Establishing a streaming presentation of an event

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10313723-B2
Application number	US-201515114709-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 27, 2015
Priority date	Jan 29, 2014
Publication date	Jun 4, 2019
Grant date	Jun 4, 2019

Abstract

The invention provides a streaming client with a streaming presentation of an event, with said presentation being obtained by dynamically switching between a plurality of media streams which represent different recordings of the event. For that purpose, source data is obtained from a plurality of stream sources. The source data is constituted by content data and/or metadata of concurrent portions of the plurality of media streams. By applying a quality assessment function to the source data, a quality score is assigned to each one of the concurrent portions. This allows selection data to be generated which enables the streaming client to access a selected one of the concurrent portions of a respective media stream. For example, a segment may be selected which provides a highest quality score. By doing so, it is therefore not required anymore for a consumer to manually switch between different media streams.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A system for providing a streaming client with a streaming presentation of an event, the streaming presentation having been obtained by dynamically switching between a plurality of media streams, and the system comprising:
an input for obtaining source data from a plurality of stream sources providing access to a respective plurality of media streams which represent different recordings of the event, the source data being constituted by content data and/or metadata of concurrent portions of the plurality of media streams, the concurrent portions representing concurrent time periods of the event, each media stream comprising multiple consecutive portions, the plurality of media streams comprising one or more segmented media streams, and the concurrent portions constituted at least in part by concurrent segments of the one or more segmented media streams;
a processing subsystem configured to, for each of the consecutive portions:
apply at least one quality assessment function to the source data for assigning a quality score to each one of the concurrent portions, thereby establishing a plurality of quality scores; and
generate selection data for enabling the streaming client to access a selected one of the concurrent portions of a respective media stream, the selected portion having been selected based on a comparison of the plurality of quality scores, wherein the selected portion is selected based on the selected portion having a highest quality score amongst the concurrent portions.

2. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the streaming client is provided with a manifest, the manifest comprising address information for enabling the streaming client to access the plurality of stream sources, and wherein:
the system further comprises a client interface for providing the selection data to the streaming client; and
the selection data is generated by the processing subsystem to enable the streaming client to select, from the manifest, one of the plurality of stream sources which provides access to said selected portion.

3. The system according to claim 2 , wherein the selection data comprises at least part of the plurality of quality scores.

4. The system according to claim 3 , wherein the processing subsystem is configured for:
formatting said quality scores as a metadata stream;
including address information in the manifest for enabling the streaming client to access the metadata stream.

5. The system according to claim 3 , wherein the client interface is configured for providing the selection data to the streaming client via a signalling channel.

6. The system according to claim 3 , wherein the selection data further comprises association information for enabling the streaming client to associate said quality scores with the plurality of stream sources.

7. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the processing subsystem is configured for generating a manifest for the streaming client, the manifest comprising a playlist identifying different portions of the plurality of media streams for being consecutively accessed from respective ones of the plurality of stream sources, at least one of the different portions having been selected based on the selection data.

8. The system according to claim 7 , wherein the processing subsystem is configured for updating the manifest for a new concurrent portion.

9. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the processing subsystem is configured for, when generating the selection data, maintaining a previous selection of one of the plurality of media streams when:
a difference in quality score between a concurrent portion of said previous media stream and the selected portion is below a quality threshold; or
a length of the concurrent portion is below a length threshold.

10. The system according to claim 1 , configured for acting as a proxy between the streaming client and the plurality of stream sources by:
receiving the concurrent portions of the plurality of media streams from the plurality of stream sources; and
delivering the selected portion to the streaming client.

11. The system according to claim 10 , wherein at least one of the plurality of media streams is received in non-segmented form, and wherein the processing subsystem is configured for segmenting said media stream.

12. A streaming client device for use with the system according to claim 1 , wherein the streaming client device is configured for obtaining a manifest, the manifest comprising address information for enabling the streaming client device to access the plurality of stream sources, the streaming client device further comprising:
an input for receiving the selection data from the system; and
a processing subsystem configured for:
based on the selection data, selecting from the manifest one of the plurality of stream sources which provides access to the selected portion; and
accessing the selected portion from said streaming source.

13. A method for providing a streaming client with a streaming presentation of an event, the streaming presentation having been obtained by dynamically switching between a plurality of media streams, and the method comprising:
obtaining source data from a plurality of stream sources providing access to a respective plurality of media streams which represent different recordings of the event, the source data being constituted by content data and/or metadata of concurrent portions of the plurality of media streams, the concurrent portions representing concurrent time periods of the event, each media stream comprising multiple consecutive portions, the plurality of media streams comprising one or more segmented media streams, the concurrent portions constituted at least in part by concurrent segments of the one or more segmented media streams;
applying at least one quality assessment function to the source data for assigning a quality score to each one of the concurrent portions, thereby establishing a plurality of quality scores; and
generating selection data for enabling the streaming client to access a selected one of the concurrent portions of a respective media stream, the selected portion having been selected based on a comparison of the plurality of quality scores, wherein the selected portion is selected based on the selected portion having a highest quality score amongst the concurrent portions.

14. A computer-readable non-transitory storage medium comprising instructions for causing a processing system to perform the method according to claim 13 .

Assignees

• Koninklijke Kpn Nv

Inventors

• Prins Martin
• Niamut Omar Aziz
• Thomas Emmanuel
• Van Brandenburg Ray
• Stokking Hans Maarten

Classifications

• H04N21/6175

  involving transmission via Internet (broadcast-related systems characterised by the transmission system being the Internet H04H60/82) · CPC title

• H04N21/4825

  using a list of items to be played back in a given order, e.g. playlists · CPC title

• H04N21/84

  Generation or processing of descriptive data, e.g. content descriptors {(systems specially adapted for using meta-information in broadcast systems H04H60/73)} · CPC title

• H04N21/482

  End-user interface for programme selection · CPC title

• H04N21/21805 Primary

  enabling multiple viewpoints, e.g. using a plurality of cameras · CPC title