Method to maintain synchronization of media streams, commands, and on-screen events transmitted through different internet pathways and consumed at varying speeds

A computer system for resynchronizing commands to a time of a live media stream, the system comprising:

• a multimedia player executing on a client device of a user, the multimedia player presenting an output media stream loaded and buffered from a location parsed from a command manifest file, the multimedia player configured to:
• start playback of the output media stream;
• computationally select a new time of the output media stream to playback, the new time being different from a current playback time of the output media stream, the new selected time being static or dynamic;
• adjust playback of the output media stream to approach the new selected time, wherein the adjusting updates the current playback time of the output media stream to the new selected time;
• monitor the current playback time of the output media stream as adjusted, the monitoring including polling the command manifest file based on the current playback time as adjusted;
• a streaming media server coupled to the multimedia player, the streaming media server configured to:
• receive an input media stream from a media encoder coupled to the streaming media server, the media encoder capturing and encoding input from a source device into the encoded input media steam;
• as the input media stream is being received:
• transcode the input media stream in a streaming format compatible with content delivery, the transcoded media stream being the output media stream, the transcoded media stream being stored in media segments of a target length at the location specified in the command manifest file;
• generate and maintain a media stream playlist;
• and
• at least one of:
• host the output media stream or transmit the output media stream to a Content Distribution Network (CDN) for delivery to the multimedia player;
• a publishing client logically independent of the media encoder and streaming media server, the publishing client coupled to a publishing server, the publishing client configured to:
• prompt the user to enter at least one of:
• (i) the location of the output media stream, (ii) a start time at which the media encoder began encoding the input media stream, and (iii) an offset time from the start time;
• enable the user to initiate commands at particular times, the user-initiated commands being relevant to the input simultaneously captured by the media encoder;
• and
• the publishing server coupled to the multimedia player, the publishing server configured to:
• receive from the publishing client at least one of:
• (i) the location of the output media stream, (ii) the start time, (iii) the offset time, and (iv) the user-initiated commands;
• and
• generate and maintain a command manifest file by:
• if the location and start time is received, write the location and the start time as a first command in the command manifest file, and
• as each user-initiated command is received, append the user-initiated command to the end of the command manifest file, each user-initiated command being appended to the command manifest file with a publishing server clock time and the offset time.