Patent ID: 8296815

Claim:
A method of generating a stream comprising synchronized content for use in interactive multimedia service, the method comprising: at a mixer connected to a buffer via a first input of the mixer, receiving a buffered copy of a first stream via the buffer, the first stream being transmitted to both the buffer and over a network to a terminal of a user; at the mixer, receiving via a second input of the mixer a second stream transmitted from the terminal over a network, the second stream comprising content generated by the user in response to content of the first stream; providing the mixer with a temporal relation between packets in the first and second streams, wherein providing the mixer with the temporal relation comprises: determining a first time delay between transmission of a first packet in the first stream and receipt by the mixer of a second packet in the second stream, the second packet being transmitted by the terminal in response to the first packet, determining a second time delay between transmission of a copy of the first packet and receipt by the mixer of the copy of the first packet, and relating the first time delay to the second time delay; at the mixer, generating an output stream comprising a synchronized content by mixing packets in second stream with packets in the buffered first stream based on the temporal relation; and transmitting the output stream for use as an input signal for the interactive multimedia service.