Abstract:
A system and method allow an Internet user to act as a broadcast session conductor by assembling audiovisual information in a multimedia document, and broadcasting that information to a predetermined group for simultaneous viewing. During the network broadcast, members of the predetermined group can interact with the Internet conductor using a standard telephone or other audio connection. The broadcast information may be used for such sessions as on-line training/teaching seminars, telemarketing, teleshopping and other multimedia events.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0001]    1. Field of Invention  
           [0002]    The invention relates to network communications, and more particularly to a system which allows a user to prepare and broadcast information over the Internet to an audience of individuals, simultaneously.  
           [0003]    2. Description of Related Art  
           [0004]    Today, most information on a network such as the Internet is accessed in a passive manner, from the standpoint of the information source. That is, a user at a personal computer typically accesses the Internet through a dial-up service provider, and uses browsing software to “pull” information from Internet servers for viewing. Although commercial utilities and services are available which “push” information from the server side to subscribing users, they usually deliver the information for passive or off-line viewing.  
           [0005]    In addition, most existing Internet access systems are designed only for one-to-one communications. That is, Internet users commonly communicate with web sites and receive information directly from web servers on a purely one-to-one basis. Thus, new technology is desirable to expand Internet communication techniques beyond simple one-to-one, passive types of communication.  
         SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0006]    The invention relates to a system and method for network communications which permit a network user such as an Internet user, acting as a session conductor, to broadcast in real time an interactive presentation to a predetermined group of users across the World Wide Web. The system and method of the invention allow the session conductor to retrieve information from network databases or other sources in real time and use that information to present a multimedia broadcast session. The session conductor directs the system to forward the multimedia session to the session audience at a designated time. Members of the session audience may choose to follow the presentation passively or actively participate in the presentation through a multimedia bridge.  
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0007]    The invention will be described with reference to the following figures, in which like numerals refer to like elements, and wherein:  
         [0008]    [0008]FIG. 1 shows a communications network adapted to broadcast information according to the invention;  
         [0009]    [0009]FIG. 2 shows a conductor terminal of FIG. 1;  
         [0010]    [0010]FIG. 3 shows a client terminal of FIG. 1;  
         [0011]    [0011]FIG. 4 shows components of a broadcast device; and  
         [0012]    [0012]FIGS. 5 and 6 show flowcharts of a broadcast process according to the invention. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS  
       [0013]    [0013]FIG. 1 illustrates an embodiment of a network communication system  10  according to the invention. The network communication system  10  is in general a distributed, multiply linked system incorporating a variety of communication interfaces and connections of varying bandwidth. The system includes at least one conductor terminal  101 , client terminals  103  and  104 , and a Broadcast World Wide Web Service (BWS) Center  100  of which the major functions include the storage, formatting, scheduling, and transmission of a multimedia session to a desired audience of the client terminals.  
         [0014]    Conductor terminal  101  and client terminals  103  and  104  can, for instance, be personal computers or workstations running under Windows, Unix or other commonly available operating systems. Client terminals  104  can also be other devices such as a DirecTV™ receiver or a WebTV unit. The client terminals  103  and  104  are coupled, directly or indirectly, to a network  102 . Network  102  may be the Internet, or privately subscribed intranets or other communications networks. The client terminal  103  may be coupled to network  102  by conventional dial-up modem interfaces, for instance TCP/IP/PPP or other protocols known in the art. Remote servers  105  connected to network  102  over link  319  provide storage of and access to databases containing multimedia information.  
         [0015]    A user, acting as session conductor, logs onto and operates the conductor terminal  101 , as shown in FIG. 4, to access and edit multimedia information for a session using a multimedia authoring tool  306 , such as the commercially available Macromedia Director software. The multimedia information to be used in a broadcast session may be created locally and stored in multimedia database  309  or drawn from the remote servers  105  over network  102 , or imported from floppy drives, compact disks (CD), or other portable storage. The multimedia information may include text, graphical, video, audio or other information according to MPEG (Motion Pictures Experts Group), QuickTime, ActiveDesk or other standards known in the art, in which content may be connected by embedded hyperlinks for easy traversing. As noted, the multimedia information assembled for a broadcast session may be physically stored in multimedia database  309  or, alternatively, the BWS center  100  may contain pointers in local storage  312  within local servers  307  to locations where the multimedia information pieces are stored, either in the multimedia database  309  or remote servers  105 .  
         [0016]    The BWS Center  100  is illustratively linked directly to the client terminals  104  through a broadcast medium  310 , which may be satellite transmission, cable television (CATV), wireless CATV, terrestrial television, ISDN, AD SL, fiber optic connections or any other medium that can reach multiple receivers simultaneously, preferably with high bandwidth. The BWS Center  100  is connected to network  102  over link  314 , which can also be a conventional dial-up connection or a more robust digital channel, such as a T 1  or T 3  line. The BWS Center  100  also connects to the public switched telephone network (PSTN)  207  using conventional telephone connections  316 . The client terminals  103  are not connected to BWS Center  100  directly, but rather to network  102  over connections  320 , which may also be conventional dial-up connections or through modem connections to the telephone network  207 , Internet Source Providers (ISP, not shown), and network  102 , for example.  
         [0017]    The client terminals  104 , BWS Center  100 , the conductor terminal  101 , and the telephone operator stations  209  (but not client terminals  103 ) are all also illustratively coupled to the telephone network. It will be appreciated by persons skilled in the art that adaptations of the distributed architecture of FIG. 1, as well as other configurations of transmission links, will be possible.  
         [0018]    The session conductor prepares a multimedia broadcast by using the multimedia authoring tool  306  to create, retrieve, or edit audio, video and text information from the local servers  307  or remote servers  105 . The resulting assembled multimedia information is stored in the presentation server  312 , to be retrieved and broadcast to the client terminals  103  and  104  as part of a multimedia session at a later, specified time through the communication server  308 . For the client terminals  103 ,  104  which can only decode MPEG-2 bitstreams and do not have HTML processing capabilities, e.g. DirecTV set-top boxes, the communication server  308  will transcode the presentation of HTML pages into MPEG-2 format and push the resulting MPEG-2 bitstreams to the broadcast channels  310 . For the client terminals  103 ,  104  which can directly act on HTML, the communication server  308  will function as a networking device, e.g. a router, that forwards the session information transparent to client terminal  103  through WAN interface  301  and to client terminal  104  through broadcast channels  310 . The log-on process of the conductor and the scheduling and transmission of a broadcast session are controlled by the controller  303 .  
         [0019]    The client terminals  104  can receive the broadcast session directly from BWS Center  100  at the time specified by the session conductor. At the specified time, the session conductor logs on to the BWS Center  100  through the conductor terminal  101  over link  318 . The session conductor communicates commands over the network  102  to the BWS Center  100  to transmit or “push” the multimedia content to the group of client terminals  103  and  104 , which form the session audience. The BWS Center  100  transmits the multimedia session to client terminals  104  directly over broadcast channels  310 , and to client terminals  103  through link  314  to the network  102  and then through links  320 . The client terminals  103  and  104  may incorporate conventional television circuitry or a receiver capable of receiving a digital television signal. The BWS Center  100  broadcasts both digital and analog signals, if both analog and digital receivers are present. The session audience receives the audiovisual content of the transmitted session on their associated terminals, and may also engage in audio interaction with the session conductor or an operator associated with the session conductor during transmission. Audio interaction may be by using streamed Real Audio or other known sound transmission techniques over network  102 , or through direct telephone connection over telephone network  207 . (Though not shown, users of client terminals  103  may also use a conventional telephone.)  
         [0020]    [0020]FIG. 2 shows the conductor terminal  101  in more detail. The client terminals  103  are configured similarly to the conductor terminal  101 . An interface  222  receives signals from and transmits signals to the network  102 . The interface  222  is coupled to a conductor session terminal  201 . The conductor session terminal  201  can also be a general purpose computer such as a personal computer, a workstation, or any other communication device capable of interacting with the network  102 , illustratively including keyboard  220  and mouse  223  to receive graphically oriented input. The conductor session terminal  201  processes the received multimedia information and displays it on the display  221 . The conductor session terminal  201  also transmits commands and data queries to the network  102  and from there to the BWS Center  100 . The conductor session terminal  201  may also connect to the telephone network  207  through the local exchange carrier  206 .  
         [0021]    [0021]FIG. 3 shows an exemplary client terminal  104  in more detail. In the configuration illustrated in FIG. 3, the broadcast session is encoded in MPEG-2 format, for example. An interface  214  receives the broadcast session signals. The interface  214  may be an antenna capable of receiving MPEG-2 signals (e.g., digital television signals broadcast by DirecTV™). The broadcast session signals are then sent to a receiver  204 , which converts the digital signal to an analog video signal, in turn sent to a display  215 . The display  215  may be a television or VGA monitor, for example. Alternatively, the digital signals may be used directly by a digital (HDTV or other) television.  
         [0022]    The client terminal  104  includes a telephone  205  that is coupled over link  322  to the local exchange carrier  206  and thence to the telephone network  207 . A person operating the client terminal  104  is also able to provide interactive audio communication with the session conductor using telephone  205 .  
         [0023]    [0023]FIG. 4 illustrates a block diagram of the BWS Center  100 . The BWS Center  100  includes a data network interface  301 , a memory  302 , an audio bridge  304 , a telephone network interface  305 , a multimedia authoring tool  306 , a multimedia on-demand database (MMOD)  309 , a communication server  308  and local storage  312 . The various components of the BWS Center  100  are all coupled to a data bus  300  and controlled by a controller  303 .  
         [0024]    The data network interface  301  receives a request from the session conductor to initiate a broadcast session. The session conductor uses the multimedia authoring tool  306  to create and edit multimedia documents. The multimedia documents are initially stored in the memory  302 . Once the session conductor identifies the specific multimedia documents to assemble and present, the identified multimedia documents are loaded into the MMOD  309  which may be stored in local storage  312 . The broadcast interface  308  broadcasts a data signal corresponding to the session conductor&#39;s multimedia presentation, retrieved from MMOD  309 . If the telephone network interface  305  receives a request from the telephone network  207  to establish an audio link, the audio bridge  304  will forward a signal through the telephone network interface  305  to the telephone network  207 , instructing the telephone network  207  to direct an audio signal to the specified broadcast receiver  204 .  
         [0025]    Because the information retrieved from the World Wide Web is generally in Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), it may be necessary to convert the HTML to a format that is compatible with the broadcast receiver  204 . Thus, if the broadcast receivers  204  operate in the MPEG-2 format, the controller  303  will direct the broadcast interface  308  to encode the multimedia documents constituting the broadcast in MPEG-2 format.  
         [0026]    Returning to FIG. 1, the session conductor logs onto the network  102  via the conductor session terminal  101  over link  318 . The session conductor accesses the BWS Center  100  via an Internet browsing package, such as Netscape Navigator or Microsoft Internet Explorer, for example, and creates or edits the remotely stored multimedia document using the multimedia authoring tool  306 . The session conductor may access websites of the network  102  such as multimedia databases contained in remote servers  105  to download new material to the BWS Center  100 , or draw from multimedia databases provided in the BWS Center  100  or other sources for further source material.  
         [0027]    To arrange a broadcast session, the session conductor specifies session parameters to the BWS Center  100 . The session parameters include multimedia document IDs and MDIDs for documents (or portions of multimedia documents) stored in the MMOD that are to be “pushed” to the session audience during the broadcast session, and a delivery time parameter (DT) indicating at what time the broadcast session is to commence. The session parameters also include a participation list (PL) indicating which client terminals  103  and  104  will constitute the session audience, and a required bandwidth (RB) for the broadcast session.  
         [0028]    The session conductor specifies the multimedia documents to present to the session audience, and directs the BWS Center  100  to broadcast the specified multimedia documents according to the MDIDs as the broadcast session. At the desired time indicated by the DT variable, the BWS Center  100  broadcasts the broadcast session to the broadcast receivers  204  over links  310  and allows the client terminals  103  access to the broadcast session over network  102 . The session conductor&#39;s presentation may include, for example, training/teaching seminars, telemarketing, teleshopping and other multimedia presentations contained in the transmitted multimedia documents.  
         [0029]    Only the client terminals  103  that are registered with the conductor terminal  101  specified in the participation list may access the broadcast session over network  102 . The session conductor or a broadcast service assigns each client terminal  103  in the session audience a predetermined code, which may be delivered in advance of the session by email or otherwise. Users at the client terminals  103  enter their codes to obtain access to the broadcast session, which must match the predetermined code assigned by the conductor or the broadcast service.  
         [0030]    During the broadcast session, the session conductor and the members of the session audience operating the client terminals  103  and  104  may individually interface with each other. Specifically, the members of the session audience operating the client terminals  103  and  104  may establish an interactive data link with the conductor session terminal  201 . The interactive data link may include a “white board”, which allows a hand-drawn sketch to be communicated via a real time video link, such as by using a commercially available Connectix QuickCam. Further, members of the session audience operating the client terminals  103  and  104  and the session conductor may enter private or public chat rooms, and exchange typed text messages.  
         [0031]    The broadcast receivers  204  may establish an audio link with the session conductor and/or a panel of telephone operator stations  209  associated with the session conductor. To establish an audio link, users of the broadcast receivers  204  dial a code on telephone  205 , which forwards a message to the BWS Center  100  requesting an audio link with the session conductor and/or the panel of telephone operator stations  209 . The message is forwarded from the telephone  205  through the local exchange carrier  206  to telephone network  207 , and thence to BWS Center  100 . In response, the BWS Center  100  transmits a signal directing audio information communicated by the users of the broadcast receivers  204  to either the session conductor&#39;s telephone  208  or the panel of telephone operator stations  209 . Operators at the panel of telephone operator stations  209  may take orders from the session audience for merchandise presented by the session conductor or may answer questions regarding the presentation, for example.  
         [0032]    In FIG. 3, the client terminal  104  is shown with a broadcast receiver  204  that receives a signal broadcast in the MPEG-2 format. In an alternate embodiment, the broadcast receiver  204  has HTML processing capability built in. In this case, the signal sent from the BWS Center  100  would be in the HTML format, eliminating the need to encode the output of the MMOD  309  from HTML to MPEG-2 format.  
         [0033]    Operation of an embodiment of the broadcast multimedia communications system  100  is described with reference to the flow diagrams of FIGS. 5 and 6.  
         [0034]    In step  400 , the controller  303  receives a request from the session conductor, via the data network interface  301 , to initiate a broadcast session and goes to step  405 . In step  405 , the controller  303  prompts the session conductor to indicate whether to present multimedia documents already stored in the memory  302  or local storage  312 , or whether to create new multimedia documents. If the session conductor wishes to present multimedia documents already stored in the memory  302 , the controller goes to stop S 425 . In step  425 , the controller  303  prompts the conductor to identify the multimedia documents (MDIDs) in the memory  302  that will be presented. In step  430 , the controller  303  loads the identified multimedia documents into the MMOD  309  and goes to step  435 .  
         [0035]    If, in step  405 , the session conductor indicates a wish to create or append new multimedia documents, the controller  303  goes to step  410 . In step  410 , the controller  303  permits the session conductor to access various websites and databases linked to the network  102  and, in step  415 , directs the multimedia authoring tool  306  to retrieve audio, video and/or text information specified by the conductor from the Internet to create multimedia documents. In step  420 , the controller  303  stores the multimedia documents in the memory  302  and proceeds to step  425 .  
         [0036]    In step  435 , the controller  303  prompts the session conductor to specify a session audience. The session conductor specifies the session audience by entering the predetermined codes corresponding to the broadcast receivers  204  that the session conductor wishes to receive the broadcast session. The session conductor further specifies the session audience by entering into the participation list predetermined codes corresponding to the client terminals  103  that the session conductor wishes to have access to the broadcast session, via network  102 .  
         [0037]    In step  440  (FIG. 6), the controller  303  directs the broadcast interface  308  to broadcast a data signal corresponding to the session conductor&#39;s presentation to the session audience. The controller  303  allows the client terminals  103  to access the broadcast session if the logon code entered by the operators at the client terminals  103  matches the codes specified by the session conductor. The predetermined codes that correspond to the broadcast receivers  204  of the session audience indicates to the controller  303  whether each of the broadcast receivers  204  have HTML processing capabilities. Since the data signal broadcast by the broadcast interface  308 , corresponding to the broadcast session, is in HTML format, if the broadcast receivers  204  are not next-generation receivers having that capability, the controller  303  will direct the broadcast interface  308  to transcode the data signal from the HTML format into MPEG-2 format before transmission to the broadcast receivers  204  of the session audience. However, if the broadcast receivers  204  of the session audience are capable of receiving such data, then the controller  303  will direct the broadcast interface  308  to directly transmit the HTML data signal.  
         [0038]    In step  445 , the controller  303  determines whether to establish an audio link at step  445 . If the session conductor or an operator on the panel of operator stations  209  sends a request to establish an audio link with one or more members of the session audience, or vice versa, the controller  303  goes to step  450  to establish an audio link. If the session conductor or an operator on the panel of operator stations  209  dials a predetermined code on their telephones, the controller  303  will receive a request to establish an audio link with one or more members of the session audience. The controller  303  will then direct the audio bridge  304  to forward a signal through the telephone network interface  305  to the telephone network  207 , to direct the real-time audio signal to the specified members of the session audience. In step  450 , the telephone network  207  will forward the real-time audio signal through the local exchange carrier  206  to the telephone  205  of the specified members of the session audience. This procedure will occur in reverse order if any of the members of the session audience wish to establish an audio link with either the session conductor or the panel of operator station  209 .  
         [0039]    If, however, the controller  303  does not receive a request to establish an audio link at step  445 , then the controller  303  proceeds directly to step  455  where it determines whether to terminate the session broadcast. If the session conductor enters a command to terminate the session broadcast, the controller  303  goes to step  460  and terminates the session broadcast. If the session conductor has not entered a command to end the broadcast session, the controller  303  returns to step  440 .  
         [0040]    As shown in FIG. 4, the BWS Center  100  is preferably implemented on a programmed general purpose computer. However, as will be appreciated by persons skilled in the art, the BWS Center  100  can also be implemented on a special purpose computer, a programmed microprocessor or microcontroller and peripheral integrated circuit elements, an ASIC or other integrated circuit, a hard wired electronic or logic circuit such as a discrete element circuit, a programmable logic circuit such as a PLD, PLA or PAL, or the like. In general, any programmable machine capable of implementing the flow charts shown in FIGS. 5A and 5B can be used to implement the BWS Center  100 .  
         [0041]    As shown in FIG. 3, the memory  302  is preferably implemented using electronic memory, such as static or dynamic RAM or flash memory. However, the memory  302  can also be implemented using other means such as magnetic or other media.  
         [0042]    While this invention has been described in conjunction with the specific embodiments outlined above, alternatives, modifications and variations will be apparent to those skilled in the art. The invention is accordingly intended to be limited only by the following claims.