SEAMLESS PLAYBACK OF COMPOSITE MEDIA

• US 20140164926A1
• Filed: 02/13/2014
• Published: 06/12/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 06/09/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Sood, Vishal, Freelander, Jack E., Suess, Jason R., Liu, Lin
• Granted Patent: US 9,639,246 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/716
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0484 for the control of specific functions or operations, e.g. selecting or manipulating an object, an image or a displayed text element, setting a parameter value or selecting a range
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/036 Insert-editing
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/34 Indicating arrangements indicating means incorporated in magazine or cassette G11B23/046 and G11B23/0875; indicating measured values in general G01D
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/26258 for generating a list of items to be played back in a given order, e.g. playlist, or scheduling item distribution according to such list retrieval of multimedia data based on playlists G06F16/40
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6587 Control parameters, e.g. trick play commands, viewpoint selection
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8456 by decomposing the content in the time domain, e.g. in time segments

Abstract

A streaming composition system is described herein that provides easy workflow and playback capabilities for content producers to create composite media assets from existing and on-going media content and for streaming clients to seamlessly playback composite multimedia streams provided from different sources. These assets provide broadcasters an option to quickly turn around highlights for an on-going event. The streaming composition system allows a producer to identify clips within existing media assets and compose the clips into a new unified streaming presentation. For producers that already have smooth streaming media assets, the system leverages these assets to provide seamless playback across clip boundaries including advanced playback support for advertisement insertion, fast forward, rewind, and so on.

Claims

1. A computer system for seamless playback of composite media, the system comprising:

a processor and memory configured to execute software instructions, the instructions comprising the following components;

a user interface component configured to provide an interface through which a content producer can select clips for inclusion in a composite media stream;

a clip identification component configured to receive start and stop information about each of multiple clips to be included in the composite media stream; and

a composite manifest component configured to create a composite manifest that describes the composite media stream, including an identification of each clip that comprises the composite media stream, each clip defines a start time and an end time of media content within a chunk that is to be played, each chunk being an individually addressable portion of media content that is cacheable by a network infrastructure, the composite manifest describes a plurality of chunks of media content forming the composite media presentation and an order for playback of the chucks based on the sequence of clips.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the user interface component is further configured to allow the content producer to identify clips within a media presentation while an event is still in progress to create highlights or other relevant portions of the media presentation.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the composite manifest component is further configured to store an extensible markup language (XML) file that hierarchically describes the clips that comprise the composite media stream.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the composite manifest component is further configured to include one or more clip specifications at a frame level of accuracy.

5. The system of claim 1 further comprising,

a source identification component configured to identify a source of the composite media stream, wherein the source provides the composite manifest.

6. The system of claim 1 further comprising,

a manifest parsing component configured to retrieve the composite manifest, identify one or more clips specified within the composite manifest, and prepare the clips for playback.

7. The system of claim 1 further comprising,

a virtual timeline component configured to build a virtual timeline that spans one or more clips specified by the composite manifest, wherein the virtual timeline has a total duration determined by adding up the length of all of the clips that make up the composite media stream.

8. The system of claim 1 further comprising,

a playback component configured to play the composite media stream.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one clip is part of a live presentation.

10. A computer-readable storage device comprising instructions for controlling a computer system to publish a composite media presentation, wherein the instructions, when executed, cause a processor to perform actions comprising:

providing an interface through which a content producer can identify media assets from which to compose clips from multiple different sources into a seamless composite media presentation;

receiving information identifying one or more clips for the composite media presentation;

identifying the one or more clips identified by the received information and storing information for playing each identified clip; and

creating a composite manifest that specifies information about the composite media presentation and each clip associated with the composite media presentation, each clip defines a start time and an end time of media content within a chunk that is to be played, each chunk being an individually addressable portion of media content that is cacheable by a network infrastructure, the composite manifest describes a plurality of chunks of media content forming the composite media presentation and an order for playback of the chucks based on the sequence of clips.

11. The device of claim 10 wherein receiving information identifying one or more clips comprises receiving selections of one or more previous presentations and identify start and stop times of one or more locations within the previous presentations from which to create clips.

12. The device of claim 10 wherein creating the composite manifest comprises ordering clips so that a computer can play clip after clip as a single presentation to the user without asking the user to identify each subsequent item to play.

13. The device of claim 10, wherein at least one clip is part of an on-demand presentation.

14. The device of claim 10, wherein at least one clip is part of a live presentation.