BR112014029971B1 - COMPUTER-IMPLEMENTED METHOD, SYSTEM AND NON-TRANSITORY COMPUTER READable STORAGE MEDIA FOR MANIFEST HANDLING - Google Patents

Abstract

METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR MANIFESTING MANIPULATION. The invention relates to a method and system for manipulating a manifest. A server receives a request for a manifest from a smart device corresponding to a session identifier. The server retrieves from a session server a session manifest based on the session identifier. The server adjusts a session offset based on a difference in a session duration represented by the session manifest from a session duration represented by a previous session manifest corresponding to the session. When the session manifest comprises an address from an ampersand, the server identifies in a cache at least one advertisement to be inserted into the session and substitutes at least one address corresponding to at least one segment of the at least one advertisement in the session manifest based on in the difference. The server passes the session manifest to the smart device.

Description

[001] The present invention relates generally to service provider video networks and more particularly to a method and system for efficiently handling a session manifest when a duration of a commercial interval pointed to by the manifest changes in length.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[002] Traditionally, broadcast and cable television and radio programming, including content (i.e., the video or audio program) and (the placement of) advertisements in a stream of video or audio signals, has followed a linear model. Programming can be linear in the sense that a program starts and plays continuously and is in progress when a user chooses to watch entertainment content. Figure 1 illustrates a conventional linear or video-on-demand (VOD) model for advertising placement. Entertainment content 2, when processed as a stream of digital data over a cable network, can be divided into multiple time slots. Time slots 4 include time reserved for a viewed program (content), such as "Golden Girls". Intervals 6, 8, 9 represent sections of time reserved for advertisements or "benefits". These "benefits" can be seen as ad placement opportunities. As used in this document, a "placement opportunity" has traditionally been called a benefit and is sometimes referred to as a range (within which a short advertisement (eg, an advertisement or content) is to be inserted). A placement opportunity (PO) is a construct that represents an opportunity to insert an advertisement or entertainment content and define the rules for this opportunity, such as its duration, interactivity, ownership, and technical restrictions.

[003] As used in this document, the term "linking" refers to an identification of signals and content within a placement opportunity (PO). POs are often created for large amounts of content that has not yet been published (ie, any show on the TNT network at night). When the program is transmitted and a signal is detected, the signal is linked with the POs relevant to this program.

[004] As used in this document, the term "impression" refers to the presentation of an advertisement to a single viewer. For example, if a 30-second short ad is placed in 50,000 video on demand (VOD) streams and it is known that 30,000 of the streams actually played the ad, then 30,000 impressions of that ad were generated.

[005] As used in this document, a "condition notification" can be, but is not limited to, an HTTP call from a VOD server with a unique ID that was created when a decision was distributed.

[006] As used in this document, the term "gap" refers to the entire space in a flow between entertainment content. For example, a group of 4 consecutive 30-second short commercials between 2 segments of "Two and a Half Men" can be considered as a single break.

[007] As used in this document, an estimated starting location of a gap in a signal stream is referred to as a signal point. In the context of ad placement, these signal points may be referred to as an ad signal point.

[008] In non-linear systems, such as Video On Demand (VOD), the intervals 6, 8, 9 can take on new meanings. Interval 6 is called the before video content, that is, the space in a video that occurs immediately after a user clicks to start a VOD video. Interval 9 is known as the one after the video content, that is, the space after all segments of the VOD video have finished playing. The gaps 8 may be during video content, i.e., mini-gaps in the middle of a VOD video, or they may be interstitial, i.e., capsule-like locations between consecutive segments of VOD video. VOD ad placement opportunities can appear based on space, time, content and the user's context, and can be highly non-linear (ie the user chooses to start playing the content, and in response, the content starts). All slots 6, 8, 9 in such playlists are ready for ad insertion, ie ad placement opportunities.

[009] Figure 2 represents a configuration of a conventional Internet-based cable television infrastructure 200 to execute ad placement decisions on signal streams. In TV, the ad network was formerly the national network, the cable network, or the cable operator. However, unlike the Internet, where browsers access/display content and are then separately "referred to" as an ad-sharing network, the Internet-based cable television infrastructure 200 selects and assembles both the ad and content together and distributes the result. combination for "smart appliances" from 202a to 202n customers (e.g. Internet-ready televisions, radios, smartphones, tablets, PCs, etc.).

[0010] Recently, smart appliances 202a to 202n, such as Internet-ready televisions, have become capable of receiving content from Internet streaming services, such as Netflix movies, Pandora streaming radio, etc. , via WiFi or direct Ethernet connections. When a user clicks an icon for an "application" appearing on the television set corresponding to one of these services, the content is streamed continuously to the smart set 202a through 202n from a content delivery network (CDN) 204 directly to the application running on smart device 202a up to 202n without the need for a set top box.

[0011] A set-top box can be configured to decode a two-state analog representation of a digital signal, as is known in the art, that is continuously reproduced and transferred to the set-top box through a broadcast facility. a coaxial or fiber optic cable and the set top box tunes to this channel and displays the content. When a user watches program content distributed over the Internet, a browser within the smart device 202a through 202n searches for video in predetermined blocks of time --- usually blocks of two, sometimes three, sometimes ten seconds. The searched video blocks are directly dynamically joined in the smart device application software 202a through 202n and then displayed so as to appear as a homogeneous video on the smart device 202a through 202n.

[0012] A Multiple Systems/Service Operator (MSO - a cable TV organization that has more than one cable system and can provide broadband Internet service) may wish to relay video streams on smart appliances. Unfortunately, every connected device, including smart appliances, needs to get video in the format it can consume. Apple, Microsoft, Adobe, etc., have very specific and incompatible formats. To overcome this problem, each of these companies has built facilities called content delivery networks (VDN) 204 where a "snap box" for each channel is configured to receive broadcast from satellites. A signal received by a "scrambler box" from upstream devices 206 is fed to a transcoder 208 to place the signal into a desired format and to fragment the formatted signal into predetermined data segments (e.g. 2 seconds) . These segments are then stored on the CDN 204 on server farms located physically close to where the content is to be distributed.

[0013] To identify a channel data stream or "session", including times when a program has ended and before the next program starts, i.e. a placement opportunity, a cue tone is inserted into the channel data stream at a predetermined time before the next program starts. The cue tone can be an instance of a SCTE-35 packet. An observer 210, which may be the transcoder 208, informs the placement opportunity information service (POIS) 211 of the arrival of the cue tone for subsequent placement of one or more advertisements within the channel data stream by a service. (ADS) 212. If the ADS 212 is known to the POIS 211, then the POIS 211 notifies the ADS 212 of the cue tone notification. The advertisement service 212, in turn, is waiting for subsequent requests to arrive from a CDN 204 to place advertisements within the slots (i.e., one or more of the segments) in the channel (session) data stream.

[0014] MSOs, national and local networks prefer to know if an ad has been played and watched by a subscriber. Equipment manufacturers have traditionally provided this aspect in one of two ways: by building intelligence into each smart device (e.g. 202a), or by building intelligence into a reporting network, for example a cloud computing network. , while not changing existing smart appliances 202a through 202n. Both techniques can employ what is known as a manifest file. As used in this document, a manifest file, manifest, or session manifest refers to a listing or index of what is contained in each of the segments of a session maintained by CDN 204. More particularly, the session manifest can include a list of URLs that point to each of the segments or blocks and mention the type of segment: content or ad.

[0015] When intelligence is integrated into a smart device (e.g., 202a), the smart device 202a can (1) maintain a copy of the session manifest, (2) perform the function of attaching an advertisement to a placement opportunity , (3) tag the session manifest for each segment played, and (4) report a proportion of a session (eg, the number of segments) played back to the MSO or network.

[0016] MSOs and networks, however, may prefer to employ a smart device (eg 202a) from any manufacturer. Both MSO and networks have been driven to provide their own viewing experience by providing only "apps" applications to a subscriber's equipment without changing the equipment.

[0017] When intelligence is integrated into the network, then reporting networks need to maintain a separate manifest for each viewer session. Conventionally, a manifest handler can be employed to provide manifests for smart appliances or MSOs. A shortcoming of conventional manifest handlers is that it may be necessary for a manifest handler to maintain a very large number of manifests that need to be refreshed periodically (eg 10 to 30 seconds) for each subscriber. For some MSOs, the number of smart appliances 202a through 202n can be in the thousands to hundreds of thousands. In some situations, some or all of the smart appliances 202a through 202n may request manifests substantially simultaneously. Fortunately, relief factors include the number of people watching a given channel simultaneously and divided into zones.

[0018] The probability of 100,000 smart appliances 202a through 202n all starting a VOD is very, very low, so the load for the VOD advertisement is quite smooth due to not all the smart appliances 202a through 202n being typically synchronized. Unfortunately, an MSO may need to process ad decisions for each active session during session startup when a viewer clicks a remote control to watch VOD, even if an ad may exist that can be placed an hour and a half into a stream. of data corresponding to an active session. If a program broadcast on a channel is very popular (eg, Super Bowl), the problem of handling thousands of manifests comes back to the fore.

[0019] To alleviate this problem, an MSO can divide a geographic area into several smaller geographic service zones (eg 50 zones). A manifest handler can be placed in each of these zones to reduce the number of manifests a manifest handler needs to manage. Under normal circumstances, even fewer ad decisions need to be executed per placement (eg 50).

[0020] Unfortunately, even for a small number of manifests to be handled per channel, there may be a need to maintain multiple manifests for the same session. Manifests served to different smart appliances 202a through 202n within a zone can be made "out of sync". As discussed above, a manifest, which represents a playlist, may comprise a list of URLs pointing to a predetermined number of continuously playing data segments corresponding to a fixed time interval (e.g., "blocks" of fifteen ( 15), two (2) seconds for a manifest with a total of 30 seconds). Now, referring to Figure 3, a first manifest 302 representing a total of 30 seconds of ad (ad1) may comprise, for example, 15 URLs 304a through 304o (URL1 through URL15). In a particular zone, an MSO can sweep the single 30-second advertisement (ad1) into two (2) 15-second advertisements as presented in a second 306 manifest (ad2, ad3). Because segments 308a through 308p (URL1 through URL16) are aligned on two-second boundaries, the number of URLs increases by one to sixteen (URL16). Over time, manifest alignment can shift when ads are continually interchanged by changing the total time duration of an ad break in a negative direction or in a positive direction as represented by the manifest.

[0021] Therefore, there is a need to maintain the integrity of the numbering of URLs in a manifest, and it is necessary to determine where to place and remove URLs from a manifest when the duration of one or more ads changes. Conventional manifest handlers alleviate this problem by maintaining an offset from an initial manifest provided by transcoder 208 for each active session and for each channel. A separate execution task comprising a distinct instance of a manifest is created and maintained for each offset value, for all active sessions, and for all active channels. Unfortunately, this can require processing power on the order of hundreds to thousands of tasks to run, translating into a need to maintain and operate a large number of multitasking computers. Consequently, what would be desirable, but not yet provided, is a method and system to efficiently handle a session manifest when the duration of an ad break pointed to by the manifest changes in size.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0022] The problems described above are addressed and a technical solution is obtained in the art by providing a method and system for handling a manifest. A server manifest handler receives from a smart device a request for a manifest corresponding to a session identifier. The manifest handler retrieves a session manifest based on the session identifier from a session server. The manifest handler adjusts a session offset based on a difference in a session duration represented by the session manifest from a session duration represented by a previous session manifest corresponding to the session. When the session manifest comprises an address from an ad break, the manifest handler identifies in a cache at least one advertisement to be inserted within the session and substitutes at least one address corresponding to at least one segment of the at least one advertisement in the manifest of the session based on the difference. The manifest handler passes the session manifest to the smart device.

[0023] In one embodiment, when the session manifest comprises an ad break address, the manifest handler instructs a client associated with an ad decision service to match the at least one ad to the ad break address in the session based at least one substituted address from the session manifest.

[0024] In one embodiment, instructing an advertisement service to attach the at least one advertisement to the address of the commercial break in the session may further comprise the server transmitting to the advertisement decision service at least one advertisement call to the address of the commercial break corresponding to the session identifier, receiving, from the ad decision service, at least one advertisement, and storing the at least one advertisement in the at least one cache. Instructing an advertisement service to merge the at least one advertisement to the address of the commercial break in the session may further comprise, prior to said merging, instructing the advertisement decision service to retrieve the at least one advertisement from the cache.

[0025] In one embodiment, the session offset and the previous session manifest are stored in a memory. The memory can be static random access memory. Session manifest and previous session manifest differ when the difference is not zero. When the smart device tunes to another channel or ends its session, the manifest handler can reset the session offset to zero.

[0026] In one embodiment, the server's manifest handler may receive an original manifest from a transcoder. The manifest handler may initially assign a zero offset to the original manifest. The manifest handler can derive and maintain multiple stored manifests having different offsets from the original manifest. The manifest handler can replace one of the manifests stored by the session manifest to produce the previous session manifest.

[0027] In one embodiment, each of the session manifest and the previous session manifest may comprise multiple corresponding URLs pointing to segments of a session corresponding to the session identifier. At least one of the session manifest URLs and at least one of the previous session manifest URLs can point to different segments of the session.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0028] The present invention will be more readily understood from the detailed description of illustrative embodiments presented below considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

[0029] Figure 1 illustrates a conventional linear or video-on-demand model for ad placement;

[0030] Figure 2 represents a configuration of a conventional Internet-based cable television infrastructure to execute ad placement decisions on signal streams;

[0031] Figure 3 shows a block diagram of two manifests that differ in the number of stored URLs that result when advertisements are continually swapped to change the total length of time of a commercial break;

[0032] Figure 4 represents a configuration of a realization of a system to handle manifests;

[0033] Figure 5 is a flowchart illustrating an embodiment of a method for accelerating ad placement decisions in data streams from a server point of view;

[0034] Figure 6 is a block diagram illustrating various manifests stored in static memory, where each of the stored manifests has a different offset from another manifest;

[0035] Figure 7 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a method for manipulating a manifest; and

[0036] Figure 8 illustrates a diagrammatic representation of a machine in illustrative form of a computer system within which a set of instructions, to cause the machine to execute any one or more of the methodologies discussed in this document, can be executed.

[0037] It is to be understood that the accompanying drawings are for the purpose of illustrating the concepts of the invention and may not be to scale.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0038] Some embodiments of the present disclosure are compatible and make use of elements defined in accordance with the SCTE-130 standard. The SCTE-130 standard provides a standardized and extensible message-based interface defining a minimal set of cooperative logic services necessary to communicate placement opportunities, placement decisions, and placement-related event data required for service delivery responsibility measurements. bills. SCTE-130 defines an extensible structure of interfaces among a set of logical services of the advertisement system. The SCTE-130 standard encompasses: a minimal set of cooperative logic services necessary to implement advanced addressable advertisement systems; the core data types and extensible message structure forming a vocabulary necessary to communicate between the defined logical services; the interfaces between these logical services using the main data types and messages; and, extensibility mechanisms that allow for innovation while preserving backward compatibility with deployed systems - thereby reducing the complexity of incorporating new aspects into the standard.

[0039] The normative parts of the SCTE-130 standard define mechanisms for integrating systems implementing aspects such as VOD-based advertising, linear-based advertising, advanced advertising capabilities such as ad rotation groups (rotation groups refer to opportunities placements that run in rotation so that the same ad is not seen again immediately), subscriber-based addressing for ad or content suitability, extension points for advanced aspects of ad or addressing, logical services that are implemented as one or more physical systems created by the least vendor, implementation of a logical service that can simultaneously include systems from one or more vendors, and an implementation that can incorporate one or more logical services and defined interfaces.

[0040] The SCTE-130 standard defines a set of logical services comprising an advanced advertisement system. Each logical service can itself be a complex system. In one embodiment, one or more of the following logical services may be used or interact with some embodiments of the present invention.

[0041] An Ad Management Service (ADM) defines messages in support of ad insertion activities. The primary consumer of these messages is an Ad Decision Service (ADS). The message interfaces exposed by an ADM allow for both pre-configured ad decisions and real-time service models. An ADM implementation may incorporate some simple ad selection rules (eg, ad rotations), but more complex ad decisions are the responsibility of an ADS.

[0042] An Ad Decision Service (ADS) determines how ad content is combined with non-advertising content resources (eg entertainment). Decisions made by an ADS can be objective (ie, specific ad content placed at a specific time on a specific resource) or arbitrarily complex (based on subscriber data, ad zone, etc.).

[0043] A Content Information Service (CIS) manages metadata describing resources (both advertisement resources and non-advertising resources) available to the other logical SCTE-130 services. CIS provides query and notification interfaces for the other logical services. The query service is available on an ad hoc basis and can be called by any other logical service at any time without any previous registration. Queries specify values or patterns to look for in the query message metadata, and the specified associated information (or an error indication) is returned in a response message.

[0044] The Content Information Service (CIS) is a storage and distribution mechanism. It stores metadata about entertainment and advertising resources; provides notifications to registered customers when metadata is modified; registers, receives and processes notification from other CSI services; and supports real-time metadata queries. CIS allows an Ad Manager (ADM) and/or Ad Decision Service (ADS) to retrieve and utilize content metadata in their advanced ad decision processing.

[0045] A Placement Opportunity Information Service (POIS) may contain, maintain and retain descriptions of placement opportunities. The POIS may also contain attributes and restrictions for each placement opportunity, platform compliance, rights, and policies for the content on which the placement opportunity exists. These placement opportunities are content-specific and therefore attributes and restrictions may vary by network, geographic region, or other content delivery dimension.

[0046] POIS is a Placement Opportunity (PO) storage and inventory execution engine. It stores PO metadata and statistics; provides notifications to registered customers when PO metadata is modified; logs, receives and processes notifications from other POIS services; and supports real-time PO metadata queries. Through the POIS device, an Ad Manager (ADM) and/or Ad Decision Service (ADS) can retrieve and use placement opportunity metadata in its advanced ad decision making.

[0047] Subscriber Information Service (SIS) manages per subscriber information relevant to ad placement decisions. SIS provides a mapping between subscriber or customer identifiers, such as a MAC address, serial number, etc., and subscriber or audience attributes, for example, age, gender, location of a subscriber.

[0048] The term "computer" or "computer platform" is intended to include any data processing device, such as a desktop computer, a laptop computer, a tablet computer, a mainframe, a server, a portable device, a digital data processor (DSP), an embedded processor (the example of which is described in connection with Figure 8), or any other device capable of processing data. The computer/computer platform is configured to include one or more microprocessors communicatively connected with one or more non-transient computer readable media and one or more networks. The term "communicatively connected" is intended to include any type of connection, whether wired or wireless, over which data may be communicated. The term "communicatively connected" is intended to include, but not limited to, a connection between devices and/or programs within a single computer or between separate devices and/or computers over a network. The term "network" is intended to include, but not limited to, OTA (over the air, ATSC, DVB-T), packet-switched networks (TCP/IP, e.g. Internet), satellite (microwave, transport stream, MPEG or IP), direct broadcast satellite, analog cable (RF) transmission systems, and digital video transmission systems (ATSC, HD-SDI, HDMI, DVI, VGA), etc.

[0049] Figure 4 represents a configuration of a system 400 to handle manifests. System 400 may run on a server 402, interconnected by one or more networks (not shown) and communicatively connected with one or more ADSs 404a through 404n. ADSs 404a through 404n are configured to place advertisements within ad breaks in subscriber data streams upon request from a CDN 406 for distribution to one or more smart appliances 408a through 408n.

[0050] In one embodiment, the server 402 may be communicatively connected by one or more networks (not shown) with the client devices 410a through 410n. Client devices 410a through 410n are configured to store and retrieve a predetermined number of advertisements in/to the corresponding caches 412a through 412n for distribution to the corresponding ADSs 404a through 404n under the control of the server 402 and the CDN 406.

[0051] Server 402 may be associated with or implement a CIS 416 to receive one or more source signal streams from upstream devices 418 and corresponding cue tones (i.e. instances of SCTE-130 packets) from a viewer 420, which may be incorporated within a transcoder 422. The transcoder 422 is also configured to deliver IP video, audio, etc., in predetermined "blocks" or segments to the CDN 406, as described above. Transcoder 422 is also configured to manage one or more manifests of a predetermined length of time (e.g., 30 seconds) that comprise the addresses (e.g., URLs) of segments of a signal stream for one or more devices at the same time. downstream (typically CDN 406) based on an address stored in transcoder 422 during a registration process. In one embodiment, the registered downstream device is the 402 server.

[0052] The CIS 416 is also configured to identify metadata from one or more source signal streams and distribute the identified metadata to the server 402. The server 402 is configured to pre-allocate a corresponding number of placement opportunities (POs) uncommitted without signals and to link the source signal stream with multiple previously created uncommitted placement opportunities. Part of the identified metadata includes a channel identifier associated with a corresponding source signal stream. The CIS 416 is configured to return a globally unique value, a UUID, referred to as a signal identifier or signal ID that uniquely identifies a placement opportunity as a confirmed placement and its initial location within the end-to-end operating system. tip 400. CIS 416 is further configured to insert the signal ID and channel identifier within the source signal stream metadata using the appropriate in-band transport format.

[0053] In one embodiment, when the downstream device that has registered with transcoder 422 to receive manifests is server 402, CIS 416 is configured to receive one or more original manifests corresponding to a data range of the source signal stream from transcoder 422.

[0054] In one embodiment, a POIS 424 may be implemented by the server 402. The POIS 424 is configured to "confirm" unconfirmed placement opportunities by identifying temporal start locations of unconfirmed placement opportunities (i.e., including point( s) of an advertisement signal relative to both the content stream and a total processing time. POIS 424 is configured to return a globally unique value, a UUID, referred to as a signal identifier or signal ID that uniquely identifies a PO as a confirmed PO and its initial location within the end-to-end operating system.POIS 424 then inserts the signal ID and channel identifier into other metadata extracted from the source signal stream using the appropriate in-band transport format.

[0055] POIS 424 is configured to start a workflow where, by the confirmed signal, it generates the set of confirmed placement opportunities and triggers an early decision trigger with the signal ID as the trigger data. The early decision trigger receiver is an instance of an Advertisement Management Service 426 of the SCTE 130, or ADM 426 associated with the server 402. The ADM 426 is configured to identify a representative list of a number of signal streams from the receiver. having the channel identifier. To identify the list, in one embodiment, the ADM 426 transmits and receives messages and data to/from the session manager 428 internally implemented by the server 402. In one embodiment, the ADM 426 transmits the channel identifier to the session manager 428, which provides the ADM 426 with a list of client identities indicative of a number of active transport streams (e.g., a series of sessions) having the channel identifier, e.g., a list of receiver signal streams having the same identifier as the channel being "watched" by subscribers. The ADM 426 is also configured to get multiple advertisements matching the list of all active sessions from one or more ADSs 404a through 404n. The ADM 426 receives, from the ADS 404a to 404n, the various advertisements directed to the representative list of the various signal streams.

[0056] The ADM 426 uses the signal ID plus a set of locally configured or learned targeting criteria to initiate a unique set of ad decision requests. Ad decision requests give rise to targeted ad decision requests to the appropriate decision owners and the results are a set of ad placement decisions correlating with the placement opportunities generated as a result of signal confirmation.

[0057] The ADM 426 is also configured to store the obtained advertisement list in one or more caches 412a through 412n under the control of corresponding clients 410a through 410n associated with one or more ADSs 404a through 404n. The ADM 426 associates the unique Signal ID with each of the targeted/untargeted advertisements and stores the targeted/untargeted advertisements EME in one or more caches 412a through 412n. Since there may be thousands to millions of advertisements to be stored in the one or more caches 412a through 412n, in one embodiment, the ADM 426 is configured to divide a time interval between the receipt of a cue tone and the arrival of a point. of corresponding annunciation signal into a predetermined number of time sub-slots and divides the signal stream into a predetermined number of signal sub-streams.

[0058] In one embodiment, the ADM 426 is further configured to implement a manifest handler 430 and a memory 432, which may be, for example, a static random access memory 432. The manifest handler 430 is configured to receive one or more original manifests from the CIS 416. For each active session in the representative list of the various active sessions, the manifest handler 430 associates the original manifest with the corresponding channel identifier, with a session identifier, and with an offset leading zero in memory (static) 432. The manifest handler 430 is configured to derive and maintain in memory (static) multiple stored manifests having different offsets from the original manifest.

[0059] In one embodiment, the manifest handler 430 is configured to receive from a smart device (e.g., 408a) a request for a manifest corresponding to a session identifier and a channel identifier. Manifest handler 430 is configured to retrieve from session manager 428 a session manifest based on the session identifier. Manifest handler 430 is configured to adjust a session offset based on a difference in a session duration represented by the session manifest from the session duration represented by a previous session manifest corresponding to the session. When the session manifest comprises an address from an ampersand, the manifest handler 430 is configured to identify in a cache (e.g. 412a) at least one advertisement to be inserted into the session and replaces at least one address corresponding to at least a segment of at least one ad in the difference-based session manifest. Manifest handler 430 is configured to pass the session manifest to the smart device (for example, 408a).

[0060] In one embodiment, when the session manifest comprises an address of a commercial slot, the manifest handler 430 is configured to instruct a client (e.g., 410a) associated with an advertisement decision service (e.g., ADS 404a) to join the at least one advertisement to the ad break address in the session based on the at least one substituted address from the session manifest.

[0061] In one embodiment, instructing an advertisement decision service (e.g., 404a) to match the at least one advertisement to the commercial break address in the session may further comprise the server 402 transmitting, to the advertisement decision service ( e.g. 404a), at least one advertisement call to the ad break address corresponding to the session identifier, receive from the advertisement decision service (e.g. 404a) at least one advertisement, and store the at least least one ad in at least one cache (e.g. 412a). Instructing an ad decision service (e.g. 404a) to merge the at least one advertisement to the commercial break address in the session may additionally comprise, prior to the merge, instruct the ad decision service (e.g. 404a) to retrieve the at least one advertisement from the cache (eg 412a).

[0062] In one embodiment, the manifest handler 430 is configured to store the session offset and the previous session manifest in memory 432. Memory 432 may be static random access memory. Session manifest and previous session manifest differ when the difference is not zero. When the smart device (e.g., 408a) tunes to another channel or ends its session, the manifest handler 430 may reset the session offset to zero.

[0063] In one embodiment, manifest handler 430 from server 402 may receive an original manifest from transcoder 422. Manifest handler 430 may initially assign a zero offset to the original manifest. Manifest handler 430 can derive and maintain multiple stored manifests having different offsets from the original manifest. Manifest handler 430 can replace one of the manifests stored by the session manifest to produce the previous session manifest.

[0064] Figure 5 is a flowchart illustrating an embodiment of a method 500 for accelerating ad placement decisions in data streams from a point of view of a server 402, in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. At block 505, server 402 takes a source signal stream from transcoder 422. More particularly, CIS 416 associated with server 402 takes a source signal stream (e.g., in MPEG-2 format) having a channel identifier from upstream devices 418.

[0065] A transcoder 422 associated with a specific provider format for the source signal stream (eg, TBS) receives the signal stream and converts the signal stream to IP video. In the process, an observer 420, which may be included in the transcoder 422, observes the presence of an SCTE-35 cue tone. In one embodiment, the indication that an ad placement opportunity is located in the signal stream is an instance of a SCTE-35 packet indicative of a cue tone. The cue tone also provides an indication that an ad placement opportunity is located in the signal stream a period of time before an ad signal point in the signal stream. Observer 420 of transcoder 422 then makes a Network call to CIS 416 to inform CIS 416 that the cue tone for a specific channel ID has been observed.

[0066] Transcoder 422 may identify server 402 as previously registered to receive various original manifests associated with the source signal stream (e.g., TBS). As a result, transcoder 422 divides the source signal stream into several data intervals of a predetermined duration (e.g., 30 seconds), and for each data interval, into several segments or "blocks" (e.g., 2 seconds). Transcoder 422 is further configured to construct and transmit an original manifest to server 402. At block 510, CIS 416 additionally receives the original manifest corresponding to a data range of the source signal stream from transcoder 422. At block 515 , CIS 416 passes the original manifest to manifest handler 430 for further processing to be described below.

[0067] The arrival of the SCTE-35 packet is an indication of several theoretical placement opportunities (POs) for the specified channel ID (eg TBS). Each unconfirmed PO has an estimated starting location known as a signal point. The signal point needs to be confirmed. When a real-time ad insertion start location is found in real-time, a software process in the POIS 424 confirms the real-time of the signal point. This confirmed signal point results in the generation of confirmed POs that are now ready for ad insertion.

[0068] When the CIS 416 receives the theoretical placement opportunities, the CIS 416 is configured to pre-allocate a corresponding number of unsigned unconfirmed placement opportunities and to link the source signal stream with multiple pre-established but unconfirmed placement opportunities . Linking the source signal stream with various pre-established but unconfirmed placement opportunities includes the CIS 416 extracting metadata including the channel identifier from the source signal stream. As used in this document, the term "binding" refers to an identification of signals and content within a PO. POs are often created for large amounts of content that is not yet published (ie, any show on the TNT network at night).

[0069] When a program "airs" and a source signal stream is detected, the source signal stream is linked with the POs relevant to this program.

[0070] When confirmed POs are generated, the same signal point identifier that generated the POs is sent and captured by a listening announcement decision resolution process in the ADM 426 associated with the server 402. signal is called an early placement decision trigger (or decision trigger for short) that starts a sequence of software processes. As content is acquired by the CDN 406, the CDN 406 notifies the POIS 424, and the POIS 424 "confirms" the initial temporal location of a placement opportunity in relation to both the source signal stream and a total processing time. POIS 424 returns a globally unique value, a UUID, referred to as a signal identifier or signal ID that uniquely identifies a PO as a configured PO and its initial location within the end-to-end operating system. POIS 424 then inserts the signal ID and channel identifier into other metadata extracted from the source signal stream using the appropriate in-band transport format.

[0071] In parallel, POIS 424 starts a workflow whereby POIS generates a set of confirmed placement opportunities in the source signal stream and fires an early decision trigger with the signal ID as the trigger data . The early decision trigger receiver is an instance of an SCTE 130 Ad Management Service, or the ADM 426 associated with the server.

[0072] In block 520, the ADM 426 of the server 402 identifies a representative of a number of signal streams from the receiver having the channel identifier before the expiration of the time period. The representative list of various signal streams from the receiver having the channel identifier corresponds to the number of confirmed placement opportunities. To identify the list, the ADM 426 transmits the channel identifier to the session manager 428, which provides the ADM 426 with a list of session identifiers indicative of a number of receivers currently viewing a channel corresponding to the channel identifier.

[0073] In block 525, the ADM 426 of the server 402 obtains from one or more ADSs 404a to 404n various advertisements corresponding to the list correlated with the session identifiers and the channel identifier. The ADM 426 receives from the ADSs 404a through 404n the various advertisements corresponding to the representative list of the various signal streams from the receiver having the channel identifier.

[0074] In block 530, ADM 426 of server 402 stores the obtained advertisement list in at least one cache 412a through 412n in one or more ADSs 404a through 404n. While storing the ad list in at least one cache 412a through 412n, the ADM 426 associates unique signal IDs with each of the ad list. Storing the obtained advertisement list in at least one cache 412a through 412n may include passing the advertisement list to at least one JAR (i.e. a Java compressed file) associated with one or more clients 410a through 410n. Since there may be thousands to millions of advertisements to be stored in caches 412a through 412n, in one embodiment, the ADM 426 divides the time interval from receipt of a cue tone to an expected arrival of the corresponding signal point in the stream. of source signal into a predetermined number of time sub-slots and divides the number (i.e. count) of received signal streams into a predetermined number of signal sub-streams. The predetermined number of signal substreams is distributed over the predetermined number of time subslots to caches 412a through 412n associated with clients 410a through 410n.

[0075] In block 535, for each active session in the list, the manifest handler 430 associates the original manifest with a channel identifier, with a session identifier, and with an initial offset of zero in a memory 432. In in one embodiment, memory 432 may be, for example, a static memory. The offset indicates the number of segments and corresponding URLs of a session manifest to be distributed to a smart appliance (e.g. 408a) that is different from the segment number in a corresponding previous session manifest (see Figure 7).

[0076] At block 540, manifest handler 430 derives and maintains in static memory (see Figure 6) several stored manifests 602 having different offsets from the original manifest. In one embodiment, the statically stored manifests and the corresponding number of segments per stored manifest can be numbered consecutively from a minimum expected negative value, through 0, to a maximum positive expected value. Ads are retrieved and inserted into ad breaks, the offset value can change, and a non-original or "previous" session manifest can be replaced (see Figure 7) depending on the duration of one or more ads to be inserted into the ad. commercial.

[0077] Figure 7 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a method 700 for manipulating a manifest. Method 700 may be performed by a computer system 400 of Figure 4 and may comprise hardware (e.g., circuitry, dedicated logic, programmable logic, microcode, etc.), software (e.g., instructions executed on a processing), or a combination thereof. In one example, method 700 is executed by manifest handler 430 of server 402 in Figure 4.

[0078] As shown in Figure 7, at block 705, manifest handler 430 from server 402 receives a request for a manifest corresponding to a session identifier from a smart device (eg, 408a). At block 710, the manifest handler 430 identifies a session manifest from the session manager 432 and an offset based on the session identifier. Session manifest and current offset are identified as one of the stored manifests and offsets located in static memory 432.

[0079] At block 715, manifest handler 430 adjusts a session offset based on a difference in a session duration represented by the session manifest from a session duration represented by a previous session manifest stored in memory 432 corresponding to the session. In one embodiment, based on the session identifier, the manifest handler 430 identifies a client (e.g., 404a) from which to obtain the time duration of at least one advertisement. Manifest handler 430 adjusts session offset based on the duration of at least one ad retrieved. Manifest handler 430 replaces the session offset previously stored in memory 432 with the adjusted session offset.

[0080] At block 720, when the current manifest comprises an ampersand range address, manifest handler 430 identifies in the cache (e.g. 412a) at least one advertisement to be inserted into the session and replaces at least one address corresponding to the at least one segment of at least one ad in the session manifest based on the difference. Manifest handler 430 replaces the previous session manifest (which could be an original session manifest or another updated previous manifest) in memory 432 with the updated session manifest.

[0081] At block 720, manifest handler 430 passes the updated session manifest to the smart device (eg 408a).

[0082] If the adjusted offset does not change due to the total length of the commercial break does not change, or if there is only content addressed by the current manifest, then the previously stored manifest is a copy of the current manifest. The previously stored manifest is a copy of another manifest than the current manifest when the session offset changes the value. Additionally, when the smart device (eg, 408a) tunes in to another channel or ends its session, the session offset is reset to zero. The method of Figure 7 is repeated each time transcoder 422 distributes a new original manifest as the transport stream progresses in transmitted time.

[0083] In one embodiment, when the session manifest comprises an address from a commercial range, the server 402 may instruct a client (e.g., 410a) associated with an advertisement decision service (e.g., 404a) to join the at least one advertisement from a cache associated (e.g., 412a) to the commercial break address in the session based on the at least one overridden address from the session manifest. Instructing an advertisement decision service (e.g., 404a) to merge the at least one advertisement to the address of the commercial break in the session may further comprise server 402 transmitting to the advertisement decision service (e.g., 404a) , at least one advertisement call to the ad break address corresponding to the session identifier, receive from the advertisement decision service (e.g. 404a) at least one advertisement, and store the at least one advertisement in the associated cache (eg 412a). Instructing an ad decision service (e.g., 404a) to merge the at least one advertisement to the commercial break address in the session may additionally comprise, prior to the merge, the manifest handler 430 instructing the ad decision service (e.g. , 404a) to retrieve the at least one advertisement from the associated cache (for example, 412a).

[0084] Figure 8 illustrates a diagrammatic representation of a machine in illustrative form of a computer system 800 within which a set of instructions to cause the machine to execute any one or more of the methodologies discussed in this document can be executed. In some examples, the machine may be connected (eg, networked) with other machines on a LAN, an intranet, an extranet, or the Internet. The machine can operate in the capacity of a server machine in the client-server network environment. The machine can be a personal computer (PC), a set-top box (STB), a server, a network router, switch or bridge, or any machine capable of executing a set of instructions (sequential or not) that specify actions. to be performed by this machine. Additionally, although only a single machine is illustrated, the term "machine" should also be assumed to include any collection of machines that individually or jointly execute a set (or multiple sets) of instructions to execute any one or more of the methodologies discussed in this document.

[0085] Illustrative computer system 800 includes a processing device (processor) 802, a main memory 804 (e.g., read-only memory (ROM), fast memory, dynamic random access memory (DRAM) such as DRAM (SDRAM)), a static memory 806 (e.g. fast memory, static random access memory (SRAM)), and a data storage device 816, which communicate with each other via a bus 808.

[0086] The 802 processor represents one or more general purpose processing devices such as a microprocessor, central processing unit, among others. More particularly, the processor 802 may be a complex instruction set computer (CISC) microprocessor, reduced instruction set computing (RISC) microprocessor, very long instruction word (VLIW) microprocessor, or a processor implementing other sets. of instructions or processors implementing an instruction set combination. Processor 802 can also be one or more special-purpose processing devices such as an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field-programmable gate array (FPGA), a digital signal processor (DSP), a network processor. , among others. The manifest handler 830 shown in Figure 4 can be executed by the processor 802 configured to perform the operations and steps discussed in this document.

[0087] Computer system 800 may additionally include a network interface device 822. Computer system 800 may also include a video monitor unit 810 (e.g., liquid crystal video (LCD) or a ray tube). (CRT), an alphanumeric input device 812 (for example, a keyboard), a cursor control device 814 (for example, a mouse), and a signal generating device 820 (for example, a loudspeaker). ).

[0088] A control unit 816 may include a computer-readable medium 824 on which one or more sets of instructions (e.g., manifest handler instructions 430) are stored incorporating any one or more of the methodologies or functions described herein. Manifest handler 430 instructions may also reside, completely or at least partially, within main memory 804 and/or within processor 802 during execution thereof by computer system 800, main memory 804 and processor 802 also constituting the computer readable medium. The instructions from the manifest handler 430 may additionally be transmitted or received over a network via the network interface device 822.

[0089] Although the computer-readable storage medium 824 is presented in an example as a single medium, the term "computer-readable storage medium" should be assumed to include a single non-transient medium or multiple non-transient medium (eg, a centralized or distributed database and/or associated caches and servers) that store the one or more instruction sets. The term "computer-readable storage medium" should also be assumed to include any medium that is capable of storing, encoding, or transporting a set of instructions for execution by the machine and which causes the machine to execute any one or more of the methodologies in the present revelation. The term "computer-readable media", therefore, should be assumed to include, but not be limited to, solid-state, optical, and magnetic media.

[0090] In the description above, several details are exposed. However, it is apparent to those skilled in the art having the benefit of this disclosure that the disclosure examples can be practiced without these specific details. In some cases, well-known structures and devices are presented in block diagram form, rather than in detail, in order to avoid obscuring the description.

[0091] Some parts of the detailed description are presented in terms of algorithms and symbolic representations of operations in relation to data bits within a computer memory. These algorithmic descriptions and representations are the means used by those skilled in data processing techniques to more effectively convey the substance of their work to others skilled in the art. Here, and generally, an algorithm is conceived to be a self-consistent sequence of steps leading to a desired result. The steps are these requiring physical manipulations of physical quantities. Typically, though not necessarily, these quantities take the form of electrical or magnetic signals capable of being stored, transferred, combined, compared, and otherwise manipulated. It has sometimes proved convenient, mainly for reasons of common usage, to refer to these signs as bits, values, elements, symbols, characters, terms, numbers, and so on.

[0092] However, it should be borne in mind that all these terms and similar terms are to be associated with the appropriate physical quantities and are merely convenient labels applied to these quantities. Unless specifically stated as apparent from the above discussion, it is appreciated that throughout the description, discussions using terms such as "receive", "record", "keep", among others, refer to the actions and processes of a computer system, or similar electronic computing device, that manipulates and transforms data represented as physical quantities (e.g. electronics) within computer system records into other data similarly represented as physical quantities within system memories or records computer or other such information storage, transmission and display devices.

[0093] Examples of the disclosure also relate to an apparatus for performing the operations in this document. This apparatus may be specially constructed for the required purposes, or it may comprise a general purpose computer selectively activated or reconfigured by a computer program stored on the computer. Such computer program may be stored on a computer-readable storage medium, such as, but not limited to, any type of disk including floppy disks, optical disks, CD-ROMs, and magnetic-optical disks, memory-only read-only memory (ROMs), random access memory (RAMs), EPROMs, EEPROMs, magnetic or optical cards, or any other suitable medium for storing electronic instructions.

[0094] The algorithms and displays presented in this document are not inherently related to any particular computer or other device. Various general purpose systems can be used with programs according to the instructions in this document, or it may be convenient to build a more specialized apparatus to perform the required steps of the method. The illustrative structure for several of these systems appears from the description in this document. In addition, the present disclosure is not described with reference to any particular programming language. It will be apparent that various programming languages can be used to implement the disclosure instructions as described in this document.

[0095] It is to be understood that the above description is intended to be illustrative and not restrictive. Several other examples will be apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading and understanding the above description. Therefore, the scope of disclosure must be determined with reference to the appended claims, together with the full scope of equivalents for which such claims are authorized.

Claims (19)

1. Computer-implemented method for manipulating a manifest, the method comprising: storing (540), by a server (402), one or more manifests in a list of manifests in a memory (432), each manifest comprising an address of an ad break, and the one or more manifests differing into a number of segments corresponding to one or more ad breaks of different durations; receiving (705), by a server, from an intelligent apparatus (408a, 408n), a request for a manifest having a first commercial break duration corresponding to a first number of segments corresponding to the commercial break; determining (710), by the server, an offset based on a difference in a duration represented by a manifest in the list of one or more manifests stored in memory from a first duration of the commercial interval; based on the determination (720) by a server that the offset is zero and that a corresponding number of segments for the first number of segments corresponds to the commercial interval in the list of one or more manifests stored in memory; retrieve, by the server, from the manifest identified in the list of one or more manifests stored in memory; identifying, by the server, at least one advertisement to be inserted within the commercial interval and replacing (720) at least one address corresponding to at least one segment in the manifest with one or more corresponding addresses from the at least one advertisement; and transmitting (725) the identified manifest to the smart device by the server; and based on the server's determination that the offset is non-zero for all manifests in the list of one or more in-memory manifests and that the corresponding number of segments for the first number of segments matches the ampersands in the list from one or more manifests stored in memory; generating, by the server, a manifest having a duration corresponding to the first duration of the commercial break and having the corresponding number of segments for the first number of segments corresponding to the commercial break; insert, by the server, the generated manifest in the list of one or more manifests stored in memory; identifying, by the server, at least one advertisement to be inserted into an ad range of the generated manifest and replacing at least one address corresponding to at least one segment of the generated manifest with one or more corresponding addresses from the at least one advertisement; and transmit, by the server, the generated manifest to the smart device. 2. Method according to claim 1, characterized in that when the transmitted manifest comprises an address of a commercial range, instructing, by the server, a client associated with an advertisement decision service to join the at least one advertisement within the commercial break address in the session based on the substitution of one or more addresses. 3. Method according to claim 2, characterized in that instructing an advertisement service decision to join the at least one advertisement within the commercial break in the session additionally comprises: transmitting, to the advertisement decision service using the server, at least one advertisement call to the commercial break address; receive at least one advertisement from the advertisement decision service on the server; and storing, using the server, the at least one advertisement in the at least one cache. 4. Method according to claim 3, characterized in that instructing an advertisement decision service to merge the at least one advertisement to the commercial break address in the session additionally comprises, before said merging, instructing the decision service ad to retrieve the at least one ad from the cache. 5. Method according to claim 1, characterized in that the memory is a static random access memory. 6. Method according to claim 1, characterized in that each manifest of the one or more manifests is associated with a displacement. 7. Method, according to claim 6, characterized in that when the smart device tunes to another channel or ends its session, it resets the offset to zero. 8. Method according to claim 1, characterized in that it additionally comprises receiving, by the server, an original manifest from a transcoder. 9. Method, according to claim 8, characterized in that it additionally comprises designating a zero offset for the original manifest. 10. Method according to claim 8, characterized in that it additionally comprises deriving and maintaining, by the server, several stored manifests having different offsets from the original manifest. 11. Method according to claim 10, characterized in that it additionally comprises replacing one of the several manifests stored by the generated manifest. 12. Method according to claim 1, characterized in that the original manifest and each manifest of the one or more manifests comprise several corresponding URLs pointing to segments of a session. 13. Method according to claim 12, characterized in that at least one of several URLs of the original manifest and at least one of several URLs of the manifests point to different segments of the session. 14. Computer system for manipulating a manifest, characterized by the fact that it comprises: a memory; a processing device coupled with the memory, the processing device configured to: store (540) one or more manifests in a manifest list in a memory (432), each manifest comprising an address of an ampersand, and the one or more manifests differing in a number of segments corresponding to one or more commercial breaks of different durations; receiving (705), from an intelligent apparatus (408a, 408n), a request for a manifest having a first commercial break duration corresponding to a first number of segments corresponding to the commercial break; determining (710) an offset based on a difference in a duration represented by a manifest in the list of one or more manifests stored in memory from the first duration of the commercial break; based on determining (720) that the offset is zero and that a corresponding number of chips for the first number of chips corresponds to the commercial interval in the list of one or more manifests stored in memory; retrieve the manifest identified in the list of one or more manifests stored in memory; identifying at least one advertisement to be inserted within the commercial range and replacing (720) at least one address corresponding to at least one segment in the manifest with one or more corresponding addresses from the at least one advertisement; and transmitting (725) the identified manifest to the smart device based on the determination that the offset is non-zero for all manifests in the list of one or more manifests stored in memory and that the corresponding number of segments for the first number of segments corresponds to the ampersand range in the list of one or more manifests stored in memory; generating a manifest having a duration corresponding to the first duration of the commercial break and having the corresponding number of segments for the first number of segments corresponding to the commercial break; insert the generated manifest into the list of one or more manifests stored in memory; identify at least one advertisement to be inserted into an ad range of the generated manifest and replace at least one address corresponding to at least one segment of the generated manifest with one or more corresponding addresses from the at least one advertisement; and transmit the generated manifest to the smart device. 15. System according to claim 14, characterized in that when the transmitted manifest comprises an address of a commercial break, instructing a client associated with an advertisement decision service to merge the at least one advertisement with the commercial break based on the substitution of one or more addresses. 16. System according to claim 15, characterized in that instructing an ad decision service to join the at least one ad to the commercial break in the session additionally comprises: transmitting, to the ad decision service, at least an advertisement call to the commercial break address; receive at least one advertisement from the ad decision service; and cache the at least one ad. 17. Non-transient computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that it includes instructions that, when executed by a processing system, cause the processing system to perform operations to manipulate a manifest, comprising: storing (540) one or more manifests in a list of manifests in a memory (432), each manifest comprising an address of an ampersand, and the one or more manifests differing into a number of segments corresponding to one or more ampersands of different durations; receiving (705), from an intelligent apparatus (408a, 408n), a request for a manifest having a first commercial break duration corresponding to a first number of segments corresponding to the commercial break; determining (710) an offset based on a difference in a duration represented by a manifest from a list of one or more manifests stored in memory from a first duration of the commercial interval; based on determining (720) that the offset is zero and that a corresponding number of segments for the first number of segments corresponds to the commercial range in the list of one or more manifests stored in memory; retrieve the manifest identified in the list of one or more manifests stored in memory; identifying at least one advertisement to be inserted into the commercial slot and replacing (720) at least one address corresponding to the at least one segment in the manifest with one or more corresponding addresses from the at least one advertisement; and transmitting (725) the identified manifest to the smart device; and based on the determination that the offset is non-zero for all manifests in the list of one or more manifests stored in memory and that the corresponding number of segments for the first number of segments matches the ampersand range in the list of one or more manifests stored in memory; generating a manifest having a duration corresponding to the first duration of the commercial break and having the corresponding number of segments for the first number of segments corresponding to the commercial break; insert the generated manifest into the list of one or more manifests stored in memory; identify at least one advertisement to be inserted into an ad range of the generated manifest and replace at least one address corresponding to at least one segment of the generated manifest with one or more corresponding addresses from the at least one advertisement; and transmit the generated manifest to the smart device. 18. The non-transient computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, characterized in that when the transmitted manifest comprises an address of a commercial break, instructing a client associated with an advertisement decision service to join the hair at least one commercial break ad in the session based on the substitution of one or more addresses. 19. Non-transient computer-readable storage medium according to claim 18, characterized in that instructing an ad decision service to match the at least one ad to the commercial break in the session additionally comprises: transmit, to the service ad decision, at least one ad call to the commercial break address; receive at least one advertisement from the ad decision service; and store the at least one advertisement in the at least one cache.

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