Creating and distributing interactive addressable virtual content

A method for creation and distribution of addressable virtual content with interactivity, comprising:

• receiving, within a server, at least one media stream of a live event;
• generating, within the server, a 3D model defining a virtual environment, the virtual environment including at least one display screen associated with at least one virtual channel;
• interactively receiving an assignment of the media stream to the virtual channel;
• adding, in real-time, media content from the media stream to the display screen in the 3D model based, at least in part, upon the assignment;
• rendering a view of the 3D model in real time;
• and
• outputting the view of the 3D model in a live broadcast to a client device.

A method for creation and distribution of addressable virtual content with interactivity and low-latency, comprising:

• receiving, within a server, at least one media stream of a live event;
• generating, within a server, a 3D model defining a virtual environment that includes a display screen associated with a virtual channel;
• associating an empty node, representing a placeholder where content may be added, with the virtual channel;
• generating metadata to define only changes to the 3D model, the empty node, and addresses for each of the at least one media stream;
• sending the metadata in a live broadcast to a client device;
• and
• wherein the live broadcast causes a content player running on the client device to generate a local 3D model based upon the metadata, assign at least one of the media streams to the empty node, add, in real-time, media content from one of the media streams to the display screen in the local 3D model based on an assignment of the media stream to the empty node of the virtual channel.

A method for creation and distribution of addressable virtual content with interactivity and low-latency, comprising:

• receiving, within a client device, a live broadcast from a server;
• decoding, from the live broadcast, (a) metadata defining only changes to a server 3D model defining a virtual environment, (b) an empty node associated with a virtual channel of a display screen in the virtual environment, and (c) an address of each of at least one media stream captured from a live event;
• assigning one of the at least one media streams to the empty node based on dynamic characteristics of a user detected by the client device;
• updating a local 3D model in real-time based on the metadata to represent the virtual environment including a local display screen that represents the display screen;
• adding, in real-time, media content from the media stream assigned to the empty node to the local display screen;
• rendering a view of the local 3D model in real-time;
• outputting the view of the local 3D model from the client device;
• and
• wherein the view of the local 3D model shows content from the media stream displayed on the display screen within the virtual environment with low-latency.