Aol Inc.

Facebook, Inc.

Oath Inc.

Aol Llc, a Delaware Limited Liability Company

Scott K Brown

David L Biderman

David S Bill

Stephen E Loomis

Conor Patrick Cahill

Michael Lester Wise

David Wexelblat

David F Pare

Kevin Eugene Mason

Eric Manchester

Keith Peters

Bradley Paul Gorman

Brooke Lamont Patterson

Mark Lionel Filteau

William J Raduchel

Gilbert G Weigand

Christopher L Amen-Kroeger

Allen Tom

Thomas Pepper

A broadcaster may be configured to use a media protocol to provide a distribution point with a stream. The broadcaster uses a controller configured to implement the media protocol that includes a message class indicating an applicability of a message to a distribution point. The media protocol includes an authentication message structured and arranged to authenticate an establishment of a stream for distribution on the distribution point, a stream configuration message structured and arranged to configure the stream being distributed on the distribution point, a connection message structured and arranged to distribute the stream, and a stream session termination message structured and arranged to terminate a streaming session that has been established.

Systems and methods for distributing streams and stream metadata

Access to content may be enabled by receiving an instruction indicating a client request to access content, accessing a list of content sources capable of rendering the content for which access is requested by the client, determining a performance metric for at least two of the content sources, and selecting among the content sources based on the performance metric to identify a content source to be accessed by the client.

Managing access to digital content sources

An initialization vector (IV) is employed to decrypt a block of a stream that has been encrypted with Cypher Block Chaining (CBC) encryption, without requiring decryption of previous blocks within the stream. For example, a listener who accesses a distribution point to retrieve encrypted content authenticates himself to an application server that regulates access to encrypted content on the distribution point, and responsively receives a key. The listener then requests access to a reference point within the encrypted content stream somewhere after its beginning (e.g., using preview clips). The distribution point relates the reference point to a corresponding block of the encrypted stream, and identifies an IV previously used for encryption of that block. The distribution point provides the associated encrypted block of content and the IV to the listener to enable mid-stream rendering of the encrypted content, without requiring the listener to decrypt previous blocks within the encrypted stream.

System and method for using a streaming protocol

Using switching technologies to duplicate packets of a digital stream (e.g., digital video stream) sent from one workstation to multiple recipient workstations, where the switching technologies enable the multiple streams sent from the switch to the recipient workstations to be generated from a single digital stream sent from the sending workstation to the switch. Data units, such as video data units, may be transmitted by using a switch to enable receipt of a stream of data units including a payload portion and an attribute portion from at least two conferencing participants. The switch is used to duplicate at least a subportion of the payload portion of a data unit within the stream of data units, and to enable access to the duplicated subportion of the data unit by two or more conferencing participants.

Duplicating digital streams for digital conferencing using switching technologies

Prioritizing digital streams during digital conferencing

Modifying payloads of digital streams for digital conferencing

Content may be inserted at a duplicating device by inserting advertising content into a duplicated feed, and transmitting the duplicated feed to the terminal. The transmission of the duplicated feed is performed in response to a state of the terminal.

Adding advertising content to media content

Inserting advertising content

A client may be configured to access a network by identifying a network bandwidth configuration setting to be used by the client in accessing a networked content source, enabling the client to access the content source using the network bandwidth configuration setting, monitoring client access to the content source, comparing client access metrics to metrics associated with the network bandwidth configuration setting, determining, based on the comparison, whether to adjust the network bandwidth configuration settings for the client, and adjusting the network bandwidth configuration setting if appropriate.

Network scoring system and method

A switch having a first communications interface to receive a stream of data units, a buffer to store the payload portion of the data unit, a replicator to duplicate at least the payload portion of the data unit, and a second communications interface to enable access to the stream of data units by two or more terminals.

Generating multiple data streams from a single data source

Growing community of inventors

Marietta, GA, United States of America

Scott K Brown