IT201900009255A1 - SYSTEM FOR THE BROADCAST TRANSMISSION OF CUSTOMIZED MESSAGES FOR SPECIFIC USERS - Google Patents

Description

Description of the industrial invention entitled: SYSTEM FOR THE BROADCAST TRANSMISSION OF CUSTOMIZED MESSAGES FOR SPECIFIC USERS;

The present invention relates to the field of broadcast transmissions, and in particular it concerns a system for transmitting and receiving messages containing images or short clips addressed to individual users or groups of users, which can be transmitted on unidirectional broadcast television networks with a conditional access system. The amount of transmission band necessary for the transmission of messages is relatively low and makes it possible to use and commercial validity on broadcast networks.

Abbreviations:

AMS = Advanced Messaging System

CSN = Smart Card Serial Number - User identification

HTTP = HyperText Transfer Protocol

SMS = Subscriber Management System - User management system

URL = Uniform Resource Locator

XML = Extensible Markup Language

CAS = Conditional Access System - Conditional access system

AM = Advanced Message - Advanced Message

TS = Transport Stream

Broadcast transmission systems provide for the unidirectional transmission of information from a transmitting system to a set of receivers not defined in advance and therefore, within the transmission network, each receiver is potentially able to receive all the information transmitted. Conditional access systems allow you to limit access to the content transmitted (or part of them) to a single user, or to groups of users, or to all users.

This conditional access system presents great critical issues in the case of wanting to selectively transmit large content - such as images or short clips - to a large number of users, since in this case the necessary transmission band must be multiplied by the number of users or groups of users who are to receive the message.

In fact, sending different messages containing images or short video clips addressed to a large number of users would not be possible with traditional systems, since sending such messages would saturate the transmission band making the service impossible or in any case unsustainable from a commercial point of view. .

The Broadcast Messaging Service (BMS) system is based on a communication protocol according to the present invention, which is processed within the broadcaster's Head End platform. Said communication protocol requires all the receivers to memorize the images or clips and that only those of the authorized users memorize the text messages in order to then display the information contained therein and the corresponding images or clips.

From the hardware point of view, the system according to the present invention comprises a server (AMS) which correctly manages and packages the data that will be transmitted on air, which is integrated with a user management system (SMS) which, in turn , manages the conditional access system (CAS) that sends commands to the receivers. The server (AMS), in turn, is interfaced with the Head End platform to send data correctly formatted to be transmitted on the digital broadcast network within the Transport Stream.

The advanced message (AM) consists of 3 elements:

- Image or short video clip

- Text message

- ID of the recipients and related Smart Card The image or short clip is uploaded to the user management system server (SMS) with the following data (Figure 1):

- Transmission start date

- Duration of the carousel days, hours, minutes

- Image position on the X axis expressed in px - Image position on the y axis expressed in px The user management system (SMS) generates a unique ID related to the uploaded file, then transmits a Notification event via Extradata.xml and sends the message to the server (AMS) to inform it of the existence of a new message.

At this point, the server (AMS) creates the transport stream (TS) using Extradata.xml and the uploaded file, and finally delivers the message to the Data Carousel Player (Figure 2).

According to the present invention, the image or clip is stored on all receivers without being displayed. The text with the IDs of the recipients, on the other hand, are displayed together with the image or the short clip only by the selected recipients (Figure 3-4), which correspond to the IDs contained in the text message.

In this way the "cost" in terms of bits of the message will be composed of:

- size of the image or video clip transmitted for all users (consumes the number of bits of an image regardless of the number of recipients);

- different text message sizes for the number of recipients (it consumes a very low number of bits which must be multiplied by the number of recipients);

- service information (recipients ID, name of the associated image, etc ...).

According to a peculiar feature of the invention, the transmission of the aforementioned data takes place using the Broadcasting band of the Network: in particular, the image or clip is sent to all the receivers and stored by the latter, while the different text messages containing the ID of the image to be associated, are selectively addressed to the individual ID codes of the recipients' receiving devices and to the relative Smart Card, which are the only ones allowed to view the entire message, including the image or clip. it associated.

In other words, the image is broadcast to everyone, but only the recipients of the text messages can view it.

An image or short video clip is transmitted from the playout in a carousel that has a variable and definable duration. The image or short video clip is stored inside the receiver together with its unique identification number. Within the transport stream (TS), a text message of a few bits is transmitted which contains within it:

- the text

- the identification number of the image or clip sent previously, to which the text message must correspond

- the identification of the recipients of the message - the indication of the text formatting characters

- the size and color of the background and text

- the distance in pixels on the X and Y axes from the top left corner of the screen.

The receiver of the recipient user, once the message has been received, shows the text to the user superimposed on the image or clip. The first characters of the message are used as the title of the message itself. In the receiver (decoder) there is a yellow button with the icon of an envelope which, if pressed, allows access to personal messages. When a message arrives to the user, an envelope-shaped icon flashes five times on the left side of the television screen, indicating that a new message has arrived. Furthermore, a yellow LED on the front of the decoder indicates that there are messages not yet displayed. COMMUNICATION SPECIFICATIONS OF THE MESSAGE TO AMS The user management server (SMS) sends the message for generation by the advanced messaging system (AMS)

The User Management Server (SMS) sends the notification to the Advanced Messaging System (AMS) Server.

In particular, the first server (SMS) must send the notification event with Extradata.xml and the text message to the second server (AMS) to inform it of the existence of a new message (Figure 5).

Some examples of messages are shown below.

HTTP Request / Response - Example message

1) HTTP Request Message

POST http://ams.server.com/trigger.jsp HTTP / 1.1 Host: ams.server.com

User-Agent: CoolPhone / 1.4

Accept: application / xml

Accept-Charset: UTF-8

Content-Length: 125

Content-Type: application / xml

<? xml version = "1.0" encoding = ”utf-8”?> <ams_notification>

<header>

<request_time> 2010-02-12T00: 00: 01Z </request_time> <sequence_no> 9999 </sequence_no> <asset_id> 65535 </asset_id> <carousel_duration> 1440 </carousel_duration> <bandwidth> 10 </bandwidth>

</header>

<ad_info>

<ad_type> image </ad_type> <target_type> C </target_type>

<target_address> </target_address>

2) HTTP Response: "SUCCESS"

3) HTTP Response: "FAIL"

Claims (9)

CLAIMS: 1. System for the digital broadcast transmission of messages, also customized for specific users, characterized by the fact that it includes: - a server (AMS) configured to manage and package correctly the data to be transmitted on air, which is integrated with - a user management system (SMS) which, in turn, is configured to manage - a conditional access system (CAS) equipped with means for sending commands and data to a plurality of receivers, included in the system itself, and to their respective users; in which the server (AMS), in turn, is operationally interfaced with a Head End platform to send data correctly formatted to be transmitted on the digital broadcast network within the Trasport Stream; and in which each advanced message (AM) transmitted by said server (AMS) consists of three elements: - Image or short video clip - Text message - ID of the recipients and related Smart Cards. System according to the preceding claim, characterized in that said image or short clip is uploaded to a file on a server of the user management system (SMS) together with the following data: - Transmission start date - Duration of the carousel days, hours, minutes - Image position on the X axis expressed in px - Image position on the y axis expressed in px 3. System according to the preceding claim, characterized in that said user management system (SMS) is configured for: - generate a unique ID for each uploaded file, - to transmit a Notification event via Extradata.xml e - to send the message to the server (AMS) to inform it of the existence of a new message. 4. System according to the preceding claim, characterized in that said server (AMS) is configured for: - create a transport stream (TS) using Extradata.xml and the uploaded file, - deliver the message to a Data Carousel Player. 5. System according to one or more of the preceding claims, characterized in that each image or short clip can be stored on all the receivers of all users and that the different text messages, with the IDs of the recipients, can be stored and displayed together with the image or short clip only from the recipients of the intended users that match the IDs contained in the text message. 6. System according to claim 4, characterized in that said transport flow (TS) contains at least one text message of a few bits comprising inside it: - a text - an identification number of the image or clip sent previously, to which the message must correspond - an identification of the recipients of the message - an indication of the text formatting characters - the size and color of the background and text - the distance in pixels on the X and Y axes from the top left corner of the screen. 7. System according to the previous claim, characterized by the fact that each receiver of a recipient user is equipped with means to show, once the message is received, the text to the user superimposed on the image or clip. 8. System according to the preceding claim, characterized in that the first characters of the message can be used as the title of the message itself. 9. System according to claim 8 or 9, characterized by the fact that in the receiver, or decoder, there is a yellow button with the icon of an envelope, configured so that, if pressed, it accesses personal messages.