Data management and distribution system and method for an electronic television program guide
First Claim
1. A process for the management and distribution of data for an electronic television program schedule guide wherein program schedule information is distributed to a plurality of target devices, said process comprising:
- receiving television program schedule data from one or more sources and using said received data to update a database of television program schedule data;
manually accessing said database and making changes and corrections thereto;
validating a portion of the data in said database;
extracting a portion of said validated data in said database and generating a data set in accordance with configuration data for one or more of said target devices;
maintaining said configuration data in said database; and
monitoring and controlling the operation of one or more of said receiving process, accessing process, validation process, extracting process, and configuration maintenance process.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A data management and distribution system for an electronic program guide ("EPG") for television programs comprising an automated data collection subsystem, a manual entry and correction subsystem, a database validation subsystem, an edition generation subsystem, a configuration subsystem, and a status and control subsystem. The system may further comprise a feed generation subsystem if one or more of the EPG providers supported by the EPG distributor requires a live feed of data. The automated data collection subsystem collects EPG data from multiple sources in various formats, filters the data based on the needs of the EPG providers supported, and places the data in a centralized database in a form suitable to support the different environmental contexts of the EPG providers. The manual entry and correction subsystem permits the EPG distributor to make manual corrections, additions, and deletions to the data stored in the database. The database validation subsystem verifies the data stored in the database in accordance with designated verification options. The edition generation subsystem generates the different editions of the EPG for the different EPG providers supported by the EPG distributor. The configuration subsystem receives information from the various EPG providers and furnishes this information to the other subsystems which utilize the information in performing their respective tasks. The status and control subsystem monitors the operation of the data management and distribution system as a whole. The various feeds and editions are then transmitted to the EPG providers by, e.g., satellite, wire, cable, etc. The EPG providers receive the feeds and editions and use them provide one or both of a dedicated channel EPG and interactive EPG to subscribers.
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Citations
37 Claims
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1. A process for the management and distribution of data for an electronic television program schedule guide wherein program schedule information is distributed to a plurality of target devices, said process comprising:
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receiving television program schedule data from one or more sources and using said received data to update a database of television program schedule data; manually accessing said database and making changes and corrections thereto; validating a portion of the data in said database; extracting a portion of said validated data in said database and generating a data set in accordance with configuration data for one or more of said target devices; maintaining said configuration data in said database; and monitoring and controlling the operation of one or more of said receiving process, accessing process, validation process, extracting process, and configuration maintenance process. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A data management and distribution system for an electronic television program schedule guide (EPG) wherein program schedule information is distributed to a plurality of EPG providers for use with a plurality of target devices, said system comprising:
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automated data collection means for receiving television program schedule data from one or more sources and using said received data to update a database of television program schedule data; manual entry and correction means for accessing said database and making changes thereto; database validation means for validating a portion of the data in said database; edition generating means for extracting a portion of the data in said database in accordance with configuration data for one of said target devices and generating a data set, said data set comprising an edition of said EPG for one or more of said EPG providers; configuration maintenance means for maintaining said configuration data in said database; and status and control means for monitoring and/or controlling the operation of one or more of said automated data collection means, manual entry and correction means, database validation means, edition generating means, and configuration maintenance means. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 34, 35, 36, 37)
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32. An automated data collection system for an electronic television program schedule guide (EPG) wherein program schedule information is distributed to a plurality of EPG providers for use with a plurality of target devices, said system comprising:
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means for receiving television program schedule data from one or more sources on a time-selected basis, said received program schedule data comprising program titles for a plurality of television programs and channel maps for a plurality of EPG providers; means for reformatting the received data to a form optimized for determining the differences between said received data and program schedule data received at a time prior to said received data; means for determining the differences between said received data and program schedule data received at a time prior to said received data; means for updating a database of program schedule information in response to said determination.
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33. A feed generator for an electronic television program schedule guide (EPG) wherein program schedule information is distributed to a plurality of EPG providers for use with a plurality of target devices, said feed generator comprising:
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data extraction means for extracting television program schedule data from a database in accordance with configuration data for one of said target devices; extraction scheduler means for controlling the timing of said extraction of data in accordance with schedule information in said database; a feed cache for temporarily storing said extracted data; feed composition means for composing a digital data stream using the data in said feed cache; feed composition scheduler means for controlling the timing of said composition of said digital data stream in accordance with schedule information in said feed cache; transport means for transporting said digital data stream to a satellite transmission system for distribution to said EPG providers.
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Specification