Live uplink transmissions and broadcasting management system and method

• US 9,154,247 B2
• Filed: 01/25/2009
• Issued: 10/06/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 01/23/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LiveU Ltd. (LiveU, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: LiveU Ltd. (LiveU, Inc.)
• Inventors: Altman, Baruch Yosef
• Primary Examiner(s): CHEN, CAI Y
• Application Number:
  US12/863,723
• Publication Number:
  US 20100299703A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,445 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/04 from field pickup units [FPU]
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/04 Studio equipment; Interconnection of studios
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/72 using electronic programme guides [EPG] focusing on identifying broadcast space time H04H60/39 ; menu type display of EPG in television receivers H04N21/47
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/73 using meta-information
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2187 Live feed
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2543 Billing , e.g. for subscription services payment schemes, architectures or protocols G06Q20/00; e-commerce G06Q30/00; arrangements for billing for the use of broadcast information or broadcast-related information H04H60/21
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/26283 for associating distribution time parameters to content, e.g. to generate electronic program guide data
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6371 directed to network
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/64322 IP
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8405 represented by keywords
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8586 by using a URL processing chained hypermedia data for information retrieval G06F16/94; information retrieval from the Internet by using URLs G06F16/955; URL in broadcast information H04H20/93; Web-based protocols H04L67/02

Abstract

A live uplink transmission and broadcasting management system and method for managing a plurality of live uplink transmissions and broadcasting events, the system comprising: (i) a publication portal for publishing transmissions of live events; (ii) a database for storing metadata, system data, broadcast data and user data; (iii) a broadcast manager adapted for receiving and processing in real-time metadata information related to a plurality of live uplink transmission events wherein each live uplink transmission event transmits in a plurality of uplink channels, wherein processed metadata information generate data elements adapted for being used in telecom and datacom real time management applications, said broadcast manager also adapted for updating the publication portal with live event information and (iv) a set of Quality of Service (QoS) management methods to coordinate the usage of Uplink transmissions based on the received metadata and their processing in the broadcast manager.

Claims

1. A live uplink transmission management method for managing in real time, by a broadcast manager, a plurality of simultaneous live uplink transmission events between a plurality of remote content sources and a plurality of broadcast distributors separate from the broadcast manager, each transmission event including wireless transmission of real time content over one or more wireless channels from a remote content source to a broadcast distributor, the method comprising the steps of:

(i) receiving at the broadcast manager, metadata information describing the transmission of the real time content of the plurality of live uplink transmission events, without receiving at the broadcast manager the content of the uplink transmission events, the metadata information originated from a plurality of the content sources;

(ii) processing in real-time, by the broadcast manager, the received metadata information; and

(iii) managing, by the broadcast manager, the transmission of at least one of the plurality of live uplink transmission events, from the respective content source to the respective broadcast distributor, based on the received metadata of a plurality of the uplink transmission events and their processing,

wherein processing the received metadata information comprises identifying network congestion or over-utilization and wherein managing the transmission comprises providing instructions in response to the identified congestion or over-utilization, and

wherein the receiving, processing and managing are performed by the broadcast manager, which is separate and remote from the content sources and broadcast distributors.

2. A live uplink transmission management method according to claim 1, wherein the metadata information comprises one or more of the following fields:

user password, promotional or other code, content source unique ID, uplink transmission unique ID, service type, modem IDs, ESN'"'"'s, SIM numbers, date and time, reporter name, one or more keywords describing the uplink transmission, content source location, cellular and wireless network identifications and/or status and/or parameters, performance data, quality of service (QoS) data, video related parameters, geo-location information, referral to broadcaster web, referral to a reporter web site, referral to content owner, or referral to an advertisement.

3. A live uplink transmission management method according to claim 1, comprising generating from the processed metadata billing data, performance statistics or content statistics.

4. A live uplink transmission method according to claim 2, wherein the Quality of Service of at least one of the live uplink transmission events is adjusted and managed according to one or more of the following parameters:

the System Level Agreement (SLA) of at least one client or content source;

the real time or near real time conditions of the plurality of channels that at least two content sources use or may use;

the real time or near real time conditions of all content sources in an area or sharing part or all of the same uplink resources;

historical QoS data and performance behavior and patterns of plurality of live broadcast transmissions previously processed.

5. A live broadcasting management method according to claim 1, comprising generating from the processed metadata, real time programming guide of the plurality of live uplink transmissions and broadcasting events.

6. A live broadcasting management method according to claim 5, wherein the programming guide is a TV guide or an Internet broadcasting guide, or an IPTV guide.

7. A live uplink transmission management method according to claim 5, comprising subscribing by the end user to receive alerts from the programming guide.

8. A live uplink transmission management method according to claim 1, comprising transmitting one or more metadata and/or data elements from the broadcast manager to one or more third-party servers or portals.

9. A live uplink transmission management method according to claim 1, comprising transmitting metadata and/or data elements to a uplink transmission server, said uplink transmission server adapted for receiving, decoding and/or distributing live uplink transmission.

10. A live uplink transmission management method according to claim 1, comprising sending real time or near real time communications to a reporter or to a transmitting content source itself.

11. A live uplink transmission management method according to claim 10, wherein the real time or near real time communications are sent by an end-user or a third party.

12. A live uplink transmission management method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of authenticating uplink transmission events.

13. A live uplink transmission management method according to claim 4, wherein one or more of the parameters are provided by content sources.

14. A live uplink transmission management method according to claim 4, wherein the parameters with respect to the real time or near real time conditions of the at least one of the plurality of channels are selected from a set of the parameters consisting of dynamic parameters pertaining to wireless networks, System ID (SID), Access Point Name (APN), cell ID, cellular operator, registration status, physical parameters, dynamic parameters pertaining to performance of a wireless channel, device ID, date and time, location information, quality (QoS) data, signal information, and noise information.

15. A live uplink transmission management method according to claim 3, wherein generating from the processed metadata billing data, performance statistics or content statistics is performed by a management application run by one or more third-party servers or portals, which receive the metadata from the broadcast manager.

16. A live uplink transmission management method according to claim 1, and comprising at least one of resolving congestion, providing graceful degradation in QoS, resolving uplink resource over-utilization, and optimizing overall usage of a shared uplink using the received metadata information by using real time or near real time information from several content, sources transmitting from a same area and using same or close network. resources, in order to enable units to work from the same area.

17. A live uplink transmission management method according to claim 1, wherein the metadata information is received by the broadcast manager from at least one connected content source at a dynamically-changing frequency depending at least on the metadata information and on available performance of at least one of the channels of the at least one connected content source.

18. A live uplink transmission management method according to claim 1, wherein the content management applications include data upload operations.

19. A live uplink transmission management method according to claim 1, wherein generating the information data elements comprises updating at least one participant selected from a group of participants consisting of broadcasters, transmitters, content owners, and reporters, with respect to at least one information parameter selected from the group of information parameters consisting of a number of users of a system at any given time, types of the users, an origin of the users, usage and popularity of referral hyperlinks, usage and popularity of available portal services, and real time and historical information about transmissions.

20. A live uplink transmission management method according to claim 1, wherein generating the information data elements comprises providing real time and historical information in a format selected from a group of formats consisting of spreadsheet, database, geographical information system, binary encoding, text, markup language, and image formats.

21. A live uplink transmission management method according to claim 20, wherein the information data elements contain information selected from a group of information types consisting of a current geographical location of a reporter, content transmitted from at least one event, a usage profile of at least one content source, statistics for inventory, profiling and cost-effectiveness analysis, and viewers'"'"' usage patterns.

22. A live uplink transmission management method according to claim 1, wherein generating the information data elements comprises instructing a content source to modify a transmission by means of an action selected from a group of actions consisting of stopping to use a specified channel, limiting use of one or more channels, and limiting usage of a QoS resource.

23. A live uplink transmission management method according to claim 1, and comprising commercializing and monetizing live or stored streams relating to the transmission events by offering streamed broadcasts for sale to a limited or unlimited group of either broadcasters or other audience, negotiate prices manually or automatically for example using various auction mechanisms supported the platform.

24. A live uplink transmission management method according to claim 4, wherein the broadcast manager implements policies for managing multiple live event transmissions from a same area, which include establishing how transmission resources should be allocated and prioritized by the broadcast manager.

25. A live uplink transmission management method according to claim 24, wherein the policies are selected from policies based on commercial terms and temporary policies.

26. The method of claim 5, wherein the programming guide includes for at least one transmission event a referral to another site from which the transmission itself is provided.

27. The method of claim 1, comprising sending from the broadcast manager to one or more of the content sources, instructions which prioritize or throttle traffic from one or more of the content sources, based on the received metadata.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein the instructions, which prioritize or throttle traffic from a single content source, are based on metadata from several content sources transmitting using at least partially shared uplink resources.

29. The method of claim 1, wherein managing the transmission of at least one of the plurality of live uplink transmission events comprises managing the usage of one or more of a plurality of modems of at least one of the content sources, according to the processed metadata.

30. The method of claim 1, comprising generating by the broadcast manager, instructions on a video encoding bit rate or a number of frames per second transmitted from one of the content sources, based on the received metadata.

31. The system of claim 1, comprising generating in real time, by the broadcast manager, alerts to potential viewers of transmissions from live content sources, based on matching of user preferences to fields of the received metadata.

32. The method of claim 31, wherein the alerts for specific metadata information are transmitted to potential viewers that provided keywords, matching keywords in the metadata information.

33. The method of claim 31, wherein the alerts for specific metadata information are transmitted to potential viewers selected based on a geographical location of the content source generating the transmission event corresponding to the metadata information.

34. The method of claim 1, comprising providing by the broadcast manager references to distribution channels of sites of broadcast distributors of video streams identified by metadata.

35. The method according to claim 1, comprising transmitting the metadata from the broadcast manager to the broadcast distributors.

36. A live uplink transmission method according to claim 3, comprising adjusting the quality of service of at least one of the transmission events, by the broadcast manager, responsive to the metadata information.

37. A live uplink transmission method according to claim 36, wherein adjusting the quality of service of at least one of the transmission events comprises optimizing one or more simultaneous live events from the same area and/or data upload over said channels.

38. A live uplink transmission method according to claim 36, wherein adjusting the quality of service of at least one of the transmission events comprises optimizing an overall usage of the uplink shared in part or in full in one or more networks by several content sources using this service or due to uplink usage caused by other users.

39. A live uplink transmission method according to claim 36, wherein adjusting the quality of service of at least one of the transmission events comprises at least one of resolving congestions, providing graceful degradation in QoS, resolving uplink resource over-utilizations, enabling multiplicity of content sources to transmit from the same location, instruct one of the content sources transmitting from the same location to stop using a specific path/link, limit its use on several other links, limit the overall or partial usage of a QoS resource.

40. A live uplink transmission method according to claim 1, comprising establishing communication connections between the broadcast manager and the broadcast distributors and wherein receiving the metadata by the broadcast manager comprises receiving over the established communication connections.

41. A live uplink transmission management method according to claim 7, wherein the alerts comprise at least one of SMS, Twit, RSS feed or email.

42. The method of claim 1, comprising instructing one of the content sources, by the broadcast manager, on usage of at least one of the channels, based on the received metadata.

43. The method of claim 1, wherein managing the transmission of at least one of transmission event comprises providing an instruction on an amount of bandwidth the at least one transmission event may use.

44. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one transmission event uses a plurality of transmission links and wherein managing the transmission of at least one transmission event comprises providing an instruction on usage of a specific transmission link.

45. The method of claim 1, wherein managing the transmission of at least one of the plurality of live uplink transmission events comprises setting a limit on usage of one or more transmission resources.