Cisco Technology, Inc.

Kurt Kollmansberger

William C VerSteeg

Glenn William Connery

John Pickens

Michael F Keohane

James Clark

A method and system for conditioning a media stream for splicing are disclosed. In an embodiment, content-specific splice points, which correspond to a possible playout splice point within an original media stream, are identified for both audio and video components of the original media stream. Once the audio bitstream and video bitstream splice points are identified, the audio bitstream in the vicinity of the audio bitstream splice point is packetized into IP packets containing only audio with one of the audio-containing IP packets having an IP packet boundary that corresponds to the audio bitstream splice point and the video bitstream in the vicinity of the video bitstream splice point is packetized into IP packets containing only video with one of the video-containing IP packets having an IP packet boundary that corresponds to the video bitstream splice point. The conditioned original media stream is then transmitted downstream to a splicer.

IP-based stream splicing with content-specific splice points

In one embodiment, a network device comprises a tag processor configured to process a media stream received at the network device. The media stream is sent through a network to a desired destination. The tag processor comprises at least one of a tag inserter module and a tag module. The tag inserter module inserts a tag into the media stream, the tag indicating content of the media stream and the network device providing the tag. The tag module identifies and reports a value of a tag received within the media stream, and forwards the media stream to a user and/or compares the identified value to an expected tag value, and forwards the media stream to a user in the event that the comparison indicates a match. The present invention embodiments further include a method and logic for content tagging of the media stream.

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Spring Branch, TX, United States of America

Kurt Kollmansberger