Patent ID: 7168086

Claim:
A video system comprising at least two different and non-compatible video-on-demand applications, a video-on-demand server and a remote client, a first video-on-demand application executing on the server, the first video-on-demand application employing a first video-on-demand application control protocol comprising control data communicated to control a video-on-demand application, the client employing a second video-on-demand application control protocol comprising control data communicated to control a video-on-demand application, wherein the first video-on-demand application control protocol employed by the first video-on-demand application at the server is different and non-compatible with the second video-on-demand application control protocol employed by the client, the system further including a proxy comprising a computer interposed between the server and the client in a multi-tier configuration, the proxy including means for translating between the different and non-compatible first and second video-on-demand application control protocols, wherein translating comprises translating control data compatible with the first video-on-demand application but not compatible with the second video-on-demand application into control data compatible with the second video-on-demand application but not compatible with the first video-on-demand application, wherein the server and client can communicate control data through the proxy even if the control data in the first and second protocols are different, and wherein change to either the first or second video-on-demand application control protocol can be accommodated by a change to the proxy rather than to the client or server, respectively and wherein the control data communicated according to the first and second video-on-demand protocols is delivered via data packets transmitted according to a same TCP/IP network protocol.