Classifications

• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
  • H04N7/00—Television systems
  • H04N7/16—Analogue secrecy systems; Analogue subscription systems
  • H04N7/173—Analogue secrecy systems; Analogue subscription systems with two-way working, e.g. subscriber sending a programme selection signal
  • H04N7/17309—Transmission or handling of upstream communications
  • H04N7/17318—Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
  • H04N21/00—Selective content distribution, e.g. interactive television or video on demand [VOD]
  • H04N21/20—Servers specifically adapted for the distribution of content, e.g. VOD servers; Operations thereof
  • H04N21/23—Processing of content or additional data; Elementary server operations; Server middleware
  • H04N21/24—Monitoring of processes or resources, e.g. monitoring of server load, available bandwidth, upstream requests
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
  • H04N21/00—Selective content distribution, e.g. interactive television or video on demand [VOD]
  • H04N21/20—Servers specifically adapted for the distribution of content, e.g. VOD servers; Operations thereof
  • H04N21/25—Management operations performed by the server for facilitating the content distribution or administrating data related to end-users or client devices, e.g. end-user or client device authentication, learning user preferences for recommending movies
  • H04N21/251—Learning process for intelligent management, e.g. learning user preferences for recommending movies
  • H04N21/252—Processing of multiple end-users' preferences to derive collaborative data
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
  • H04N21/00—Selective content distribution, e.g. interactive television or video on demand [VOD]
  • H04N21/20—Servers specifically adapted for the distribution of content, e.g. VOD servers; Operations thereof
  • H04N21/25—Management operations performed by the server for facilitating the content distribution or administrating data related to end-users or client devices, e.g. end-user or client device authentication, learning user preferences for recommending movies
  • H04N21/258—Client or end-user data management, e.g. managing client capabilities, user preferences or demographics, processing of multiple end-users preferences to derive collaborative data
  • H04N21/25866—Management of end-user data
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
  • H04N21/00—Selective content distribution, e.g. interactive television or video on demand [VOD]
  • H04N21/20—Servers specifically adapted for the distribution of content, e.g. VOD servers; Operations thereof
  • H04N21/25—Management operations performed by the server for facilitating the content distribution or administrating data related to end-users or client devices, e.g. end-user or client device authentication, learning user preferences for recommending movies
  • H04N21/266—Channel or content management, e.g. generation and management of keys and entitlement messages in a conditional access system, merging a VOD unicast channel into a multicast channel
  • H04N21/2668—Creating a channel for a dedicated end-user group, e.g. insertion of targeted commercials based on end-user profiles
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
  • H04N21/00—Selective content distribution, e.g. interactive television or video on demand [VOD]
  • H04N21/60—Network structure or processes for video distribution between server and client or between remote clients; Control signalling between clients, server and network components; Transmission of management data between server and client, e.g. sending from server to client commands for recording incoming content stream; Communication details between server and client 
  • H04N21/63—Control signaling related to video distribution between client, server and network components; Network processes for video distribution between server and clients or between remote clients, e.g. transmitting basic layer and enhancement layers over different transmission paths, setting up a peer-to-peer communication via Internet between remote STB's; Communication protocols; Addressing
  • H04N21/64—Addressing
  • H04N21/6405—Multicasting
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
  • H04N21/00—Selective content distribution, e.g. interactive television or video on demand [VOD]
  • H04N21/60—Network structure or processes for video distribution between server and client or between remote clients; Control signalling between clients, server and network components; Transmission of management data between server and client, e.g. sending from server to client commands for recording incoming content stream; Communication details between server and client 
  • H04N21/65—Transmission of management data between client and server
  • H04N21/654—Transmission by server directed to the client
  • H04N21/6543—Transmission by server directed to the client for forcing some client operations, e.g. recording
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
  • H04N21/00—Selective content distribution, e.g. interactive television or video on demand [VOD]
  • H04N21/80—Generation or processing of content or additional data by content creator independently of the distribution process; Content per se
  • H04N21/81—Monomedia components thereof
  • H04N21/812—Monomedia components thereof involving advertisement data

Definitions

• the present invention relates to the distribution of data streams in a packet distribution network and more particularly, the replacement or insertion, under particular conditions, of certain data streams by other data flows to particular terminals.
• telecommunication networks make it possible to transmit continuously digital contents, in particular corresponding to audiovisual contents such as videos or television channel programs, from a source of digital content to at least one terminal in the network.
• CoD Networks offering a 'content on demand' service
• VoD for 'Video on Demand' that allows a subscriber to request a specific video and receive this video on a network terminal are known. Such a video is then transmitted continuously as a data stream from the digital content source to the terminal via the telecommunication network.
• networks are broadcast digital content corresponding to programs of television channels.
• the terminals that have selected a given channel receive the data stream corresponding to the program of the selected television channel.
• the telecommunication networks that offer such services may consist of distribution networks based on IP type protocols (for 'Internet Protocol').
• IP type protocols for 'Internet Protocol'
• the subscribers of the television channels can receive these services via their telephone line by using in particular the ADSL protocol, for 'Asymmetry Digital Subscriber One'.
• ADSL protocol for 'Asymmetry Digital Subscriber One'.
• patent document FR2695829 provides for the substitution of a multicast type stream with another stream of the same nature for certain geographical zones at a given instant. This substitution is implemented by the headend which incorporates fixed criteria that trigger this substitution.
• the present invention relates to a method for triggering the broadcast of personalized digital content in the form of a data stream in a packet data distribution network, the method being implemented by a triggering device connected to said network and during the broadcast of digital content to at least one user terminal connected to said network.
• the method includes identifying, for a given event, personalized digital content and user terminals forming a target group and sending a broadcast request of personalized digital content associated with said event to said user terminals. forming the target group.
• the invention also relates to a digital content broadcast triggering equipment in the form of a data stream connected to a packet data distribution network, the equipment comprising means configured to carry out the steps of the method mentioned above.
• the invention generally relates to a method for broadcasting personalized digital content in the form of a data stream in a packet data distribution network, the method comprising an identification of a digital content associated with an event and one or more user terminals connected to the network and forming a target group, a transmission of a broadcast request comprising information relating to the determined event, to the terminals of the target group and the associated digital content and a broadcast of said identified digital content to the terminals of the target group during the realization of said event.
• the invention also relates to a system for broadcasting personalized digital contents in the form of a data stream in a packet data distribution network, the system comprising, connected to said network, user terminals, sources of digital contents, and equipment. triggering the broadcast and a control platform, the various entities of the system being configured to perform the steps of the aforementioned method.
• said identification includes selecting a personalized digital content from a set of digital contents and terminals to form the target group from event information and a database of correlation between the digital contents and selected parameters in the group consisting of:
• the broadcast request includes instructions for triggering a broadcast in a broadcast mode selected from the group consisting of:
• the substitution can be done without fundamentally modifying the operation of the network equipment conventionally involved in the broadcasting of digital content.
• the download allows the terminals to better control the exchanges before the broadcast in particular at the level of the management of the bandwidth.
• Imposed downloading (or PUSH) allows other entities in the network to ensure the instant download and broadcast.
• said broadcast, the identification and the transmission of the request are performed prior to the detection of the event.
• the broadcast can be undertaken quickly after the detection of the event considered giving the system greater responsiveness.
• the invention comprises transmitting the request to terminals of the network, a verification by each terminal of the parameters of the request and a download by the terminals of the target group of the content to be broadcast.
• This embodiment makes it possible to maintain communications between the sources and the terminals in multicast mode by transmitting parameters enabling each terminal individually to decide whether it is part of the target group and act accordingly. Part of the identification is thus deported in the terminals which eliminates the need for identification of each terminal by the sources.
• the invention furthermore comprises a condition conditioning the diffusion and relating to at least one parameter selected in the group consisting of:
• the broadcast control includes information enabling advanced customization of the content for the terminals of the target group during the broadcast.
• advanced customization makes it possible to further increase the match between the content and the users by using information only available at user terminals for example.
• the invention further includes feedback from the control platform to other network entities to inform them of the status of the broadcast. This feedback allows other network entities to be informed of the progress of the dissemination of personalized content and to act accordingly.
• said feedback triggers a suspension of another broadcast of digital content during the delivery of the personalized digital content to the terminals of the target group.
• the invention also relates to a computer program comprising code instructions configured for the implementation of methods as described above, when these instructions are executed by microcontroller or equipment microprocessors of a broadcast network. digital content.
• Figure 1 is a schematic representation of the architecture of a system embodying the invention
• FIGS. 3 to 6 are detailed representations of information exchanges in different embodiments of the invention.
• the invention is described below in its application to systems in which digital contents are transmitted on the basis of an xDSL type protocol. This description is not limiting and it should be noted that it can find a simple and effective application in any other type of telecommunication network, especially in a packet data distribution network, such as a network based on a IP protocol adapted to transmit digital contents in a network.
• FIG. 1 represents the global architecture of such a digital content broadcasting network configured to implement the invention.
• the system comprises a first network 100 comprising a source 102 of digital content such as a conventional television program broadcast device (or headend).
• a source 102 of digital content such as a conventional television program broadcast device (or headend).
• a broadcast device 104, or NM server, hosted on a network node makes it possible to connect the first network to a second network 106 and to broadcast digital content to user terminals.
• TE 108 via routers 110 and multiplexers 112 or DSLAM (Digital
• the system comprises a second source of digital contents 120 connected to the broadcasting device 104.
• This source is connected to a database 122 containing personalized contents as well as a database 124 including correlation criteria between events. and contents of the base 120.
• the nature of digital content is very varied and includes video-on-demand programs, advertising, news programs and the like. These contents can be generated by other entities of the system not represented.
• the system also includes triggering equipment 126
• this equipment 126 controlling the delivery of personalized content to user terminals forming a target group.
• this equipment 126 is connected to the broadcasting device 104.
• the triggering equipment 126 can be connected to other entities of the system in order to detect realized events. indifferently on the user terminals, on the intermediate elements or even on the digital content source 102 and to interact with various equipment of the network to determine the target group.
• the equipment 126 comprises computer programs with code instructions and is configured to associate contents with terminals according to at least one of the following parameters:
• the equipment 126 is also configured to send a broadcast request containing the necessary information such as identifiers of the contents to be broadcast, identifiers of the terminals of the target group and broadcast settings.
• control platform 130 connected to the broadcasting device 104 as well as to the second source of digital contents 120 and the triggering equipment 126.
• this platform is a server comprising computer programs with code instructions allowing, when these instructions are executed, to control the broadcast of an identified content to the terminals of the target group.
• the links between the entities 120, 122, 124, 126, 130 and the network 106 as well as the broadcasting equipment 104 are shown schematically in FIG. 1 and can be implemented differently according to the chosen embodiment as indicated below. with reference to Figures 3 to 6.
• Figure 2 generally shows the flowchart of the method of the invention in a particular embodiment.
• the method occurs during the broadcast of digital content.
• the source 102 continuously transmits N television programs denoted TV 1, i, with i ranging between 1 and N.
• Each program TV1, i, among the N programs can be identified by a pair of IP addresses on the network 100.
• Such a pair of addresses comprises, on the one hand, a source IP address corresponding to an address of the source transmitting the program TV1, i, denoted @ S1 i, and a destination IP address.
• the latter destination address is an IP group address, or multicast address, or multicast address, denoted @ G1 i.
• the pair of addresses defining a television program TV1, i can therefore be written in the following form: (@ S1 i, @ G1 i).
• the broadcasting device 104 broadcasts in the network 106 the various television programs received from the source 102 in the form of distribution channels respective Ci.
• Each of these channels Ci relates to a specific TV program TV1, i.
• the transfer entities 110 and 112 of the network 106 allow the routing of the digital content to the terminals 108.
• a distribution channel Ci of the television program TV1, i can be defined in the network 100 by a source address @Si and a destination address @Gi, the source address @Si corresponding to the distribution source of the data stream TV1, i of the distribution device 104 and the destination address @Gi corresponding to a broadcast multicast address of the TV program TV1, i.
• the broadcasting device 104 thus receives several streams of data from the source 102, each corresponding to a television program TV1, i.
• the data packets of the stream relating to the program TV1, i comprise a destination address @ G1 i and a source address @ S1 i.
• the device 104 orients the various data streams received, replacing in the data stream packets TV1, i, the source address @ S1 i by the source address @Si and the destination address @ G1 i by the destination address @Gi.
• the method comprises a correlation
• the database 124 is constituted. This operation can be automated according to certain rules and / or performed manually by an operator. At the end of this step 200, the database 124 makes it possible to associate the contents of the database 122 with situations represented by events and user terminals.
• the method continues with event detection 202 during broadcast to user terminals of digital content by source 102.
• the detection 202 relates to an event linked to one or more user terminals, a network or source event or to a fixed event (time, date or other).
• the method then comprises an identification 204 of one or more contents corresponding to the detected event and to user terminals forming the target group.
• this identification includes access by the triggering equipment 126 to the database 124 or a more complex exchange with the other elements of the network.
• the triggering equipment 126 to the database 124 or a more complex exchange with the other elements of the network.
• we speak fluently of playlist it is possible that the final choice of the content to be broadcast is made by one or other of the entities of the system and in particular by each terminal of the target group.
• the method then comprises a transmission 206 of a broadcast request including information relating to this identification to the platform 130.
• This information includes in particular the nature of the event as well as an identification of the user terminals concerned forming the target group for the purpose. distribution of personalized content.
• This target group may include a variable number of user terminals.
• the query also includes broadcast related parameters.
• the method comprises a verification 208.
• this verification can relate to the authorizations necessary for the various entities to carry out the operations in progress as well as the available hardware resources and networks.
• step 208 makes it possible to check the adequacy between the nature of the content and the retrieval capabilities of the terminals of users concerned or the bandwidth available on the network.
• the platform 130 has information concerning the detected event, the target group and the content to be broadcast.
• the platform 130 controls the distribution of the identified content to the user terminals of the target group during a step 210.
• This command is implemented in various ways.
• the command 210 is associated with an advanced personalization 212 of the content to be broadcast.
• some information explicitly referring to the target group such as location information, personalized information, local specific content, or the like, is introduced into the digital content to be broadcast as text, synthesized sounds 'pictures or other.
• the identified and possibly modified personalized content is then broadcast in a step 214 by the source 120 to the user terminals of the target group.
• this diffusion can be realized in various ways.
• the method returns to a conventional digital content broadcast during a step 216.
• the invention makes it possible to broadcast a dynamically selected content according to the event and the target group by means of an exchange of information between the triggering entity responsible for associating a content with terminals for an event and the control platform as well as other network entities.
• the steps are indicated with the same reference numerals as in FIG. 2 and an index corresponding to the different embodiments. Some steps can however be done in a different order.
• the request can be issued before the detection so that the system is ready to broadcast when the event occurs.
• a multicast stream such as a television channel, is transmitted from source 102 to a set of TE user terminals 108.
• the event is a time such as 20:00 detected in step 202-1.
• the detection of this event is coupled to the correlation database 124 to verify that the conditions for the broadcast of personalized content are met and to identify the content to be broadcast and the terminals of the target group during the step 204-1.
• This identification is followed by the issuing of the request 206-1 to the control platform including geographic location information of the target group of terminals with the address @PoP.
• AdcontentlD information relating to the digital content to be broadcast is also provided, as well as a multicast broadcast mode and a token user right.
• the information relating to the token as well as the capabilities of the network are verified as well as the network resources available during a step 208-1 by different modules of the control platform 130.
• a broadcast management module of the platform 130 then issues a command 210-1 for broadcasting the identified content to the broadcast equipment 104 upstream of the terminals of the target group.
• the control causes the content to be broadcast by the source 120 using the address of the source 102.
• the PIM-SSM broadcast protocol causes the broadcast equipment 104 to receive the streams from the source 120 considered closer so that the initial flow to the terminals of the target group is replaced by the personalized flow in a step 214-1.
• the platform informs the other entities of the network of the progress of the broadcast of the personalized content and, at the end of this broadcast, the broadcast equipment 106 automatically switches to the source 102 and resumes the broadcast of the initial content during the broadcast. step 216-1.
• the triggering equipment realizes the association between the event, the content and the target group.
• the control platform 130 receives directly an identifier of the content to be broadcast, an identifier of the target group and broadcast parameters.
• the triggering event is a static event such as a time event, the transmission of information between the triggering equipment and the control platform allows for greater flexibility and adaptability than in static systems with Automatic substitution of content.
• steps 204 to 210 consist in preparing the diffusion and are carried out before the detection step 202.
• the event whose detection is monitored is a chain change on a TE108 user terminal. However, this event must also be associated with certain characteristics and in particular with a location geographically translated by the address of a particular distributor (DSLAM).
• the method begins with the identification 204-2 of the content to be broadcast and terminals of the target group according to the characteristics of the event (time slot, original string and target string). As before, this identification requires access to databases 122 and 124.
• This information is transmitted by request 206-2.
• this request is not transmitted directly to the control platform but to the broadcast source to be retransmitted to several terminals in multicast mode during a step 400.
• Each terminal then decides whether it is concerned or not by the query for example by analyzing the location parameters.
• the target group terminals then download the content to be broadcast. This download is made in known manner and includes one or more requests 402.
• the platform 130 identifies the content to be broadcast as well as the broadcast parameters and in particular the type of broadcast, the addresses of the speakers and other.
• Such downloading before the triggering event is performed improves the responsiveness of the system. This is particularly effective in situations where the content needs to be broadcast multiple times or if its download significantly reduces bandwidth during another activity.
• step 202-2 the event considered is detected by the terminal which then undertakes to broadcast, in step 214-2, the downloaded content.
• the broadcasting of digital content resumes from the source 102 in a conventional manner.
• the embodiment shown with reference to FIG. 5 is similar in its first part to the embodiment shown with reference to FIG. 4.
• the monitored event is the activation of a service of Video on demand VoD.
• the method begins with the identification 204-4 of a content, a target group and an event with a request 206-4 containing this information.
• a transmission in multicast mode 500 similar to step 400 described above makes it possible to forward this information to the terminals.
• the method then proceeds in a manner similar to the embodiment described in FIG. 4 up to step 210-3 of issuing a command.
• the method After receiving the command 210-3, the method includes activating the video-on-demand service at a step 504.
• the video on demand service read event is enabled and is detected in step 202-3.
• This event is further associated with a time slot so that, in the described embodiment, every 30 minutes, personalized content is broadcast on the TE terminal 108 in step 214-3.
• FIG. 6 Another embodiment is described with reference to FIG. 6.
• the detection takes place before the identification and the control of the broadcast.
• the method starts with an activation 600 of a VoD service followed by the detection 202-4 of the event corresponding to the read request of the VoD. This event results in a VoD request 602 sent to the control platform.
• the control platform requires from the equipment 126 information on the content to be broadcast. Accordingly, the method then comprises identifying 204-4 the content to be broadcast and terminals of the target group for the detected event. In the embodiment described, this identification requires several exchanges between the different entities to take into account parameters such as for example:
• This broadcast command further includes customizable parameters for advanced customization 212-4 during broadcast 214-4. As indicated above, this advanced customization results for example in the display in the broadcast content information available only on the terminal.
• the broadcast of the selected content in VoD is suspended during the broadcast of the customizable content 214-4.
• the method comprises a step 604 of Feedback to the platform to inform the various sources of the progress of the broadcast. This makes it possible to interrupt a conventional broadcast during the duration of the personalized broadcast.
• This feedback also helps to pilot the implementation of certain functions. For example, fast-forwarding or grouping content may be disabled during the delivery of custom content.
• the identification of the digital content to be broadcast is carried out directly by the control platform which integrates the functions of the triggering equipment.

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• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Multimedia (AREA)
• Signal Processing (AREA)
• Databases & Information Systems (AREA)
• Business, Economics & Management (AREA)
• Marketing (AREA)
• Computer Graphics (AREA)
• Computing Systems (AREA)
• Data Exchanges In Wide-Area Networks (AREA)

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• 2010
  • 2010-06-29 EP EP10745368A patent/EP2449773A1/de not_active Ceased
  • 2010-06-29 WO PCT/FR2010/051355 patent/WO2011001102A1/fr active Application Filing

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