Prime Research Alliance E., Inc.

Expanse Networks, Inc.

Ati Technologies Inc.

General Instrument Corporation of Delaware

Gi, LLC

General Instrument Corporation, Jerrold Communications Division

Jeffrey S Hamilton

Charles Anthony Eldering

Gregory C Flickinger

Christopher H Strolle

Samir N Hulyalkar

Lawrence D Vince

David Grubb

Troy A Schaffer

Marc W Kauffman

Haosong Fu

John T Griffin

Marc Kauffman

An Ad Management System (AMS) for managing sales and insertion of targeted advertisements into advertising opportunities ('avails'). The AMS provides advertisers an ability to describe their advertisements (ad characteristics) in terms of target market demographics, required ad bandwidth, ad duration, and other ad specific parameters. The AMS receives the ad characteristics and matches the ads to the avails. The AMS tracks different avails including duration and bandwidth of the avail, and uses a number of schemes to determine if the ad can be placed in the avail including comparing bandwidth requirements. The AMS targets advertisements by correlating subscriber characteristics to the ad characteristics. The subscriber characteristics may be associated with groups of subscribers (e.g. nodes in cable television environments) or to individual subscribers.

Advertisement management system for digital video streams

A method and system for the insertion of local signals, including digital media advertisements, into statistically multiplexed streams is presented. The rate control and timing information is computed and is used to specify the insertion time and rate parameters for digital advertisements. In one embodiment, a maximum bit rate over the advertisement duration is specified. The maximum bit rate may be constant or may vary in time, such that high bit rate portions of the advertisement are supported. High bit rate portions of the advertisements in different program streams may be staggered, such that the total bandwidth required does not exceed a maximum, but allowing for high bit rate portions of advertisements. Custom bit rate profiles for advertisements may also be defined, with the profiles being defined at a high granularity or a low granularity.

Method and apparatus for inserting digital media advertisements into statistical multiplexed streams

A method and apparatus for the managing advertisements in a digital environment, including methods for selecting suitable advertising based on subscriber profiles, and substituting advertisements in a program stream with targeted advertisements. The Ad Management System (AMS)of the present invention manages the sales and insertion of digital video advertisements in cable television, switched digital video, and streaming video (Internet) based environments. The AMSprovides advertisers an ability to describe their advertisements (ads) in terms of target market demographics, required ad bandwidth, ad duration, and other ad specific parameters. The AMSreceives the ad descriptions that include some or all of the aforementioned parameters, and matches the ads to the advertising opportunities ('avails') available in the programming stream. The AMStracks different avails including duration and bandwidth of the avail, and uses a number of schemes to determine if the ad can be placed in the avail. The advertisements may be transported over an in-band advertising channel or over an out-of-band advertisement channel. At the multiplexing end, the ads may be multiplexed in one or more program streams synchronously, plesiochronously, or asynchronously. In either case, a dynamic linking process is used to insert the selected advertisements in the program streams.

Advertising management system for digital video streams

A robust data extension, added to a standard 8VSB digital television signal, is used to improve the performance of a digital television receiver. Robust data packets are encoded at a 1/3-trellis rate as compared to normal data packets that are encoded at a 2/3-trellis rate. In addition to delivery of robust data for mobile applications, the redundant robust data packets also improve the performance of the receiver in the normal tier of service. In particular, the robust data packets improve the performance of the receiver equalizer filter in the presence of rapidly changing transient channel conditions such as dynamic multipath for both robust data packets and normal data packets. The robust data packets improve the performance of the carrier recovery loop and the symbol timing recovery loop. Backward compatibility with existing receivers is maintained for 1) 8VSB signaling, 2) trellis encoding and decoding, 3) Reed Solomon encoding and decoding, and 4) MPEG compatibility.

Receiver for robust data extension for 8VSB signaling

An Ad Management System (AMS) for managing sales and insertion of targeted advertisements into advertising opportunities (&ldquo;avails&rdquo;). The AMS provides advertisers an ability to describe their advertisements (ad characteristics) in terms of target market demographics, required ad bandwidth, ad duration, and other ad specific parameters. The AMS receives the ad characteristics and matches the ads to the avails. The AMS tracks different avails including duration and bandwidth of the avail, and uses a number of schemes to determine if the ad can be placed in the avail. The AMS targets advertisements by correlating subscriber characteristics to the ad characteristics. The subscriber characteristics may be associated with groups of subscribers (e.g. nodes in cable television environments) or to individual subscribers.

A method and apparatus for the insertion and transport of advertisements in a digital environment, including methods for directing advertisements (ads) at subscribers and substituting advertisements in a program stream with targeted advertisements. The insertion methods are based on synchronous, plesiochronous, or asynchronous techniques. These methods may operate at constant bit rates or at available bit rates. An ad manager is used to select targeted advertisements, and dynamic ad linking is used to substitute an advertisement in a program stream with an alternative targeted advertisement.

Advertisement insertion techniques for digital video streams

A method and apparatus are provided for changing the compression level of digital information, such as digital video information. After having been compressed by a first compression scheme that provides quantized transform coefficients, the digital information is partially decompressed to recover the transform coefficients as they were prior to quantizing. The transform coefficients are then requantized at a different compression level. Complexity and expense are reduced by only partially decompressing and requantizing the previously compressed information to modify its compression level without the need to provide components such as a motion compensation processor and frame store that would be required for full decompression of the information prior to recompression.

Method and apparatus for changing the compression level of a compressed

A method and apparatus for scrambling an original analog video signal samples predetermined portions of the original video signal at a first rate and stores the sampled portions of the original video signal within a memory device. The stored video signal is read out of the memory device at a second rate, which is less than the first rate, to produce a time expanded scrambled video signal. A predetermined code is inserted into the time expanded scrambled video signal which is then converted into an analog scrambled video signal and transmitted through a channel. A method and apparatus for descrambling the scrambled video signal to produce a reconstructed video signal samples the scrambled video signal at the second rate, stores the sampled scrambled video signal into a memory and reads the sampled scrambled video signal out of the memory at the first rate. Replicas of the eliminated portions of the original video signal are reinserted into the sampled video signal to produce a digital version of the original video signal which is then converted to analog to produce the reconstructed video signal. The code word within the scrambled video signal is used to align each frame of the reconstructed video signal with the frame of the incoming scrambled video signal to keep the reconstructed video signal synchronized with the scrambled video signal.

Method and apparatus for television signal scrambling using a line

A method and apparatus are provided for controlling access to digital signals sent via a first communication path and retransmitted over a second communication path. The digital signals, having been encrypted by a first encryption scheme and sent over the first communication path, are received and decrypted. The decrypted signals are then retransmitted over the second communication path using a second encryption scheme that differs from the first encryption scheme.

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Doylestown, PA, United States of America

Jeffrey S Hamilton