Rules-based content management

• US 8,209,729 B2
• Filed: 04/20/2006
• Issued: 06/26/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 04/20/2006
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Mayo, Michelle, Phillips, Debra, Wilson, Brian, Leach, Lorraine, Webster, Thomas Scott
• Primary Examiner(s): Huynh, Son P
• Application Number:
  US11/408,495
• Publication Number:
  US 20070261088A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,259 Days
• Field of Search: 725 86- 87, 725 91- 93, 725/96, 725/25, 725/114, 725/116, 725/135, 725/136
• US Class Current: 725/87
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23113 involving housekeeping operations for stored content, e.g. prioritizing content for deletion because of storage space restrictions storage management, e.g. defragmentation G06F3/0604; snloading stored programs G06F9/445; housekeeping operations in file systems, e.g. deletion policies G06F16/10; buffering arrangements in a network node or in an end terminal in packet networks H04L49/90
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2541 Rights Management protecting software against unauthorised usage in a vending or licensing environment G06F21/10; security in data switching network management H04L41/28; security management or policies for network security H04L63/20; access security in wireless networks H04W12/08
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25891 being end-user preferences retrieval of video data in a video database based on user preferences G06F16/739; arrangements for recognizing users' preferences H04H60/46; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306; processing of user preferences or user profiles in wireless networks H04W8/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/262 Content or additional data distribution scheduling, e.g. sending additional data at off-peak times, updating software modules, calculating the carousel transmission frequency, delaying a video stream transmission, generating play-lists scheduling strategies for dispatcher in multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/4881; arrangements for scheduling broadcast services or broadcast-related services H04H60/06; flow control in packet networks H04L47/10; establishing a time schedule or organising the servicing of application requests H04L67/62
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2665 Gathering content from different sources, e.g. Internet and satellite
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/458 Scheduling content for creating a personalised stream, e.g. by combining a locally stored advertisement with an incoming stream; Updating operations, e.g. for OS modules ; time-related management operations arrangements for replacing or switching information during the broadcast or during the distribution H04H20/10
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4627 Rights management associated to the content security in data switching network management H04L41/28; security management or policies for network security H04L63/20; access security in wireless networks H04W12/08
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47202 for requesting content on demand, e.g. video on demand
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6125 involving transmission via Internet transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6405 Multicasting data broadcast and multicast in packet switching networks H04L12/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/84 Generation or processing of descriptive data, e.g. content descriptors systems specially adapted for using meta-information in broadcast systems H04H60/73
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

Techniques for rules-based content management are provided. Video on demand (VOD) assets are collected in a repository from a variety of sources. Each asset is uniquely identified, organized, prioritized, managed, and distributed in response to metadata associated with each asset and business rules. Assets may be individually distributed to target subscribers or grouped in collections and distributed to target subscribers in response to the business rules.

Claims

1. A non-transitory machine-readable medium executable on a server of an Internet Protocol Television system, comprising computer instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to:

collect in a repository video on demand content and metadata associated with the video on demand content from a plurality of sources, wherein the metadata comprises data format type, category, index scene and identifier of the video on demand content;

retrieve business rules embedded within the metadata received with the video on demand content, wherein the business rules control processing and delivering of video on demand content through the Internet Protocol Television system, wherein the control processing and delivering of the video on demand content comprises fine grain security, coarse gain security, customized reporting, and priority queue of video on demand content;

selectively package the video on demand content in response to the business rules and the metadata;

distribute the packaged video on demand content to subscribers selected via multicasting according to the business rules embedded within the metadata;

dynamically resolve a priority for processing the video on demand content based on a quality of service parameter and in response to the metadata, the business rules, and a license embedded within the metadata wherein the license dictates the priority; and

provide override emergency instructions through the Internet Protocol Television system to delete video on demand content that was released before its scheduled release date.

2. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 1, comprising computer instructions that causes the one or more processors to deliver a portion of the packaged video on demand content to a subset of the subscribers by multicast transmission.

3. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 1, comprising computer instructions that causes the one or more processors to remove a portion of the packaged video on demand content from the repository according to the business rules.

4. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 1, comprising computer instructions that causes the one or more processors to group a portion of the packaged video on demand content together for related processing according to the business rules.

5. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 1, comprising computer instructions that causes the one or more processors to package according to the business rules the video on demand content by performing at least one of:

indexing the video on demand content;

generating a report for the video on demand content; and

prioritizing the video on demand content from the plurality of sources as dictated by the license embedded within the metadata and as further adjusted based on a detected quality of service determined from the quality of service parameter.

6. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 1, comprising computer instructions that causes the one or more processors to evaluate the metadata to permit selected video on demand content to be exported from the repository with a higher priority than other video on demand content.

7. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 1, comprising computer instructions that causes the one or more processors to:

receive an emergency override request to delete a selected video on demand content responsive to detecting that the selected video on demand content has been released before its scheduled release date; and

remove the selected video on demand content from the repository.

8. A method implemented in an Internet Protocol Television system, comprising:

collecting in a repository video on demand media content and metadata associated with the video on demand content from a variety of originating sources, wherein the metadata comprises data format type, category, index scene and identifier of the video on demand content;

retrieving from the video on demand media content, business rules that are embedded in the metadata of the video on demand media content, wherein the business rules control processing and delivering of video on demand content through the Internet Protocol Television system, wherein the control processing and delivering of the video on demand content comprises fine grain security, coarse gain security, customized reporting, and priority queue of video on demand content;

selectively packaging the video on demand content in response to the business rules and the metadata;

distributing the packaged video on demand content to subscribers selected via multicasting according to the business rules embedded within the metadata;

dynamically prioritizing the video on demand media content for delivery via Internet Protocol communications to subscribers based on a quality of service parameter and according to the metadata, the business rules and one or more licenses embedded within the metadata, wherein the one or more licenses dictates a priority for the delivery of the video on demand media content, wherein the priority is based at least in part on a subscriber status, and wherein the business rules define a plurality of target video media content that are to be delivered together; and

providing override emergency instructions through the Internet Protocol Television system to delete video on demand content that was released before its scheduled release date.

9. The method of claim 8, comprising organizing the media content in hierarchies within the repository according to categories included within the metadata to enable filtering based on a location of the video-on-demand content in the hierarchies.

10. The method of claim 9, comprising assigning access security to portions of the media content according to the categories and the business rules.

11. The method of claim 8, comprising assigning a unique asset identifier to portions of the media content as collected.

12. The method of claim 8, comprising generating custom reports from the metadata.

13. The method of claim 8, comprising selectively updating a portion of the media content or a portion of the metadata.

14. A non-transitory computer-readable medium of an Internet Protocol Television system comprising computer instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to:

gather in a repository video on demand content and metadata associated with the video on demand content, wherein the metadata comprises data format type, category, index scene and identifier of the video on demand content;

retrieve business rules and one or more licenses that are embedded within the metadata received with the video on demand content from a variety of originating sources wherein the business rules control processing and delivering of video on demand content through the Internet Protocol Television system, wherein the control processing and delivering of the video on demand content comprises fine grain security, coarse gain security, customized reporting, and priority queue of video on demand content;

organize the video on demand content by selectively packaging the video content in response to the metadata and the business rules;

delete portions of the video on demand content according to the metadata and the business rules;

distribute the packaged video on demand content to subscribers selected via multicasting according to the business rules embedded within the metadata;

dynamically prioritize deliveries, updates, and deletions of the video on demand content based on a quality of service parameter and based on the metadata, the one or more licenses and the business rules over communication channels;

format the metadata having different formats into a common processing format comprising extensible markup language; and

provide override emergency instructions through the Internet Protocol television system to delete video on demand content that was released before its scheduled release date.

15. The non-transitory medium of claim 14, comprising computer instructions that causes the one or more processors to present custom listings of descriptive information associated with the video on demand content.

16. The non-transitory medium of claim 14, comprising computer instructions that causes the one or more processors to modify portions of the metadata in response to the business rules.

17. The non-transitory medium of claim 14, comprising computer instructions that causes prioritization of deliveries, updates, and deletions of the video on demand content as dictated by the embedded license in the metadata and adjusted based on a detected quality of service determined from the quality of service parameter.

18. The non-transitory medium of claim 14, video on demand instructions to mirror the repository for failover support.