Transmission and reception of audio and/or video material
AssigneeBritish Telecommunications public limited company
InventorsAnthony R Leaning, Richard J Whiting
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Delivery of recorded audio or video material over a telecommunications link 2 from a server 1 to a terminal 3 is accomplished by dividing the material into a sequence of sub-files each of which is independently requested by the terminal, which thereby has control of the rate of delivery. Provision may be made for switching between alternative sub-file sets representing alternative delivery modes or data rates.
Claims32
A terminal for playing audio or video material which is stored on a remote server as a set of files representing successive temporal portions of the said material, the terminal comprising:
- a telecommunications interface for communication with the server;
- a buffer for receiving the files from the telecommunications interface;
- and
- means for playing the contents of the buffer;
- characterised by control means operable to determine the addresses of further files to be requested and operable in response to the state of the buffer to generate request messages, containing such addresses, for further files for replenishment of the buffer.
A terminal according to any one of claims 1 to 7 for use in a method according to any one of claims 19 to 22, in which the terminal is operable upon receipt of a file to decode it and to discard that part of the decoded material which corresponds to said initial part of the following portion.
A terminal according to any one of the preceding claims in which the files are allocated addresses according to a predetermined algorithm and the terminal includes means operable for a said request message to calculate, in accordance with said algorithm, an address for inclusion in the request message.
A method of transmitting digitally coded audio or video material comprising:
- partitioning the material into a plurality of discrete files each representing successive temporal portions of the said material;
- storing the files at a first station;
- and
- at a second station—
- a) transmitting to the first station requests for successive respective ones of the files;
- b) receiving the files;
- and
- c) decoding the files for replay of the material.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.