Distributed command execution in multi-location studio environments

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12088949-B2
Application number	US-202418637937-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 17, 2024
Priority date	Aug 5, 2021
Publication date	Sep 10, 2024
Grant date	Sep 10, 2024

Abstract

A distributed studio management system includes a computing system having a computer readable memory and a processor. The computing system is associated with a first production facility that is remote to a second production facility. The processor is configured to perform the operations of receiving a set of device commands having commands targeting first and second devices in the first production facility and where the set of device commands are related to the second production facility, enqueuing a first command from the device commands into a first command queue assigned to the first device and a second command from the device commands into a second command queue assigned to the second device according to each device command's synchronized execution times, and causing the first and second devices to execute commands from their respective command queues relative to each other according to the commands' respective synchronized execution times.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A device coordination system comprising:
a first device controller coupled with a first device and configured to store in a first non-transitory computer readable memory a first command queue for the first device, wherein the first device controller is configured to enqueue a first command in the first command queue according to a synchronized execution time of the first command; and
a second device controller coupled with a second device and configured to store in a second non-transitory computer readable memory a second command queue for the second device, wherein the second device controller is configured to enqueue a second command in the second command queue according to a synchronized execution time of the second command and according to triggering criteria depending on the first command,
wherein the first and second device controllers are configured to cause the first and the second device to execute their respective commands in their respective command queues according to the respective synchronized execution times, and wherein the second device controller is configured to cause the second device to execute the second command upon the first command satisfying the triggering criteria.

2. The device coordination system of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the first device and second device is part of an LED wall.

3. The device coordination system of claim 2 , wherein the LED wall comprises a moveable LED wall.

4. The device coordination system of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the first device and second device comprises a gimbal.

5. The device coordination system of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the first device and second device comprises a robot.

6. The device coordination system of claim 1 , wherein the first device is associated with a first production facility.

7. The device coordination system of claim 6 , wherein the second device is associated with a second production facility different than the first production facility.

8. The device coordination system of claim 7 , wherein the second production facility is geographically remote relative to the first production facility.

9. The device coordination system of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the first command queue and the second command queue includes one of the following: a FIFO queue, a FILO queue, and a dequeue.

10. The device coordination system of claim 1 , further comprising a content production management system, wherein the first device controller and the second device controller are coupled with the content production management system.

11. The device coordination system of claim 10 , wherein the content production management system is configured to transmit the first command to the first device controller and the second command to the second device controller.

12. The device coordination system of claim 11 , wherein the content production management system is remote relative to the first device and the second device.

13. The device coordination system of claim 1 , wherein the triggering criteria comprises a resolution of a conflict between the first device and the second device.

14. The device coordination system of claim 13 , wherein the conflict comprises an expected command conflict between the first device and the second device.

15. The device coordination system of claim 14 , wherein the synchronized execution time of the second command addresses, at least in part, the expected command conflict.

16. The device coordination system of claim 14 , wherein the expected command conflict is derived from a back-chaining reasoning from the synchronized execution times of at least one of the first command and the second command.

17. The device coordination system of claim 1 , wherein the second device controller is configured to cause a state machine of the second device to transition states upon satisfying the triggering criteria.

18. The device coordination system of claim 17 , wherein the states of the state machine include one or more of the following: NULL, PENDING, EXECUTING, EXECUTED, COMPLETE, SUCCESS, and FAIL.

19. The device coordination system of claim 1 , wherein the synchronized execution times of the first command and the second command are based on GPS time.

20. The device coordination system of claim 1 , wherein the synchronized execution times of the first command and the second command are based on at least one of the following: a network time protocol (NTP), a ping time, a round trip time (RTT), and a time to first byte (TTFB).

21. A device coordination method for executing, by a first device and a second device, commands in command queues according to synchronized execution times, the device coordination method comprising:
storing, in a first non-transitory computer readable memory, a first command queue for a first device;
storing, in a second non-transitory computer readable memory, a second command queue for a second device;
enqueuing a first command in the first command queue according to a synchronized execution time of the first command;
enqueuing a second command in the second command queue according to a synchronized execution time of the second command and according to triggering criteria depending on the first command;
causing the first device to execute the first command in the first command queue according to the synchronized execution time of the first command; and
causing the second device to execute the second command in the second command queue according to the synchronized execution time of the second command upon the first command satisfying triggering criteria.

22. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing computer readable instructions, which when executed by processor hardware, causes a device coordination system including the processor hardware to:
store a first command queue for a first device;
store a second command queue for a second device;
enqueue a first command in the first command queue according to a synchronized execution time of the first command;
enqueue a second command in the second command queue according to a synchronized execution time of the second command and according to triggering criteria depending on the first command;
cause the first device to execute the first command in the first command queue according to the synchronized execution time of the first command; and
cause the second device to execute the second command in the second command queue according to the synchronized execution time of the second command upon the first command satisfying triggering criteria.

Assignees

• Nantstudios Llc
• Nant Holdings Ip Llc

Inventors

• Soon-Shiong Patrick
• Marshall Gary
• Heinrichs Keaton
• Wiacek John
• Witchey Nicholas James

Classifications

• G06F2209/548

  Queue · CPC title

• G06F9/546

  Message passing systems or structures, e.g. queues · CPC title

• G06F9/4881 Primary

  Scheduling strategies for dispatcher, e.g. round robin, multi-level priority queues · CPC title

• G06Q10/101 Primary

  Collaborative creation, e.g. joint development of products or services · CPC title

• G06Q10/0633

  Workflow analysis · CPC title