Patent ID: 9668030
Date: 2017-05-30
CPC Classifications: G06Q,H04N

Claim:
1. A communications system configured to synchronize interactive content with linear advertisements, comprising: a traffic module, executing on at least one processor, configured to generate advertisement schedule information for linear advertisements on one or more channels of the communications system, wherein the advertisement schedule information defines one or more scheduling windows of time, each window having a window start time and a window duration, each window specifying one or more advertising slots having unknown start times, each advertising slot being specified by an index; an automation module, executing on the at least one processor, communicatively coupled to the traffic module and configured to detect one or more cue messages in a real-time media stream being transmit over a broadcast network, each cue message indicating a respective start time and a respective index of a respective slot in the real-time media stream for one or more respective linear advertisements, and to forward information about the one or more cue messages; an interactivity production module, executing on the at least one processor, communicatively coupled to the traffic module and the automation module and configured to receive the advertisement schedule information from the traffic module, to present an operator interface through which the interactive content is associated with the one or more advertising slots at an offset defined in the advertisement schedule information, to receive the information about the one or more cue messages from the automation module, and the interactivity production module further configured to synchronize activation of the interactive content with the one or more linear advertisements in the real-time media stream played on a receiving mobile device by determining which one of the advertising slots in one of the scheduling windows defined in the advertisement schedule information corresponds with the respective start time and the respective index of the respective slot indicated by a respective cue message, calculating a start time for an interactivity event of the interactive content associated with the determined advertising slot based on the respective start time indicated by the respective cue message and the offset identified in the advertising schedule information for the interactive content, and generating an activation message with the start time for the interactivity event in response to calculating the start time for the interactivity event; and an interactivity server, executing on the at least one processor, communicatively coupled to the interactivity production module and configured to receive the activation message from the interactivity production module, and the interactivity server further configured to synchronize the activation of the interactive content with the one or more linear advertisements in the real-time media stream played on the receiving mobile device by calculating an updated start time for the interactivity event by adjusting the start time in the activation message with an added media delay associated with transmission of the real-time media stream over a mobile broadcast network to the receiving mobile device, modifying the activation message in response to calculating the updated start time for the interactivity event of the interactive content to replace the start time for the interactivity event with the updated start time to trigger activation of the interactive content on the receiving mobile device in synchronization with the one or more linear advertisements in the real-time media stream delivered over the broadcast network and played on the receiving mobile device, and transmitting the activation message over the broadcast network that activates the interactive content on the receiving mobile device at the updated start time, wherein the receiving mobile device is configured to receive the activation message transmitted over the broadcast network and activate the interactive content at the updated start time included in the activation message.