Method and system for delivering media services and application over networks

• US 6,769,127 B1
• Filed: 06/16/2000
• Issued: 07/27/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 06/16/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Minerva Networks, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Minerva Networks, Inc.
• Inventors: Liu, Li, Do, Nam Phu Thanh, Fritsch, Jean-Georges, Majors, Reed, Bonomi, Mauro, Cao, Yousheng, Sweeney, Patrick James, Morris, Charles Francis Jr., Locke, Ian, Ng, Johnny C. Y., Osborne, Randolph, Howe, Ronald D., Degrange, Francis Michel
• Primary Examiner(s): Srivastava, Vivek
• Assistant Examiner(s): Koenig, Andrew Y
• Application Number:
  US09/595,848
• Time in Patent Office: 1,502 Days
• Field of Search: H04/N.7173, H04/N.718, H04/N.5445, G06/F.300, G06/F 1.300, 725/87, 725/91, 725/92, 725/93, 725/114, 725/115, 725/116, 725/117, 725/138, 725/144, 725/42, 725/39, 725/94
• US Class Current: 725/39
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/72 using electronic programme guides [EPG] focusing on identifying broadcast space time H04H60/39 ; menu type display of EPG in television receivers H04N21/47
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2221 being a cable television head-end CATV in broadcast systems H04H20/78
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2543 Billing , e.g. for subscription services payment schemes, architectures or protocols G06Q20/00; e-commerce G06Q30/00; arrangements for billing for the use of broadcast information or broadcast-related information H04H60/21
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25866 Management of end-user data customer care in data networks H04L41/5077
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2747 Remote storage of video programs received via the downstream path, e.g. from the server
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4333 Processing operations in response to a pause request
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4334 Recording operations recording of a television signal H04N5/76; arrangements for recording or accumulating broadcast information or broadcast-related information H04H60/27
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4622 Retrieving content or additional data from different sources, e.g. from a broadcast channel and the Internet web site content organization and management for information retrieval from the Internet G06F16/958; transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82; stock exchange data over packet-switching network H04L12/1804; push services including data channel over packet-switching network H04L12/1859
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47214 for content reservation or setting reminders; for requesting event notification, e.g. of sport results or stock market stock exchange data over packet-switching network H04L12/1804; push services over packet-switching network H04L12/1859; notification of incoming messages in packet switching networks H04L51/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4782 Web browsing , e.g. WebTV
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4854 for modifying image parameters, e.g. image brightness, contrast
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/60 Network structure or processes for video distribution between server and client or between remote clients; Control signalling between clients, server and network components; Transmission of management data between server and client , e.g. sending from server to client commands for recording incoming content stream; Communication details between server and client
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/816 involving special video data, e.g 3D video
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/147 Communication arrangements, e.g. identifying the communication as a video-communication, intermediate storage of the signals selecting H04Q
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/165 Centralised control of user terminal subsequent to an upstream request signal H04N7/17345; Registering at central by two-way working H04N7/17309
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17336 Handling of requests in head-ends

Abstract

A media system that centrally manages and stores media contents and also controls the delivery of media content to subscribers is disclosed. According to one aspect, an administrator can control program scheduling, rates, service packages and system configuration for a media delivery system. Additionally, the administrator may also control billing, transaction monitoring, and customer relations. According to another aspect, the media delivery system provides subscribers with centrally managed storage for paused or recorded media. Still another aspect is that the media delivery system can restrict various administrators to different modules of the media delivery system.

Claims

1. A method for delivery media programs from a central location to multiple subscribers, said method comprising:

configuring subscribers to receive delivery of a selected set of the media programs over a network, wherein the media programs are received from different sources and in different formats;

setting program guides in accordance with service packages respectively for the subscribers;

reformatting the media programs to one or more predefined formats suitable for transporting over the network or for proper display on client devices used respectively by the subscribers;

rendering program guides available to the subscribers, wherein each of the program guides includes only a current time bar being superimposed directly on those of the media programs identified in the program guide that are currently being broadcasted;

delivering a selected set of the media programs over the network to one or more of the subscribers; and

caching, at the same time, the selected set of the media programs respectively in a number of temporary spaces, each being managed by operations including at least;

determining if a temporary space has sufficient available capacity to cache a media program being delivered live from the media delivery center to a user, and discarding from the temporary space a media program that has been previously cached therein when the temporary space is determined to have insufficient available capacity to cache one of the media programs in entirety, whereby the one of the media programs being delivered live and cached can be delivered via the temporary space upon request from a subscriber for a period of time after the one of the media programs has been delivered.

2. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein each of the subscribers receives the selected set of the programs from a respective client machine that is associated with an address identifier, and

wherein said delivering is in accordance with said address identifier.

3. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein said method further comprises:

receiving a request for delivery of a media-on-demand request from a particular subscriber, the media-on-demand request including an index identifying one of the media programs stored in the central media store, and

wherein said delivering operates to unicast the one of the media programs to the particular subscriber.

4. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the media programs includes live content, and

wherein said delivering operates to multicast certain of the media programs to a selected group of the subscribers.

5. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the media programs are provided over a plurality of channels, and

wherein said setting of the service packages comprises assigning selected ones of the channels to be included in the service packages and setting price options for each of the selected ones of the channels.

6. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein said method further comprises:

enabling the subscribers to customize the program guides so that only selected channels desired by the user will be shown in the program guides.

7. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the different sources are from at least one of (i) a television source, (ii) a satellite source, (iii), an Internet source and (iv) a digital video broadcast.

8. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the program guide and the respective current-time bars are defined by a markup language.

9. A media delivery center for delivery of media programs to users over a network, the media delivery center comprising:

a media receiving unit, the media receiving unit being configured to receive the media programs in a first format from one or more media sources;

a media platform, coupled to the media receiving unit and receiving the media programs therefrom, transforming the media programs in a second format suitable for transporting over the network;

a media storage device coupled to the media platform, said media storage device being configured to store at least one of the transformed media programs from the media platform; and

a media management server, coupled to the media platform, configured to control the media platform how to transform the received media programs in the first format to the second format so that the transformed media programs can be optimally delivered over the network to the users, and configured to produce and deliver different program guides to different ones of the users depending on at least service packages associated with the users,

wherein the users are able to customize the one or more program guides that they receive from said media management server over the network and each of the program guides includes only a current time bar that is superimposed directly on those of the media programs identified in the program guide that are currently being delivered, and

wherein one of the transformed media programs that results from the media programs received is cached at the same time in a temporary space being managed by operations including at least;

determining if the temporary space has sufficient available capacity to cache the one of the media programs being delivered live from the media delivery center to a user, and discarding from the temporary space a media program that has been previously cached therein when the temporary space is determined to have insufficient available capacity to cache the one of the media programs being delivered live, whereby the one of the media programs being delivered live and cached can be delivered upon request from a user for a period of time after the one of the media programs has been delivered.

10. A media delivery center as recited in claim 9, wherein the one or more media sources include at least one of (i) a television source, (ii) a satellite source, (iii), an Internet source, (iv) a digital video broadcast and (v) a locally supplied source.

11. A media delivery center as recited in claim 9, wherein each of the first format and the second format is either in digital or analog.

12. A media delivery center as recited in claim 9, wherein the network is a packet-switched network.

13. A media delivery center as recited in claim 12, wherein both of the first format and the second format are in digital but in a different encoding rate.

14. A media delivery center as recited in claim 13, wherein the media platform is configured to transcode the received media in the first format to the second format according to a predefined rate optimally supported in the packet-switched network.

15. A media delivery center as recited in claim 9, wherein the media management server is configured to perform operations of:

maintaining a plurality of user accounts, each associated with one of the users;

managing a proper set of programs in the media to be delivered to each of the users; and

enabling the one of the users to access his/her account over the network to customize service options previously set up thereto.

16. A media delivery center as recited in claim 9, wherein the program guides and the respective current-time bars are defined by a markup language.

17. A media delivery center as recited in claim 9, wherein the media management server is configured to perform operations of:

monitoring operational status of the media delivery center; and

initiating a backup system to support the media delivery center when a number of the users is exceeding a predefined number of the users that could be supported by the media delivery center.

18. A media delivery center as recited in claim 17, wherein the backup system is coupled to the media delivery center through the network and comprises at least a portion of functions provided by the media management so that some of the users can be serviced by the backup system.

19. A media delivery center as recited in claim 9, wherein the media management server is configured to perform operations of:

broadcasting an urgent program to each of the users, the urgent program having a priority higher than the media being currently delivered to the users so that the urgent program can be noticed by each of the users when the urgent program arrives.

20. A media delivery center as recited in claim 9, further comprises a transmission equipment coupled to the media storage device, the transmission equipment receiving the media stored in the media storage device and caused to deliver the media to the users in a transmission mode selected from a group consisting of unicasting, multicasting and broadcasting.

21. A media delivery center as recited in claim 20, wherein the network is a data network and wherein the transmission equipment includes a network interface facilitating data communication from the transmission equipment to the data network.

22. A media delivery center as recited in claim 21, wherein the network interface is configured to support at least one of (i) HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol), RTP (Real-Time Transport Protocol), (ii) RTSP (Real-Time Stream Control Protocol), (iii) IP (Internet Protocol), (iv) SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) and (v) H.323 (Audio/Video/Data Standard).

23. A media delivery center as recited in claim 9 wherein the media storage device includes at least one video server.

24. A media delivery center as recited in claim 9,

wherein a designated space in the media storage device is allocated for storing commercial programs, each indexed and registered with the media management server;

wherein the media management server maintains a plurality of subscriber accounts, each configured to record what services a corresponding subscriber has received; and

wherein the media management server is configured to select one or more of the commercial programs for delivery together with the media being delivered to the users according to each of the subscriber accounts.

25. A media delivery center as recited in claim 24, wherein the commercial programs can be in an audio, video, or image format and shown substantially close to the media being delivered to the users.

26. A media delivery center as recited in claim 9, wherein said media storage device includes the temporary space.