Distributed command execution in multi-location studio environments

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12212876-B2
Application number	US-202418787107-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 29, 2024
Priority date	Aug 5, 2021
Publication date	Jan 28, 2025
Grant date	Jan 28, 2025

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 distributed studio system comprising:
at least one first device deployed in a first studio environment;
at least one second device remote from the at least one first device and deployed in a second studio environment different than the first studio environment;
at least one non-transitory computer readable memory storing software instructions; and
at least one processor operating as a command queue management module, wherein the at least one processor, upon execution of the software instructions, is configured to perform the operations of:
storing in the at least one computer readable memory an ordered list of choreographed commands in a choregraphed command queue, the choreographed commands targeting the first device and the second device and having synchronized execution times relative to each other;
enqueuing choregraphed commands from the choregraphed command queue targeting the first device into a first device command queue according to their synchronized execution times;
enqueuing choregraphed commands from the choregraphed command queue targeting the second device into a second device command queue according to their synchronized execution times; and
enabling the first device to execute the choreographed commands in the first device command queue relative to execution by the second device remote from the first device of the choreographed commands in the second device command queue according to their respective synchronized execution times.

2. The distributed studio system of claim 1 , wherein the first device comprises a camera.

3. The distributed studio system of claim 2 , wherein the second device comprises a camera.

4. The distributed studio system of claim 1 , wherein the operations further include stitching together content captured by the first device from the first studio environment and content captured by the second device from the second studio environment remote from the first studio environment.

5. The distributed studio system of claim 4 , wherein the content from the first device and the content from the second device are stitched together based on identified features.

6. The distributed studio system of claim 1 , wherein a synchronized execution time of at least one choreographed command in the first device command queue comprises triggering criteria.

7. The distributed studio system of claim 6 , wherein the triggering criteria depends on execution of at least one choreographed command in the second device command queue.

8. The distributed studio system of claim 6 , wherein the triggering criteria depends on a latency.

9. The distributed studio system of claim 8 , wherein the latency includes at least one of the following latencies: a communication latency, an execution latency, a network latency, a human error delay, and a human reaction time.

10. The distributed studio system of claim 1 , wherein the synchronized execution times of the choreographed commands include times relative to an absolute time.

11. The distributed studio system of claim 10 , wherein the absolute time comprises a time derived from at least one of the following: a network time protocol (NTP) and a global positioning system.

12. The distributed studio system of claim 1 , wherein the synchronized execution times of the choreographed commands comprise real-time execution.

13. The distributed studio system of claim 1 , wherein the first studio environment comprises a blue screen or a green screen.

14. The distributed studio system of claim 13 , wherein the second studio environment comprises an LED wall.

15. The distributed studio system of claim 1 , wherein the operations further include generating the ordered list of choreographed commands from a choreography document.

16. The distributed studio system of claim 15 , wherein the choreography document comprises a previs document.

17. The distributed studio system of claim 15 , wherein the choreography document comprises a script.

18. The distributed studio system of claim 1 , wherein the first device and the second device include at least one production entity.

19. The distributed studio system of claim 18 , wherein the at least one production entity includes at least one of the following devices: a display, an LED wall, a game engine, a gimbal, a moveable platform, a light, a microphone, and a robot.

20. The distributed studio system of claim 1 , wherein the second studio environment is geographically remote from the first studio environment by at least 10 km.

21. A method for executing, by a first device and a second device, commands in choreographed commands, the method comprising:
storing an ordered list of choreographed commands in a choregraphed command queue, the choreographed commands targeting the first device and the second device and having synchronized execution times relative to each other;
enqueuing choregraphed commands from the choregraphed command queue targeting the first device into a first device command queue according to their synchronized execution times;
enqueuing choregraphed commands from the choregraphed command queue targeting the second device into a second device command queue according to their synchronized execution times; and
enabling the first device to execute the choreographed commands in the first device command queue relative to execution by the second device remote from the first device of the choreographed commands in the second device command queue according to their respective synchronized execution times.

22. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing computer readable instructions, which when executed by processor hardware, causes a distributed studio system including at least one processor to:
store an ordered list of choreographed commands in a choregraphed command queue, the choreographed commands targeting a first device and a second device and having synchronized execution times relative to each other;
enqueue choregraphed commands from the choregraphed command queue targeting the first device into a first device command queue according to their synchronized execution times;
enqueue choregraphed commands from the choregraphed command queue targeting the second device into a second device command queue according to their synchronized execution times; and
enable the first device to execute the choreographed commands in the first device command queue relative to execution by the second device remote from the first device of the choreographed commands in the second device command queue according to their respective synchronized execution times.

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