WO2016032033A1

WO2016032033A1 - Cloud-based 4k uhd content streaming device and method

Info

Publication number: WO2016032033A1
Application number: PCT/KR2014/008090
Authority: WO
Inventors: 이윤주; 박우출
Original assignee: 전자부품연구원
Priority date: 2014-08-29
Filing date: 2014-08-29
Publication date: 2016-03-03

Abstract

A content streaming device and method is disclosed. A content streaming device according to an aspect of the present invention comprises: a scalable codec for generating a UHD content of a first standard from an original UHD content by performing distributed processing of high efficiency video coding; a transcoding engine for generating multiple types of contents by performing distributed processing of transcoding for the original UHD content; and a streaming service unit for streaming one of the UHD content of the first standard and the multiple types of contents by considering the capability of a terminal and the conditions of a network to which the terminal is connected.

Description

Cloud-based 4ＫＫHD content streaming device and method

The present invention relates to a content distribution technology, and more particularly, to a content streaming apparatus and method that can provide content to a variety of terminals.

More than a decade after HDTV became commercially available, new demands on TVs have emerged.

As part of this, the Ministry of Futures announced a roadmap for broadcasting technology to announce support for the activation of UHD broadcasting and 3D broadcasting in April last year.In fact, cable TV began UHD broadcasting in the world for the first time in April this year, and terrestrial broadcasting stations also launched 3D broadcasting. Partially provided.

Accordingly, smart TVs or mobile devices supporting 4 / 16K UHD content have been released, and interest in UHD content service is increasing.

However, even when viewing only 4K UHD (2160P) content, the amount of data is more than four times that of Full HD (1080P) content, and if it is not compressed, its data size is about 25MB per frame. Will need four times more.

Generally, progressive download (streaming) streaming is widely used for Internet-based media streaming services, which utilizes the user network to the maximum available value for stable service, resulting in traffic consumption and inefficient content. Was sent.

The present invention has been made in the technical background as described above, and an object thereof is to provide a content streaming apparatus and method capable of streaming high-definition content in real time.

The object of the present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned object, and other objects that are not mentioned will be clearly understood by those skilled in the art from the following description.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a content streaming device including: a scalable codec for distributing high efficiency video coding (HEVC) based scalable coding to generate UHD content of a first standard from original UHD content; A transcoding engine configured to distribute transcoding of the UHD original content to generate a plurality of types of content; And a streaming service unit configured to stream one of the UHD contents of the first standard and the plurality of types of contents in consideration of performance of the terminal and a network situation connected to the terminal.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a content streaming method by a content streaming device, the method comprising: determining a content encoding method in consideration of at least one of a performance of a terminal requesting content streaming and a network situation; If the determined encoding method is HEVC (High Efficiency Video Coding) based scalable coding, generating UHD content of a first standard by distributing HEVC based scalable coding with respect to UHD original content; If the determined encoding method is transcoding, distributed transcoding of the UHD original content to generate a predetermined type of content in consideration of the performance and network conditions of the terminal; And streaming the UHD content of the first standard or the content of the predetermined type to the terminal, wherein the generating is performed in real time.

According to the present invention, high quality content can be streamed in real time.

1 is a block diagram showing a content streaming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

2 is a flowchart illustrating a content streaming method according to another embodiment of the present invention.

Advantages and features of the present invention and methods for achieving them will be apparent with reference to the embodiments described below in detail with the accompanying drawings. However, the present invention is not limited to the embodiments disclosed below, but may be implemented in various forms. It is provided to fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art, the invention being defined only by the scope of the claims. Meanwhile, the terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the invention. In this specification, the singular also includes the plural unless specifically stated otherwise in the phrase. As used herein, “comprises” and / or “comprising” refers to a component, step, operation and / or device that is present in one or more other components, steps, operations and / or elements. Or does not exclude additions.

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a content streaming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 1, the content streaming apparatus 10 according to an embodiment of the present invention may include an original storage 1100, a scalable codec 1200, a transcoding engine 1300, a cycle manager 1400, and a streaming device. The service unit 1500 is included. Here, the content streaming apparatus 10 may not be provided with the original storage 1100, but may receive original content from a storage provided in a broadcasting station that provides the content.

The original storage 1100 stores UHD original content.

The scalable codec 1200 performs scalable video coding based on High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) based on UHD original content to generate UHD content of H.265 standard. Here, the UHD original content may be 4K, 8K, or 16K UHD content.

Specifically, the scalable codec 1200 converts UHD original content into UHD content of H.265 standard as HEVC-based scalable video coding is performed. In this case, the scalable coded UHD content may be played by a terminal such as a TV, a PC, a PDA, or a phone. Of course, the terminal is provided with a scalable decoder of the H.265 standard, it is an example of the case that can reproduce the content encoded by the scalable coding.

Here, scalable video coding is an encoding method for converting a format so that one content can be used variably according to a service type. For example, in the past, a content encoding for high definition television (HDTV) required separate encoding to be used in DMB. However, using scalable video coding (SVC), not only HDTV but also digital standard television (SDTV) or digital It can also be used in multimedia broadcasting (DMB). In this case, spatial scalability or temporal scalability techniques may be applied.

The HEVC-based coding (compression) standard has been criticized for providing about the same video quality while having about twice the compression rate compared to the conventional H.264 / MPEG-4 Advanced Video Coding (AVC) technology. Therefore, in the present invention, it is possible to reduce the network bandwidth required for transmission and reception by increasing the compression rate.

The scalable codec 1200 according to an embodiment of the present invention distributes scalable coding of original content in real time. Accordingly, in the present invention, as HEVC-based encoding is distributed, it is possible to prepare for the load while performing HEVC-based high-efficiency encoding. In addition, the present invention can overcome the interruption of the streaming process by performing scalable coding to adjust the transmission data capacity by adjusting the resolution of the content according to network conditions.

In this case, the scalable codec 1200 may perform HEVC-based scalable coding in real time when streaming of UHD original content is requested from a terminal that wants to receive the content.

In this case, distributed scalable coding may be distributed scalable encoding of content to be provided to one terminal among at least one terminal. In addition, during distributed scalable encoding of content to be provided to one terminal, distributed scalable encoding of content to be provided to another terminal, that is, distributed scalable encoding of content to be provided to a plurality of terminals, respectively.

The transcoding engine 1300 distributes and transcodes the UHD original content to process, convert, and select the UHD original content to suit each network bandwidth, terminal characteristics, and performance. Transcoded content can be commonly used in different networks, resolutions, processor capabilities, user interfaces, and the like.

As an example, the transcoding engine 1300 adjusts the resolution according to the transcoding of the UHD original content to generate FHD (Full HD) content, HD (High Definition) content, and SD (Standard Definition) content.

When the transcoding engine 1300 is requested to stream UHD original content from at least one terminal, the transcoding engine 1300 determines the type of content to be transmitted to the at least one terminal in consideration of at least one of the performance of the terminal and the network situation. According to distributed transcoding of UHD original content in the form of content in real time, a content of a determined form may be generated.

The transcoding engine 1300 may distribute transcode the UHD original content using a Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS) and a MapReduce Framework. As such, in the present invention, distributed transcoding can be performed to solve the load weighting caused by an increase in the amount of computation during high-efficiency encoding.

Here, distributed transcoding may be distributed transcoding of content to be provided to one terminal among at least one terminal. In addition, during distributed transcoding of content to be provided to one terminal, distributed transcoding of content to be provided to another terminal, that is, distributed transcoding of content to be provided to a plurality of terminals, respectively.

The cycle manager 1400 manages the life cycle of content such as content acquisition, distribution, or statistical analysis in the process of delivering the UHD original content from the original storage 1100 to the media server 30. Here, the statistical analysis may be statistics on a result of serving the content.

As an example, the cycle manager 1400 records a content name, a request date, and the like when content streaming is requested from at least one terminal, and a distribution date and type of the distributed content when the content is streamed to at least one terminal. Form) and the like, and the number of times the specific content is distributed, the type of the content distributed to the specific terminal, and the like.

The streaming service unit 1500 controls transport traffic and optimizes data input / output of high bandwidth among transport traffic by a plurality of distributed storage and hierarchical caching techniques.

In detail, the streaming service unit 1500 may check a network situation for transmitting content and adjust the resolution of scalable coded content according to the network condition. For example, when the network conditions are good, UHD content can be transmitted. When the network conditions deteriorate, FHD, HD, and SD content can be transmitted according to the deteriorated situation.

In this case, the streaming service unit 1500 may stream the stored content using MPEG DASH technology, which is an HTTP-based streaming protocol considering the network bandwidth state of the Internet. Accordingly, in the present invention, the quality of service can be guaranteed by appropriately streaming content suitable for the user's network environment.

As described above, according to an embodiment of the present invention, in transmitting the encoded content to multiple terminals under various network environments through real-time distributed processing on encoding, it is possible to overcome a disconnection due to an initial delay time and a change in network bandwidth. .

Meanwhile, an embodiment of the present invention may be applied to a marketplace service for UHD broadcasting content distribution, UHD content internet streaming service, and terrestrial UHD content broadcasting workflow application service, thereby increasing service satisfaction using UHD content.

Hereinafter, a content streaming method according to another embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. 2. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a content streaming method according to another embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 2, the device 10 checks whether a content streaming request is received from at least one terminal (S210).

The apparatus 10 determines a content encoding method in consideration of at least one of a performance and a network condition of a terminal (hereinafter, referred to as a “first terminal”) that transmits a request (S220).

If the determined encoding method is HEVC (High Efficiency Video Coding) -based scalable coding (YES in S230), the apparatus 10 distributes HEVC-based scalable coding to UHD original content to distribute UHD content of the first standard. It generates (S240). Here, the UHD content of the first standard may be UHD content of the H.265 standard.

If the determined encoding method is transcoding, the apparatus 10 determines a content format to be encoded in consideration of at least one of the performance of the first terminal and the network situation (S250).

For example, when the device 10 checks the playback performance of the first terminal and confirms that the resolution that can be played by the first terminal is FHD, the device 10 generates FHD content from the UHD original content by distributed transcoding of the UHD original content. .

The apparatus 10 generates content of the content format determined by distributed transcoding of the UHD original content (S260). In this case, the device 10 may use the Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS) and the MapReduce Framework to distribute and transcode the UHD original content.

The device 10 streams the UHD content of the first standard or the content of a predetermined encoding form to the first terminal (S270). At this time, the device 10 may change the resolution of the UHD content of the first standard in response to the network situation, and transmit the content of the changed resolution to the first terminal.

As described above, the embodiment of the present invention can support 4K UHD content streaming service in a multi-terminal such as a TV, a phone, a pad by supporting multi-format encoding.

Furthermore, embodiments of the present invention can reduce encoding speed degradation while performing high efficiency encoding by performing parallel / distribution processing of 4K UHD content in real time. In addition, the embodiment of the present invention can overcome the interruption due to the change in the initial delay time and the network bandwidth in transmitting the encoded content through the real-time distributed processing to the multi-type terminal in various network environments.

In addition, the embodiment of the present invention can optimize the distribution of UHD content by utilizing the cloud back-end infrastructure by applying the adaptive streaming technology.

In the above, the configuration of the present invention has been described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, which are merely examples, and those skilled in the art to which the present invention pertains various modifications and changes within the scope of the technical idea of the present invention. Of course this is possible. Therefore, the protection scope of the present invention should not be limited to the above-described embodiment but should be defined by the following claims.

Claims

A scalable codec for distributing scalable coding based on HEVC (High Efficiency Video Coding) to generate UHD content of a first standard from UHD original content;

A transcoding engine configured to distribute transcoding of the UHD original content to generate a plurality of types of content; And

Streaming service unit for streaming one of the UHD content of the first standard and the plurality of types of content in consideration of the performance of the terminal and the network situation connected to the terminal

Content streaming device comprising a.
The method of claim 1, wherein the scalable codec,

When the streaming for the UHD original content is requested from the terminal, the content streaming device to perform the HEVC-based scalable coding in real time.
The method of claim 1, wherein the transcoding engine,

Content transcoding device for distributed transcoding of the UHD original content using a Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS) and MapReduce Framework (MapReduce Framework).
The method of claim 1, wherein the transcoding engine,

When the streaming for the UHD original content is requested from the terminal, the type of the content to be transmitted to the terminal is determined in consideration of at least one of the performance of the terminal and the network situation, and the type of the content in which the UHD original content is determined. Content streaming device for distributed transcoding in real time.
The method of claim 1,

Cycle management unit for managing the acquisition, distribution and statistical analysis of the UHD original content

Content streaming device further comprising.
As a content streaming method by a content streaming device,

Determining a content encoding method in consideration of at least one of a performance of a terminal requesting content streaming and a network situation;

If the determined encoding method is HEVC (High Efficiency Video Coding) based scalable coding, generating UHD content of a first standard by distributing HEVC based scalable coding with respect to UHD original content;

If the determined encoding method is transcoding, distributed transcoding of the UHD original content to generate a predetermined type of content in consideration of the performance and network conditions of the terminal; And

Streaming the UHD content of the first standard or the content of the predetermined type to the terminal,

Wherein each generating step is performed in real time.