Methods and systems for streaming advertising content

• US 7,797,441 B1
• Filed: 05/18/2006
• Issued: 09/14/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 05/18/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: T-Mobile Innovations LLC (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Original Assignee: Sprint Communications Company LP (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Inventors: Distler, Peter H, Barnes, James D., Sharma, Sanjay K.
• Primary Examiner(s): Etienne; Ario
• Assistant Examiner(s): Nano; Sargon N
• Application Number:
  US11/436,683
• Time in Patent Office: 1,580 Days
• Field of Search: 709/217, 709/219, 709/227, 709/231, 705/14
• US Class Current: 709/231
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 15/16 Combinations of two or more digital computers each having at least an arithmetic unit, a program unit and a register, e.g. for a simultaneous processing of several programs coordinating program control therefor G06F9/52; in regulating and control system G05B
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23116 involving data replication, e.g. over plural servers synchronization of replicated data G06F11/1658; error detection or correction by means of data replication G06F11/2053; replication in distributed file systems G06F16/10; replication in distributed file systems G06F16/27; replication or mirroring of data in data networks H04L67/1095
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/41407 embedded in a portable device, e.g. video client on a mobile phone, PDA, laptop constructional details of equipment or arrangements specially adapted for portable computer application G06F1/1626; arrangements specially adapted for mobile receivers in broadcast systems H04H20/57
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8456 by decomposing the content in the time domain, e.g. in time segments

Abstract

One illustrative method for concatenating an unselected content stream (such as advertising) with a selected content stream to create a digital content stream includes interactions between a first server and a second server. The first server can receive a selection of the selected content stream from a hand-held device, transmit the selection to a second server, receive a playlist having location identifiers that identify at least the selected content stream and an unselected content stream, and communicate with a plurality of streaming servers collectively having streaming digital content including the selected and unselected content streams. The first server further communicates to the hand-held device a play time of the streaming digital content, concatenates the streaming digital content from the plurality of streaming servers, and provides the concatenated streaming digital content to the hand-held device as a single content stream.

Claims

1. A method for concatenating digital content, comprising:

receiving at a first server a selection of at least one streaming selected content from a hand-held device;

transmitting from the first server, the selection to a second server, wherein the second server is different from the first server;

receiving at the first server a first location identifier and a second location identifier from the second server, wherein the first location identifier corresponds to the at least one streaming selected content and the second location identifier corresponds to a streaming unselected content;

communicating with a first streaming server and a second streaming server by the first server wherein the first streaming server comprises the streaming selected content and the second streaming server comprises the streaming unselected content;

communicating from the first server to the hand-held device a play time of the streaming selected content and the streaming unselected content;

concatenating the streaming selected content and the streaming unselected content; and

transmitting from the first server the concatenated streaming digital content to the hand-held device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the streaming digital content comprises a plurality of streaming selected content and a plurality of streaming unselected content, wherein the plurality of streaming selected content comprises at least one of a selected video file and a selected audio file and the plurality of streaming unselected content comprises of at least one of an unselected video file and an unselected audio file.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving by the first server a describe request from the hand-held device, and communicating by the first server a plurality of describe requests to the first streaming server and the second streaming server.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising receiving by the first server a first describe response from the first streaming server and a second describe response from the second streaming server, and concatenating by the first server the first describe response and the second describe response for transmission to the hand-held device.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising caching the describe responses on the first server.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the hand-held device is a mobile phone.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting by the first server customer demographic and behavioral information to the second server.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the first server concatenates the streaming unselected content and the streaming selected content.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the first location identifier and the second location identifier comprises a uniform resource locator.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the second streaming server comprises a plurality of advertising clips.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein a compiling server concatenates the streaming selected content and the streaming unselected content, and transmits the concatenated streaming digital content to the first server.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the first server communicates with the first streaming server and the second streaming server via a compiling server.

13. A system for delivering streaming digital content, comprising:

a first server configured to communicate with a hand-held device, a second server, a first streaming server comprising streaming selected content and a second streaming server comprising streaming unselected content, wherein the second server is different from the first server;

wherein the first server is further configured to communicate a selection from the hand-held device to the second server and receive from the second server a first location identifier, wherein the first location identifier corresponds to the streaming selected content and the second location identifier corresponds to the streaming unselected content, and the first server is further configured to communicate with the first streaming server to receive the streaming selected content and communicate with the second streaming server to receive the streaming unselected content, the first server further configured to transmit concatenated streaming digital content to the hand-held device.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the first server caches a first describe response from the first streaming server and a second describe response from the second streaming server, and concatenates the first describe response and the second describe response for transmission to the hand-held device.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the first server is further configured to concatenate the streaming selected content and the streaming unselected content.

16. The system of claim 13 further comprising a compiling server, wherein the compiling server is configured to concatenate the streaming selected content and the streaming unselected content retrieved from the first streaming server and the second streaming server, the compiling server further configured to provide the concatenated streaming digital content to the first server.

17. The system of claim 13 wherein the second server receives a user identification with the selection from the first server and wherein the second server is configured to determine based on the user identification, a targeted advertisement, wherein the targeted advertisement is transmitted as the streaming unselected content.

18. The system of claim 13, wherein the concatenated streaming digital content comprises a plurality of streaming selected content and a plurality of streaming unselected content, wherein the plurality of streaming selected content comprises at least one of a selected video file and a selected audio file and the plurality of streaming unselected content comprises at least one of an unselected video file and an unselected audio file.

19. The system of claim 13 wherein the first server is further configured to modify a first header of the streaming selected content and a second header of the streaming unselected content.

20. The system of claim 13 wherein the streaming unselected content comprises one or more of targeted advertising and non-targeted advertising.

21. The system of claim 13 wherein the streaming unselected content is inserted before or after to the streaming selected content in the concatenated streaming digital content.