Method and apparatus for performing broadcast operations

• US 6,198,906 B1
• Filed: 10/07/1996
• Issued: 03/06/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 10/07/1996
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.), Sony Electronics Inc. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.), Sony Electronics Inc. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Collier, David C., Boetje, Gerard J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Flynn, Nathan
• Application Number:
  US08/727,253
• Time in Patent Office: 1,611 Days
• Field of Search: 348/6, 348/7, 348/10, 348/12, 348/13, 348/552, 348/722, 348/906, 348/723, 348/724, 455/3.1, 455/3.3, 455/4.1, 455/4.2, 455/5.1, 455/6.1, 455/6.2, 364/468.06, 364/468.07, 364/468.08, 705/7-9
• US Class Current: 455/3.01
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/06 Arrangements for scheduling broadcast services or broadcast-related services
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/222 Studio circuitry; Studio devices; Studio equipment cameras or camera modules comprising electronic image sensors, or control thereof H04N23/00

Abstract

A method and apparatus for performing broadcast operations that enables a programmer to schedule broadcast constituents, such as programs, schedules, commercials, etc. according to relative sequential orderings indicative of the sequence the constituents are played. The corresponding material which manifests select of the constituents and the media which manifests the material are also identified such that to play the broadcast, the structure is accessed to identify the sequence of play and the media to be played.

Claims

1. In a broadcast system, a method for performing broadcast operations, comprising the steps of:

specifying an instance of a first broadcast constituent;

specifiying an instance of a second broadcast constituent;

specifying an instance of a third broadcast constituent that is of an order higher than the first and second broadcast constiutent;

specifying an association in the context of the third broadcast constituent that identifies a relative temporal relationship between the first and second broadcast constituents;

for each constituent of the first and second broadcast constituents, specifying at least one corresponding material that represents the broadcast constituent, said material identifying a signal which represents the broadcast constituent;

for each material, specifying at least one corresponding media that represents the material, said media identifying a media from where the signal is transferred; and

for a particular broadcast constituent, identifying the media that manifests the broadcast element based upon the material and media specified, such that the media representative of the first and second broadcast constituents are played in sequence.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the context is a unique context for the media representatives of at least one subordinate element of the third broadcast constituent.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein a structural change made to the broadcast constituent will be reflected in all uses of the broadcast constituent.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

relating each constituent of the first and second broadcast constituents to the first and second broadcast constituents through proxy relations;

specifying a plurality of alternative constituents for each of the broadcast constituents using proxy relations; and

broadcasting at least one of the plurality of alternative constituents according to a set of selection rules associated with the proxy relations.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the proxy relations allow the specification of a plurality of alternative constituents executing in parallel, wherein the proxy relation causes a broadcast of one of the plurality of alternative constituents executing in parallel.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the first broadcast constituent is of indeterminate duration, said first broadcast constituent followed by the second broadcast constituent, said second broadcast constituent having a prespecified start time, a fourth broadcast constituent being in sequence between the first and second broadcast constituents, the method further comprising the step of using said proxy relations to cause the broadcast of at least one of a plurality of alternative constituents comprising the fourth broadcast constituent, such that the fourth broadcast constituent completely fills the time between the end of the first broadcast constituent and the start of the second broadcast.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising the step of using a set of selection rules to cause the selection of the at least one of a plurality of alternative constituents for broadcast based on an actual ending time of the first broadcast constituent and a duration of the at least one of a plurality of alternative constituents for the fourth constituent and the prespecified start time of the second broadcast constituent.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising the step of automatically eliminating as alternative constituents any of the plurality of alternative constituents that cannot be executed in the time remaining between the actual ending time of the first broadcast constituent and the prespecified start time of the second broadcast constituent.

9. The method of claim 4, further comprising the step of using the proxy relations to allow the specification of a plurality of alternative representations for each of the broadcast constituents, said proxy relations containing a plurality of selection rules which determine an appropriate representation, the selection rules causing a temporally latest alternative of the at least one possible alternative representations to be the appropriate representation.

10. The method of claim 4, wherein the proxy relations enable at least one alternate constituent to execute in parallel with a preferred constituent.

11. The method of claim 4, wherein the proxy relations enable at least one alternate constituent to execute following a live broadcast event.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein each instance of a broadcast constituent contains a different one of the at least one corresponding material that represents the broadcast constituent.

13. The method of claim 4, wherein the proxy relations specify a backup resource for the at least one corresponding material.

14. The method of claim 4, wherein the proxy relations enable a constituent to be scheduled multiple times with different material and media representations playing at different times.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the broadcast constituents are used repetitively in a plurality of broadcast patterns.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of substituting a variable element for a plurality of constituents.

17. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of using the association to control the relative ordering of constituents and broadcast elements in the context of the association, the association being independent of time.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the association defines a temporal relationship between scheduling elements.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein playing the first and second broadcast constituents in sequence comprises the steps of:

defining the broadcast elements in terms of time-independent interval relationships;

organizing the intervals into a constraint matrix;

producing a relationship matrix by solving the constraint matrix;

reducing the relationship matrix to a sequence of start and end points of the broadcast elements;

using the start and end points to constrain broadcast constituent programming.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising the step of defining the interval relationships using thirteen atomic relationships, the interval relationships being encoded as binary numbers where each bit represents one of the thirteen atomic relations.

21. The method of claim 19, further comprising the step of adding temporal constraints by instantiating some of the endpoints of the elements, the temporal constraints specified as hard time constraints and variable durations and offsets.

22. The method of claim 19, wherein some members of the sequence of end points may be a cluster of endpoints denoting simultaneity.

23. The method of claim 19, wherein the step of reducing the relationship matrix to a sequence of start and end points comprises the step of creating the sequence of end points by converting the relationship matrix to a matrix of end point relations by a look-up process on each entry and then topologically sorting the end point relations.

24. The method of claim 19, further comprising the step of identifying violations of element ordering constraints by false values in the relationship matrix, the violations of element ordering constraints indicating a conflict between pairs of intervals.

25. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of generating a log reflective of the actual material broadcast, said log comprising fully constructed material and media compositions, said log comprising all associations and relations between material and media at every level of composition.

26. The method of claim 1, wherein the associations and proxy relations enable a recording of new media from an incoming signal, said recording synchronized with the re-broadcast of the incoming signal, said recording later serving as a broadcast constituent.

27. The method of claim 1, wherein a recursive descent through the broadcast composition structure results in finding a constituent with a valid representation and a lateral search across representations finds the best media to play in response to the scheduling needs of the constituent.

28. A broadcast system comprising:

a processor;

a plurality of media devices coupled to the processor;

an instance of a first broadcast constituent;

an instance of a second broadcast constituent;

an instance of a third broadcast constituent that is of an order higher than the first and second broadcast constituent;

an association in the context of the third broadcast constituent that identifies a relative temporal relationship between the first and second broadcast constituents;

at least one corresponding material specified for each constituent of the first and second broadcast constituents, said at least one corresponding material representing the broadcast constituent, said material identifying a signal which represents the broadcast constituent;

at least one corresponding media specified for each material, said at least one corresponding media representing the material, said media identifying a media from where the signal is transferred, said media manifesting the broadcast element based upon the material and media specified, such that the media representative of the first and second broadcast constituents are played in sequence.

29. The broadcast system of claim 28, further comprising:

proxy relations that relate each constituent of the first and second broadcast constituents to the first and second broadcast constituents;

a plurality of alternative constituents specified for each of the broadcast constituents using proxy relations; and

a set of selection rules associated with the proxy relations that control the broadcast of at least one of the plurality of alternative constituents.

30. The broadcast system of claim 29, wherein the proxy relations are used to specify a plurality of alternative representations for each of the broadcast constituents, said proxy relations containing a plurality of selection rules which determine an appropriate representation, the selection rules causing a temporally latest alternative of the at least one possible alternative representations to be the appropriate representation.

31. The broadcast system of claim 29, wherein the proxy relations are used to enable a constituent to be scheduled multiple times with different material and media representations playing at different times.

32. The broadcast system of claim 28, wherein each instance of a broadcast constituent contains a different one of the at least one corresponding material that represents the broadcast constituent.

33. The broadcast system of claim 28, wherein the association is used to control the relative ordering of constituents and broadcast elements.

34. The broadcast system of claim 28, further comprising:

broadcast elements defined in terms of time-independent interval relationships;

a constraint matrix containing the time-independent interval relationships;

a relationship matrix that is a solution to the constraint matrix;

a sequence of start and end points of the broadcast elements formed by reducing the relationship matrix;

a constraint in programming broadcast constituents, said constraint based on the start and end points.

35. The broadcast system of claim 34, further comprising thirteen atomic relationships that define the interval relationships, the interval relationships being encoded as binary numbers.

36. The broadcast system of claim 34, further comprising temporal constraints added by instantiating some of the endpoints of the elements.

37. The broadcast system of claim 34, further comprising:

a sequence of start and end points reduced from the relationship matrix by creating the sequence of end points by converting the relationship matrix to a matrix of end point relations by a look-up process on each entry and then topologically sorting the end point relations;

an identification of violations of element ordering constraints by false values in the relationship matrix, the violations of element ordering constraints indicating a conflict between pairs of intervals.

38. The broadcast system of claim 28, further comprising associations and proxy relations that enable a synchronized recording and rebroadcast of new media from an incoming signal, said recording serving as a broadcast constituent.

39. A computer readable medium containing executable instructions which, when executed in a processing system, causes the system to perform the steps performing broadcast operations comprising the steps of:

specifying an instance of a first broadcast constituent;

specifying an instance of a second broadcast constituent;

specifying an instance of a third broadcast constituent that is of an order higher than the first and second broadcast constituent;

specifying an association in the context of the third broadcast constituent that identifies a relative temporal relationship between the first and second broadcast constituents;

specifying at least one corresponding material for each constituent of the first and second broadcast constituents, said at least one corresponding material representing the broadcast constituent, said material identifying a signal which represents the broadcast constituent;

specifying at least one corresponding media for each material, said at least one corresponding media representing the material, said media identifying a media from where the signal is transferred; and

for a particular broadcast constituent, identifying the media that manifests the broadcast element based upon the material and media specified, such that the media representative of the first and second broadcast constituents are played in sequence.

40. The computer readable medium of claim 39, wherein the instructions cause the system to perform the steps performing broadcast operations further comprising the steps of:

relating each constituent of the first and second broadcast constituents to the first and second broadcast constituents through proxy relations;

specifying a plurality of alternative constituents for each of the broadcast constituents using proxy relations; and

broadcasting at least one of the plurality of alternative constituents according to a set of selection rules associated with the proxy relations.

41. The computer readable medium of claim 40, wherein the instructions cause the system to perform the steps performing broadcast operations further comprising the step of using the proxy relations to allow the specification of a plurality of alternative representations for each of the broadcast constituents, said proxy relations containing a plurality of selection rules which determine an appropriate representation.

42. The computer readable medium of claim 40, wherein the instructions cause the system to enable a constituent to be scheduled multiple times with different material and media representations playing at different times.

43. The computer readable medium of claim 39, wherein the instructions cause the system to perform the steps performing broadcast operations further comprising the step of using the association to control the relative ordering of constituents and broadcast elements in the context of the association.

44. The computer readable medium of claim 39, wherein the instructions cause the system to perform the step of playing the first and second broadcast constituents in sequence comprising the steps of:

defining the broadcast elements in terms of time-independent interval relationships;

organizing the intervals into a constraint matrix;

producing a relationship matrix by solving the constraint matrix;

reducing the relationship matrix to a sequence of start and end points of the broadcast elements;

using the start and end points to constrain broadcast constituent programming.

45. The computer readable medium of claim 44, wherein the instructions cause the system to perform the steps performing broadcast operations further comprising the step of defining the interval relationships using thirteen atomic relationships, the interval relationships being encoded as binary numbers.

46. The computer readable medium of claim 44, wherein the instructions cause the system to perform the step of reducing the relationship matrix to a sequence of start and end points comprising the steps of:

creating the sequence of end points by converting the relationship matrix to a matrix of end point relations using a look-up process;

topologically sorting the end point relations; and

identifying violations of element ordering constraints by false values in the relationship matrix, the violations of element ordering constraints indicating a conflict between pairs of intervals.