Streaming playlist including future encoded segments

US10630746B1 · kind B1 · utility

Assignee

• Twitch Interactive, Inc. · US

Inventors

• Yueshi Shen · Cupertino, US
• Martin L. Hess · Capitola, US
• Shawn Hsu · San Jose, US
• Eran Ambar · Sunnyvale, US
• Abhinav Kapoor · Fremont, US
• Jorge Arturo Villatoro · San Francisco, US
• Spencer Nelson · Brooklyn, US
• Jeffrey Garneau · Durham, US
• Cyrus Hall · San Francisco, US
• Jyotindra Vasudeo · Berkeley, US
• Andrew Francis · San Francisco, US
• Yuechuan Li · Rancho Palos Verdes, US
• Chih-Chiang Lu · Fremont, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Sep 29, 2017
• Grant date: Apr 21, 2020
• Expiry date: Nov 18, 2037

Classification

• Technology area (CPC H): Electricity
• CPC primary: H04L65/65
• WIPO field: Audio-visual technology
• WIPO sector: Electrical engineering

Abstract

Techniques for low latency streaming, for example in a broadcasting environment, are described herein. In some examples, a playlist may include both currently encoded segments, which are segments that are fully encoded at or before playlist generation, and also future encoded segments, which are segments that have not yet been fully encoded at playlist generation. In some cases, the inclusion of future encoded segments in a playlist may result in a player requesting a segment that has not yet been fully encoded at the time that the request is received by the server. In some examples, even though the segment is not yet fully encoded, the server may nevertheless save and process the request, for example by transmitting encoded portions of the requested segment as those portions are made available by the encoder.