Patent ID: 8065708
Filing Date: 2011-11-22
Classification: H04N

Abstract:
1. In an information distribution system including provider equipment and subscriber equipment, said provider equipment communicating to said subscriber equipment information streams including content requested by said subscriber equipment, the provider equipment comprising: a session manager, coupled through a communication network to said subscriber equipment, for interacting with said subscriber equipment and maintaining a plurality of playlists created by subscribers in the information distribution system coupled to the provider equipment, wherein each playlist is associated with a respective subscriber and is created and controlled at said session manager by said subscriber using commands provided to the subscriber equipment by said subscriber, said subscriber equipment being in communication with said session manager to provide said commands to said session manager, said playlist defining a plurality of content streams to be provided to subscriber equipment of the subscriber associated with the playlist and identifying a location of content streams defined in the playlist and a location of auxiliary streams associated therewith, said auxiliary streams further including reverse and fast-forward streams associated with each one of said plurality of content streams defined in said playlist created by said subscriber, each content stream comprising a plurality of splicing entry and exit points dispersed therein to enable transitioning between said plurality of content streams, wherein said splicing entry and exit points are identified within transport packet headers of each one of said plurality of content streams; a server, coupled to the session manager, for storing said plurality of content streams at locations identified in the playlists, wherein said plurality of content streams are configured to facilitate inter-asset transition to provide seamless splicing; and a server controller, coupled to the server and session manager, for retrieving from said server, content streams defined by said playlist, said content streams being sequentially provided to said subscriber equipment according to said playlist created by said subscriber and in response to commands from said subscriber to play content streams associated with said playlist; wherein a copy of said playlist is remotely coupled within said information distribution system to the session manager; said server controller, in response to determining that a remaining portion of a current content stream provided to said subscriber equipment is below a threshold, communicating a termination notification to said session manager; said session manager, in response to receiving said termination notification, communicating a request to said server controller identifying from said playlist a next content stream to be provided to said subscriber equipment from the server; said session manager further maintaining said playlist after content streams defined by said playlist have been provided to said subscriber equipment and modifying said playlist and said copy of playlist in response to playlist modification commands received from said subscriber equipment in response to input from the subscriber, wherein a next content stream in said playlist is spliced at an entry point associated with an exit point of a current content stream being provided to said subscriber equipment.