JP2002218435A - Method and device for video distribution service - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To mange access to pay-per-view and pay channels, etc., being excellent in serviceability without preparing advance announcement and without managing preview time. SOLUTION: In this video distribution system, a low quality video stream and an enciphered high quality video stream having the same video contents are simultaneously distributed, the low quality video stream can be viewed as it is by any terminal, and meanwhile, the high quality video stream has to be decoded by a key to be viewed.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a video distribution service method for providing a video stream in a video distribution system and an apparatus therefor.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a video distribution system, when a video-on-demand service is provided, a viewer selects a viewing for each video content by watching a preview or a preview of the video content, and obtains a viewing permission. Video content can be viewed.

[0003]

However, in order to manage billing or the like in such a method, it is necessary for the video distribution system to manage which content is viewed or viewed for each viewing terminal. In addition, it is necessary to create a notice for each content to be provided, and it is necessary to manage the preview time.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to realize a video providing method which can manage pay-per-view and pay-channel access with excellent serviceability without creating a notice or managing a preview time. I have.

[0005]

According to the present invention, in a video distribution system, a low-quality video stream having the same video content and an encrypted high-quality video stream are simultaneously distributed, and only the low-quality video stream is transmitted. Makes viewing possible from any terminal, and makes it impossible to view high-quality video streams unless decoding with a key is performed.

[0006] In this manner, accounting management and the like for video-on-demand can be performed only by key management.

[0007] Further, since the low-quality video stream is distributed, there is no need to create a notice and there is no need to manage the preview time.

[0008]

(Embodiment 1) FIG. 1 shows a first embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining an example of FIG.

In FIG. 1, a video source server a,
A high-rate level video encoding device b, a low-rate level video encoding device c, a viewing management device d for video viewing, a video stream encryption device e, a key management device f, and a video viewing terminal g. Have been.

The video source 1 is passed to both the high-rate video encoder b and the low-rate video encoder c, and each device produces a high-quality video stream 2 and a low-quality video stream 3. . After the high-quality video stream 2 is encrypted by the video stream encryption device e using the key, the encrypted high-quality video stream 4 is delivered to the video viewing terminal g together with the low-quality video stream 3. The video stream encryption device e sends a key information notification 5 to the key management device f to deliver the encrypted key.

In the video viewing terminal g, only the low-quality video stream 3 can be freely viewed, and when the viewer desires to view the video content in a high-quality video, the key is transmitted from the video viewing terminal g. A key acquisition request 6 is issued to the management device f. Key management device f that has received key acquisition request 6
Sends a key distribution notification 7 to the video viewing terminal g to the viewing management device d that performs charge management, and then distributes a decryption key 8 in response to a key acquisition request to distribute a key to the video viewing terminal g.

The video viewing terminal g that has received the key performs a decoding process on the encrypted high quality video stream 4 and reproduces the high quality video stream 2.

The video stream encryption device e changes the encryption key at regular time intervals, and periodically changes and notifies the encryption key 9 to notify the key management device f of the change, The key management device f notifies the video viewing terminal g of the updated key, and periodically distributes the key 10 when viewing high-quality video. The video viewing terminal g performs the decoding process on the encrypted high-quality video stream 4 and reproduces the high-quality video stream 3 using the key updated at regular intervals.

When the viewer stops viewing the high-quality video stream 2, the video viewing terminal g issues a key distribution stop request 11 to the key management device f, and the reproduction of the high-quality video stream 2 is stopped. The key management device f that has received the key distribution stop request 11 sends the video viewing terminal g to the viewing management device d.
Of the key distribution stop notification 12 for.

(Embodiment 2) FIG. 2 is a view for explaining a second embodiment of the present invention.

In FIG. 2, a video source server a and
A high rate level video encoding device b, a low rate level video encoding device c, a viewing management device d for video viewing, a video stream encryption device e, a key management device f, a video distribution device h, a video viewing terminal g.

The video source 1 is passed to both the high-rate video encoder b and the low-rate video encoder c, and a high-quality video stream 2 and a low-quality video stream 3 are generated by the respective devices. You.
High quality video stream 2 is a video stream encryption device e
Then, the encrypted high-quality video stream 4 is transferred to the video distribution device h together with the low-quality video stream 3 after being encrypted using the key. The video stream encryption device e
The key management device f is notified of key information 5 for delivering the encrypted key.

The channel selection 6 is performed from the video viewing terminal g, the channel selection information is passed to the video distribution terminal h, and in response to the request, the video distribution device h sends the video stream 7 of the selected channel to the video viewing terminal g. .

In the video viewing terminal g, only the low-quality video stream 3 can be freely viewed. When the viewer desires to view the video content in a high-quality video, a key is transmitted from the video viewing terminal g. A key acquisition request 8 is sent to the management device f. Key management device f that has received key acquisition request 8
Sends a key distribution notification 9 to the video viewing terminal g to the viewing management device d that performs charging management, and then performs a decryption key distribution 10 in response to a key acquisition request to distribute the key to the video viewing terminal g. h, the distribution of the encrypted high-quality video stream 4 is performed.

The video viewing terminal g receiving the key performs a decoding process on the encrypted high quality video stream 4 and reproduces the high quality video stream 2.

Further, the video stream encryption device e changes the encryption key at regular intervals, and periodically changes and notifies the encryption key 11 to notify the key management device f of the change, The key management device f notifies the video viewing terminal g of the updated key, and periodically distributes the key 12 when viewing high-quality video. The video viewing terminal g performs the decoding process on the encrypted high-quality video stream 4 and reproduces the high-quality video stream 2 using the key updated at regular intervals.

When the viewer cancels the viewing of the high quality video stream 2, the video distribution terminal g issues a key distribution stop request 13 to the key management device f to stop the reproduction of the high quality video stream 2. The key management device f having received the key distribution stop request 13 sends the video viewing terminal g to the viewing management device d.
And a key distribution stop notification 14 is issued, and the encryption via the video distribution device h stops distribution of the high quality video stream 4.

In this embodiment, as compared with the first embodiment, only the requested video stream is distributed from the video distribution device h to the video viewing terminal g, so that the bandwidth during that period can be saved.

[0024]

As described above, in the conventional method, in order to manage the billing and the like, it is necessary for the video distribution system to manage which content is to be viewed for each viewing terminal, and to provide the content. Although it was necessary to create a notice for each content and to manage the preview time, according to the present invention, in a video distribution system, a low-quality video stream having the same video content and a By simultaneously distributing high-quality video streams and enabling low-quality video streams to be viewed freely, high-quality video streams cannot be viewed without decryption using a key, so video-on-demand only by key management , Etc. can be performed.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram for explaining a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a second embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 a: video source server b: high rate level video encoding device c: low rate level video encoding device d: viewing management device e: video stream encryption device f: key management device g: video viewing terminal

 ────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Kaoru Izutsu 2-3-1 Otemachi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation F-term (reference) 5C064 BA01 BB07 BC06 BC07 BC16 BC18 BC20 BD01 BD02 BD04 BD07 BD08

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A processing function for encoding a video at a high rate level, a processing function for encoding a video at a low rate level, a viewing management processing function for managing video viewing, a processing function for encrypting a video stream, Using a key management processing function for managing a key for decoding a video stream and a processing function for watching a video, a high quality obtained by a processing function for encoding a video at the high rate level for one video source. Using two types of video streams, a video stream and a low quality video stream obtained by the processing function of encoding video at the low rate level, and encrypting only the high quality video stream by the processing function of encrypting the video stream And then distribute the encrypted high-quality video stream and the unencrypted low-quality video stream. If the viewer desires to view in a high-quality video stream, a request to obtain a decryption key is sent from the processing function of viewing the video of the viewer to the key management processing function, A processing function of distributing a decryption key to the processing function of viewing the video from the key management processing function after notifying the viewer of the decoding key from the management processing function to the viewing management processing function, and viewing the video. Wherein the high-quality video stream is decrypted using the obtained decryption key, and the high-quality video stream is viewed. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein when encrypting a high-quality video stream in the processing function of encrypting the video stream, the encryption key is changed at regular intervals, and the content of the change is changed. And transmitting the updated decryption key to the processing function for viewing the video from the key management processing function. 3. A high rate level video encoding device,
A low-rate level video encoding device, a viewing management device that manages video viewing, a video stream encryption device, and a key management device that manages a key for video stream decryption.
With a video viewing terminal, two types of video streams are generated for one video source: a high-quality video stream by a high-rate video encoder and a low-quality video stream by a low-rate video encoder. The stream encryption device encrypts only the high-quality video stream, and then distributes both the encrypted high-quality video stream and the unencrypted low-quality video stream. If the user wishes to view the content in the above manner, the video viewing terminal of the viewer issues a request for obtaining a decryption key to the key management device, and the key management device notifies the viewing management device of the decryption key distribution to the viewer. The key management device distributes a decryption key to the video viewing terminal, and uses the decryption key obtained by the video viewing terminal to transmit a high-quality video stream. Performs decoding of stream, video distribution service device which is characterized in that the viewing of high-quality video stream. 4. The apparatus according to claim 3, wherein when encrypting the high-quality video stream in the video stream encryption device, the encryption key is changed at regular intervals, and the changed content is stored in the key management device. A video distribution service apparatus, wherein the key management apparatus distributes the updated decryption key to the video viewing terminal.