Classifications

• • 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]
  • H04N21/40—Client devices specifically adapted for the reception of or interaction with content, e.g. set-top-box [STB]; Operations thereof
  • H04N21/41—Structure of client; Structure of client peripherals
  • H04N21/426—Internal components of the client ; Characteristics thereof
  • H04N21/42607—Internal components of the client ; Characteristics thereof for processing the incoming bitstream
  • H04N21/4263—Internal components of the client ; Characteristics thereof for processing the incoming bitstream involving specific tuning arrangements, e.g. two tuners
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04H—BROADCAST COMMUNICATION
  • H04H20/00—Arrangements for broadcast or for distribution combined with broadcast
  • H04H20/26—Arrangements for switching distribution systems
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04H—BROADCAST COMMUNICATION
  • H04H20/00—Arrangements for broadcast or for distribution combined with broadcast
  • H04H20/20—Arrangements for broadcast or distribution of identical information via plural systems
  • H04H20/24—Arrangements for distribution of identical information via broadcast system and non-broadcast system
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04H—BROADCAST COMMUNICATION
  • H04H20/00—Arrangements for broadcast or for distribution combined with broadcast
  • H04H20/86—Arrangements characterised by the broadcast information itself
  • H04H20/93—Arrangements characterised by the broadcast information itself which locates resources of other pieces of information, e.g. URL [Uniform Resource Locator]
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04H—BROADCAST COMMUNICATION
  • H04H60/00—Arrangements for broadcast applications with a direct linking to broadcast information or broadcast space-time; Broadcast-related systems
  • H04H60/76—Arrangements characterised by transmission systems other than for broadcast, e.g. the Internet
  • H04H60/81—Arrangements characterised by transmission systems other than for broadcast, e.g. the Internet characterised by the transmission system itself
  • H04H60/82—Arrangements characterised by transmission systems other than for broadcast, e.g. the Internet characterised by the transmission system itself the transmission system being the Internet
  • H04H60/83—Arrangements characterised by transmission systems other than for broadcast, e.g. the Internet characterised by the transmission system itself the transmission system being the Internet accessed over telephonic networks
  • H04H60/85—Arrangements characterised by transmission systems other than for broadcast, e.g. the Internet characterised by the transmission system itself the transmission system being the Internet accessed over telephonic networks which are mobile communication networks
• • 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]
  • H04N21/40—Client devices specifically adapted for the reception of or interaction with content, e.g. set-top-box [STB]; Operations thereof
  • H04N21/41—Structure of client; Structure of client peripherals
  • H04N21/414—Specialised client platforms, e.g. receiver in car or embedded in a mobile appliance
  • H04N21/41407—Specialised client platforms, e.g. receiver in car or embedded in a mobile appliance embedded in a portable device, e.g. video client on a mobile phone, PDA, laptop
• • 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]
  • H04N21/40—Client devices specifically adapted for the reception of or interaction with content, e.g. set-top-box [STB]; Operations thereof
  • H04N21/43—Processing of content or additional data, e.g. demultiplexing additional data from a digital video stream; Elementary client operations, e.g. monitoring of home network or synchronising decoder's clock; Client middleware
  • H04N21/434—Disassembling of a multiplex stream, e.g. demultiplexing audio and video streams, extraction of additional data from a video stream; Remultiplexing of multiplex streams; Extraction or processing of SI; Disassembling of packetised elementary stream
  • H04N21/4348—Demultiplexing of additional data and video streams
  • H04N21/4349—Demultiplexing of additional data and video streams by extracting from data carousels, e.g. extraction of software modules from a DVB carousel
• • 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]
  • H04N21/40—Client devices specifically adapted for the reception of or interaction with content, e.g. set-top-box [STB]; Operations thereof
  • H04N21/43—Processing of content or additional data, e.g. demultiplexing additional data from a digital video stream; Elementary client operations, e.g. monitoring of home network or synchronising decoder's clock; Client middleware
  • H04N21/438—Interfacing the downstream path of the transmission network originating from a server, e.g. retrieving encoded video stream packets from an IP network
  • H04N21/4383—Accessing a communication channel
• • 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]
  • H04N21/40—Client devices specifically adapted for the reception of or interaction with content, e.g. set-top-box [STB]; Operations thereof
  • H04N21/43—Processing of content or additional data, e.g. demultiplexing additional data from a digital video stream; Elementary client operations, e.g. monitoring of home network or synchronising decoder's clock; Client middleware
  • H04N21/439—Processing of audio elementary streams
  • H04N21/4394—Processing of audio elementary streams involving operations for analysing the audio stream, e.g. detecting features or characteristics in audio streams
• • 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]
  • H04N21/40—Client devices specifically adapted for the reception of or interaction with content, e.g. set-top-box [STB]; Operations thereof
  • H04N21/45—Management operations performed by the client for facilitating the reception of or the interaction with the content or administrating data related to the end-user or to the client device itself, e.g. learning user preferences for recommending movies, resolving scheduling conflicts
  • H04N21/462—Content or additional data management e.g. creating a master electronic programme guide from data received from the Internet and a Head-end or controlling the complexity of a video stream by scaling the resolution or bit-rate based on the client capabilities
  • H04N21/4622—Retrieving content or additional data from different sources, e.g. from a broadcast channel and the Internet
• • 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]
  • H04N21/40—Client devices specifically adapted for the reception of or interaction with content, e.g. set-top-box [STB]; Operations thereof
  • H04N21/47—End-user applications
• • 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
  • H04N21/85—Assembly of content; Generation of multimedia applications
  • H04N21/858—Linking data to content, e.g. by linking an URL to a video object, by creating a hotspot
  • H04N21/8586—Linking data to content, e.g. by linking an URL to a video object, by creating a hotspot by using a URL
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
  • H04W36/00—Hand-off or reselection arrangements
  • H04W36/0005—Control or signalling for completing the hand-off
  • H04W36/0007—Control or signalling for completing the hand-off for multicast or broadcast services, e.g. MBMS

Definitions

• This application relates to technical advances necessarily rooted in computer technology and directed to digital television, and more particularly to Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) 3.0.
• ATSC Advanced Television Systems Committee
• ATSC 3.0 The Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) 3.0 suite of standards is a set of over a dozen industry technical standards as indicated in A/300 for delivering the next generation of broadcast television.
• ATSC 3.0 supports delivery of a wide range of television services including televised video, interactive services, non-real time delivery of data, and tailored advertising to a large number of receiving devices, from ultra-high definition televisions to wireless telephones.
• ATSC 3.0 also orchestrates coordination between broadcast content (referred to as “over the air”) and related broadband delivered content and services (referred to as “over the top”).
• ATSC 3.0 is designed to be flexible so that as technology evolves, advances can be readily incorporated without requiring a complete overhaul of any related technical standard.
• an ATSC 3.0 receiver scans for services including in reception areas that contain two or more frequencies carrying the same or equivalent service, as may occur in a boundary region in which broadcast signals from two regional ATSC 3.0 broadcaster stations overlap. These boundary regions exist in a multifrequency network (MFN).
• MFN multifrequency network
• an ATSC 3.0 receiver when an ATSC 3.0 receiver is changing services (channels) from one channel with an associated broadcaster application to another channel, the receiver is expected to check to see if the new channel has a broadcaster application signaled, and if there is and the new channel's broadcaster application has a same "context id" or “application context ID” as the old channel, the original broadcaster application continues to run without interruption.
• a broadcaster application can receive notification of a service change only due to user action.
• ATSC A/344:2021 standard includes a mechanism for a broadcaster application to request and receive notifications of the service (channel) change, absent present principles this has significant limitations around context id, user action originated actions, and application URLs.
• Present principles solve the problem of coordinating between broadcaster applications when doing automated tuning such as when traversing a boundary region in a multifrequency network (MFN) to facilitate a well-integrated viewer experience, both for cooperating broadcasters in the same broadcast area and for cooperating broadcasters in adjoining broadcast areas.
• MFN multifrequency network
• a method in digital television in which at least one receiver can receive broadcast signals from at least first and second digital television broadcast assemblies, includes automatically handing off presentation of a first digital TV service from a first frequency to a second frequency. Responsive to handing off presentation, the method includes signaling to a first broadcaster application (BA) associated with the first frequency that presentation is to be handed off or is being handed off, and selectively sending data associated with the first BA to a second BA associated with the second frequency.
• BA broadcaster application
• the method can include identifying whether a context ID associated with the first BA is the same as a context ID associated with the second BA. If desired, responsive to the context IDs of the first and second BAs being the same, the method can include continuing to execute the first BA throughout the automatically handing off presentation of the first digital TV service from the first frequency to the second frequency.
• the first BA is associated with a first uniform resource listing (URL) and the second BA is associated with a second URL
• the method comprises, responsive to the context IDs of the first and second BAs being the same, switching the first BA from the first URL to the second URL.
• the first BA is associated with a first uniform resource listing (URL) and the second BA is associated with a second URL
• the method comprises, responsive to the context IDs of the first and second BAs being the same, sending data associated with the first BA to the second BA and executing the second BA to present the first service.
• the method includes sending data associated with the first BA to the second BA responsive to handing off presentation regardless of whether a context ID of the first BA is the same as a context ID of the second BA and regardless of whether the first and second BAs have a common uniform resource locator (URL).
• URL uniform resource locator
• the condition for changing frequencies includes loss of the first signal by the first tuner. In other example implementations, the condition for changing frequencies includes degradation of the first signal. In still other example implementations, the condition for changing frequencies includes quality of the second signal surpassing quality of the first signal.
• a first BA can notify a receiver that data should be passed to a second BA, if that needs to happen and then the first BA either keeps the data up-to-date or calls the API periodically to update the receiver what the data that needs to be passed is.
• an apparatus in another aspect, includes at least one receiver configured to receive a first digital television (DTV) service on a first frequency, present the first DTV service on at least one audio video display device, and receive the first DTV service on a second frequency.
• the receiver is configured to, responsive to at least one handoff condition being met, switch from presenting the first DTV service received on the first frequency to presenting the first DTV service received on the second frequency, and signal a first broadcaster application (BA) associated with the first frequency of the switch.
• DTV digital television
• BA broadcaster application
• an apparatus in another aspect, includes at least one receiver having at least one processor programmed with instructions to configure the processor to execute a first broadcaster application (BA) to present a first service received on a first frequency on at least one audio video (AV) display device.
• the first service includes at least one digital television service.
• the instructions are executable to automatically switch presenting the first service received on the first frequency to presenting the first service received on a second frequency associated with a second BA, and signal the first BA of the switch.
• FIG 1 illustrates an Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) 3.0 system
• FIG. 1 illustrates components of the devices shown in Figure 1;
• FIG. 3 illustrates an example specific system
• Figure 4 illustrates a first example embodiment of a digital TV receiver
• Figure 5 illustrates a second example embodiment of a digital TV receiver
• Figure 6 illustrates example transmitter logic in example flow chart format consistent with present principles
• Figure 7 illustrates example receiver logic in example flow chart format consistent with present principles.
• FIGS 8-10 illustrate logic of techniques for broadcaster application signaling pursuant to automatic handoff from Figure 7 in example flow chart format consistent with present principles.
• An example system herein may include ATSC 3.0 source components and client components, connected via broadcast and/or over a network such that data may be exchanged between the client and ATSC 3.0 source components.
• the client components may include one or more computing devices including portable televisions (e.g. smart TVs, Internet-enabled TVs), portable computers such as laptops and tablet computers, and other mobile devices including smart phones and additional examples discussed below.
• portable televisions e.g. smart TVs, Internet-enabled TVs
• portable computers e.g. smart TVs, Internet-enabled TVs
• portable computers such as laptops and tablet computers
• other mobile devices including smart phones and additional examples discussed below.
• These client devices may operate with a variety of operating environments.
• some of the client computers may employ, as examples, operating systems from Microsoft, or a Unix operating system, or operating systems produced by Apple Computer or Google, such as Android®.
• These operating environments may be used to execute one or more browsing programs, such as a browser made by Microsoft or Google or Mozilla or other browser
• ATSC 3.0 publication A/344 may be particularly relevant to techniques described herein.
• ATSC 3.0 source components may include broadcast transmission components and servers and/or gateways that may include one or more processors executing instructions that configure the source components to broadcast data and/or to transmit data over a network such as the Internet.
• a client component and/or a local ATSC 3.0 source component may be instantiated by a game console such as a Sony PlayStation®, a personal computer, etc.
• servers and/or clients can include firewalls, load balancers, temporary storages, and proxies, and other network infrastructure for reliability and security.
• instructions refer to computer-implemented steps for processing information in the system. Instructions can be implemented in software, firmware or hardware and include any type of programmed step undertaken by components of the system.
• a processor may be a single- or multi-chip processor that can execute logic by means of various lines such as address lines, data lines, and control lines and registers and shift registers.
• Software modules described by way of the flow charts and user interfaces herein can include various sub-routines, procedures, etc. Without limiting the disclosure, logic stated to be executed by a particular module can be redistributed to other software modules and/or combined together in a single module and/or made available in a shareable library. While flow chart format may be used, it is to be understood that software may be implemented as a state machine or other logical method.
• logical blocks, modules, and circuits can be implemented or performed with a general-purpose processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), a field programmable gate array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device such as an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combination thereof designed to perform the functions described herein.
• DSP digital signal processor
• FPGA field programmable gate array
• ASIC application specific integrated circuit
• a processor can be implemented by a controller or state machine or a combination of computing devices.
• HTTP hypertext markup language
• ROM read-only memory
• EEPROM electrically erasable programmable read-only memory
• CD-ROM compact disk read-only memory
• DVD digital versatile disc
• a connection may establish a computer-readable medium.
• Such connections can include, as examples, hard-wired cables including fiber optics and coaxial wires and digital subscriber line (DSL) and twisted pair wires.
• a recitation of “having at least one of A, B, and C” includes alone, B alone, C alone, A and B together, A and C together, B and C together, and/or A, B, and C together, etc.
• an example of an ATSC 3.0 source component is labeled “broadcaster equipment” 10 and may include over-the-air (OTA) equipment 12 for wirelessly broadcasting, typically via orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) in a one-to-many relationship, television data to plural receivers 14 such as ATSC 3.0 televisions.
• OTA over-the-air
• OFDM orthogonal frequency division multiplexing
• One or more receivers 14 may communicate with one or more companion devices 16 such as remote controls, tablet computers, mobile telephones, and the like over a short range, typically wireless link 18 that may be implemented by Bluetooth®, low energy Bluetooth, other near field communication (NFC) protocol, infrared (IR), etc.
• one or more of the receivers 14 may communicate, via a wired and/or wireless network link 20 such as the Internet, with over-the-top (OTT) equipment 22 of the broadcaster equipment 10 typically in a one-to-one relationship.
• the OTA equipment 12 may be co-located with the OTT equipment 22 or the two sides 12, 22 of the broadcaster equipment 10 may be remote from each other and may communicate with each other through appropriate means.
• a receiver 14 may receive ATSC 3.0 television signals OTA over a tuned-to ATSC 3.0 television channel and may also receive related content, including television, OTT (broadband).
• computerized devices described in all of the figures herein may include some or all of the components set forth for various devices in Figures 1 and 2.
• Figure 2 illustrates an example protocol stack that may be implemented by a combination of hardware and software.
• broadcasters can send hybrid service delivery in which one or more program elements are delivered via a computer network (referred to herein as “broadband” and “over-the-top” (OTT)) as well as via a wireless broadcast (referred to herein as “broadcast” and “over-the-air” (OTA)).
• Figure 2 also illustrates an example stack with hardware that may be embodied by a receiver.
• the application layer 204 can include one or more software applications written in, e.g., HTML5/Javascript running in a runtime environment.
• the applications in the application stack 204 may include linear TV applications, interactive service applications, companion screen applications, personalization applications, emergency alert applications, and usage reporting applications.
• the applications typically are embodied in software that represents the elements that the viewer experiences, including video coding, audio coding and the run-time environment.
• an application may be provided that enables a user to control dialog, use alternate audio tracks, control audio parameters such as normalization and dynamic range, and so on.
• the presentation layer 206 includes, on the broadcast (OTA) side, broadcast audio-video playback devices referred to as Media Processing Units (MPU) 208 that, when implemented in a receiver, decode and playback, on one or more displays and speakers, wirelessly broadcast audio video content.
• the MPU 208 is configured to present International Organization for Standardization (ISO) base media file format (BMFF) data representations 210 and video in high efficiency video coding (HEVC) with audio in, e.g., Dolby audio compression (AC-4) format.
• ISO BMFF is a general file structure for time-based media files broken into “segments” and presentation metadata. Each of the files is essentially a collection of nested objects each with a type and a length.
• the MPU 208 may access a broadcast side encrypted media extension (EME)/common encryption (CENC) module 212.
• EME broadcast side encrypted media extension
• CENC common encryption
• Figure 2 further illustrates that on the broadcast side the presentation layer 206 may include signaling modules, including either motion pictures expert group (MPEG) media transport (MMT) protocol (MMTP) signaling module 214 or real-time object delivery over unidirectional transport (ROUTE) signaling module 216 for delivering non-real time (NRT) content 218 that is accessible to the application layer 204.
• NRT content may include but is not limited to stored replacement advertisements.
• the presentation layer 206 can include one or more dynamic adaptive streaming over hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) (DASH) player/decoders 220 for decoding and playing audio-video content from the Internet.
• DASH dynamic adaptive streaming over hypertext transfer protocol
• the DASH player 220 may access a broadband side EME/CENC module 222.
• the DASH content may be provided as DASH segments 224 in ISO/BMFF format.
• the broadband side of the presentation layer 206 may include NRT content in files 226 and may also include signaling objects 228 for providing play back signaling.
• the session layer 230 includes, on the broadcast side, either MMT protocol 232 or ROUTE protocol 234. Note that the ATSC standard provides an option to use MPEG MMT for transport, though it is not shown here.
• the session layer 230 includes HTTP protocol 236 which may be implemented as HTTP-secure (HTTP(S)).
• HTTP HTTP-secure
• the broadcast side of the session layer 230 also may employ a HTTP proxy module 238 and a service list table (SLT) 240.
• SLT 240 includes a table of signaling information which is used to build a basic service listing and provide bootstrap discovery of the broadcast content.
• Media presentation descriptions (MPD) are included in the “ROUTE Signaling” tables delivered over user datagram protocol (UDP) by the ROUTE transport protocol.
• a transport layer 242 is below the session layer 230 in the protocol stack for establishing low-latency and loss-tolerating connections.
• the transport layer 242 uses (UDP 244 and on the broadband side transmission control protocol (TCP) 246.
• the example non-limiting protocol stack shown in Figure 2 also includes a network layer 248 below the transport layer 242.
• the network layer 248 uses Internet protocol (IP) on both sides for IP packet communication, with multicast delivery being typical on the broadcast side and unicast being typical on the broadband side.
• IP Internet protocol
• the physical layer 250 which includes broadcast transmission/receive equipment 252 and computer network interface(s) 254 for communicating on the respective physical media associated with the two sides.
• the physical layer 250 converts
• IP Internet Protocol
• the physical layer 250 typically includes a wireless broadcast transmitter to broadcast data wirelessly using orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) while on the OTT side the physical layer 250 includes computer transmission components to send data over the Internet.
• OFDM orthogonal frequency division multiplexing
• DASH-IF DASH Industry Forum
• HTTP/TCP/IP DASH Industry Forum
• Media files in the DASH-IF profile based on the ISO BMFF may be used as the delivery, media encapsulation and synchronization format for both broadcast and broadband delivery.
• Each receiver 14 typically includes a protocol stack that is complementary to that of the broadcaster equipment.
• a receiver 14 in Figure 1 may include, as shown in Figure 2, an Internet-enabled TV with an ATSC 3.0 TV tuner (equivalently, set top box controlling a TV) 256.
• the receiver 14 may be an Android®-based system.
• the receiver 14 alternatively may be implemented by a computerized Internet enabled (“smart”) telephone, a tablet computer, a notebook computer, a wearable computerized device, and so on.
• the receiver 14 and/or other computers described herein is configured to undertake present principles (e.g. communicate with other devices to undertake present principles, execute the logic described herein, and perform any other functions and/or operations described herein). Accordingly, to undertake such principles the receiver 14 can be established by some or all of the components shown in Figure 1.
• the receiver 14 can include one or more displays 258 that may be implemented by a high definition or ultra-high definition “4K” or higher flat screen and that may or may not be touch-enabled for receiving user input signals via touches on the display.
• the receiver 14 may also include one or more speakers 260 for outputting audio in accordance with present principles, and at least one additional input device 262 such as, e.g., an audio receiver/micr ophone for, e.g., entering audible commands to the receiver 14 to control the receiver 14.
• the example receiver 14 may further include one or more network interfaces 264 for communication over at least one network such as the Internet, a WAN, a LAN, a PAN etc. under control of one or more processors 266.
• the interface 264 may be, without limitation, a Wi-Fi transceiver, which is an example of a wireless computer network interface, such as but not limited to a mesh network transceiver.
• the interface 264 may be, without limitation, a Bluetooth® transceiver, Zigbee® transceiver, Infrared Data Association (IrDA) transceiver, Wireless USB transceiver, wired USB, wired LAN, Powerline or Multimedia over Coax Alliance (MoCA).
• the processor 266 controls the receiver 14 to undertake present principles, including the other elements of the receiver 14 described herein such as, for instance, controlling the display 258 to present images thereon and receiving input therefrom.
• network interface 264 may be, e.g., a wired or wireless modem or router, or other appropriate interface such as, e.g., a wireless telephony transceiver, or Wi-Fi transceiver as mentioned above, etc.
• the receiver 14 may also include one or more input ports 268 such as a high definition multimedia interface (HDMI) port or a USB port to physically connect (using a wired connection) to another CE device and/or a headphone port to connect headphones to the receiver 14 for presentation of audio from the receiver 14 to a user through the headphones.
• the input port 268 may be connected via wire or wirelessly to a cable or satellite source of audio video content.
• the source may be a separate or integrated set top box, or a satellite receiver.
• the source may be a game console or disk player.
• the receiver 14 may further include one or more computer memories 270 such as disk-based or solid-state storage that are not transitory signals, in some cases embodied in the chassis of the receiver as standalone devices or as a personal video recording device (PVR) or video disk player either internal or external to the chassis of the receiver for playing back audio video (AV) programs or as removable memory media.
• the receiver 14 can include a position or location receiver 272 such as but not limited to a cellphone receiver, global positioning satellite (GPS) receiver, and/or altimeter that is configured to e.g. receive geographic position information from at least one satellite or cellphone tower and provide the information to the processor 266 and/or determine an altitude at which the receiver 14 is disposed in conjunction with the processor 266.
• GPS global positioning satellite
• altimeter that is configured to e.g. receive geographic position information from at least one satellite or cellphone tower and provide the information to the processor 266 and/or determine an altitude at which the receiver 14 is disposed in conjunction with the processor 266.
• another suitable position receiver other than
• the receiver 14 may include one or more cameras 274 that may include one or more of a thermal imaging camera, a digital camera such as a webcam, and/or a camera integrated into the receiver 14 and controllable by the processor 266 to gather pictures/images and/or video in accordance with present principles.
• a Bluetooth® transceiver 276 or other Near Field Communication (NFC) element for communication with other devices using Bluetooth® and/or NFC technology, respectively.
• NFC element can be a radio frequency identification (RFID) element.
• the receiver 14 may include one or more auxiliary sensors 278 (such as a motion sensor such as an accelerometer, gyroscope, cyclometer, or a magnetic sensor and combinations thereof), an infrared (IR) sensor for receiving IR commands from a remote control, an optical sensor, a speed and/or cadence sensor, a gesture sensor (for sensing gesture commands) and so on providing input to the processor 266.
• auxiliary sensors 278 such as a motion sensor such as an accelerometer, gyroscope, cyclometer, or a magnetic sensor and combinations thereof
• IR infrared
• An IR sensor 280 may be provided to receive commands from a wireless remote control.
• a battery (not shown) may be provided for powering the receiver 14.
• the companion device 16 may incorporate some or all of the elements shown in relation to the receiver 14 described above.
• the methods described herein may be implemented as software instructions executed by a processor, suitably configured application specific integrated circuits (ASIC) or field programmable gate array (FPGA) modules, or any other convenient manner as would be appreciated by those skilled in those art.
• ASIC application specific integrated circuits
• FPGA field programmable gate array
• the software instructions may be embodied in a non-transitory device such as a CD ROM or Flash drive.
• the software code instructions may alternatively be embodied in a transitory arrangement such as a radio or optical signal, or via a download over the Internet.
• a simplified digital TV system such as an ATSC 3.0 system is shown.
• a mobile or stationary digital TV receiver such as an ATSC 3.0 receiver 300 that may include any or all of the relevant components discussed above in relation to Figures 1 and 2 is located in a boundary region 302 between first and second ATSC 3.0 broadcast stations or assemblies 304, with signals from both broadcast stations 304 being picked up by the receiver 300 in the region 302.
• a first ATSC 3.0 service (“Service A”) is broadcast from the first broadcast station 304 over a first frequency 306, whereas the same service A or an equivalent service B is broadcast from the second broadcast station 304 over a second frequency 308 different from the first frequency 306.
• the receiver 300 picks up both frequencies, i.e., the receiver 300 picks up signals from both broadcast stations 304.
• Figure 4 illustrates an example non-limiting embodiment of a digital TV receiver such as an ATSC 3.0 receiver 400 that may include any or all of the relevant components discussed above in relation to Figures 1 and 2.
• the ATSC 3.0 receiver 400 may be a stationary receiver, e.g., a receiver located inside a home.
• the ATSC 3.0 receiver 400 may be a mobile receiver, e.g., as by being implemented in a mobile phone or being disposed in a moving vehicle.
• the example ATSC 3.0 receiver 400 shown in Figure 4 includes a tuner 402 sending signals to a demodulator 404 that the tuner picks up from one or more antennae 406.
• the receiver 400 includes one and only one tuner, one and only one demodulator, and one and only one antenna.
• Figure 5 illustrates an example non-limiting embodiment of a digital TV receiver such as an ATSC 3.0 receiver 500 that may include any or all of the relevant components discussed above in relation to Figures 1 and 2.
• the ATSC 3.0 receiver 500 may be a mobile receiver, e.g., as by being implemented in a mobile phone or being disposed in a moving vehicle.
• the ATSC 3.0 receiver 500 may be a stationary receiver, e.g., a receiver located inside a home.
• the example ATSC 3.0 receiver 500 shown in Figure 5 includes plural tuners 502 sending signals to respective demodulators 504 picked up by the tuners from one or more antennae 506.
• the ATSC 3.0 receiver 500 has two tuners and two demodulators, it being understood that the receiver may have a greater or lesser number of tuner/demodulators.
• the ATSC 3.0 receiver 500 has four antennae, it being understood that the receiver may have a greater or lesser number of antennae.
• the receiver 500 may have the capability to switch antennae input to the tuners, such that a first tuner may receive signals from, e.g., three antennae and a second tuner may receive signals from the fourth antenna, and then a switch may be made to swap antenna input between the tuners.
• Two antennae may provide input to each respective tuner. All four antennae may provide input to a single tuner. These and other antenna-tuner configurations can be changed on the fly during operation as needed.
• the antennae may be movable relative to the receiver.
• the quality metrics can include, e.g., signal to noise ratio (SNR) and error rate as may be represented by, e.g., packet error number (PEN).
• SNR signal to noise ratio
• PEN packet error number
• the quality metrics can include resolution, e.g., whether a service is in high definition (HD) or standard definition (SD).
• HD high definition
• SD standard definition
• the quality metric also can include bit-rate and form-factor, recognizing that not all HD is the same.
• the quality metrics can include content attributes such as whether a service supports foreign languages, accessibility signaling (e.g. where signing is being done), audio description, and other content aspects.
• the quality metrics can include locality preference (such as a first region channel being strong, but all the ads are for the first region and not a second region preferred by the user so that a duplicate service from the second region may be accorded preference over the first region).
• the quality metrics can include quality of user interfaces carried in the service.
• SNR may be determined during the scan by noting both the received signal strength of each received frequency and any accompanying noise on that frequency and determining the quotient thereof.
• Error rate may be determined by, e.g., determining a percentage of packets missed (by noting missing packet numbers) and/or by determining a percentage of received packets with errors in them as determined by error correction algorithms.
• Figure 6 illustrates logic executable by a transmitter such as an OTA transmitter or OTT transmitter to send services on one or more frequencies, including, in the example of Figure 6, service “A” on frequency “A”.
• a transmitter or another transmitter in the system also sends (“signals”) a service list of services and corresponding RF frequencies, e.g., in a service list table (SLT), as well as one or more duplicate services on different frequencies.
• SLT service list table
• Figure 7 illustrates receiver logic consistent with present principles.
• a first service carried on a first frequency (“A”) from a broadcaster is received and presented on an AV device.
• the receiver determines whether a duplicate, partial, equivalent, or preferred broadcast of the first service received on a different frequency (“B”), typically from a different transmitter when a boundary region is being traversed, has higher signal quality than the first frequency (A) using one or more of the quality metrics described herein for example, the receiver executes an automatic handoff of presenting the first service from frequency A to presenting that service as received on frequency B at block 704. Otherwise, the receiver continues presenting content from the first frequency (A) at block 700.
• condition for changing frequencies may include complete loss of the first signal (frequency) by the first tuner.
• condition for changing frequencies can include degradation of the first signal below a threshold.
• condition for changing frequencies includes quality of the second signal (frequency) surpassing quality of the first signal (frequency).
• FIGs 8-10 illustrate various conditional techniques for broadcaster application management pursuant to automatic service handoff from block 704 of Figure 7.
• Broadcaster applications typically are downloaded by ATSC 3.0 receivers from broadcasters using ROUTE/DASH or MMT to undertake various functions.
• a broadcaster application may include a downloaded collection of interrelated documents intended to run in the application environment and perform one or more functions, such as providing interactivity or targeted ad insertion.
• the documents of an application can include (but are not limited to) HTML, JavaScript, CSS, XML and multimedia files.
• An application can access other data that are not part of the application itself.
• a broadcaster application may distinguish itself from other applications by its ability to support localized interactivity with no broadband connectivity.
• a BA refers to the client-side functionality of the broader web application that provides the interactive service. The distinction is made because the broadcaster only transmits the client-side documents and code.
• State 800 is cast in decision flow format, it being understood that state logic equally may be used to indicate that Figure 8 applies to service handoffs from block 704 in which the existing (pre-handoff) BA (broadcaster application “A” in Figure 8) has the same context ID as the new (post-handoff) BA (broadcaster application “B” in Figure 8) when tuning from channel A to channel B is the result of an automated process. If this condition is not met, the logic of Figure 8 terminates at state 802. However, if the condition at state 800 is met, the logic moves to block 804 to notify the broadcaster application A that the service is changing. The broadcaster application A may continue to be executed at state 806 without interruption through and after the handoff the service to the new frequency.
• a context ID is a unique uniform resource identifier (URI) that is signaled in the broadcast and that determines which resources are provided to an associated broadcaster application by the receiver processor. Resources may be associated with multiple application context identifiers but a BA is only associated with a single context ID. Context IDs may be further specified in the HTML entry pages location description (HELD) portion of DASH-IF:
• HELD HTML entry pages location description
• Figure 9 illustrates another condition of an automatic service handoff.
• Figure 9 commences at state 900 and proceeds to block 902 in a second option or directly to decision diamond 904 in a first option (“options” mean “embodiments”).
• the BA associated with a first frequency A supplies and/or updates data to pass to a second (replacement) BA associated with a second frequency B.
• the logic moves to diamond 904 to determine whether the first and second BAs have been signaled as having both the same application context IDs and same uniform resource listing (URL). If they do, the logic ends at state 906 (essentially implicating the logic of Figure 8).
• the logic in the first option flows to block 908 to notify the first BA associated with frequency A that the frequency being tuned to is changing.
• a response is received from the first BA that includes data to pass to the second BA, i.e., the BA of the new (second) frequency B.
• the logic arrives at state 912 to terminate the first BA and then to launch the second BA at state 914.
• the application from the first BA is passed at block 916 to the second BA at block 916.
• the logic then ends at state 906.
• Figure 10 illustrates yet another condition for managing BAs during automatic service handoff.
• the existing BA (“A”) on the original frequency is notified of the impending handoff.
• the original BA (“A”) is notified that it must, or may (i.e., mandatory or optional) provide data to the receiver, which then provides that data at block 1004 to the second frequency broadcaster application (“B”).
• B the second frequency broadcaster application

Landscapes

• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Signal Processing (AREA)
• Multimedia (AREA)
• Databases & Information Systems (AREA)
• General Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Computer Networks & Wireless Communication (AREA)
• Circuits Of Receivers In General (AREA)
• Two-Way Televisions, Distribution Of Moving Picture Or The Like (AREA)
• Mobile Radio Communication Systems (AREA)

Applications Claiming Priority (3)

Publications (1)

Family

ID=83193332

Family Applications (1)

Country Status (4)

Citations (3)

Family Cites Families (6)

• 2022
  • 2022-08-05 EP EP22765205.4A patent/EP4371306A1/de active Pending
  • 2022-08-05 JP JP2024507161A patent/JP7699761B2/ja active Active
  • 2022-08-05 WO PCT/IB2022/057322 patent/WO2023012749A1/en not_active Ceased
  • 2022-08-05 KR KR1020237030362A patent/KR102809570B1/ko active Active

Patent Citations (3)

Non-Patent Citations (1)

Also Published As

Similar Documents

Legal Events