System, method and apparatus for pausing multi-channel broadcasts

• US 8,711,862 B2
• Filed: 02/20/2009
• Issued: 04/29/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/20/2008
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Thomson Licensing (Vantiva SA)
• Original Assignee: Thomson Licensing (Vantiva SA)
• Inventors: Schultz, Mark Alan, Johnson, Ronald Douglas
• Primary Examiner(s): Ton, Dang
• Assistant Examiner(s): AMBAYE, MEWALE A
• Application Number:
  US12/736,174
• Publication Number:
  US 20110007745A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,894 Days
• Field of Search: 370/394, 370/395, 725/145, 725/151, 725/39, 714/799
• US Class Current: 370/394
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/59 for emergency or urgency
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4316 for displaying supplemental content in a region of the screen, e.g. an advertisement in a separate window
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/433 Content storage operation, e.g. storage operation in response to a pause request, caching operations
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4333 Processing operations in response to a pause request
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/434 Disassembling of a multiplex stream, e.g. demultiplexing audio and video streams, extraction of additional data from a video stream; Remultiplexing of multiplex streams; Extraction or processing of SI; Disassembling of packetised elementary stream demultiplexing of data packets for data networks, e.g. RTP/UDP H04L65/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4344 Remultiplexing of multiplex streams, e.g. by modifying time stamps or remapping the packet identifiers
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4347 Demultiplexing of several video streams
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47 End-user applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4882 for displaying messages, e.g. warnings, reminders arrangements for providing short real-time information to substation in data switching networks H04L12/1895
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/814 comprising emergency warnings arrangements specially adapted for emergency or urgency in broadcast systems H04H20/59; arrangements for providing alarms, notifications, alerts to substation in data switching networks H04L12/1895
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8146 involving graphical data, e.g. 3D object, 2D graphics
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/76 Television signal recording
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/781 on disks or drums
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/783 Adaptations for reproducing at a rate different from the recording rate
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/907 using static stores, e.g. storage tubes or semiconductor memories H04N5/91 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8042 involving data reduction

Abstract

A system and method for providing a global pause function in a broadcast multimedia system during a pause mode including an input module having an incoming timestamp counter for providing a time-based marker value to mark when each incoming packet arrives from a tuner and an outgoing timestamp counter for providing a time-based marker value for each outgoing packet to a receiver(s), the outgoing counter being configured for controlling when to release each outgoing packet to the receiver(s). At least one global memory device is provided for storing each received packet. The input module is configured to stop the outgoing counter from incrementing in response to activation of a global pause signal for the duration of the pause mode. Data flow to all of the receiver(s) is simultaneously and automatically stopped when a pause mode is enabled.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

a processor that receives content and tracks the content reception and playback while buffering the content to allow pausing of the content playback without interrupting reception of the content, and wherein the processor is a packet processor connected to at least one tuner, the processor configured for processing and transmitting audio and video data packets received from the tuner to a plurality of receivers, the processor comprising;

an input component including an incoming timestamp counter for providing a time-based marker value to mark when each incoming packet arrives from the tuner and an outgoing timestamp counter for providing a time-based marker value for each outgoing packet to the receivers, the outgoing counter configured for controlling when to release each outgoing packet; and

at least one memory device for storing each received packet, wherein the input component is configured to stop the outgoing counter from incrementing in response to an activation of a pause signal for a duration of the pause mode and provides a count number representative of the pause duration.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the memory device comprises at least one of a flash or hard disk (HDD) memory configured for storing data from said at least one tuner for playback to said plurality of receivers.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein each new packet read from the memory includes a start bit.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the packet processor employs a navigation table for recording at least the incoming packet marker value and its corresponding memory address in the memory.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein during the pause mode simultaneously stops at least one of the audio and video data flow to the receivers.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein during the pause mode, the input module is configured to continue writing the incoming packets to the memory.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein during a non-pause mode, the input control is configured to simultaneously write the incoming packets to the memory and read outgoing packets from the memory.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the input and output modules include First-In-First-Out (FIFO) buffers.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor further includes a multiplexer to enable switching between playback of real-time content and stored content from the memory.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein each processor further includes a partition module configured for enabling individual storage of each tuner'"'"'s output in a corresponding separate packet in the memory.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the activation of the pause signal is caused by at least one of manual activation of a pause button or an announcement being made to viewers of the multimedia content.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor further comprises:

an output module, responsive to a pause in the multimedia content playback, that plays back the buffered multimedia content starting approximately at the time that the pause was received when playback is resumed.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the output module includes a comparator module configured to compare marker values of packet data stored in a memory device with marker values of outgoing packets.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the comparator module is configured to stop the data flow to receivers until the marker value of the packet data stored in the memory device is less than or equal to the marker value of the outgoing packet.

15. The system of claim 1 utilized as a pause function in a broadcast multimedia system.

16. A method, comprising the steps of:

tracking content reception and playback while buffering the content to allow pausing of the content playback without interrupting reception of the content, wherein the tracking of content reception and playback comprising

processing and transmitting audio and video data packets received from at least one tuner to a plurality of receivers;

marking when each incoming packet arrives from the tuner;

storing each received packet;

controlling the release of each outgoing packet to the receivers by providing time-based marker values for each incoming and outgoing packet;

stopping the incrementing of the time-based marker value for each outgoing packet in response to a triggering of a pause signal for a duration of the pause mode; and

providing a count number representative of the pause duration to enable playback after the pause mode ends; and

playing back the buffered content starting approximately at the time that a pause was received when playback is resumed.

17. The method of claim 16, the step of storing further comprising:

writing each received packet to a memory device configured for storing data from said at least one tuner for playback to said plurality of receivers.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

recording at least each incoming packet marker value and its corresponding memory address in the memory.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising the step of ending the pause mode, wherein the step of ending comprising:

storing the marker value and an end address corresponding to a pause stop time;

determining a pause start location by finding a start address in the memory corresponding to the marker value of the pause start location;

reading the data between the start address and the end address; and

comparing the marker value from the memory with the marker value of each outgoing packet.

20. The method of claim 19, the step of comparing comprising:

stopping the data flow to the receivers until the marker value from the memory is less than or equal to the marker value of the outgoing packet.

21. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

triggering of the pause signal by at least one of manual activation of a pause button or an announcement being made to viewers of the multimedia content.

22. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

simultaneously stopping the audio and video data flow to receivers during the pause mode.

23. The method of claim 16 employed as a pause mode for pausing broadcast multimedia content from at least one tuner to a plurality of receivers.