902results about "Broadcast with distribution" patented technology

A method for entertaining individuals according to a community having similar tastes. Information derived from user accounts form the basis of a community and collateral preferences allow other subscribing individuals to enjoy the benefit of wider-ranging tastes according to the preferences expressed by the other members of the community. Additionally, assuming that individuals sharing one preference in common may be likely to share others, the present method allows those who choose to listen to the “fan station” the ability to enjoy similar music or other data streams according to preferences expressed by the fan community as a whole.

The present invention is applied to a system in which a distributing side has a video contents storing apparatus, an advertising contents storing apparatus, and a transmitting apparatus, and a viewing side has a set top box. When advertising contents are inserted into video contents, the video contents and the advertising contents are respectively and independently managed at a distributing side, and the advertising contents are selectively inserted into the video contents at the distributing side and the viewing side.

A data processing apparatus a data processing method efficiently ascertain that data are valid, prevent encryption processing key data from leaking, eliminate illegal use of contents data, restrict contents utilization, apply a different plurality of data formats to contents and efficiently execute reproduction processing of compressed data. The verification process of partial data is executed by collating the integrity partial data as check values for a combination of partial data of a content, and the verification process of the entirety of the combination of partial data is executed by collating partial-integrity-check-value-verifying integrity check values that verify the combination of the partial integrity check values. Master keys to generate individual keys necessary for a process of such as data encryption are stored in the storage section and keys are generated as required. An illegal device list is stored in the header information of a content and referred to when data is used. Keys specific to a data processing apparatus and common keys are stored and the keys are selectively used according to the content use restriction. Plural content blocks are coupled, and at least a part of the content blocks is applied to an encryption process by an encryption key Kcon, then encryption key data that is the encryption key Kcon encrypted by an encryption key Kdis is stored in the header section. A content data is made of compression data and an expansion processing program or a combination of types of compression programs and the reproducing apparatus can determine an expansion program applicable to a compressed content.

A unique method for providing entertainment to a portable device, such as a wireless communication device, is disclosed. The method includes steps of receiving location information related to said wireless communication device; providing challenges associated with a game to a user of a wireless communication; providing rewards in response to answers based upon the location of said wireless communication device. The method finds particular application in vehicles having telematics communications products.

A digital downloading jukebox system including a central server and a plurality of remote jukebox devices each provided with a local server that preferably mirrors the central server and enables selected songs to be immediately downloaded to the jukebox for reproduction. The local server and jukebox may also provide, through control of the central server, song download services to other jukebox devices. The jukebox system may also act as a monitoring / management device for other coin operated equipment present in a location where the jukebox is located, thereby enabling the jukebox device to perform updates on other equipment under control of the central server.

A Digital Home Communication Terminal (DHCT) including a plurality of tuners, each of which can select one of a plurality of transmission channels provided by a Digital Broadband Delivery System (DBDS). The multiple tuners enable the DHCT to tune to a plurality of downstream media and data transmissions, thereby allowing a subscriber to tune simultaneously to multiple channels and content transmitted in the downstream transmission via the DBDS, an advantage over conventional DHCTs. The present invention enables subscribers to receive and view multiple channels and associated content, including electronic program guide information, at will. Furthermore, using the multiple-tuner DHCT of the present invention, subscribers can view multiple television stations and program content simultaneously, without degradation to television signals or pictures.

A wireless communications network includes a reconfigurable array of access points for linking wireless devices in an infrastructure mode. One or more of the access points are mobile. The mobile access points in the network can be repositioned to change the geographic distribution of the bandwidth coverage provided by the wireless network. The mobile access points may be repositioned to redistribute available network bandwidth heterogeneously according to the demand for bandwidth in local areas and to meet quality of service standards.

A system and method for storing and retrieving program material for subsequent replay is disclosed. The method comprises the steps of receiving access control information and the program material encrypted according to a first encryption key, the access control information including the first encryption key and control data; further encrypting the access control information and the encrypted program material according to a second encryption key; encrypting the second encryption key according to a third encryption key to produce a fourth encryption key; and storing the encrypted access control information and encrypted program material and the fourth encryption key.

Methods and systems to efficiently share multiple satellites and associated transponders or links among a network of uplinking earth stations are disclosed. An embodiment of this invention uses a terrestrial communications link, such as the Internet, to control access to the transponder or satellite links. Communications over this link may employ a TCP / IP protocol to connect the requesting uplinking earth stations with a centralized controller. This control system creates more efficient use of satellite resources and reduces the overall amount of time needed for transmitting data through the satellite. By reducing the overall amount of time needed for transmitting data, the control system may reduce the cost of using the satellite transponder capacity.

A system employing an automated collaborative filtering process for recommending an item to a viewer based upon feedback data, implicit data, and / or explicit data corresponding to a primary viewer as well as secondary viewers is disclosed. A first act of the automated collaborative filtering process is to match data indicative of a viewing of a first group of items by the primary viewer to data indicative of a viewing of a second group of items by the secondary viewers. A second act of the automated collaborative filtering process is to generate a recommendation of the item by the primary viewer as a function of data indicative of one or more attributes of the item as compared to the data matching accomplished in the first act.

An electronic program guide for the radio (radio EPG) depicts radio programs available via the Internet or analog transmission. The radio EPG displays the programming available for a plurality of radio stations and time slots. The radio EPG is interactive in that a user may select a radio program for immediate playback or future recording. Radio programs are continuously received and cached by the Internet-enabled television system such that a user may be able to select and listen to an earlier-broadcast radio program listed in the radio EPG. The EPG is broadcast using a wireless technology so that mobile devices such as cellular phones, webpads, personal desktop assistants (PDA's), personal stereos, car stereos, and laptop computers with wireless network connections can receive and display the EPG.

A method (200, 400) and an apparatus (500) in a wireless communication system for communicating contents of a broadcast message are provided. A wireless portable communication device (104) receives an emergency status indicator associated with the broadcast message from a base station (102). Upon determining the broadcast message is an emergency message, the contents of the broadcast message are immediately communicated.

A method and system for creating, using, and managing a three-dimensional digital model of the physical environment combines outdoor terrain elevation and land-use information, building placements, heights and geometries of the interior structure of buildings, along with site-specific models of components that are distributed spatially within a physical environment. The present invention separately provides an asset management system that allows the integrated three-dimensional model of the outdoor, indoor, and distributed infrastructure equipment to communicate with and aggregate the information pertaining to actual physical components of the actual network, thereby providing a management system that can track the on-going performance, cost, maintenance history, and depreciation of multiple networks using the site-specific unified digital format.

An interleaving method and apparatus is disclosed for an in-band on-channel (IBOC) digital audio broadcasting (DAB) system. The disclosed interleaver method and apparatus utilize a convolutional interleaver having a row size equal to one OFDM symbol and a time span of arbitrary size. A structured memory block is utilized in the de-interleaver at the receiver having a row size of one OFDM symbol (the number of active sub-carriers in the applicable sub-band of the IBOC system). The self-synchronizing nature of the present invention permits a receiver in an OFDM-based IBOC system to sort the scrambled blocks and descramble the received symbols according to its own frame count, without regard to the frame count of the transmitter. The disclosed interleaver method and apparatus does not require interleaver synchronization between the transmitter and receiver. In one implementation, separate convolutional encoders and convolutional interleavers are applied to each sub-band in a multi-stream structure to provide independent error spreading for each sub-band.

A packet switch router that processes downstream digital information to provide dedicated bandwidth to each subscriber destination in a hybrid fiber coax (HFC) network. The router includes a network module that terminates a network connection, a switch that forwards data from the network module, and a channel module. The channel module includes a switch interface, a cell processing engine, one or more modulators, and a radio frequency (RF) transmitter network. The switch interface forwards packetized data from the switch to the cell processing engine. The cell processing engine organizes the packetized data into multiple data streams, encapsulates data in each data stream into data cells, and multiplexes the data cells into a multiplexed cell stream. Each modulator is configured to modulate a multiplexed cell stream into an analog signal. The RF transmitter network up converts and combines a plurality of analog signals into a combined electrical signal for transmission.

A digital video decoding system receives packetized video data representing programs conveyed on a plurality of video channels. The system includes a plurality of buffers for storing encoded video data representing images of video programs conveyed on a corresponding plurality of video channels. An individual buffer, corresponding to an individual video channel, stores sufficient encoded video data to prevent an underflow condition following switching to decode a program conveyed on the individual video channel. A processor initiates switching to decode a program conveyed on a selected one of the plurality of video channels in response to a user channel selection input. A decoder decodes encoded video data received from one of the plurality of buffers corresponding to the program conveyed on the selected video channel as determined by switching initiated by the processor. The decoder also predicts a next channel to be selected by a user based on, (a) predetermined user channel and program preference criteria, (b) predetermined user channel navigation patterns, or (c) user data entry device sensory data.

The present invention relates to a device for acquiring electronic program guide (EPG) data from a plurality of different EPG sources (120), and combining the acquired data to a single EPG (10). At regular intervals, EPG data is acquired from different sources (120), which may include the Internet (122), digital programming broadcasters, and teletext service providers (126). Equivalent program listings (40) within the acquired EPG data are identified, and the best information is selected from the equivalent program listings (40) to be included in the combined EPG (10). The present invention is able to identify equivalent program listings (40), even if the program titles are written in different languages or when the scheduled broadcast times differ to some extent. The resulting EPG (10) is more reliable and contains more information than any of the EPGs (10) associated with the original sources (120).

A spectrum manager and base station controller for a wireless radio access network allocates TV band white space to all TV band devices under its control using: an allocation policy; information pulled / pushed from a white space database, spectrum usage data supplied by a spectrum sensing engine, and information received from at least one other peer spectrum manager and base station controller for the wireless radio access network.

A screen display apparatus for controlling the size each display area to appropriately display content information of each display area into one display screen. The screen display apparatus includes a selection accept block for accepting selection of first content information displayed in a first display area, a content information acquisition block for acquiring the content information associated with the selected first content information, this content information being second content information located on a layer below the first content information, and, in order to allocate a second display area for displaying the second content information to the display screen, a display area control block for controlling either or both of the first display area and the second display area.

Interactive content preservation and customization technology is placed at the broadcast facility to ensure reliable transmission of the interactive content to a local subsystem. An interactive content code detector detects interactive content codes in the video stream at the broadcast facility. The interactive content code detector is placed in the transmission path before the video stream is transmitted to broadcast facility hardware that may strip out, destroy, corrupt or otherwise modify the interactive content and interactive content codes. Once an interactive content code detector detects a code, an interactive broadcast server determines what action to take, and instructs an data insertion unit accordingly. The interactive content codes or interactive content may be placed in a portion of the video that is guaranteed by the broadcast facility to be transmitted, for example, the closed caption region of the vertical blanking interval.

An apparatus, system method, and computer program product that combine the attributes of ALC and NORM for communicating data between devices on a network. A sending device uses multiple data rates on different channels to reliably send data packets and receivers use NACKs to request retransmission of missing or mangled data from the sending device or other receiving devices on the network. The sending device using an active ALC mechanism and the receiving devices use NACK and transmitting mechanisms for transmitting acknowledgements or data from the device. The sending and receiving devices can be located in the same or in different networks for communicating data packets during a data transmission session.

A method for entertaining individuals according to a community having similar tastes. Information derived from user accounts form the basis of a community and collateral preferences allow other subscribing individuals to enjoy the benefit of wider-ranging tastes according to the preferences expressed by the other members of the community. Additionally, assuming that individuals sharing one preference in common may be likely to share others, the present method allows those who choose to listen to the "fan station" the ability to enjoy similar music or other data streams according to preferences expressed by the fan community as a whole.

Establishing and controlling communication to and from a mobile terminal with multiple network interfaces that can be reached with one phone number via multiple networks. The mobile terminal simultaneously communicates with a central server over a cellular network and a WLAN to dynamically coordinate a preferred routing of a communication session with a partner node. The communication session is routed over whichever network is optimal at any given time, depending on a current location of the mobile device, current performance of each network, and other criteria. A new communication session is established through the central server to enable one number access to and from the mobile terminal. An ongoing communication session is continuously monitored to determine whether and when to perform a network handover. The mobile terminal obtains performance data regarding each network and arranges a network handover with the central server.

A broadcasting base station device transmits broadcast signals modulated by a hierarchical modulation scheme to a mobile terminal device. A hierarchical modulation setup section compares the reception quality of the broadcast signals at the location of the mobile terminal device to predetermined reference quality. Based on the result of the comparison, the hierarchical modulation setup section specifies a hierarchical modulation scheme. For example, the constellation in each quadrant is reduced or enlarged. Accordingly, the broadcasting base station device can transmit optimal broadcast signals that match with actual reception quality to each mobile terminal device.

A wireless communication system for a transportation vehicle such as, for example, an aircraft, bus, cruise ship, and train, is presented. The wireless communication system includes an information source containing data content including text, audio and video media, a plurality of wireless interfaces, a plurality of individually identifiable electronic devices coupled to the plurality of wireless interfaces and a wireless local area network (LAN) access point. The wireless LAN access point is coupled to the information source and wirelessly coupled to the plurality of wireless interfaces. In operation, the wireless LAN access point receives data content from the information source, converts the data content into a wireless transmission format and selectively distributes the formatted data content to the plurality of wireless interfaces such that the formatted data content is accessible by at least a selected one of the plurality of individually identifiable electronic devices.

The present invention is directed to notifying a mobile terminal, on a control channel MCCH and an indication channel MICH during a modification period, the presence of control information on the control channel MCCH during a subsequent modification period. Specifically, the mobile terminal subscribes to at least one point-to-multipoint service, receives first point-to-multipoint control information related to a first point-to-multipoint service on a point-to-multipoint control channel during a first modification period, and receives notification information on the point-to-multipoint control during the first modification period for indicating the presence of second point-to-multipoint control information related to a second point-to-multipoint service during a second modification period.

A communications system consisting of a server system that stores software applications, a broadcast system that broadcasts the software applications, and a multiplicity of portable clients that each include a receiver having a tuner that is selectively tunable to receive a selected one of the software applications broadcasted by the broadcast system. The portable clients can be any type of portable data communications device, such as a hand-held, palm-top, or notebook computing device, a PDA, an intelligent cellular phone, or any other personal multimedia appliance or Network Computer (NC). The broadcast system can be any suitable satellite or terrestrial air or cable broadcast system. The software applications can consist of a broad spectrum of different software applications, such as word processing, video games, spreadsheets, address books, calendars, and the like. Each of the portable data communications devices includes a receiver that has a tuner that is selectively tunable to receive a selected one of a plurality of software applications broadcasted by a broadcast system, a user-interface that enables a user to select one of the broadcasted software applications for downloading, a processor for executing the downloaded software applications, and a modem for establishing a two-way communications link with a network control system. The two-way communications link includes a forward channel over which the portable data communication device can transmit client data to the network control system, and a return channel over which the network control system can transmit system data to the portable data communication device. The client data can include requests for unrecoverable software application data and client software download request data.

A multiple recording device management system including an intermediate multiple recording device managing apparatus, a vehicle recording device mounted in a police vehicle and synced to the managing apparatus, and a personal recording device carried by a police officer and wirelessly synced to the managing apparatus. The managing apparatus is operable to detect when the vehicle recording device, personal recording device, or any other synced device in range has begun recording and to transmit a communication signal to any synced recording device in range indicating that the recording device should begin recording and to further transmit a time stamp to synced recording devices for corroborating recorded data.