Enforcement of trick-play disablement in adaptive bit rate video content delivery

• US 9,998,775 B2
• Filed: 12/30/2016
• Issued: 06/12/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 05/18/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google Technology Holdings LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Technology Holdings LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Tarbox, Brian J., Elstermann, Erik J., Falvo, Barry P.
• Primary Examiner(s): Ibrahim, Mohamed
• Application Number:
  US15/395,797
• Publication Number:
  US 20170150190A1
• Time in Patent Office: 529 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/75 Media network packet handling
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23805 Controlling the feeding rate to the network, e.g. by controlling the video pump
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2387 Stream processing in response to a playback request from an end-user, e.g. for trick-play
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44224 Monitoring of user activity on external systems, e.g. Internet browsing
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6125 involving transmission via Internet transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6587 Control parameters, e.g. trick play commands, viewpoint selection
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8456 by decomposing the content in the time domain, e.g. in time segments
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8543 using a description language, e.g. Multimedia and Hypermedia information coding Expert Group [MHEG], eXtensible Markup Language [XML] information retrieval of semistructured data, the underlying structure being taken into account, e.g. mark-up language structure data G06F16/80

Abstract

Disclosed is a method including receiving program event information indicating whether a media asset is to be presented with supplemental content, receiving, from a client, a request for a media-segment file corresponding to the media asset for consumption at the client, determining whether the program event information indicates that the media asset is to be presented with the supplemental content, and restricting trick-play operations in response to the program event information indicating that the media asset is to be presented with the supplemental content and restriction criteria are met.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving program event information indicating whether a media asset is to be presented with supplemental content;

receiving, from a client, a request for a media-segment file corresponding to the media asset for consumption at the client;

in response to receiving the request, identifying the media-segment file corresponding to the media asset;

determining, by a processing device executing an adaptive bitrate (“

ABR”

) packager, whether the program event information indicates that the media asset is to be presented with the supplemental content; and

providing the media-segment file corresponding to the media asset to the client, wherein the media-segment file comprises a restriction on trick-play operations, wherein the restriction is applied to the trick-play operations in response to the program event information indicating that the media asset is to be presented with the supplemental content and restriction criteria are met.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating a top level manifest file for the media asset.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising providing the top level manifest file to a real time adaptive bitrate (“

ABR”

) packager.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein restricting trick-play operations comprises imposing a predetermined time period for the supplemental content to be decoded before a user retrieves subsequent media-segment files.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the predetermined time period is determined from a time protocol splice or program event signaling.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the predetermined time period is unique per client.

7. The method of claim 4, wherein the ABR packager is to dynamically adjust the predetermined time period on a per-program, per-supplemental content, or per-client basis.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the supplemental content is identifiable by in-band signaling.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the in-band signaling uses a time protocol.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein restricting trick-play operations comprises preventing delivery of future media-segment files until the supplemental content has been retrieved.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the supplemental content comprises one or more of:

sponsored content, sponsored content opportunities, or content provider-supplied indications of supplemental content importance.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining the media-segment file from corresponding element manifest files.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the supplemental content is identifiable by a flag in a top level manifest file ingested by the ABR packager.

14. A system comprising:

a memory; and

a processing device operatively coupled to the memory, to execute an adaptive bitrate packager to;

receive program event information indicating whether a media asset is to be presented with supplemental content;

receive, from a client, a request for a media-segment file corresponding to the media asset for consumption at the client;

in response to receiving the request, identify the media-segment file corresponding to the media asset;

determine whether the program event information indicates that the media asset is to be presented with the supplemental content; and

providing the media-segment file corresponding to the media asset to the client, wherein the media-segment file comprises a restriction on trick-play operations in response to the program event information indicating that the media asset is to be presented with the supplemental content and restriction criteria are met.

15. The system of claim 14, further comprising:

a video coder server operatively coupled to the memory, the video coder server to receive a program stream comprising the program event information indicating whether the program stream is to be presented with the supplemental content and to output multiple adaptive bitrate (“

ABR”

) streams.

16. The system of claim 15, further comprising:

an ABR packager configured to request at least one of the multiple ABR streams from the memory and to deliver the at least one of the multiple ABR streams to the client.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the ABR packager is further configured to interpret the program event information.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein the video coder server comprises a video decoder to decode the program stream.

19. The system of claim 14, further comprising a decision system in communication with the processing device, the decision system to determine which local sponsored content or alternate content to substitute during a sponsored content break.

20. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium storing instructions which, when executed, cause a processing device to execute an adaptive bitrate (“

ABR”

) packager to perform operations comprising;

receiving program event information indicating whether a media asset is to be presented with supplemental content;

receiving, from a client, a request for a media-segment file corresponding to the media asset for consumption at the client;

in response to receiving the request, identifying the media-segment file corresponding to the media asset;

determining, by the ABR packager, whether the program event information indicates that the media asset is to be presented with the supplemental content; and

providing the media-segment file corresponding to the media asset to the client, wherein the media-segment file comprises a restriction on trick-play operations in response to the program event information indicating that the media asset is to be presented with the supplemental content and restriction criteria are met.