KR20080029443A - Vod service system - Google Patents

Abstract

A VOD(Video On Demand) service system is provided to reduce a burden for processing a load according to distribution of files of a stage server. A stage server(205) encodes a content file and an advertisement file provided from a contents provider and an advertisement file provider and distributes them. A meta data DB(210) stores meta data information with respect to the contents file, the advertisement file and a commercialized contents file. A PGS(Playlist Generation Service) server(220) receives article identification information selected by a subscriber from a Web server(400), requests transmission of an advertisement contents list suitable for meta data information of the contents file having the received article identification information from an advertisement server(105), and dynamically generates a playlist of contents files including the advertisement contents list received in response to the request. A VOD server(225) stores the contents file, the advertisement file and the playlist, accesses a contents file and an advertisement file of an article selected by the subscriber, and transmits them in a real time streaming manner.

Description

VOD SERVICE SYSTEM

1 is an exemplary configuration of a VOD service system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

2 is an exemplary configuration of a playlist of a content file according to an embodiment of the present invention.

3 is a view for explaining a VOD stream transmission process according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The present invention relates to a video on demand (VOD) service system, and more particularly, to a VOD service system that dynamically generates an advertisement schedule and streams the selected content together with the selected content.

The development of information and communication and the nationwide penetration of the Internet has led to the launch of the so-called VOD (Video On Demand) service, which allows the receiver to decide the contents and time of broadcasting, away from the one-way service centered on the sender. In addition to replacing existing TVs and VCRs, VOD services are widely used in telemedicine, distance education, internet broadcasting, telecommuting, and home shopping.

Thanks to the advancement of high speed internet, multimedia file compression, and transmission technology, VOD streaming service, which is a real-time transmission method, is in the spotlight. Streaming service is a technology that reproduces voice, video, animation, etc. in real time on the Internet. Unlike streaming and downloading existing video files on a hard disk, the streaming service is a technology that plays in real time without downloading. Since this method does not store the image file on the hard disk, since the user cannot copy the file for other purposes, it is less likely to infringe the copyright of the image file, and thus it has been widely used in internet broadcasting sites.

As one of the related arts related to the VOD streaming service, there is a technology of providing an actual content in return for providing an advertisement content when providing a content service to a user in an Internet content service providing site. This is because the revenue model of the content service provider is not based on content provision but on advertising revenue.

 In more detail, the service provider provides the content for the advertisement of the advertiser and edits it into an appropriate file so that it can be used on the Internet. Add necessary data to the processed file and save it in DB server. When the user accesses the web server of the content service provider and selects the service content, the programmed advertisement content is retrieved and provided to the user. When the user views the advertisement content, a confirmation message is delivered to the web server, and the web server that receives the confirmation message accesses and provides the content actually selected by the user from the DB server.

In such a conventional VOD streaming service, it is not possible to expect the maximized advertisement delivery effect as the pre-programmed advertisement contents are provided without analyzing the user's propensity.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a VOD service system that can maximize the advertising effect by dynamically generating an advertisement schedule specific to the content and transmitting the advertisement content in real time with the content.

Furthermore, another object of the present invention is to provide a VOD service system that can reduce the load processing burden of a server that provides corresponding contents to a plurality of servers that stream content or advertisement content.

A VOD service system according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention for achieving the above object,

A metadata DB for storing metadata information about the content file, the advertisement file, and the commercialized content file;

A PDS server for delivering information about a commercialized content file to a web server;

Receives the product identification information selected by the subscriber from the web server, requests the advertisement server to transmit a list of advertisement contents corresponding to the metadata information of the content file having the received product identification information, and receives the advertisement in response to the request. At least one PGS server for dynamically generating a playlist of content files including a content list;

And at least one VOD server storing a content file, an advertisement file, and the playlist, and accessing the content file and the advertisement file of a product selected by the subscriber based on the stored playlist and transmitting the same to the real time stream.

As a modified embodiment, the system includes a stage server for encrypting and distributing respective content files and advertisement files provided from a content provider server and an advertisement file provider server to the VOD server;

And a product manager for registering a content file to be commercialized and generating metadata such as advertisement insertion position and length specification for the registered content file.

According to the configuration features as described above, the subscriber requests the advertisement server to send the advertisement content list corresponding to the content product selected by the web server, and edits the advertisement content list transmitted in response to the request with the corresponding content By creating one playlist, the VOD server can stream the advertisement file or content file based on the playlist, resulting in the propagation of dynamically assigned advertisements to subscribers, thereby maximizing the effectiveness of the advertisement. will be.

Furthermore, the stage server includes a plurality of deployment service modules for encrypting and distributing content files and advertisement files to different VOD servers, thereby reducing the load processing burden due to file distribution of the stage server. It can be expected to be effective.

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the following description of the present invention, if it is determined that a detailed description of related known functions or configurations may unnecessarily obscure the subject matter of the present invention, the detailed description thereof will be omitted.

First, FIG. 1 illustrates a configuration diagram of a VOD service system according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 illustrates a playlist diagram of a content file according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1 illustrates a configuration of a playlist generated by the playlist generation service (PGS) server 220 illustrated in FIG. 1.

As shown in FIG. 1, the VOD service system 200 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention basically includes a metadata DB 210, a PGS server 220, and a VOD server 225. The product may further include a product manager module 500 installed and executed on the server 205, the PDS server 215, and a manager computer.

The stage server 205 encrypts and groupes each content file and advertisement file provided from a media provider (MM) 100 and an AD (Advertisement) server 105 on a CP. Deploy to server 225. The stage server 205 includes a plurality of deployment service modules for encrypting and distributing content files and advertisement files to different VOD servers 225 in order to alleviate the load processing burden associated with file delivery. . The deployment service module creates a data session between the storage server and the designated VOD server through the FTP control session and transmits the content file and the advertisement file. For reference, the media manager is a program module installed and executed in the terminal of the CP side and used to register the content file and metadata of each content file in the VOD service system 200.

The metadata DB 210 stores metadata information about each of the content file provided by the CP, the advertisement file provided by the advertisement (AD) provider, and the commercialized content file. The 'commercialized content file' refers to a content file selected and commercialized by a content service provider among content files provided by CP.

The metadata information includes the product identification information of the commercialized content file, the content genre, the advertisement genre preferred by the corresponding content, the advertisement genre avoided by the corresponding content, the product type (premium, discount, free), service period, etc. , List information on the advertisement insertion position for each content. And further includes information such as an advertising agency, an advertiser, a title, a category, a length, and an advertisement type for the advertisement.

The PDS server 215 delivers the information about the content file commercialized by the PM 500, more specifically information such as a product name, a product type, a service period, etc. to the web server 400. . The transfer method can be delivered in XML format using FTP. In some cases, the PM 500 may directly transmit the information about the commercialized content file without the PDS server 215 to the web server 400.

For reference, product information of a commercialized content file is posted on a web server 400 that can be accessed by a subscriber, and a subscriber may select a content product that is to be serviced through the web server 400. When selecting a product, the identification information of the corresponding product is transmitted to the PGS server 220 which will be described later according to the HTTP method.

The PGS server 220 receives the product identification information selected by the subscriber from the web server 400 and transmits the advertisement content list corresponding to the metadata information of the content file having the received product identification information. In response to the request, a playlist of a content file including a list of advertisement contents received in response to the request is dynamically generated and transmitted to the VOD server 225 which will be described later.

For example, the PGS server 220 may include metadata, such as a content genre, an advertisement genre preferred by the corresponding content, and an advertisement genre avoided by the content, for the content file having the selected product identification information in the metadata DB 210. It accesses and transmits to the AD server 105, and repeatedly transmits the accessed metadata information based on the list information on the advertisement insertion position created for the selected content. For example, as shown in FIG. 2, when there are two advertisement insertion point (insertion position) candidates for one commercialized content, the PGS server 220 transmits two queries to the AD server 105, thereby providing two queries. Receives a list of advertisement contents once, and arranges each of the received advertisement contents list at the first and second advertisement insertion points to generate a playlist for the selected content file.

For reference, when there is a request for transmission of the advertisement contents list from the PGS server 220, the AD server 105 extracts one advertisement contents list corresponding to the length of the advertisement slot among the advertisements specialized for the selected contents. Send it to. The advertisement slot length is information stored in the metadata DB 210 and together with metadata such as content identification information when the query is made to the AD server 105, an advertisement genre preferred by the corresponding content, and an advertisement genre avoided by the corresponding content. Information that is sent.

The VOD server 225 stores the distributed content file, the advertisement file, and the playlist into folders, and accesses the content file and the advertisement file of the product selected by the subscriber based on the stored playlist, and transmits the contents file and the advertisement file in a real time stream. The VOD server 225 is managed by grouping a plurality of servers for simultaneous multiple access of subscribers, the VOD server 225 of each grouped to provide a service by storing different content files according to the popularity (selection frequency) do. In the case of highly selected content, the utilization rate is high, so that one storage device is occupied by the highest performing VOD server, and the low utilization content is stored on one storage device so that multiple VOD servers can be shared. It is desirable to group VOD servers.

As a module installed and executable on a manager computer, the product manager (PM) 500 registers information (metadata) about a content file to be commercialized by the operator's operation in the DB 210, and the registered content file. Metadata such as advertisement insertion position and advertisement slot length designation information are generated and stored in the metadata DB 210. In some cases, an operator may newly register metadata of a content product having a high selection frequency through the product manager (PM) 500 in the metadata DB 210. This is to relocate the content product with a high selection frequency, the information of the content product with a high selection frequency may be provided via the on-line, off-line to the PM 500 through the web server 400, VOD server 225. If the metadata DB 210 is periodically searched and the content file needs to be relocated according to the frequency of selection, the deployment service module first relocates the content products with high selection to the VOD server 225 having the highest performance. File relocation operations are managed by relocating and deleting content files or deleting existing files in the VOD server 225 having subpriority according to the selection frequency. The product manager 500 may be included as a component in the VOD service system 200 or may be located outside the system.

Hereinafter, an operation according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. 3, which illustrates a process of performing a VOD stream service based on a playlist dynamically generated according to a selected product.

Before describing an embodiment of the present invention, the metadata DB 210 includes metadata for each of the content file provided by CP, the advertisement file provided by the AD provider, and the content file commodified by the PM 500. Assume that information is stored. In the VOD server 225, it is assumed that the content file and the advertisement file commodified by the PM 500 are stored by the file distribution of the stage server 205.

Under these assumptions, when a subscriber first selects a specific product (meaning commodified content) through a web server 400 on which serviceable content information is posted, the ID information of the selected product according to the HTTP method is displayed in the PGS server 220. Is delivered in step 1. Then, the PGS server 220 transmits the received product ID to the metadata DB 210 and requests the transmission of metadata for the corresponding content (step 2).

In response to the request, metadata about the content, such as a content genre, an advertisement genre preferred by the content, and an advertisement genre avoided by the content, and metadata about the selected product (ad insertion position list and ad slot length) are received. (Step 3), the PGS server 220 transmits information such as the content genre / preferred ad genre / rejected (rejected) ad genre, ad slot length, etc. to each AD insertion position to the AD server 105 (4). Step) to request the transmission of the advertising content list.

In response to the request, the AD server 105 randomly extracts an advertisement list corresponding to the length of the advertisement slot among advertisements specialized in the content selected by the subscriber and delivers the advertisement list to one advertisement content ID list (step 5). give.

Then, the PGS server 220 generates one playlist by arranging a list of the advertisement content IDs received at the advertisement insertion positions created for the selected content (product). An example of such a playlist is shown in FIG. Referring to FIG. 2, content 1 is designed to be divided into 20-minute content 1-1 and content 1-2 to be stream-transmitted, and a 1-minute advertisement file is located in the first half of the content and is also 1 minute between contents. Is designed to locate an ad file. One minute corresponds to the length of the advertisement slot.

Therefore, the PGS server 220 places the first advertisement content ID list transmitted, that is, advertisement 1, advertisement 2, .. at the first advertisement insertion position, and the advertisement content ID list received by the second query. That is, advertisement 4, advertisement 5, .. are arranged at the second advertisement insertion position to generate a complete playlist, and the single file name 1234.wsx is commanded and transmitted to the VOD server 225 by FTP method (step 6). .

In addition, the PGS server 220 returns the URL information including the host name of the VOD server 225, the WMS public point name, and the playlist name to the web server 400 (step 7). As a result, the subscriber who has selected the product can access the VOD server 225 through the returned URL information, and as a result, the user can stream the content product selected by the subscriber.

In this case, the VOD server 225 transmits the content based on the playlist to the content product selected by the subscriber, but first accesses the ad file for 1 minute in order of advertisement 1 and advertisement 2 as illustrated in FIG. The stream is transmitted, followed by the stream transmission of the content 1-1 for 20 minutes, and the stream for the first minute of the advertisement file in the order of advertisement 4, advertisement 5,.

Accordingly, the subscriber can first watch the advertisement file specific to the content selected by the subscriber and then sequentially view the content selected by the subscriber. That is, according to the present invention, by dynamically generating an advertisement file specific to the content and transmitting it to the subscriber in real time, an advertisement effect superior to that of a general system for regularly distributing pre-programmed advertisements can be obtained.

In the above embodiment, the advertisement file is inserted into the front of the content and between the contents, and the stream is transmitted. However, the advertisement insertion position may be changed by PM, and the same advertisement file is inserted for the same content. Instead of inserting a randomly extracted advertisement file from the advertisement-specific advertisement list, the probability that the same advertisement is repeatedly inserted and transmitted for the same content will be very low.

As described above, the present invention requests the advertisement server to transmit the advertisement contents list corresponding to the content product selected by the subscriber through the web server, and edits the advertisement contents list transmitted in response to the request together with the corresponding contents to play a single play. By generating a list, the VOD server can stream an advertisement file or a content file based on the playlist, and as a result, can propagate advertisements which are dynamically allocated to subscribers in a random manner, thereby obtaining a propagation effect of various advertisement files. There is an advantage to that.

Furthermore, the stage server of the present invention includes a plurality of deployment service modules for encrypting and distributing content files and advertisement files to different VOD servers, thereby reducing the load processing burden caused by file distribution of the stage server. You can also expect effects.

Claims (6)

A stage server for encrypting and distributing respective content files and advertisement files provided from the content provider and the advertisement file provider; A metadata DB for storing metadata information about the content file, the advertisement file, and the commercialized content file; Receives the product identification information selected by the subscriber from the web server, requests the advertisement server to transmit a list of advertisement contents corresponding to the metadata information of the content file having the received product identification information, the advertisement received in response to the request At least one PGS server for dynamically generating a playlist of content files including a content list; At least one VOD server for storing a content file, an advertisement file, and the playlist, and accessing the content file and the advertisement file of a product selected by the subscriber based on the stored playlist and transmitting the same to the real time stream. Service system. The VOD service system of claim 1, further comprising: a PDS server for delivering information about a commercialized content file registered in the DB to a web server. The product manager according to claim 1 or 2, further comprising: a product manager for registering information on a content file to be commercialized in the DB, generating an advertisement insertion position and advertisement slot length designation information for the registered content file, and registering the information in the DB; VOD service system characterized in that it further comprises. The VOD service system of claim 3, wherein the stage server comprises a plurality of deployment service modules configured to encrypt and distribute a content file and an advertisement file to different VOD servers. The VOD service system of claim 4, wherein the deployment service module generates a data session between the storage server and the designated VOD server through an FTP control session and transmits a content file and an advertisement file. The VOD service system of claim 4, wherein the deployment service module redistributes content files to different VOD servers according to content selection frequency.

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