Video application server for mediating live video services
US5930473A · kind A · utility
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Mar 8, 1996 |
| Grant date | Jul 27, 1999 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Mar 8, 2016 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH04L65/611
- WIPO fieldAudio-visual technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
An apparatus and method for use in a network including source clients and viewer clients connected to one or more shared transmission media. A video server is connected to one of the transmission media and is operative to control the broadcast and storage of multiple live or previously-stored video streams. The control may be provided via remote procedure call (RPC) commands transmitted between the server and the clients. In one embodiment, a video presentation system is provided in which a video stream from a source client is continuously broadcast to a number of viewer clients. One or more of the viewer clients may be authorized by the source client to broadcast an audio and/or video stream to the other clients receiving the source video stream. In another embodiment, a multicast directory is provided to each of a plurality of viewer clients by transmitting directory information in a packet corresponding to a predetermined multicast address. The multicast directory indicates to a particular viewer client which of a number of video programs are available for broadcast to that client.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.