Methods and systems to provide and manage on-demand sessions are described herein. A first on-demand session for a client is conducted when resources are available for the first on-demand session. When a notification of termination of the first on-demand session is received, the resources are reserved for the client for a time period. When a second request from the client for a second on-demand session is received during the time period, the second on-demand session is started using the reserved resources.

Cache management techniques are described for a content distribution network (CDN), for example, a video on demand (VOD) system supporting user requests and delivery of video content. A preferred cache size may be calculated for one or more cache devices in the CDN, for example, based on a maximum cache memory size, a bandwidth availability associated with the CDN, and a title dispersion calculation determined by the user requests within the CDN. After establishing the cache with a set of assets (e.g., video content), an asset replacement algorithm may be executed at one or more cache devices in the CDN. When a determination is made that a new asset should be added to a full cache, a multi-factor comparative analysis may be performed on the assets currently residing in the cache, comparing the popularity and size of assets and combinations of assets, along with other factors to determine which assets should be replaced in the cache device.

In an example implementation, a method is described. The implementation accesses a plurality of media clips including a first video clip and a second video clip. The implementation also matches a first fingerprint of at least a part of the first video clip with a second fingerprint of at least a part of the second video clip. The implementation also determines a temporal overlap of the first video clip with the second video clip based at least in part on the match. The implementation also, based on the temporal overlap of the first video clip with the second video clip, merges the first video clip and the second video clip into a group of overlapping video clips, and transmits, to a client computing device, data identifying the group of overlapping video clips and specifying a synchronization of the first video clip with the second video clip.

In an example implementation, a method is described. The implementation accesses a plurality of media clips and metadata for the plurality of media clips. The implementation also uses the metadata for the plurality of media clips to select, from the plurality of media clips, a subset of media clips including a first media clip and a second media clip. The implementation also matches a first fingerprint of at least a part of the first media clip with a second fingerprint of at least a part of the second media clip. The implementation also determines a temporal overlap of the first media clip with the second media clip based at least in part on the match. The implementation also, based on the temporal overlap, merges the first media clip and the second media clip into a group of overlapping media clips, and generates a presentation that includes the group.

A system for delivering digital content on demand in a multiple unit environment includes a server local to the multiple unit environment. The server stores, in its memory, the digital content, and is capable of supporting multiple simultaneous asynchronous accesses to the digital content. A billing system tracks the bill for each unit in the multiple unit environment, based on the accessed digital content. Within each unit that supports access to the digital content, an access system (preferably a set-top box) allows a user to access the digital content.

Examples described herein may involve synthesizing a presentation of from multiple media clips. An example implementation a plurality of media clips including a first video clip with a first audio waveform and a second video clip with a second audio waveform. The implementation matches a first acoustic fingerprint of at least a part of the first audio waveform with a second acoustic fingerprint of at least a part of the second audio waveform. The implementation determines an overlap of the first video clip with the second video clip based at least in part on the match. The implementation merges the first video clip and the second video clip into a group of overlapping video clips based on the overlap and generates a presentation that includes the group formed by merging the first video clip and the second video clip based on the overlap.

Techniques are described herein to dynamically control a number of hybrid automatic repeat requests (HARQ) transmissions based at least in part on flow characteristics of a data flow. Data included in a transport block may be grouped into one or more data flows based on a variety of factors. A set of performance benchmarks may be associated with each data flow. Flow characteristics for each data flow may be measured. A network entity may determine a number of HARQ transmissions to be transmitted during a HARQ procedure based on measured flow characteristics satisfying the performance benchmarks. For example, if a performance benchmark is not satisfied by its associated flow characteristic, the network entity may request additional HARQ transmissions during the HARQ procedure.

An apparatus and method for transmitting and receiving information related to multimedia data in a hybrid network and a structure thereof are provided. The transmission method includes generating transmission characteristic information about the media data, and transmitting the transmission characteristic information. The transmission characteristic information includes valid range information about the transmission characteristic information.

The subject disclosure describes identifying a table associated with a set-top box that receives services from equipment of a video head-end office, where the table indicates that the set-top box has requested a video stream that would exceed a first number of video streams allocated to the set-top box and would exceed a bandwidth configuration, detecting a conflicting event according to information in the table, reconfiguring the bandwidth configuration allocated to the plurality of set-top boxes to resolve the conflicting event, determining a second number of video streams requested by the plurality of set-top boxes when the conflicting event occurred, determining a third number of video streams to resolve the conflicting event based on a difference between the first number of video streams and the second number of video streams, and instructing the equipment to provide the third number of video streams to the set-top box. Other embodiments are disclosed.

In accordance with aspects of the present invention, a technique is implemented to effectively receive streaming multimedia content in digital form, parse and segment the received transport stream and process the segmented content. Such treatment of received programming content provides for efficient storage of such programming content, and effectively provides for access to such content by administrators of a broadband system as well as users of such systems. In accordance with the invention, a technique enables, among other things: the creation of reference frames for, e.g., effective segmentation of programming content; encapsulation of programming content data as a UDP/IP datagram; associating programming content with provider and dedicated resource attributes; monitoring staging processor activity; effectively segmenting programming content that is scrambled; developing a unicast and multicast; compensating for missing or delayed programming content; and propagating video servers of varying manufacturers.