DYNAMICALLY ENABLING GUEST DEVICE SUPPORTING NETWORK-BASED MEDIA SHARING PROTOCOL TO SHARE MEDIA CONTENT OVER COMPUTER NETWORK WITH SUBSET OF MEDIA DEVICES CONNECTED THERETO

• US 20130346564A1
• Filed: 06/21/2013
• Published: 12/26/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 06/22/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Guest-tek Interactive Entertainment Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Guest-tek Interactive Entertainment Ltd.
• Inventors: Warrick, Peter S., Cassidy, Brendan G., Carriere, Lindsey M., McCarthy, Michael D.
• Granted Patent: US 9,137,281 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/219
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1886 with traffic restrictions for efficiency improvement, e.g. involving subnets or subdomains
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0816 the condition being an adaptation, e.g. in response to network events
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0893 Assignment of logical groups to network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0894 Policy-based network configuration management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1045 Proxies, e.g. for session initiation protocol [SIP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1073 Registration or de-registration
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/60 Network streaming of media packets
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/611 for multicast or broadcast systems for broadcast or conference H04L12/18; arrangements for broadcast or distribution combined with broadcast H04H20/00; arrangements for broadcast applications with a direct linkage to broadcast information or to broadcast space-time H04H60/00; selective distribution of broadcast services, e.g. multimedia broadcast multicast service [MBMS], H04W4/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/612 for unicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/43615 Interfacing a Home Network, e.g. for connecting the client to a plurality of peripherals home Audio Video Interoperability [HAVI] data switching networks H04L12/2805

Abstract

A media system includes a computer network, a plurality of media devices coupled to the computer network, and a system controller coupled to the computer network. The computer network allows a guest device supporting a network-based media sharing protocol to be coupled thereto. The computer network by default prevents the guest device from utilizing the network-based media sharing protocol to share media content with the media devices. The system controller selects a subset of the media devices for which media sharing is to be enabled for the guest device, the subset including at least one of the media devices but not all of the media devices. The system controller dynamically reconfigures components of the computer network in response to an event occurrence to enable the guest device to utilize the network-based media sharing protocol to share media over the computer network with only the subset of the media devices.

Claims

1. A media system comprising:

a computer network;

a plurality of media devices coupled to the computer network; and

a system controller coupled to the computer network;

wherein the computer network allows a guest device supporting a network-based media sharing protocol to be coupled thereto;

the computer network by default prevents the guest device from utilizing the network-based media sharing protocol to share media content with the media devices;

the system controller selects a subset of the media devices for which media sharing is to be enabled for the guest device, the subset including at least one of the media devices but not all of the media devices; and

the system controller dynamically reconfigures one or more components of the computer network in response to an event occurrence to enable the guest device to utilize the network-based media sharing protocol to share media over the computer network with only the subset of the media devices.

2. The media system of claim 1, wherein the system controller dynamically reconfigures the one or more components of the computer network in response to a second, later event occurrence to prevent the guest device from utilizing the network-based media sharing protocol to share media with the media devices.

3. The media system of claim 1, wherein:

at least one of the components is a media proxy that supports the network-based media sharing protocol;

the computer network allows the guest device to discover and share media with the media proxy utilizing the network-based media sharing protocol;

the media proxy by default does not reroute media shared by the guest device to any of the media devices; and

the system controller dynamically reconfigures the media proxy in response to the event occurrence to cause the media proxy to reroute media shared by the guest device to one or more of the subset of the media devices.

4. The media system of claim 3, wherein, when rerouting media shared by the guest device to the one or more of the subset of the media devices, the media proxy converts shared media from the guest device to a format compatible with at least one of the subset of the media devices.

5. The media system of claim 3, wherein the media proxy communicates with at least one of the subset of the media devices utilizing a protocol that is different than the network-based media sharing protocol utilized by the guest device.

6. The media system of claim 3, wherein:

at least one of the subset of the media devices supports the network-based media sharing protocol; and

when rerouting media shared by the guest device to the one or more of the subset of the media devices, the media proxy redirects a media stream received from the guest device to the at least one of the subset of the media devices that supports the network-based media sharing protocol.

7. The media system of claim 3, wherein:

the computer network blocks multicast announcements from the media devices from reaching the guest device;

the media proxy periodically multicasts an announcement according to the network-based media sharing protocol that indicates the media proxy is available on the computer network; and

the computer network allows the guest device to receive the announcement from the media proxy.

8. The media system of claim 1, wherein:

at least one of the components is a gateway that by default drops all unicast traffic between the guest device and each of the media devices; and

the system controller dynamically reconfigures the gateway in response to the event occurrence to cause the gateway to pass unicast traffic between the guest device and each of the subset of media devices.

9. The media system of claim 8, wherein:

the gateway by default drops all multicast traffic between the guest device and each of the media devices; and

the system controller dynamically reconfigures the gateway in response to the event occurrence to cause the gateway to pass multicast traffic between the guest device and each of at least the subset of media devices.

10. The media system of claim 8, wherein:

the gateway drops all multicast traffic between the guest device and each of the media devices;

the computer network allows the system controller to receive all multicast traffic from the guest device; and

when receiving a multicast message from the guest device, the system controller sends a unicast response to the guest device on behalf of at least one of the subset of the media devices, the unicast response providing an address of the at least one of the subset of the media devices.

11. The media system of claim 10, wherein:

the computer network allows the system controller to receive all multicast traffic from the media devices; and

when receiving a multicast message from one of the subset of the media devices, the system controller sends a unicast response to that media device on behalf of the guest device, the unicast response on behalf of the guest device providing an address of the guest device.

12. The media system of claim 1, wherein:

the guest device is operated by a guest of a hospitality establishment; and

the subset of the media devices for which media sharing is enabled for the guest device provide media functions to the guest at a particular guest area of the hospitality establishment.

13. The media system of claim 12, wherein the event occurrence corresponds to a login portal of the hospitality establishment receiving information from the guest device over the computer network.

14. The media system of claim 13, wherein:

the information received from the guest device at the login portal identifies the guest of the hospitality establishment; and

the system controller selects the subset of the media devices to be media devices associated with the particular guest area of the hospitality establishment that is registered to the identified guest.

15. The media system of claim 13, wherein:

the information received from the guest device includes a passkey that was displayed to the guest on a display device associated with the particular guest area; and

the system controller selects the subset of the media devices by looking up in a database which of the media devices are associated with the received passkey.

16. The media system of claim 12, wherein:

the event occurrence corresponds to a reservation manager of the hospitality establishment determining that a start time of a reservation specifying the guest device as a registered device has been reached; and

the system controller selects the subset of the media devices according to details of the reservation.

17. The media system of claim 12, wherein:

the event occurrence corresponds to the system controller detecting a device identifier of the guest device on the computer network; and

the system controller selects the subset of the media devices according details of an active reservation of the hospitality establishment in which the device identifier is specified as a registered guest device.

18. The media system of claim 12, wherein:

the event occurrence corresponds to the system controller detecting a device identifier of the guest device on the computer network;

the system controller queries a user profile database to find a user identifier associated with the device identifier; and

the system controller selects the subset of the media devices associated with a current guest of the hospitality establishment having a matching user identifier.

19. The media system of claim 12, wherein:

the event occurrence corresponds to the system controller receiving network traffic from the guest device;

the system controller traces the network traffic received from the guest device to the particular guest area from which the network traffic originated; and

the system controller selects the subset of the media devices to be media devices associated with the particular guest area from which the network traffic originated.

20. The media system of claim 12, wherein the hospitality establishment is a lodging establishment, the media devices are audio-visual (AV) entertainment devices, and the particular guest area is a specific guest room of the lodging establishment.