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US 10,652,603 B2Granted
Transitioning between broadcast and unicast streams
AssigneeTriton US Vp Acquision Co.
InventorsKeith Millar, Robert Edward May
Life of this patent
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Abstract
In one embodiment, a method includes identifying a plurality of segments of media content, each of the plurality of segments including a plurality of media frames, generating segment metadata for each of the plurality of segments, the segment metadata including a segment identifier, transmitting a broadcast stream including the plurality of segments and the segment metadata for each of the plurality of segments, and making the plurality of segments available for retrieval via a unicast stream using the segment identifiers.
Claims20
A method comprising:
- at a network service provider including a processor, a memory, a unicast server, and a broadcast multiplexer:
- identifying a plurality of segments of media content, each of the plurality of segments including a plurality of media frames;
- generating segment metadata identifying the plurality of segments, including generating a respective Uniform Resource Locator (URL) for each of the plurality of segments, wherein the segment metadata includes a segment size for at least one of the plurality of segments and the segment size is used by a user device to infer a number of lost packets in a segment and determine whether or not to acquire the segment from the unicast server;
- transmitting via the broadcast multiplexer, in a plurality of packets, a broadcast stream including the plurality of segments and the segment metadata including the respective URL, each respective URL being included in a respective field of a respective packet of the plurality of segments, wherein the broadcast stream comprises a Moving Picture Expert Group (MPEG) transport stream and the segment metadata included in an adaptation field;
- uploading each of the plurality of segments and providing the segment metadata to the unicast server;
- and
- generating by the unicast server an updated manifest based on the segment metadata including adding a plurality of entries, each of the plurality of entries including the respective URL for a corresponding segment of the plurality of segments at which one or more of the plurality of segments can be downloaded, wherein the unicast stream includes an alternative segment that differs from a corresponding one of the plurality of segments in the broadcast stream.
4 more elements
An apparatus comprising:
- a packager configured to identify a plurality of segments of media content, each of the plurality of segments including a plurality of media frames, and to generate segment metadata identifying the plurality of segments, including generating a respective Uniform Resource Locator (URL) for each of the plurality of segments, wherein the segment metadata includes a segment size for at least one of the plurality of segments and the segment size is used by a user device to infer a number of lost packets in a segment and determine whether or not to acquire the segment from the unicast server;
- a broadcast multiplexer configured to transmit, as a plurality of packets, a broadcast stream including the plurality of segments and the segment metadata including the respective URL, each respective URL being included in a respective field of a respective packet of the plurality of segments, wherein the broadcast stream comprises a Moving Picture Expert Group (MPEG) transport stream and the segment metadata included in an adaptation field;
- and
- a unicast server configured to receive each of the plurality of segments uploaded to and the segment metadata provided to the unicast server;
- and generate an updated manifest based on the segment metadata including adding a plurality of entries, each of the plurality of entries including the respective URL for a corresponding segment of the plurality of segments at which one or more of the plurality of segments can be downloaded, wherein the unicast stream includes an alternative segment that differs from a corresponding one of the plurality of segments in the broadcast stream.
2 more elements
A system comprising:
- one or more processors;
- and
- a non-transitory memory comprising instructions that when executed cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:
- identifying a plurality of segments of media content, each of the plurality of segments including a plurality of media frames;
- generating segment metadata identifying the plurality of segments, including generating a respective Uniform Resource Locator (URL) for each of the plurality of segments, wherein the segment metadata includes a segment size for at least one of the plurality of segments and the segment size is used by a user device to infer a number of lost packets in a segment and determine whether or not to acquire the segment from the unicast server;
- transmitting, in a plurality of packets, a broadcast stream including the plurality of segments and the segment metadata including the respective URL, each respective URL being included in a respective field of a respective packet of the plurality of segments, wherein the broadcast stream comprises a Moving Picture Expert Group (MPEG) transport stream and the segment metadata included in an adaptation field;
- uploading each of the plurality of segments and providing the segment metadata to a unicast server;
- and
- generating an updated manifest based on the segment metadata including adding a plurality of entries, each of the plurality of entries including the respective URL for a corresponding segment of the plurality of segments at which one or more of the plurality of segments can be downloaded, wherein the unicast stream includes an alternative segment that differs from a corresponding one of the plurality of segments in the broadcast stream.
6 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.