Method and apparatus for preprocessing and postprocessing content in an interactive information distribution system
AssigneeCox Communications, Inc.
InventorsYong Son, Christopher Goode
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Abstract
A method and apparatus for preprocessing and preprocessing content in an interactive information distribution system. Content is retrieved from a storage medium and encapsulated in accordance to an Internet Protocol (IP) format. The encapsulated content is then uploaded for storage in a stream caching server and for future streaming of content to different types of access networks.
Claims20
A method for post processing content from a stream caching server in an interactive information distribution system, the method comprising:
- receiving, from a subscriber terminal associated with an access network, a request for content encapsulated according to a transport format supported by the stream caching server;
- retrieving the requested content from the streaming cache server;
- transcoding the requested content to a transport format supported by the subscriber terminal access network;
- and
- streaming the transcoded content toward the access network.
A local head end in an interactive information distribution system, the local head end comprising:
- a requesting subscriber terminal associated with an access network for sending a request for content encapsulated according to a desired transport format supported by a stream caching server;
- a storage medium for storing the encapsulated content;
- a post processing server for transcoding the requested content from the storage medium to a transport format supported by the subscriber terminal access network;
- and
- the stream caching server for streaming the post processed content toward the access network.
A method for use in a distributed network, comprising:
- requesting content by a client associated with an access network, wherein the content has been encapsulated into a desired transport format;
- transcoding the requested content into a desired player format;
- encapsulating the transcoded content into the desired transport format;
- and
- streaming via a distribution network and the access network.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.