A solution is disclosed for providing automatic multicast address assignment and conflict resolution for AV streams multicast over a networked AV system. The solution includes a device for monitoring the system for messages associated with AV streams multicast over the system and implementing a conflict resolution protocol when a conflict of multicast addresses is detected, where the conflict resolution protocol utilizes automatically randomly selecting a preliminary multicast address from a defined range of addresses.

A system and method for managing multicast streams. For example, one embodiment of a system comprises: a distributed caching system including at least one cache at an edge of a live content provider network, the live content provider to generate a live video stream to be cached and/or buffered within the distributed caching system; an agent to request multicast services from a packet-based network, the packet based network to establish a multicast channel at a location, the location including a plurality of wireless access points; and manifest processing logic associated with the agent to generate an updated manifest from an original manifest associated with the live video stream, the updated manifest to include an indication of the multicast channel, wherein a plurality of video player apps executed on user devices at the location are to interpret the indication of the multicast channel in the manifest to connect to the multicast channel, the plurality of video player apps to simultaneously receive and render the live video stream, or a transformed version thereof, over the multicast channel.

The system and methods described aid content delivery by providing requested content using a hybrid delivery of unicast and multicast content. A content delivery system receives, from user equipment, a request for content and identifies multicast sources for the content. The content delivery system determines a recent multicast source from the multicast sources, the recent multicast source having begun more recently relative to the other sources. The content delivery system transmits, to the user equipment, an identity of the recent multicast source and provides a beginning portion of the content to the user equipment via a unicast stream.

Systems and methods are described herein for transmitting a content item to a user device using multiple delivery protocols. The system receives, at a content source, a request for the content item from the user device. The system splits a digital stream of the content item into a first video signal and a second video signal. The system then transmits, via a unicast server, the first video signal for the content item to the user device, and transmits, via a multicast server, the second video signal for the content item to the user device. The system then causes for presentation on the user device the first video signal followed by the second video signal. In other embodiments, the system is optimized between the unicast delivery of a content item and a peer-to-peer delivery.

Described is a method of managing a network for delivering content in a hybrid unicast/multicast network, where content is requested by clients over unicast, but all or some of the content is delivered in part over multicast. A client requests content (in the form of segments) and receive the responses (segments) over unicast via a first proxy. The first proxy measures the time between requests and associated requested segment sizes. These measurements are used to effectively determine a unicast request rate given by the segment size divided by the time between requests. Subsequent requested segments can then be delivered over multicast over a portion of the route to the client using a multicast rate that is set as a function of (for example, 110% of) the unicast request rate. In general, the multicast path will be from a second proxy to the first proxy.

An object of the present disclosure is to distribute content with a high quality and low latency without being limited by a low-rate and unstable network and a low-capacity reception-side edge servers while maintaining sufficient traffic reduction effects.

A content distribution system according to the present disclosure converts part of communication for distribution into multicast communication. In the content distribution system, a transmission-side edge server (UC/MC) generates and transmits a plurality of multicast streams having different transfer rates for the same input content, and a reception-side edge server (MC/UC) selects and receives a multicast stream having a desired transfer rate among the plurality of transmitted multicast streams.

The system and methods described aid content delivery by providing requested content using a hybrid delivery of unicast and multicast content. A content delivery system receives, from user equipment, a request for content and identifies multicast sources for the content. The content delivery system determines a recent multicast source from the multicast sources, the recent multicast source having begun more recently relative to the other sources. The content delivery system transmits, to the user equipment, an identity of the recent multicast source and provides a beginning portion of the content to the user equipment via a unicast stream.

One embodiment of the present invention is a method for broadcasting information to one or more client devices from a broadcaster that is not a client device, which one or more client devices utilize presentation rates to present audio in broadcast information at various presentation rates using time-scale modification, and which method includes: (a) the broadcaster broadcasting non-time-scale modified information; and (b) the broadcaster broadcasting guidance information used to determine presentation rates for use by the one or more client devices in presentation of audio in the broadcast information using time-scale modification; wherein the guidance information is broadcast prior to or after a time of broadcast of the broadcast information.

A system is provided for publishing a disparate live media output stream manifest that includes one or more media segments corresponding to key events. A start and stop time is obtained for a pre-produced media asset from a live playout system synchronized to a reference clock. Based on a reference time of the reference clock and play events from the live playout system, a normalized event metadata is converted from a play time of pre-produced media asset metadata to the reference time. The play events exists for the pre-produced media asset as start and stop times per the pre-produced media asset support inclusion of non-programming content and restart of the pre-produced media asset during a playout. Start and end messages are transmitted for publishing the normalized event metadata each time the pre-produced media asset is started and stopped during the playout in a disparate live media output stream.

A server structure (101) includes one or more multicast servers (106). An analytics engine (207) determines one or more channel maps (217) identifying a group of channels that will be delivered by the multicast servers across a network (104). The analytics engine determines the one or more channel maps as a function of both historical data corresponding to one or more client groups (204,205,206) operating in one or more zones (201,202,203), and optionally from near real time data such as electronic program guide metadata provided by an electronic program guide metadata manager (213). A flap detector (210) can determine one or more flapping thresholds (405,406,407) identifying channels in the group of channels delivered by the multicast servers, as well as whether channels having flapping frequencies greater than the flapping threshold should remain in the group of channels delivered by the multicast servers.