Live uplink transmissions and broadcasting management system and method

• US 9,712,267 B2
• Filed: 06/05/2015
• Issued: 07/18/2017
• 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
• Application Number:
  US14/732,377
• Publication Number:
  US 20150271534A1
• Time in Patent Office: 774 Days
• Field of Search: None
• 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 system for managing a plurality of live video streams, the system comprising:

at least one first processing device to;

communicate with a plurality of second processing devices and a plurality of servers;

receive metadata information regarding the plurality of live video streams, each of the plurality of video streams constructed of a first plurality of packets transmitted via a first cellular network and a second plurality of packets transmitted via a second cellular network, wherein

the first cellular network is different than the second cellular network and the metadata information includes information indicative of transmission performances of the first cellular network transmitted over the first cellular network and information indicative of transmission performances of the second cellular network transmitted over the second cellular network;

provide a plurality of referral links to the plurality of live video streams, wherein each referral link enables at least one of the plurality of second processing devices access to one of the plurality of live video streams transmitted by a remote unit associated with at least one of the plurality of servers; and

categorize the plurality of referral links based on the metadata information.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein, when the transmission performances of the first cellular network is lower than transmission performances of the second cellular network, the first cellular network is used more for sending the metadata information and the second cellular network is used more for sending packets of the live video streams.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the information indicative of transmission performances includes at least one of the following:

momentary transmission bandwidth, average transmission bandwidth, delay, error rate, and performance jitters.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the metadata information includes information associated with a plurality of broadcasting events, information associated with a plurality of remote units, information associated with the plurality of servers, information received from a content owner, information received from a reporter, information received from a broadcaster, or any combination thereof.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein at least part of the metadata information originates from the remote unit and transmitted via at least one of the first cellular network and the second cellular network.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein at least a different part of the metadata information originates from the plurality of servers.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one first processing device is further configured to facilitate a communication channel between at least one second processing device and the remote unit.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one first processing device is further configured to facilitate a communication channel between at least one second processing device and the at least one of the plurality of servers.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one first processing device is further configured to alert a second processing device when metadata information associated with a live video stream matches preferences of the second processing device.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one first processing device is further configured to negotiate a price for the one of the plurality of live video streams.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the first processing device is further configured to grant access to at least one live video stream resulting from a monetary transaction.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one of second processing devices is allowed access to multiple live video streams.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one first processing device is further configured to instruct at least one of the plurality servers to transmit at least one of the plurality of live video streams to an IP address associated with at least one of second processing devices.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one first processing device is further configured to instruct at least one of remote transmitting units to transmit the first plurality of packets and the second plurality of packets to an IP address associated with at least one of second processing devices.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one first processing device is further configured to alert in real time at least one of the plurality of second processing devices of at least one of live video streams according to the metadata information and information of interest associated with at least one of the second processing devices.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein alerting is done in accordance to rights related information associated with the live video stream.

17. The system of claim 1, wherein the metadata information is being used to identify a plurality of different owners.

18. The system of claim 1, wherein providing a plurality of referral links to the plurality of live video streams includes publishing a referral link to a URL where a live video stream can be viewed.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the referral link originates from the remote unit or one of the plurality of servers.

31. The system of claim 1, wherein the first plurality of packets are transmitted using at least one first cellular device and the second plurality of packets are transmitted using at least one second cellular device, and the at least one first cellular device and the at least one second cellular device are used in concert to facilitate a live media transmission.

32. The system of claim 1, wherein the first plurality of packets and the second plurality of packets are inequitably distributed based on the information indicative of the transmission performances of the first cellular network and the information indicative of the transmission performances of the second cellular network.

20. A method for managing a plurality of live video streams, the method comprising:

communicating with a plurality of second processing devices and a plurality of servers;

receiving metadata information regarding the plurality of live video streams, each of the plurality of video streams constructed of a first plurality of packets transmitted via a first wireless network and a second plurality of packets transmitted via a second wireless network, wherein the first wireless network is different than the second wireless network, and the metadata information includes momentary information about transmission bandwidth that dynamically changes during the live transmission of the plurality of video streams in response to changes in a combined upload capacity of the first wireless network and the second wireless network;

providing a plurality of referral links to the plurality of live video streams, wherein each referral link enables at least one of the plurality of second processing devices access to one of the plurality of live video streams transmitted by a remote unit associated with at least one of the plurality of servers; and

categorizing the plurality of referral links based on the metadata information.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the first wireless communication network is a cellular network and the second wireless communication network is a different cellular network.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein the first wireless communication network is a cellular network and the second wireless communication network is a WiFi network.

23. The method of claim 20, wherein the first wireless communication network is a cellular network and the second wireless communication network is a satellite network.

24. The method of claim 20, further comprising:

negotiating a price for the one of the plurality of live video streams.

25. The method of claim 20, wherein at least part of the metadata information originates from the remote unit via at least one of the first cellular network and the second cellular network.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein at least a different part of the metadata information originates from the plurality of servers.

27. The method of claim 25, wherein the method further comprising:

providing a communication channel between the at least one second server and the remote unit.

28. A server for managing a plurality of live video streams the server comprising:

at least one processing device to;

communicate with a plurality of second processing devices and a plurality of servers;

receive from the plurality of servers metadata information regarding the plurality of live video streams, each of the plurality of video streams constructed of a first plurality of packets transmitted via a first wireless network and a second plurality of packets transmitted via a second wireless network, wherein the first wireless network is different than the second wireless network and the metadata information includes information indicative of transmission performances of the first wireless network transmitted over the first wireless network and information indicative of transmission performances of the second wireless network transmitted over the second wireless network;

provide a plurality of referral links to the plurality of live video streams, wherein each referral link enables at least one of the plurality of second processing devices access to one of the plurality of live video streams transmitted by a remote unit associated with at least one of the plurality of servers; and

categorize the plurality of referral links based on the metadata information.

29. The server of claim 28, wherein the first wireless communication network is a cellular network and the second wireless communication network is a different cellular network.

30. The server of claim 28, wherein the at least one processing device is further configured to negotiate a price for the one of the plurality of live video streams.

33. The system of claim 28, wherein the at least one processing device is configured to change a video encoding bit rate or frames per second encoding of the remote unit based on the metadata information.