This invention allows the players of multiplayer games like poker, chess, backgammon, go, board games, and video games to play the game online while commenting on the game and explaining their strategies to an online audience without sharing that information with their opponents.

This invention allows the players of multiplayer games like poker, chess, backgammon, go, board games, and video games to play the game online while commenting on the game and explaining their strategies to an online audience without sharing that information with their opponents.

The present disclosure describes systems and methods for multi-device media broadcasting or recording with active control. A controller may preview media streams from a plurality of source devices, and may select between the streams, add processing or additional content to the streams, and provide an edited or mixed stream to one or more client or recipient devices. In many implementations, mixing or selective presentation of streams may be accomplished with little to no delay via a lightweight signaling and chunk identification change protocol. In other implementations, processing and mixing instructions may be provided to client devices, which may retrieve the streams and process them locally, reducing or eliminating delay from an intermediary processor or mixer.

A receiving method of receiving a first data unit in which data making up an encoded stream is stored and the first data unit stores a plurality of second data units. The receiving method includes: receiving the first data unit, first time information indicating a presentation time of the first data unit, second time information indicating, together with the first time information, a presentation time or a decoding time of each of the plurality of second data units, and identification information; calculating the presentation time or the decoding time of each of the plurality of second data units using the first time information and the second time information; and correcting the presentation time or the decoding time of each of the plurality of second data units based on the identification information.

A video stream composed of combined video frames having a first resolution and include in their entirety two contents usable through extraction from the aforesaid video frame: a first content belonging to a video stream (F1) at a second resolution lower than the first resolution of the frame; and, in the area of the frame formed by the remaining pixels, at least a second content belonging to an information stream (F2) having, in the case where it is also a video stream, a resolution equal to or less than the second resolution, where during the fruition of one of the two video streams it is shown full-screen in its entirety, or in the case of a data information stream, data encoded via a set of pixels, the number of which is less than or equal to the number of pixels left free by the first video stream.

A video stream composed of combined video frames having a first resolution and include in their entirety two contents usable through extraction from the aforesaid video frame: a first content belonging to a video stream (F1) at a second resolution lower than the first resolution of the frame; and, in the area of the frame formed by the remaining pixels, at least a second content belonging to an information stream (F2) having, in the case where it is also a video stream, a resolution equal to or less than the second resolution, where during the fruition of one of the two video streams it is shown full-screen in its entirety, or in the case of a data information stream, data encoded via a set of pixels, the number of which is less than or equal to the number of pixels left free by the first video stream.

The surveillance video playback method includes receiving, by a video surveillance management device, a surveillance video browsing request from a client device, and performing, according to the request, authentication on a user that sends the surveillance video browsing request using the client device; if the user that sends the surveillance video browsing request has permission to view collected data, sending a first link address corresponding to the user request to the client device; and sending video data and the collected data to the client device according to a data request that carries the first link address and is returned by the client device, so that the client device can superimpose the collected data on the video data and then play them.

The surveillance video playback method includes receiving, by a video surveillance management device, a surveillance video browsing request from a client device, and performing, according to the request, authentication on a user that sends the surveillance video browsing request using the client device; if the user that sends the surveillance video browsing request has permission to view collected data, sending a first link address corresponding to the user request to the client device; and sending video data and the collected data to the client device according to a data request that carries the first link address and is returned by the client device, so that the client device can superimpose the collected data on the video data and then play them.

An apparatus and method for delivering a spatially enhanced live streaming experience for virtual reality or 360 degree live streaming of video is disclosed. A live streaming video signal is encoded into multiple streams at varying resolutions. A portion of the high resolution video stream, corresponding to a field of view within the entire 360 degree view, is merged with a low resolution video stream. The resulting video stream is referred to as a spatial adaptive video stream. Multiple spatial adaptive video streams are generated to provide a high resolution field of view across the entire 360 degrees. As the viewer looks in different directions, the video player plays back one of the spatial adaptive video streams according to the direction in which the viewer is looking.

An apparatus and method for delivering a spatially enhanced live streaming experience for virtual reality or 360 degree live streaming of video is disclosed. A live streaming video signal is encoded into multiple streams at varying resolutions. A portion of the high resolution video stream, corresponding to a field of view within the entire 360 degree view, is merged with a low resolution video stream. The resulting video stream is referred to as a spatial adaptive video stream. Multiple spatial adaptive video streams are generated to provide a high resolution field of view across the entire 360 degrees. As the viewer looks in different directions, the video player plays back one of the spatial adaptive video streams according to the direction in which the viewer is looking.