Verizon Patent and Licensing Inc.

Verizon Digital Media Services Inc.

Echostar Technologies Corporation

Echostar Advanced Technologies L.l.c.

Uplynk, LLC

Nathan James Edwards

David Frederick Brueck

C Ryan Owen

Tyler Bye

Ken Brueck

John Edwards

Trevor Deren Hunsaker

Kenneth Alan Brueck

Thomas Quinn

Server side content impression progression tracking is performed using ping triggers and pings. A server generates ping triggers for content based on an impression list from a configuration provided by the content originator. The server sets different times at which the ping triggers are to fire during content playback. When media playback on a client reaches a time set for a ping trigger, the ping trigger causes the client to return a ping to the server to indicate that playback has reached the designated time. In this manner, the pings granularly track content viewership on different clients, wherein the granular tracking measures not only whether content was viewed or not, but also how much of the content was viewed. Subsequent content to a particular client can be customized based on preferences derived from pings tracked from the particular client.

Media playback ping

The embodiments implement server-side third party content insertion with client-side tracking beacon. The solution embeds third party content within designated breaks of primary content to form a single unified stream that is streamed to a client requesting the primary content. The unified stream allows the client to receive all content without switching between different streams and prevents advertisement blockers running on the client from differentiating the third party content from the primary content and from blocking the third party content. The solution also generates and sends to the client, a configuration containing events and destinations the different content providers define for their respective content. The client monitors for the events specified in the configuration during playback of the unified stream. An event that is triggered causes the client to send a tracking beacon to a content provider specified destination associated with the event.

Hybrid client-side beacon tracking

A method and system for just-in-time (JIT) encoding of media content is described. The JIT encoder allows a server to create one or more slices of requested portions of the media content according to one of the available quality profiles when requested without previously creating and storing different copies of the media content at the different quality profiles.

Just-in-time (JIT) encoding for streaming media content

A method and system for decoupling slicing and encoding of media content is described.

Decoupled slicing and encoding of media content

Methods and systems for adaptive streaming cost management are described. A processing device can receive a request over a network from a media player executing on a client device to adaptively stream media content. The media content can include a plurality of media slices. The processing device can identify a geographical location of the client device from the request. The processing device can generate a media manifest file based on the geographical location of the client device. The media manifest file can indicate one or more media sources at which a copy of the plurality of media slices is geographically located and a cost associated with delivery of the plurality of media slices from the respective one of the one or more media sources. The processing device can transmit the media manifest file to the client device over the network.

Media manifest file generation for adaptive streaming cost management

Methods and systems for advertisement insertion into streaming media content are described. In one method, an advertisement insertion tool receives a first indication of a start time of an advertisement break to be inserted into a stream of slices of media content. The advertisement insertion tool identifies a first slice of the slices that encompasses the start time of the advertisement break. The first slice comprises video frames. The advertisement insertion tool truncates the first slice to contain the video frames up to the start time of the advertisement break. An advertisement can be inserted after the truncated first slice and before a next second slice in the stream.

Advertisement insertion into media content for streaming

Methods and systems for advertisement insertion into streaming media content are described. In one method, an advertisement insertion tool receives advertisement insertion input that identifies a start time in media content to insert an advertisement. In response to receiving the advertisement insertion input, the advertisement insertion tool inspects an original slice of the media content that contains the media content at the start time to locate a preceding key frame at or prior to the start time and a last frame before the start time. The advertisement insertion tool creates a first new slice comprising the media content of the original slice up to the start time. The first new slice comprises the preceding key frame, the last frame and any intervening delta frames between the preceding key frame and the last frame. The advertisement insertion tool creates a second new slice comprising the media content of the original slice at the start time, including creating a subsequent key frame of the media content at the start time. The advertisement insertion tool stores the first new slice and second new slice at a content server for streaming the media content with the advertisement inserted to a media player executing on a client computing system.

Methods and systems for advertisement insertion into streaming media content are described. In one method, an advertisement insertion tool receives a first indication of a start time of where an advertisement is to be inserted into media content and a second indication comprising at least one of an end time of the advertisement or a duration of the advertisement. The advertisement insertion tool inspects a first original slice of the media content that contains the media content at the start time to locate a first preceding key frame at or prior to the start time and a last frame before the start time. The advertisement insertion tool creates a first new slice comprising the media content of the first original slice up to the start time. The first new slice comprises the first preceding key frame, the last frame and any intervening delta frames between the first preceding key frame and the last frame. The advertisement insertion tool inspects a second original slice of the media content that contains the media content at the end time to locate a second preceding key frame at or prior to the end time, a last frame corresponding to the media content at the end time, and a first frame after the end time. The advertisement insertion tool creates a subsequent key frame with the first frame and creates a second new slice comprising the subsequent key frame and the media content of the second original slice after the first frame until an end of the second original slice. The advertisement insertion tool stores the first new slice and second new slice at a content server for streaming the media content with the advertisement inserted to a media player executing on a client computing system.

Automatically and repeatedly crawling multiple multimedia websites to identify and collect information about the multimedia content that is available for delivery over the Internet to a client device for playback on a media player operating on the client device. In one embodiment, the method normalizes the collected information by converting the different formats of the collected information into a common format and converting the different nomenclatures of the collected information into a common nomenclature. The method updates an index with the normalized information, and sends a data feed to the client device to populate the user interface on the client device with the normalized information of the index. The user interface allows the user to navigate and select the multimedia content that is available for delivery over the Internet for playback on the media player.

User interface with available multimedia content from multiple multimedia websites

Methods and systems for advertisement insertion into streaming media content are described. In one method, an advertisement insertion tool receives a first indication of a start time of where an advertisement is to be inserted into media content and a second indication comprising at least one of an end time of the advertisement or a duration of the advertisement. The advertisement insertion tool inspects a first original slice of the media content that contains the media content at the start time to locate a first key frame at or prior to the start time and creates a first new slice comprising the media content of the first original slice up to the start time. The advertisement insertion tool inspects a second original slice of the media content that contains the media content at the end time to locate a second key frame at or prior to the end time and creates a second new slice comprising the media content of the second original slice after the end time until an end of the second original slice.

Methods and systems for advertisement insertion into streaming media content are described. In one method, an advertisement insertion tool receives an advertisement insertion input. The advertisement insertion input identifies a presentation time in media content to insert an advertisement. In response to receiving the advertisement insertion input, the advertisement insertion tool inspects an original slice of the media content that contains the media content at the presentation time to locate a key frame at or prior to the presentation time. The advertisement insertion tool creates a first new slice comprising the media content of the original slice up to the presentation time and creates a second new slice comprising the media content of the original slice after the presentation time. The advertisement insertion tool updates a descriptor file to include the first new slice, the advertisement, and the second new slice for streaming.

Growing community of inventors

Orem, UT, United States of America

Nathan James Edwards