The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Apr. 11, 2000
Filed:
Oct. 07, 1996
Gerard J Boetje, San Ramon, CA (US);
David C Collier, Gilroy, CA (US);
Sony Corporation, Tokyo, JP;
Sony Electronics, Inc., Park Ridge, NY (US);
Abstract
The system and method creates a broadcast tree comprising a hierarchy of broadcast constituents, each constituent represented as a node in the tree. The tree includes at least two nodes representing at least two of the following constituents arranged in accordance with the following hierarchical order; channel, schedule, program, pod and element, wherein the channel is the highest order constituent and the element is the lowest order constituent and wherein each higher order constituent can be composed of one or more constituents of the same or lower order. Associations are provided between constituents to be used to identify the sequence the constituents are played in order to generate a broadcast. These associations identify the paths to be taken from a higher order node to a lower order node. Thus, to generate a broadcast, the tree is traversed beginning at the highest order constituent, and for each higher order constituent, the associations among lower order constituents of the same order are evaluated to determine the sequence the lower order constituents are to be played.