Digital system

• US 6,553,404 B2
• Filed: 08/07/1998
• Issued: 04/22/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 08/08/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Thomson Licensing SAS (Vantiva SA)
• Original Assignee: PRN Corp. (Vantiva SA)
• Inventors: Stern, Michael R.
• Primary Examiner(s): Meky, Moustafa M.
• Application Number:
  US09/130,900
• Publication Number:
  US 20010052001A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,719 Days
• Field of Search: 709/217, 709/219, 709/231, 709/203, 709/201, 709/200, 709/218, 705/26, 705/27
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/20 Point-of-sale [POS] network systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99934 Query formulation, input preparation, or translation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99942 Manipulating data structure, e.g. compression, compaction, compilation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99948 Application of database or data structure, e.g. distributed, multimedia, or image
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99953 Recoverability

Abstract

A digital department system is disclosed. The digital department system includes a network management center, a network operating center that is coupled to the network management center, a multimedia server, a multicasting transmission medium coupling the network operating center and the multimedia server, a listening post coupled to the multimedia server by the network, and one or more audio/video display capable of displaying video and capable of playing audio, the audio video display coupled to the multimedia server by the network. The audio and video content are stored in digitized files on the multimedia server for distribution throughout the site via the network.

Claims

1. A digital department system comprising:

a network management center that receives content providers'"'"' files and assigns at least one attribute for each content provider file used to designate certain of the content providers'"'"' files for distribution to certain end clients, the network management center including one or more databases of

     1) digitized and cataloged content provider information and at least one of 2a) sponsor information and 2b) attract videos;

a network operating center coupled to the network management center, the network operating center;

receiving the content providers'"'"' files, the digitized and cataloged content provider information and the at least one attribute for each content provider file from the network management center;

creating designated files for distribution to end clients by compressing into a single file the content providers'"'"' files, the digitized and cataloged product information and the at least one attribute for each content provider file; and

sending the designated flies for distribution to certain end clients;

a multimedia server, the multimedia server receiving and storing the designated files in a digitized form for distribution to certain end clients;

a communications network coupling the network operating center and the multimedia server, the communications network including a multicasting transmission medium;

a plurality of end clients coupled to the multimedia server, each end client of the plurality of end clients receiving its designated files; and

a plurality of multimedia displays coupled to the multimedia server.

2. The digital department system of claim 1, wherein the digital department system includes a 32 bit operating system running in a windows environment.

3. The digital department system of claim 1, wherein the digital department system utilizes a distributed architecture.

4. The digital department system of claim 3, wherein the distributed architecture includes centralized content management and distribution control via satellite.

5. The digital department system of claim 3, wherein the distributed architecture includes centralized content management and distribution control via a wide-area network.

6. The digital department system of claim 3, wherein the distributed architecture includes centralized content management and distribution control via an internet connection.

7. The digital department system of claim 3, wherein the distributed architecture includes centralized content management and distribution control via a series of microwave links.

8. The digital department system of claim 1, wherein the digital department system utilizes a distributed three-layer architecture.

9. The digital department system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of multimedia displays includes a multiple of collocated video display screens.

10. The digital department system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of multimedia displays includes a music video clip.

11. The digital department system of claim 1, wherein the sponsor information includes one or more of sponsor commercials, sponsor bumpers, and sponsor graphics.

12. The digital department system of claim 1, wherein the attract videos include one or more of automatically played promotional videos, automatically played informational videos, and automatically played entertainment videos.