Patent ID: 7921222

Claim:
A method for switching between channels carrying live media streams transmitted from a streaming server to a client device, comprising a media player, under a Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP), the method comprising: (a) launching a RTSP session by sending a RTSP message from the client device to the streaming server for enabling channel switching within the RTSP session, the RTSP message including information regarding a playlist file stored at the streaming server, the playlist file comprising a list of channels available for playing by the media player; (b) at the client device, processing a request for channel switching from an original channel being played by the media player to a new channel from the playlist file, and sending another RTSP message including information regarding the new channel directly to the streaming server in-band within the RTSP session; and (c) processing said another RTSP message at the streaming server, and transmitting the new channel to the client device.