British Broadcasting Corporation

Andrew Lipscombe

Richard Bradbury

A system for delivering content at varying qualities from a server to multiple client across a network has a server side converter and a client side converter. The server side converter makes unicast requests to a server for representations of content and converts these to multiple representations to be delivered as multicast streams. The client side converter receives a request for content from clients, determines a representation of content to obtain and subscribes to an appropriate multicast stream. The client side then converts the multicast stream back into segments available to a client by unicast request. In this way, data is delivered efficiently across a network from a server side to a client side whilst maintaining compatibility that client devices can issue traditional unicast requests.

Content delivery

A system for delivering content at varying qualities from a server to multiple client across a network has a server side converter and a client side converter. The server side converter makes unicast requests to a server for representations of content and converts these to multiple representations to be delivered as multicast streams. The client side converter receives a request for content from clients, determines a representation of content to obtain and subscribes to an appropriate multicast stream. The client side then converts the multicast stream back into segments available to a client by unicast request. In this way, data is delivered efficiently across a network from a server side to a client side while maintaining compatibility that client devices can issue traditional unicast requests.

Growing community of inventors

London, United Kingdom

Andrew Lipscombe