Methods and systems for signal insertion
View Patent ↗Methods and systems that support downstream media signal insertion into a digital signal without affecting digital signal quality is presented here. The methods and systems can utilize pre-defined bitrate values assigned to media signals and allocate that bitrate to a portion of a digital signal that will be replaced by the media signal. The methods are equally applicable to both open and closed-loop encoding systems.
1. A method for bit allocation for media signal insertion comprising:
receiving, by a plurality of encoders, a plurality of media inputs;
converting the plurality of media inputs into a plurality of digital signals;
inserting, by the plurality of encoders, a first message into at least one of the plurality of digital signals indicating a media signal splice-in point and a media signal splice-out point;
sending, by the plurality of encoders, a second message to a rate controller indicating the media signal splice-in point and the media signal splice-out point for each digital signal;
synchronizing the plurality of encoders to a common time base, aligning the media signal splice-in points and the media signal splice-out points of the digital signals; and
allocating a fixed bitrate to each of the digital signals having media signal splice-in and splice-out points, the fixed bitrate being allocated for the period between the media signal splice-in points and the media signal splice-out points according to media signal encoding, the fixed bitrate allocation facilitating an encoder to splice a constant bit rate video signal into each of the digital signals between the splice-in and splice-out points without using a transcoder.
2. The method of claim 1 wherein the media signal is encoded at a constant bitrate.
3. The method of claim 2 further comprising:
receiving a pre-defined bitrate for a media signal.
4. The method of claim 3 wherein the allocated bitrate is a pre-defined bitrate, irrespective of coding complexity of a program in which the media signal is inserted.
5. The method of claim 1 wherein the media signal is encoded at a variable bitrate.
6. The method of claim 5 wherein the allocated bitrate is a maximum of the variable bitrate, irrespective of coding complexity of a program in which the media signal is inserted.
7. The method of claim 1 wherein the media input is selected from the group consisting of:
a video input; and
an audio input.
8. The method of claim 1 wherein the media signal is selected from the group consisting of:
an advertisement;
a movie;
a song;
a video program; and
audio clip.
9. A method for bit allocation for media signal insertion comprising:
receiving, by a plurality of encoders, a plurality of media inputs;
encoding the plurality of media inputs into a plurality of digital signals;
inserting, by the plurality of encoders, a first message into at least one of the plurality of digital signals indicating a media signal splice-in point and a media signal splice-out point; and
allocating a single fixed bitrate to each of the digital signals having a first message according to media signal encoding, the single fixed bitrate being allocated to the digital signal between the media signal splice-in point and the media signal splice-out point indicated by the first message thereby facilitating insertion of a video signal without requiring compression of the inserted signal.
10. The method of claim 9 wherein the media signal is encoded at a constant bitrate.
11. The method of claim 10 further comprising:
receiving a pre-defined bitrate for a media signal.
12. The method of claim 11 wherein the allocated bitrate is a pre-defined bitrate, irrespective of coding complexity of a program in which the media signal is inserted.
13. The method of claim 9 wherein the media signal is encoded at a variable bitrate.
14. The method of claim 13 wherein the allocated bitrate is a maximum of the variable bitrate, irrespective of coding complexity of a program in which the media signal is inserted.
15. The method of claim 9 further comprising:
sending, by the plurality of encoders, a second message to a rate controller indicating the media signal splice-in point and the media signal splice-out point for each digital signal; and
synchronizing, by the rate controller, the plurality of encoders to a common time base, aligning the media signal splice-in points and the media signal splice-out points of the digital signals having a second message.
16. The method of claim 9 wherein the media input is selected from the group consisting of:
a video input; and
an audio input.
17. The method of claim 9 wherein the media signal is selected from the group consisting of:
an advertisement;
a movie;
a song;
a video program; and
audio clip.
18. A system for bit allocation for media signal insertion comprising:
a plurality of encoders, wherein the encoders are configured to insert a first message indicating a media signal splice-in point and a media signal splice-out point of a media signal into a digital signal and further configured to transmit a second message indicating the media signal splice-in point and the media signal splice-out point to a rate controller;
a rate controller, coupled to the encoders and receiving feedback from the encoders, the rate controller being configured to synchronize the plurality of encoders to a common time base based on the feedback received from the encoders, thereby aligning the media signal splice-in points and the media signal splice-out points of the digital signals, the rate controller being further configured to allocate a fixed bitrate to each of the digital signals having media signal splice-in and splice-out points, the fixed bitrate being allocated to the digital signals between the media signal splice-in points and the media signal splice-out points thereby facilitating insertion of a standard advertisement without requiring transcoding or compression of the advertisement.
19. The system of claim 18 wherein the media signal is encoded at a constant bitrate.
20. The system of claim 19 further comprising:
receiving a pre-defined bitrate for a media signal.
21. The system of claim 20 wherein the allocated bitrate is a pre-defined bitrate, irrespective of coding complexity of a program in which the media signal is inserted.
22. The system of claim 18 wherein the media signal is encoded at a variable bitrate.
23. The system of claim 22 wherein the allocated bitrate is a maximum of the variable bitrate, irrespective of coding complexity of a program in which the media signal is inserted.
24. The method of claim 18 wherein the media input is selected from the group consisting of:
a video input; and
an audio input.
25. The system of claim 18 wherein the media signal is selected from the group consisting of:
an advertisement;
a movie;
a song;
a video program; and
audio clip.
26. A system for bit allocation for media signal insertion comprising:
a plurality of encoders, wherein the encoders are configured to insert a first message indicating a media signal splice-in point and a media signal splice-out point of a media signal into a digital signal;
a multiplexer, coupled to the encoders, configured to allocate a fixed bitrate to each of the digital signals having media signal splice-in and splice-out points, the fixed bitrate being allocated to the digital signals between the media signal splice-in points and the media signal splice-out points thereby facilitating insertion of a standard advertisement without requiring transcoding or compression of the advertisement.
27. The system of claim 26 wherein the media signal is encoded at a constant bitrate.
28. The system of claim 27 further comprising:
receiving a pre-defined bitrate for a media signal.
29. The system of claim 28 wherein the allocated bitrate is a pre-defined bitrate, irrespective of coding complexity of a program in which the media signal is inserted.
30. The system of claim 26 wherein the media signal is encoded at a variable bitrate.
31. The system of claim 30 wherein the allocated bitrate is a maximum of the variable bitrate, irrespective of coding complexity of a program in which the media signal is inserted.
32. The system of claim 26 wherein the media input is selected from the group consisting of:
a video input; and
an audio input.
33. The system of claim 26 wherein the media signal is selected from the group consisting of:
an advertisement;
a movie;
a song;
a video program; and
audio clip.