Method and system for processing antenna feeds using separate processing pipelines

• US 8,965,432 B2
• Filed: 11/17/2011
• Issued: 02/24/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 11/18/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Charter Communications Operating LLC (Charter Communications Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Aereo Incorporated
• Inventors: Kanojia, Chaitanya, Lipowski, Joseph Thaddeus
• Primary Examiner(s): GESESSE, TILAHUN
• Application Number:
  US13/299,198
• Publication Number:
  US 20120129479A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,195 Days
• Field of Search: 455/3.01, 455/3.04, 455/193.1, 455/558, 455/566
• US Class Current: 455/509
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/57 for mobile receivers
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/51 of receiving stations
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/70 using geographical information, e.g. maps, charts or atlases
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/82 the transmission system being the Internet
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/40 using video transcoding, i.e. partial or full decoding of a coded input stream followed by re-encoding of the decoded output stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2143 located in a single building, e.g. hotel, hospital or museum arrangements specially adapted for plural spots in a confined site in broadcast systems H04H20/63; adaptations for transmission by electric cable for domestic distribution in television systems H04N7/106
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2181 comprising remotely distributed storage units, e.g. when movies are replicated over a plurality of video servers distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS], H04L67/1097
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2221 being a cable television head-end CATV in broadcast systems H04H20/78
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2335 involving reformatting operations of audio signals, e.g. by converting from one coding standard to another details of audio signal transcoding G10L19/173
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2393 involving handling client requests scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests H04L67/60
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25841 involving the geographical location of the client retrieval from the Internet by querying based on geographical locations G06F16/9537; arrangements for identifying locations of receiving stations in broadcast systems H04H60/51; location of the user terminal in data switching networks H04L67/52; services making use of the location of users or terminals in wireless networks H04W4/02; locating users or terminals in wireless networks H04W64/00
• 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 21/4126 The peripheral being portable, e.g. PDAs or mobile phones
• 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 21/4341 Demultiplexing of audio and video streams
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4347 Demultiplexing of several video streams
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/43637 involving a wireless protocol, e.g. Bluetooth, RF or wireless LAN [IEEE 802.11] arrangements for wireless networking or broadcasting of information in indoor or near-field type systems H04B10/114
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6112 involving terrestrial transmission, e.g. DVB-T
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6175 involving transmission via Internet broadcast-related systems characterised by the transmission system being the Internet H04H60/82
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/455 : Demodulation-circuits

Abstract

A method and system for capturing, storing, and streaming over the air broadcasts based on user requests is disclosed. The system and method utilize subarrays of antenna elements for receiving over the air broadcasts. Processing pipelines are used to demodulate, transcode and index the content transmissions to produce content data that are streamed to users. In this way, the feeds from antennas can be accessed by users over a network connection.

Claims

1. A system for processing antenna feeds, the system comprising:

antenna elements for receiving over the air broadcasts of content;

antenna processing pipelines, each of the pipelines for demodulating the antenna feeds from the antenna elements to produce content data for the over the air broadcasts of content received by the antenna elements;

a switching system for selectively connecting each of the antenna elements to one of the antenna processing pipelines;

an antenna controller that controls the switching system to enable generation of the content data to fulfill user requests for the content;

a streaming server for streaming the content data to via the internet and an application server for receiving the user requests to watch content;

wherein commands are sent to the antenna controller and the streaming server to generate and stream the content data to the user devices of the users in response to the user requests.

2. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein each of the pipelines for demodulating the antenna feeds include a demodulator selected from a group of demodulators to demodulate the antenna feeds from the antenna elements.

3. The system as claimed in claim 2, wherein the antenna controller searches for alternate demodulators if none of the demodulators from the group of demodulators is available.

4. The system as claimed in claim 3, wherein if the antenna controller locates alternate demodulators, then the antenna controller configures the switching system to connect the antenna elements to the alternate demodulators to create additional antenna processing pipelines.

5. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the antenna elements outnumber the antenna processing pipelines.

6. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the antenna elements are temporarily assigned to users.

7. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the antenna elements are dedicated to users for the duration of their user account.

8. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the pipelines for demodulating the antenna feeds from the antenna elements include radio frequency tuners, each radio frequency tuner being individually tunable to enable each the antenna elements to receive different over the broadcasts of content.

9. The system as claimed in claim 8, wherein the radio frequency tuners are directly connected to the antenna elements.

10. The system as claimed in claim 8, wherein the radio frequency tuners are selectively connected to the antenna elements by the switching system.

11. A method for processing antenna feeds, the method comprising:

receiving user requests to watch content from users;

sending commands to an antenna controller for antenna elements and to a streaming server to stream content data of the content;

receiving over the air broadcasts of the content with the antenna elements;

providing antenna processing pipelines, for demodulating the antenna feeds from the antenna elements to produce the content data for the over the air broadcasts of the content received by the antenna elements;

connecting each of the antenna elements to one of the antenna processing pipelines with a switching system; and

the streaming sever streaming the content data to user devices of the users via the internet.

12. A method as claimed in claim 11, further comprising configuring the switching system to generate the content data to fulfill user requests for content.

13. The method as claimed in claim 11, wherein each of the pipelines for demodulating the antenna feeds include a demodulator, and the method further comprises selecting from a group of demodulators to demodulate the antenna feeds from the antenna elements.

14. The method as claimed in claim 13, further comprising searching for alternate demodulators if none of the demodulators from the group of demodulators is available.

15. The method as claimed in claim 14, further comprising configuring the switching system to connect the antenna elements to the alternate demodulators to create additional antenna processing pipelines.

16. The method as claimed in claim 11, further comprising temporarily assigning the antenna elements to users.

17. The method as claimed in claim 11, further comprising dedicating the antenna elements to particular users for the duration of their user account.

18. The method as claimed in claim 11, wherein the pipelines for demodulating the antenna feeds from the antenna elements include radio frequency tuners, each radio frequency tuner being individually tunable to enable each the antenna elements to receive different over the broadcasts of content.

19. The method as claimed in claim 18, wherein the radio frequency tuners are directly connected to the antenna elements.

20. The method as claimed in claim 18, wherein the radio frequency tuners are selectively connected to the antenna elements by the switching system.

21. A method for assigning a processing pipeline to an antenna element, the method comprising:

dedicating an antenna element to a user, the antenna element for receiving over the air broadcasts of content;

receiving a user request to watch content from a user;

sending commands to an antenna controller for the antenna element and to a streaming server to stream content data of the content;

searching for an available processing pipeline to demodulate the over the air broadcasts of the content in response to the user request for content;

upon locating a processing pipeline, assigning the processing pipeline to the user'"'"'s dedicated antenna element to connect the processing pipeline to the user'"'"'s permanently assigned antenna element and

the streaming server streaming the content to a user device of the user via the internet.

22. The method as claimed in claim 21, wherein the processing pipeline is connected to the to the user'"'"'s permanently assigned antenna element with a switching system.

23. The method as claimed in claim 21, wherein the over the air content is received with the user'"'"'s permanently assigned antenna.

24. The method as claimed in claim 21, wherein the assigned processing pipeline demodulates the over the air content as a content transmission.