Server side adaptive bit rate reporting

• US 8,856,825 B1
• Filed: 05/02/2013
• Issued: 10/07/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 05/02/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Comcast Cable Communications Management LLC (Comcast Corporation)
• Original Assignee: This Technology, Inc. (Comcast Corporation)
• Inventors: Mick, John Raymond Jr., Sherwin, Jeffrey, Santangelo, Bryan David
• Primary Examiner(s): Flynn, Nathan
• Assistant Examiner(s): Castro, Alfonso
• Application Number:
  US13/875,364
• Time in Patent Office: 523 Days
• Field of Search: 725/32
• US Class Current: 725/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23424 involving splicing one content stream with another content stream, e.g. for inserting or substituting an advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2343 involving reformatting operations of video signals for distribution or compliance with end-user requests or end-user device requirements video transcoding H04N19/40; media packet handling at the source H04L65/762
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/235 Processing of additional data, e.g. scrambling of additional data or processing content descriptors
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2353 specifically adapted to content descriptors, e.g. coding, compressing or processing of metadata
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2407 Monitoring of transmitted content, e.g. distribution time, number of downloads arrangements for monitoring programmes for broadcast or for distribution combined with broadcast H04H20/14
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44204 Monitoring of content usage, e.g. the number of times a movie has been viewed, copied or the amount which has been watched monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; protecting generic digital content where the protection is independent of the precise nature of the content G06F21/10; arrangements for monitoring the use made of the broadcast services in broadcast systems H04H60/31
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8352 involving content or source identification data, e.g. Unique Material Identifier [UMID]
• 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 21/8455 involving pointers to the content, e.g. pointers to the I-frames of the video stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8456 by decomposing the content in the time domain, e.g. in time segments

Abstract

A method and system for reporting a percentage of an advertisement playable by a smart appliance is disclosed. A server receives metadata associated with an advertisement in a transport signal stream from an encoder. The server determines a length of the advertisement and a frame rate of the transport signal stream based on the received metadata. The server divides the advertisement into at least one segment based on the length and the frame rate. The server instructs the encoder to insert at least one marker into at least one frame of the advertisement corresponding to the at least one segment of the transport signal stream to create at least one marked segment.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving, by a server, metadata associated with an advertisement in a transport signal stream from an encoder;

determining, by the server, a length of the advertisement and a frame rate of in the transport signal stream based on the received metadata;

dividing, by the server, the length of the advertisement into a plurality of time intervals; and

instructing the encoder, by the server, to insert a first set of markers into a first set of segments of the transport signal stream corresponding to a plurality of time intervals of the advertisement to create a first plurality of marked segments, each marker of the first set of markers indicative of a total percentage of the advertisement playable by a smart appliance,

wherein, when the metadata received from the encoder by the server indicates a change in frame rate of the advertisement in the transport signal stream,

instructing the encoder, by the server, to insert a second set of markers into a remaining set of segments of the transport signal stream beginning at a location in the transport signal stream corresponding to the change in frame rate of the advertisement, at least one marker of the remaining set of markers differing from a corresponding at least one marker of the first set of markers but representing the same total percentage of the advertisement playable by the smart appliance; and

grouping, by the server, the at least one marker of the remaining set of markers with the corresponding at least one marker of the first set of markers associated with a specific percentile but of different frame rates together for identifying the same total percentage of the advertisement playable by the smart appliance.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the length of the advertisement is representative of a difference in time between a last frame of the advertisement and a first frame of the advertisement.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein a length of a segment is based on the frame rate.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising instructing the encoder to insert a marker of the first set of markers into the transport signal stream on a per frame, per segment, per sub-segment, or per plurality of segments basis.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising instructing the encoder to insert different values for each marker of the first set of markers into corresponding segments in the transport signal stream.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising instructing the encoder to insert a marker of the first set of markers into at least one of a first frame of a percentile, a last frame of a percentile, multiple but not all frame of a percentile, or throughout a percentile.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein a specific segment is proportional to a percentage of the advertisement playable by the smart appliance.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the number of segments is based on quartiles of percentage of an advertisement playable by the smart appliance.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one marker assigned to a last segment is operable to disable fast forwarding in the smart appliance.

10. The method of claim 5, wherein the at least one marker assigned to a first segment is operable to enable fast forwarding in the smart appliance.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one marker comprises an ID3 tag.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the ID3 tag comprises a unique identifier indicative of the percentage of an advertisement playable by a smart appliance.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the unique identifier is a universal unique identifier (UUID).

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the ID3 tag is inserted into a data track or a fundamental track of the transport signal stream.

15. A computer system for reporting a percentage of an advertisement playable by a smart appliance, comprising:

a memory;

a server, coupled to the memory, the server to;

receive metadata associated with an advertisement in a transport signal stream from an encoder;

determine a length of the advertisement and a frame rate of in the transport signal stream based on the received metadata;

divide the length of the advertisement into a plurality of time intervals; and

instruct the encoder to insert a first set of markers into a first set of segments of the transport signal stream corresponding to a plurality of time intervals of the advertisement to create a first plurality of marked segments, each marker of the first set of markers indicative of a total percentage of the advertisement playable by a smart appliance,

wherein, when the metadata received from the encoder by the server indicates a change in frame rate of the advertisement in the transport signal stream,

instruct the encoder to insert a second set of markers into a remaining set of segments of the transport signal stream beginning at a location in the transport signal stream corresponding to the change in frame rate of the advertisement, at least one marker of the remaining set of markers differing from a corresponding at least one marker of the first set of markers but representing the same total percentage of the advertisement playable by the smart appliance; and

group the at least one marker of the remaining set of markers with the corresponding at least one marker of the first set of markers associated with a specific percentile but of different frame rates together for identifying the same total percentage of the advertisement playable by the smart appliance.

16. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium including instructions that, when executed by a server, causes the server to perform operations, comprising:

receiving, by a server, metadata associated with an advertisement in a transport signal stream from an encoder;

determining, by the server, a length of the advertisement and a frame rate of in the transport signal stream based on the received metadata;

dividing, by the server, the length of the advertisement into a plurality of time intervals; and

instructing the encoder, by the server, to insert a first set of markers into a first set of segments of the transport signal stream corresponding to a plurality of time intervals of the advertisement to create a first plurality of marked segments, each marker of the first set of markers indicative of a total percentage of the advertisement playable by a smart appliance,

wherein, when the metadata received from the encoder by the server indicates a change in frame rate of the advertisement in the transport signal stream,

instructing the encoder, by the server, to insert a second set of markers into a remaining set of segments of the transport signal stream beginning at a location in the transport signal stream corresponding to the change in frame rate of the advertisement, at least one marker of the remaining set of markers differing from a corresponding at least one marker of the first set of markers but representing the same total percentage of the advertisement playable by the smart appliance; and

grouping, by the server, the at least one marker of the remaining set of markers with the corresponding at least one marker of the first set of markers associated with a specific percentile but of different frame rates together for identifying the same total percentage of the advertisement playable by the smart appliance.