System for electronically distributing, displaying and controlling the play scheduling of advertising and other communicative media
View Patent ↗A system is disclosed for distributing and scheduling the play of advertising content utilizing a network. A database is provided for storing the advertising content. A server is coupled to the database. The server is capable of receiving and storing input preferences relating to parameters selected from the group consisting of: frequency, interval, time of play, and trigger events. A scheduling algorithm is executed on the server for generating scheduling data utilizing the input preferences. The scheduling algorithm is based on predetermined methods of processing these input preferences. A network is coupled between the database and the server for distributing the advertising content and the scheduling data to a plurality of output devices.
1. A system to schedule a distribution and play of advertising content on remote display devices utilizing a network, comprising:
(a) a database for storing the advertising content;
(b) a server coupled to the database, the server being capable of receiving input preferences relating to play of scheduling parameters including frequency, interval, time of play, trigger events, and category filtering, said server including a set of specialized software components adapted to work with each other to complete the server's tasks;
(c) a plurality of remote display devices to dynamically display the advertising content:
(d) a scheduling algorithm executed on the server to generate scheduling data utilizing the input preferences, the scheduling algorithm being based on predetermined methods of processing the input preferences in order to vary the advertising content after the advertising content is deployed for each of the plurality of display devices individually;
(e) a centralized network supported by high speed data links to distribute the advertising content and the scheduling data to the plurality of remote display devices, said scheduling data indicating when and how often the advertising content is to be displayed in each of the plurality of remote display devices individually without restricting all the display devices to present the advertising content simultaneously; and
(f) at least one remote communicative device coupled to the network to receive and respond to the scheduling data to communicate the advertising content to at least one of the plurality of remote display devices, said remote communicative device including a set of specialized software components that mirror said set of software components and said scheduling algorithm, said remote communicative device being capable of storing the advertising content and scheduling data so that said remote communicative device can continue to function in the event of a loss of network communication with the server.
2. The system recited in claim 1 , wherein said remote communicative device includes at least one remote server, and at least some of said plurality of remote display devices that are coupled to the network via the remote server, the remote server being capable of distributing the advertising content to the at least some of said plurality of remote display devices for display in accordance with the scheduling data.
3. The system recited in claim 2 wherein the remote server provides security between the at least some of said plurality of remote display devices and the network.
4. The system recited in claim 1 , and further comprising a user interface coupled to the network for allowing a user to input and/or modify at least one of the scheduling data and the advertising content.
5. The system recited in claim 1 , wherein the scheduling data is stored in the database with the advertising content.
6. The system recited in claim 4 , wherein a signature associated with the scheduling data is stored with the advertising content.
7. The system recited in claim 1 , wherein the scheduling data is stored in a database separate from the database in which the advertising content is stored.
8. The system recited in claim 1 , and further comprising a user interface coupled to the network for updating the scheduling data.
9. The system recited in claim 1 , wherein advertising content from a variety of channels is distributed simultaneously to various ones of the plurality of remote display devices.
10. The system recited in claim 1 , wherein the database can receive and store and can be queried for information associated with at least one of the group consisting of billing, statistical analysis, merchandise, and performance monitoring.
11. The system recited in claim 1 , and further comprising a gaming device coupled to the server, the gaming device being capable of communicating advertising content associated with gaming.