Patent ID: 8861590

Claim:
A method for bit allocation for media signal insertion comprising: receiving, by a plurality of encoders, a plurality of media inputs; converting the plurality of media inputs into a plurality of digital signals; inserting, by the plurality of encoders, a first message into at least one of the plurality of digital signals indicating a media signal splice-in point and a media signal splice-out point; sending, by the plurality of encoders, a second message to a rate controller indicating the media signal splice-in point and the media signal splice-out point for each digital signal; synchronizing the plurality of encoders to a common time base, aligning the media signal splice-in points and the media signal splice-out points of the digital signals; and allocating a fixed bitrate to each of the digital signals having media signal splice-in and splice-out points, the fixed bitrate being allocated for the period between the media signal splice-in points and the media signal splice-out points according to media signal encoding, the fixed bitrate allocation facilitating an encoder to splice a constant bit rate video signal into each of the digital signals between the splice-in and splice-out points without using a transcoder.