MESSAGING SERVICE FOR PROVIDING UPDATES FOR MULTIMEDIA CONTENT OF A LIVE EVENT DELIVERED OVER THE INTERNET

• US 20110022471A1
• Filed: 07/23/2009
• Published: 01/27/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 07/23/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dish Technologies LLC (Dish Network Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Dish Technologies LLC (Dish Network Corporation)
• Inventors: McNeill, Thomas G., Parrish, Douglas T., Larsen, Loren D., Brueck, David F.
• Granted Patent: US 10,410,222 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14.61
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0264 based upon schedule

Abstract

Messaging services for providing updates for multimedia content delivered over the Internet for a live event. In one embodiment, a messaging server provides real-time updates for multimedia content of a live event delivered over the Internet to multiple media players that request the multimedia content over the Internet. In one embodiment, the real-time updates indicate when the multimedia content is available for delivery over the Internet. In another embodiment, the real-time updates can be used to dynamically insert advertisement markers for advertisement breaks in the multimedia content.

Claims

1. A messaging server for providing updates for multimedia content of a live event to be delivered over the Internet, wherein the multimedia content of the live event is scheduled to be played at a specified point in time according to a schedule of the live event, comprising:

a computing device including,

a set of one or more network connections coupled to the Internet;

a subscription manager to receive through the set of network connections a subscription request from each of a plurality of media players, each operating on a client device coupled to the Internet, wherein the subscription request subscribes the respective media player to a messaging service for the multimedia content, and wherein each of the plurality of media players is to request the multimedia content over the Internet to allow the multimedia content to be played according to the schedule of the live event; and

an update manager to receive through one of the set of network connections an update for the schedule and to send the update to each of the plurality of media players subscribed to the messaging service for the multimedia content over the set of network connections.

2. The messaging server of claim 1, wherein the update indicates when a portion of the multimedia content is available for delivery over the Internet.

3. The messaging server of claim 1, wherein the update is a real-time update comprising real-time control information to update a duration of the multimedia content.

4. The messaging server of claim 1, wherein the update is a real-time update comprising real-time control information to update advertisement information of an advertisement break in the multimedia content.

5. The messaging server of claim 4, wherein the advertisement information comprises an advertisement marker that indicates a start time and a scheduled duration of the advertisement break.

6. The messaging server of claim 4, wherein the advertisement information comprises a start advertisement marker that indicates a start time of the advertisement break, and wherein the update manager is to receive through one of the set of network connections an additional update for the schedule during the advertisement break, the additional update comprises an end advertisement marker that indicates an end time of the advertisement break.

7. The messaging server of claim 1, wherein the multimedia content of the live event comprises a unique content identifier (UCID), and wherein the update manager, upon receiving the update, is to perform a lookup operation in a subscription data store using the UCID to determine which of the plurality of media players are subscribed to the messaging service for the UCID, and to send the update to each of the plurality of media players that is subscribed to the messaging service for the UCID.

8. The messaging server of claim 7, wherein the subscription request from each of the plurality of media players includes the UCID.

9. A client device for playback of multimedia content of a live event, wherein multimedia content of the live event is scheduled to be played at a specified point in time according to a schedule of the live event, the client device comprising:

a set of one or more network connections to the Internet; and

a computing device including a media player operating on the computing device, the media player including,

a media manager to request the multimedia content of the live event over the set of network connections for playback by the media player according to the schedule of the live event; and

an update manager coupled to the media manager, the update manager to receive an update for the schedule over the set of network connections, and to update a timeline of the live event using the update, wherein the timeline indicates when the multimedia content is available for delivery over the Internet to be requested by media manager to allow the multimedia content to be played according to the updated schedule of the live event.

10. The client device of claim 9, wherein the update manager is to send a subscription request to a messaging server over the set of network connections to subscribe to a messaging service for the multimedia content of the live event.

11. The client device of claim 9, wherein the update indicates when the multimedia content is available for delivery over the Internet.

12. The client device of claim 9, wherein the update comprises real-time control information to update a duration of the multimedia content specified in the timeline.

13. The client device of claim 9, wherein the update comprises real-time control information to update advertisement information of an advertisement break in the multimedia content specified in the timeline.

14. The client device of claim 13, wherein the media manager includes an advertisement manager to select one or more advertisements for playback by the media player to fill the advertisement break in the multimedia content.

15. The client device of claim 14, wherein the advertisement information comprises an advertisement marker that indicates a start time and a scheduled duration of the advertisement break.

16. The client device of claim 14, wherein the advertisement information comprises a start advertisement marker that indicates a start time of the advertisement break, wherein the update manager is to receive an additional update through one of the set of network connection and to update the timeline, and wherein the additional update comprises an end advertisement marker that indicates an end time of the advertisement break.

17. The client device of claim 14, wherein at least one of the one or more advertisements comprises a multimedia advertisement.

18. The client device of claim 14, wherein at least one of the one or more advertisements comprises a static image to be displayed during at least a portion of the advertisement break.

19. The client device of claim 14, wherein the advertisement manager is to select the one or more advertisements for playback by,

sending an advertisement request over the set of network connections to an advertisement decision service (ADS) operating on a remote server;

and

receiving, in response to the advertisement request, an identity for each of the one or more advertisements.

20. The client device of claim 19, wherein the advertisement request comprises information including at least one of a local time of the media player, one or more keywords, the geographic location of the media player, an Internet Protocol (IP) address, a preference of a user of the media player, or one or more demographics of the user.

21. A machine-readable storage medium storing instruction thereon when executed by a computing device cause the computing device to perform a method of providing updates for multimedia content of a live event over the Internet, wherein the multimedia content of the live event is scheduled to be played at a specified point in time according to a schedule of the live event, the method comprising:

receiving over a set of one or more network connections coupled to the Internet a subscription request from each of a plurality of media player, each operating on a client device coupled to the Internet;

subscribing the plurality of media players to a messaging service for the multimedia content;

receiving an update that indicates when the multimedia content is available for delivery over the Internet; and

sending the update to each of the plurality of subscribed media players over the set of network connections.

22. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 21, wherein the multimedia content of the live event comprises a unique content identifier (UCID), and wherein the method further comprises:

upon receiving the update, performing a lookup operation in a subscription data store using the UCID to determine which of the plurality of media players are subscribed to the messaging service for the UCID; and

sending the received update to each of the plurality of media players that is subscribed to the messaging service for the UCID.

23. A machine-readable storage medium storing instruction thereon when executed by a computing device cause the computing device to perform a method of streaming multimedia content of a live event over the Internet, wherein the multimedia content of the live event is scheduled to be played by a media player at a specified point in time according to a schedule of the live event, the method comprising:

requesting the multimedia content of the live event over a first set of one or more network connections according to a timeline, wherein the timeline indicates when the multimedia content is to be played by the media player according to the schedule of the live event;

receiving an update message from a messaging service over at least one of the first set of network connections to update the timeline, wherein the update message indicates when the multimedia content is available for delivery over the Internet;

updating the timeline of the live event using the update message; and

requesting the multimedia content over the set of one or more network connections according to the updated timeline.

24. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 23, wherein the method further comprises sending a subscription request to a messaging server to subscribe the media player to a messaging service for the multimedia content of the live event.

25. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 23, wherein said updating comprises updating a specified duration of the multimedia content using real-time control information in the update message.

26. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 23, wherein the update comprises advertisement information, wherein said updating comprises updating an advertisement break in the multimedia content using the advertisement information.

27. A machine-implemented method of providing updates for multimedia content of a live event delivered over the Internet, wherein the multimedia content of the live event is scheduled to be played at a specified point in time according to a schedule of the live event, the method comprising:

receiving over a set of one or more network connections coupled to the Internet a subscription request from each of a plurality of media player, each operating on a client device coupled to the Internet;

subscribing the plurality of media players to a messaging service for the multimedia content;

receiving an update that indicates when the multimedia content is available for delivery over the Internet; and

sending the update to each of the plurality of subscribed media players over the set of network connections.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein said receiving the update comprises receiving an updated timeline from a content management system, wherein the update timeline indicates when the multimedia content is available for delivery over the Internet, and wherein said sending the update comprises sending the updated timeline to each of the plurality of subscribed media players.

29. The method of claim 27, further comprising generating a timeline using the received update, wherein the generated timeline indicates when the multimedia content is available for delivery over the Internet, and wherein said sending the update comprises sending the generated timeline to each of the plurality of subscribed media players.

30. The method of claim 27, wherein the multimedia content of the live event comprises a unique content identifier (UCID), and wherein the method further comprises:

upon receiving the update, performing a lookup operation in a subscription data store using the UCID to determine which of the plurality of media players are subscribed to the messaging service for the UCID; and

sending the received update to each of the plurality of media players that is subscribed to the messaging service for the UCID.

31. A system for providing updates for multimedia content of a live event delivered over the Internet, wherein the multimedia content of the live event is scheduled to be played at a specified point in time according to a schedule of the live event, comprising:

a messaging server coupled to the Internet over a first set of one or more network connections that provides update messages that indicate when the multimedia content is available for delivery over the Internet; and

a plurality of media players, each operating on a client device coupled to the Internet, each comprising;

a second set of one or more network connections;

an update manager that receives the update messages from the messaging server over the second set of network connections to update a timeline, wherein the timeline indicates when the multimedia content is to be played by the respective media player according to the schedule of the live event; and

a media manager that requests the multimedia content over the second set of network connections according to the timeline to allow the multimedia content to be played by the respective media player according to schedule of the live event.

32. The system of claim 31, further comprising:

a set of one or more encoders that receives the multimedia content and encodes the multimedia content to be stored on at least one content server associated with a content delivery network (CDN), the encoded multimedia content to be delivered by the CDN to the plurality of media players; and

a publishing system that receives information from the set of encoders that indicates when the encoded multimedia content is available for delivery by the CDN and generates the update messages in response to the received information.

33. The system of claim 32, wherein the messaging server comprises:

a subscription manager that receives through the first set of network connections a subscription request from each of the plurality of media players to subscribe the respective media player to a messaging service for the multimedia content of the live event; and

an update manager that receives through the first set of network connections the update messages from the publishing system.

34. The system of claim 33, further comprising a subscription data store coupled to the messaging server, wherein the update manager, upon receiving a current update, performs a lookup operation in the subscription data store to determine which of the plurality of media players are subscribed to the messaging service for the multimedia content, and sends the current update to each of the plurality of media players that is subscribed to the messaging service for the multimedia content.