Abstract:
A media production control system with built-in newsgathering and fact-checking tools, able to receive news feeds in multiple formats from many sources, and featuring geographic portability and low cost. The system allows a producer to select and queue individual feeds for broadcast or limited distribution, using either the system&#39;s software or an externally coupled device. Shared communications tools comprise a web browser, an instant-messaging package, a chat room, a headlines display, and a virtual whiteboard.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0001]     1. Field of the Invention  
         [0002]     The present invention relates to a media production control system. More specifically, the present invention discloses an interactive news gathering and media production system able to accept a large number of feeds in multiple formats, featuring a conferencing system and a shared web browser and whiteboard.  
         [0003]     2. Description of the Prior Art  
         [0004]     Traditionally, television news production required an expensive newsroom facility filled with equipment in order to support a news anchor, typically reading the stories off a teleprompter. The expense and complexity soared when using a remote reporter to provide a live feed of an event via satellite news gathering (SNG); the remote reporter had to transmit the report back to the newsroom facility using a radio-frequency link, often via satellite. Even a live remote feed unit for local coverage required an expensive van with a powerful transmitter.  
         [0005]     However, the production facility, remote feed units, and trained crews were extremely expensive, limiting the ability to produce television news to corporations able to make large investments in infrastructure. The expense and complexity also limited the number of remote feeds that could be supported; with only a few remote feed units, news producers had to allocate these scarce resources carefully, missing some newsworthy events and being unable to completely cover widespread events. Merely adding more remote feed units would not be practical, as the production systems were set up for a small number of remotes.  
         [0006]     Therefore there is need for a media production control system which uses common inexpensive equipment in multiple formats for remote units, gives producers an easy way to manage a large number of remote units, and is easy to use.  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0007]     To achieve these and other advantages and in order to overcome the disadvantages of the conventional method in accordance with the purpose of the invention as embodied and broadly described herein, the present invention provides a media production control system with several collaboration tools to facilitate communication among the producer and the remote units.  
         [0008]     The present invention further provides a media production control system that can be linked to a variety of different kinds of remote units, thus facilitating the use of inexpensive new technologies while still allowing the use of expensive prior-art equipment. This has the added benefit of driving down the barriers to entry, allowing small groups to produce news independent of major media organizations.  
         [0009]     These and other objectives of the present invention will become obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art after reading the following detailed description of preferred embodiments.  
         [0010]     It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary, and are intended to provide further explanation of the invention as claimed. 
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0011]     The accompanying drawings are included to provide a further understanding of the invention, and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification. The drawings illustrate embodiments of the invention and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention. In the drawings,  FIG. 1  is a block diagram showing a news production system according to an embodiment of the present invention;  
         [0012]      FIG. 2  is a block diagram illustrating a control panel of an embodiment of the present invention;  
         [0013]      FIG. 3  is a block diagram of a second software display panel of an embodiment of the present invention;  
         [0014]      FIG. 4  is a block diagram showing a meeting facilitation system according to an embodiment of the present invention; and  
         [0015]      FIG. 5  is a block diagram of a client remote system according to an embodiment of the present invention. 
     
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS  
       [0016]     Reference will now be made in detail to the preferred embodiments of the present invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. Wherever possible, the same reference numbers are used in the drawings and the description to refer to the same or like parts.  
         [0017]     Please refer to  FIG. 1 , which shows a block diagram of a news production system according to an embodiment of the present invention. The system  100  accepts multiple news feeds from sources  101 ˜ 105 , which are coupled across a network  110  to the core server  120  and stream server  130 , optionally encrypting the packets of the feeds using VPN (virtual private network) technology for security. The network  1   10  is an internet or intranet, and data can flow over it via either TCP/IP or UDP/IP. The core server  120  is coupled to an audio control console  150  and a video control console  160 , which provide switching, fading, volume, and color adjustment capabilities for the signals. It should be noted that the audio control console  150  and video control console  160  are optional hardware equipment; the capabilities that these provide are also implemented in software. The ability to accept input from these hardware devices is for providing convenience and familiar interfaces to the user. The system produces an output  200  which is typically broadcast, webcast, and/or saved for later use.  
         [0018]     The sources  101 ˜ 105  comprise various types of input feeds. A feed can be audio-only, audio-video, video-only, or textual. For example, an audio feed may be a radio transmission, a phone call via wired phone, cellphone, or voice-over-IP (VoIP) phone, or a microphone coupled by a wired or wireless connection; an audio-video feed may be a webcam sending digital audio-video over IP, or a professional news camera transmitting an analog audio-video signal via electromagnetic waves, even via satellite  180  to a base station  185 ; a video-only feed may be a webcam sending a digital video-only stream over IP; or a textual feed may be a headline list being sent by SGML, XML, RSS, HTML, or other text-based computer format.  
         [0019]     Please refer to  FIG. 1  in combination with  FIG. 2 , which shows a block diagram of one software display panel  200  of an embodiment of the present invention. The producer has the ability to select a feed from the input feeds  101 F˜ 105 F from the sources  101105  respectively, where the producer can then use the control panel  250  to perform some operation on the selected feed, such as making it the output feed  200 F or recording it using the digital video recording (DVR) tool. The DVR tool also has a metadata editor, which lets identifying data be added to the recorded audio-video data. The identifying data comprises time and date, reporter name, location, content description, or any other information desired. A tool selection control panel  230  allows the producer to choose which collaboration tool to use from the available shared tools, which comprise a whiteboard, a web browser, a chat room, a news bulletin board, and an instant-messaging tool  240  (currently in use). Connections are bi-directional, so the producer or anchor can also talk to the reporter providing the feed. The producer can also send files to one, several, or all sources, for example to distribute the day&#39;s initial assignments. Applications can be shared via VNC (virtual network computing) as well, so that sources with less-powerful equipment can use computing-intensive applications or to reduce system administration overhead. These tools are viewable by the sources  101 ˜ 105  on their client software so that the sources  101 ˜ 105  are informed of the current focus of attention, whether this is fact-checking or gathering background information on the web with the shared browser, discussing a developing story (or just chatting to develop team spirit during a break) in the chatroom, diagramming or planning using the whiteboard, checking breaking news on the news bulletin board (perhaps for the purpose of going to a new location to catch a story), or sending short comments via instant messenger. The sources  101 ˜ 105  are also able to signal the producer when they have a breaking news flash by using the instant messenger tool. The producer also has the ability to arrange polls so that sources can have a say in which story is being run with the messenger control panel  220 . Note that although five feeds are shown, the split-screen view is customisable for a variable number of feeds in a grid, for example, a 3-by-3 grid of feeds can be shown instead of the 5-by-1 view of the figure. Additionally, if the configured view is too small to show the full number of feeds, a scrollbar (not shown) appears to allow the producer to scroll through the available feeds.  
         [0020]     Please refer to  FIG. 1  in combination with  FIG. 3 , which shows a diagram of a second software display panel  300  of an embodiment of the present invention. In this view, the producer can watch the current output feed  200 F while also watching a second feed  300 F and a third feed  310 F, to keep an eye on the feeds which will be used as the current output feed  200 F as the program switches segments or as they switch from the in-station anchor to a remote reporter. The feeds and switching provide low latency of less than 1.5 seconds. A teleprompter tool  350  is available in another panel, as are a chat room tool  360  and a news bulletin board tool  370 .  
         [0021]     Please refer to  FIG. 4 , which shows a block diagram of a conferencing system according to an embodiment of the present invention. The conferencing system  400  accepts multiple news feeds from sources  400 ˜ 402  such as conference presenters, which are coupled across a network  110  to the core server  120  and stream server  130 , optionally encrypting the packets of the feeds using VPN technology for security. The system produces an output  450  which is webcast to conference attendees  490 ˜ 494 . In this use, the collaboration tools can be used for asking questions of the conference presenters by the attendees, or for displaying lecture notes, formulae, and other information from the conference presenters to the attendees. The system is well-suited for business conferences, scientific symposia, remote education, interactive game shows, and myriad other uses. The output can be recorded for subsequent distribution. Conference attendees  490 - 494  can be connected bidirectionally, so that they may participate in the conference, or unidirectionally, so that they can only view the presentations. Conference attendees  490 ˜ 494  may be connected bidirectionally with a full client package providing them with the ability to create an audio-video data feed to the conference, equal to that of conference presenters, or they may use a limited package which only provides the collaborative tools so that they may communicate via chatroom and shared browser.  
         [0022]     Please refer to  FIG. 5 , an illustration of a client package able to act as a feed in the present invention system. The client package  500  comprises a notebook computer  510  with wireless networking card  520  running client software  530 . A webcam  540  and headset  550  (the headset  550  comprising an earphone  552  and microphone  554 ) provide the video and audio portions of the news feed  101 F. The client package  500  is readily portable and can send a news feed  101 F from any location where the wireless networking card  520  can connect to an existing wireless network, ranging from a large network such as the city-wide WiFly™ system presently being installed in Taipei, Taiwan, to a cellular DSL network, down to a small home wireless network that the owner has opened to the reporter&#39;s use. A wired broadband network or even modem networking can be substituted if wireless networking is unavailable. While this package is typical, a reporter can call in via a phone (cellular, VoIP, or land line) to provide a voice-only feed (or even an audio-video feed, with a video cellphone) or use a full-scale satellite van as is presently used by the news media; the system is not restricted to any particular source for a news feed, rather it provides additional previously-unavailable options. The system software can use a reduced audio or video quality over a slower network; for example, using G723 audio at 24 Kbits per second instead of PCM audio at 176 Kbits per second, or using a video frame rate as low as one frame per second over a modem connection instead of the more typical thirty frames per second on a fast network. Bandwidth detection and feed rate quality are handled automatically. Audio and video can be handled in multiple formats and codecs.  
         [0023]     This news production control system thus provides a dramatic improvement over the limited and expensive prior art. Hordes of individuals armed with little more than a notebook computer, webcam, and wireless networking card can send news feeds to a news producer for redistribution, allowing for news gathering from many more locations and for far more diversity in the news.  
         [0024]     It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made to the present invention without departing from the scope or spirit of the invention. In view of the foregoing, it is intended that the present invention cover modifications and variations of this invention provided they fall within the scope of the invention and its equivalent.