Patent ID: 8453170

Claim:
A broadcast monitoring and recognition system comprising: at least one monitoring station receiving broadcast data from at least one broadcast media stream; a recognition system receiving the broadcast data from the at least one monitoring station, the recognition system including a database of signature files, each signature file comprising a media signature, the media signature comprising a set of landmarks and a fingerprint that correspond to a known media file, the set of landmarks being dependent upon qualities within the media file, the fingerprint comprising a vector defined between landmarks in the set of landmarks, the recognition system comparing a generated signature for the broadcast data against media signatures in the signature files to identity of identify media elements in the broadcast data; and an analysis and reporting system communicatively connected to the recognition system and operable to generate a report identifying media elements in the broadcast data which correspond to known media files, wherein the recognition system comprises a plurality of recognition servers, the plurality of recognition servers organized into a first cluster of recognition servers and a second cluster of recognition servers, the first cluster of recognition servers comprising a first subset of signature files in the database of signature files against which to compare media elements in the broadcast data, the second cluster of recognition servers comprising a second subset of signature files in the database of signature files against which to compare media elements in the broadcast data, the second subset of signature files representing a larger portion of the signature files in the database of signature files than the first subset of signature files, wherein the second cluster of recognition servers relies upon the second subset of signature files representing a larger portion of the signature files in the database of signature files to identify media elements in the broadcast data after the first cluster of recognition servers relying upon the first subset of signatures fails to identify media elements in the broadcast data.