming or video-on-demand, comprising:

a. on a hosting server, receiving a metadata file from a service provider or content delivery network, the metadata file associated with an asset in a web folder, the asset configured to be delivered in a streamed or video-on-demand fashion, the web folder including an index file and a plurality of transport stream files;

b. on the hosting server, receiving a request from a content playback device having authentication credentials to receive the asset; and

c. from the hosting server, providing a URI to the content playback device, the URI providing a location of the index file from which the content playback device may receive the asset, the location associated with a service provider or content delivery network.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the metadata file is an XML file.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving a user token from the content playback device, the user token having been provided to the content playback device by a management server upon authentication.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the authentication credential is associated with a user account, and further comprising delivering an advertisement to the content playback device, a choice of advertisement at least partially based on data in the user account.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the authentication credential is associated with a user account, and further comprising delivering a recommendation of an additional content item to the content playback device, the recommendation at least partially based on data in the user account.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the providing a URI includes providing a proxy URI to the content playback device, the proxy URI convertible to an actual URI only at the content delivery network, such that the actual location of a URI file is hidden to the content playback device.

7. A non-transitory computer-readable medium, comprising instructions for causing a computing device to implement the method of claim 1.

8. A server system to host, authenticate, and arrange for delivery of assets to a content playback device, comprising:

a. an ingest module to receive a file containing metadata about an asset;

b. an authentication module to receive an authentication credential from a content playback device upon request for the asset; and

c. a service or asset module for providing a URI of an index file to the content playback device, the index file corresponding to the asset, the URI allowing the content playback device to access the index file from a service provider or content delivery network.

9. The system of claim 8, further comprising an advertising module, the advertising module for providing advertising to the content playback device at least partially based on data associated with a user account associated with the content playback device.

10. The system of claim 8, further comprising a recommendation module, the recommendation module for providing recommendations of content items to the content playback device at least partially based on data associated with a user account associated with the content playback device.

11. The system of claim 8, further comprising a proxy module, the proxy module communicating with the service or asset module to provide a proxy URI to the content playback device, the proxy URI convertible to an actual URI by the content delivery network when received from the content playback device.

12. A method of ingesting metadata about content items from at least two service providers, comprising:

a. receiving information about at least one content item from a first service provider at a hosting server, the information including at least one of a stream type, a metafile type, and a video type, the content item for video-on-demand or for streaming;

b. receiving information about at least one content item from a second service provider at the hosting server, the information including at least one of a stream type, a metafile type, and a video type, the content item for video-on-demand or for streaming; and

c. storing the information from the first and second service providers on the hosting server.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising receiving a request for a content item from a client device, the request received at the hosting server, and upon successful authentication of the client device, providing a URI from the hosting server to the requesting client device, the URI corresponding to a network location of an index file associated with the content item, the network location not that of the hosting server.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the metafile is an XML file.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising receiving a user token from the client device, the user token having been provided to the client device by a management server upon authentication.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the authentication credential is associated with a user account, and further comprising delivering an advertisement to the client device, a choice of advertisement at least partially based on data in the user account.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the authentication credential is associated with a user account, and further comprising delivering a recommendation of an additional content item to the client device, the recommendation at least partially based on data in the user account.

18. The method of claim 12, wherein the providing a URI includes providing a proxy URI to the client device, the proxy URI convertible to an actual URI only at the content delivery network, such that the actual location of a URI file is hidden to the client device.

19. A non-transitory computer-readable medium, comprising instructions for causing a computing device to implement the method of claim 12.