System and Method for Providing Network Access to Individually Recorded Content

• US 20120131621A1
• Filed: 11/17/2011
• Published: 05/24/2012
• 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
• Granted Patent: US 9,060,156 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/93
• 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 and at their command 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 method of streaming recorded content transmissions to user devices, the method comprising:

storing the content transmissions in a broadcast file store as content data, the content data being uniquely allocated to each of the users individually and being generated by capturing over the air broadcasts from antenna feeds;

presenting the users with a list of recorded content transmissions that were recorded at the request of each of the users; and

in response to selections by the users, accessing the content data for the recorded content transmissions and streaming the content data to user devices for the corresponding users.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the stored content transmissions in a broadcast file store are captured with antenna elements that are uniquely assigned to each of the users for a duration of their user account.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the stored content transmissions in a broadcast file store are captured with antenna elements that are uniquely assigned to each of the users for a duration of the content transmissions.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein antenna elements that captured the content transmissions are identified with the content data in the broadcast file store.

5. The method according to claim 1, further comprising users accessing the uniquely allocated content data in the broadcast file store with user accounts.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein storing the recorded content transmissions comprises storing the content data at least two resolutions.

7. The method according to claim 6, further comprising determining resolution of the user devices and then selecting whether to stream a high resolution or a low resolution version of the content data.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein each content data stored in the file store is identified by user information identifying the users to which the content data are allocated.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein content data stored in the file store are identified by antenna information that identifies antenna elements that were used to capture the over the air broadcasts from which the content data were generated.

10. The method according to claim 1, wherein content data stored in the file store are identified by time information that identifies the time when the over the air broadcasts were captured from which the content data were generated.

11. A system for streaming recorded content transmissions, the system comprising:

an application server for providing access to separate accounts of users, wherein the application server provides the users with a list of recorded content transmissions that were recorded at the request of each of the separate users by capturing over the air broadcasts from antenna feeds; and

a streaming server that accesses content data for the recorded content transmissions, the content data being uniquely allocated to each of the users separately and that streams the content data to devices of the users.

12. The system according to claim 11, further comprising a broadcast file store that stores the content data.

13. The system according to claim 12, further comprising one or more antenna elements that are used to capture the over the air broadcasts of the recorded content transmissions in the broadcast file store, the file store identifying that antenna elements used to capture each of the over the air broadcasts.

14. The system according to claim 12, wherein the file store stores the recorded content transmissions at least two resolutions.

15. The system according to claim 14, wherein the streaming server streams one of the content transmissions at one of the resolutions based on a resolution of the user device.

16. The system according to claim 12, wherein content data stored in the file store is identified by user information identifying the users to which the content data are allocated.

17. A file store system for storing recorded content transmissions, the system comprising stored content data generated from content transmissions that were captured from over the air broadcasts from antenna feeds.

18. The system according to claim 17, wherein content data includes content transmissions at least two resolutions.

19. The system according to claim 17, wherein content data includes content transmissions at least three resolutions.

20. The system according to claim 17, wherein content data stored in the file store is identified by user information identifying the users to which the content data are allocated.

21. The system according to claim 17, wherein content data stored in the file store is identified by antenna information identifying antenna elements that were used to capture the over the air broadcasts.