Patent ID: 8752104
Filing Date: 2014-06-10
Classification: G06F,H04H,H04N

Abstract:
1. A system for providing program material to a plurality of devices in an area via a communications network, the system comprising: a first processing device configured to: receive program content from a plurality of sources in the form of respective program streams to be provided to users in accordance with a first, broadcast service for sharing among devices in an area or a second, on demand service for exclusive use by a requesting device; reformat the program streams into first and second single program stream transport streams encoded at a constant bit rate, the first single program transport streams containing respective program material to be provided to devices in accordance with the first, broadcast service and the second single program stream transport streams to be provided in accordance with the second, on demand service; and store respective second single program stream transport streams to be provided in accordance with the second, on demand service, in a storage device as respective assets; and at least one mechanism configured to: integrate first single program stream transport streams into first multiple program stream transport streams; and provide the first multiple program stream transport streams to the area in accordance with the first, broadcast service via the network for sharing among devices in the area, each of the first single program stream transport streams being received by one or more devices in the area; wherein the system further comprises: at least one second processing device configured to: withhold provision of a respective first single program stream transport stream to the area if no devices in the area are to receive the respective first single program stream transport stream, thereby making available transmission capacity for a second single program stream transport stream to be provided to a device in the area in accordance with the second, on demand service; receive requests for program material associated with the second, on demand service, from respective devices in an area; and generate the second single program stream transport streams from the stored assets containing the requested program materials in accordance with the second, on demand service for exclusive use by respective requesting devices; wherein the at least one mechanism is further configured to: integrate at least one of the generated second single program stream transport streams with at least one first single program stream transport stream to be provided to the area in at least a portion of the transmission capacity made available by withholding provision of a respective first single program stream transport stream, to form second multiple program stream transport streams; and provide the second multiple program stream transport streams to the area.