Tribune Broadcasting Company, LLC

Dana A Lasher

Hank J Hundemer

Scott Allan Propst

Richard M Lasher

Presently described are systems and methods for identifying a mute/sound attribute of an audio sample set having first-channel samples and second-channel samples. An embodiment takes the form of a method that includes: (i) receiving the audio sample set; (ii) for each first-channel sample, determining a first max amplitude and a first min amplitude; (iii) calculating a first span based on a first function of the first max amplitude and the first min amplitude; (iv) for each second-channel sample, determining a second max amplitude and a second min amplitude; (v) calculating a second span based on a function of the second max amplitude and the second min amplitude; and (vi) identifying the audio sample set as having a sound attribute if both the first span and the second span are greater than a min-volume threshold.

Systems and methods for identifying a mute/sound sample-set attribute

Disclosed herein is a system and method for rejoining a traffic log mode after a breakout in a broadcasting environment. One example method involves (i) receiving a traffic log including traffic log entries, each corresponding to a VC and a start time; (ii) operating in a traffic log mode; (iii) receiving a breakout-mode request; (iv) responsive to receiving the breakout-mode request, (a) terminating operation of the traffic log mode, (b) generating a simulation log, and (c) operating in a breakout mode; (v) receiving a rejoin request; (vi) determining a breakout termination time based on the received rejoin request; (vii) proximate the breakout termination time, terminating operation of the breakout-mode, and operating in a custom log mode; (viii) determining a rejoin position of the traffic log based on the received rejoin request; and (ix) operating in the traffic log mode.

System and method for rejoining a traffic log mode after a breakout in a broadcasting environment

Disclosed herein is a system and method for extending a breakout in a broadcasting environment. In one example, a method involves: (i) receiving a traffic log including traffic log entries, each corresponding to a VC and a start time; (ii) operating in a traffic log mode comprising; (iii) receiving a breakout-mode request; (iv) responsive to receiving the breakout-mode request, (a) terminating operation of the traffic log mode, (b) generating a simulation log, and (c) operating in a first breakout mode; (v) receiving a breakout-extension request; (vi) responsive to receiving the breakout-extension request, terminating operation of the first breakout-mode, and operating in a custom log mode; and (vii) responsive to all the VCs indicated in the generated custom log being sent to the air-chain system, terminating operation of the custom log mode, and operating in a second breakout mode.

System and method for extending a breakout in a broadcasting environment

In one aspect, a method includes (a) accessing, by a computing system, a social media (SM) platform, (b) selecting a SM content item published on the SM platform, (c) responsive to the selection, accessing a webpage of the SM platform, (d) detecting that the webpage contains a nested link object, (e) selecting the nested link object to display the hidden SM content item(s) on the webpage, (f) responsive to selecting the nested link object, evaluating the displayed hidden SM content item(s) on the webpage to determine whether the selected SM content item is displayed on the webpage, (g) repeating acts (d)-(f) until the computing system determines that the selected SM content item is displayed on the webpage, and (h) responsive to determining that the selected SM content item is displayed on the webpage, retrieving the selected SM content item via the webpage.

Video-production system with social-media features

Disclosed herein are systems and methods for generating a video clip and associated closed-captioning (CC) data. An example method involves accessing a first video clip demarcated into frames; accessing CC data demarcated into CC blocks, identifying a starting frame from among the frames; determining a first set of frames that are within a range of the starting frame; determining a first set of CC blocks that correlate to the first set of frames; receiving a selection of a starting position from among the first set of CC blocks; identifying an ending frame among the frames; using the ending frame to identify an ending position; and generating a second video clip and associated CC data, wherein the second video clip includes the frames spanning from the starting frame to the ending frame, and wherein the generated CC data includes the CC blocks spanning from the starting position to the ending position.

Systems and methods for generating a video clip and associated closed-captioning data

In one aspect, an example method for use in a video-broadcast system having a DVE system includes: (i) receiving an instruction to apply a particular DVE of a double-box DVE type to a temporal portion of a video segment based, at least in part, on the temporal portion of the video segment being suitable for having a DVE of the double-box DVE type applied thereto; (ii) making a determination that a particular temporal portion of the video segment has been identified as being suitable for having a DVE of the double-box DVE type applied thereto; and (iii) based, at least in part, on the received instruction and the determination, transmitting to the DVE system an instruction that causes the DVE system to apply the particular DVE to at least part of the particular temporal portion of the video segment.

System and corresponding method for facilitating application of a digital video-effect to a temporal portion of a video segment

In one aspect, a method includes: receiving an instruction to apply a particular digital video-effect (DVE) of a particular DVE type to a temporal portion of a video segment based, at least in part, on the temporal portion of the video segment being suitable for having a DVE of the particular DVE type applied thereto, wherein the particular DVE corresponds to a duration; making a determination that no particular temporal portion of the video segment satisfies each condition in a set, the set comprising (i) a first condition that the particular temporal portion of the video segment has been identified as being suitable for having a DVE of the particular DVE type applied thereto, and (ii) a second condition that the particular temporal portion of the video segment is of at least the duration; and based, at least in part, on the received instruction and the determination, outputting an alert.

Video-broadcast system with DVE-related alert feature

In one aspect, a method includes (i) accessing, by a computing system, a social media (SM) platform, (ii) selecting, by the computing system, a SM content item published on the SM platform, (iii) responsive to selecting the SM content item, the computing system receiving an account identifier and a timestamp each corresponding to the selected SM content item, (iv) using, by the computing system, the received account identifier and timestamp to retrieve the SM content item from the SM platform, and (v) integrating, by the computing system, the retrieved SM content item into a video program.

In one aspect, a method of retrieving a social media (SM) content item by a computing system operable to access a plurality of SM platforms. The computing system stores multiple sets of platform-specific rules for retrieving SM content items from multiple SM platforms. Each set corresponds to a respective one of the SM platforms. The method includes (i) accessing, by a computing system, one of the SM platforms, (ii) selecting, by the computing system, a SM content item published on the accessed SM platform, (iii) responsive to selecting the SM content item, selecting, by the computing system, from among the sets of platform-specific rules, a set of platform-specific rules corresponding to the accessed SM platform, (iv) using, by the computing system, the selected set of platform-specific rules to retrieve the selected SM content item, and (v) integrating, by the computing system, the retrieved SM content item into a video program.

A method and system to facilitate localized replacement of one or more commercials or other instances of base content in a video feed with replacement-media delivered in a separate broadcast TV transport stream. A local TV station that broadcasts to an area covering a video program distributor (VPD) includes supplemental content, such as replacement commercials, within its broadcast in a manner that standard broadcast-TV receivers would disregard but that a equipment at the VPD will receive and process. The equipment at the VPD thus receives the local broadcast from the TV station and extracts from the broadcast the included supplemental content. And equipment at the VPD inserts the extracted supplemental content in place of one or more instances of base content in a transport stream that the VPD receives separately from a video-program source, so as to establish a modified transport stream for delivery to end-user TV receivers.

System for providing supplemental content for video transport stream

A method and system to facilitate identifying and recording capture location of recorded video. A computing system determines multiple locations where a first wireless communication module and second wireless communication module have lost wireless connectivity with each other, as possible locations where a video camera may be used to capture video. The computing system then outputs, for presentation to the videographer or another user, a location-selection prompt that specifies the multiple determined locations as candidate capture-locations for a video that was captured by the video camera. Further, the computing system receives, in response to the location-selection prompt, data that represents a user selection of one of the specified locations. The computing system then records the selected location as capture-location metadata for the video, such as capture-location data integrated with the video or in a database relationship with the video.

Use of wireless connection loss to facilitate identifying and recording video capture location

Disclosed is a system and method relating to the production and syndication of a news program. An example method involves: (i) receiving a first media-stream; (ii) using the received first media-stream to generate a first media-file representing the first media-stream; (iii) using a first portion of the generated first file to generate a second media-stream; (iv) transmitting the generated second media-stream to a broadcasting system for broadcast; (v) using a second portion of the generated first media-file to generate a second media-file representing a third media-stream having a lower bitrate than the first media-stream, wherein the first portion of the generated first media-file is different from the second portion of the generated second media-file; and (vi) transmitting the generated second media-file to a syndication server for syndication.

Newsroom production system with syndication feature

In one aspect, an example method includes (i) accessing, by a computing system, a broadcast schedule, which indicates that a broadcast of a first media content item is scheduled to be followed by a broadcast of a second media content item, wherein the computing system can operate in a schedule mode or a breakout mode; (ii) switching from operating in the schedule mode to operating in the breakout mode; and (iii) while operating in the breakout mode: (a) simulating a broadcast of the first media content item; (b) making a determination that a particular signal is embedded in the first media content item; (c) responsive to making the determination, simulating a switch from broadcasting the first media content item to broadcasting the second media content item; (d) based on the simulated broadcast of the first and second media content items, generating a simulation log; and (e) presenting the generated log.

Media-broadcasting system with broadcast schedule simulation feature

In one aspect, an example method for modifying a media stream having a variable data rate includes: (i) receiving, by a first computing system, a media stream generated by a second computing system, the media stream representing media content and having a variable data rate; (ii) determining, by the first computing system, a target constant data rate at which a third computing system has requested to receive the media stream; and (iii) while receiving the media stream: (a) modifying, by the first computing system, the media stream to have a modified data rate that is based on the determined target constant data rate; and (b) transmitting, by the first computing system, to the third computing system, the media stream having the modified data rate.

Method and system for modifying a media stream having a variable data rate

Disclosed herein are systems and methods for electronically tagging a video component (VC) in a video package. One example method includes the steps of: (i) receiving a video package; (ii) identifying a position of each of multiple video sections (VS) in the received video package; (iii) identifying a type of at least a portion of the VSs having identified positions, wherein at least one VS is identified as having a show-segment VC type; (iv) determining a total duration of the VSs identified as having a show-segment VC type; (v) determining a total count of the VSs identified as having a show-segment VC type; (vi) responsive to determining that the determined total duration is within a threshold range of a predetermined duration, associating tagging data with the received video package, wherein the tagging data indicates the position and type of each VS identified as having a show-segment VC type.

Growing community of inventors

Morgan Hill, CA, United States of America

Dana A Lasher