Electronic news gathering method and system for the prioritized transmission of data
View Patent ↗A method of remotely uploading recordings of live events to a broadcast station includes: a) recording live events at remote locations using a plurality of electronic news gathering (ENG) units, each of the live events being recorded by one of the ENG units as a signal; b) each of the ENG units encoding the signal into a data stream; c) assigning a priority level to each of the data streams; d) transmitting the data streams of the ENG units to the broadcast station through at least one base station, wherein the transmission of the data streams is prioritized based on the assigned priority levels; and e) receiving and decoding the data streams at the broadcast station.
1. A method of remotely uploading recordings of live events from remote locations to a broadcast station comprising:
a) recording live events at remote locations using a plurality of electronic news gathering (ENG) units, each of the live events being recorded by one of the ENG units as a signal including both audio and video data;
b) each of the ENG units encoding the signal into a data stream;
c) assigning a priority level to each of the data streams;
d) transmitting the data streams of the ENG units to the broadcast station through at least one base station, wherein the data streams are wirelessly transmitted from the ENG unit to the at least one base station and transmitted from the at least one base station to the broadcast station, wherein the transmission of the data streams is prioritized based on the assigned priority levels, and wherein a first ENG unit of the plurality of ENG units is configured to mark a first data stream encoded by the first ENG unit with a priority level indicator based on the assigned priority levels; and
e) receiving and decoding the data streams at the broadcast station.
2. The method of claim 1 where the priority level of each of the data streams is assigned using a differentiated services (DS) field and a differentiated services code point (DSCP) field in each data stream.
3. The method of claim 1 wherein the assignment of the priority level to each of the data streams is based on parameters, the parameters comprising (i) Destination IP and Port, (ii) Source IP and Port, (iii) VLAN Tag, and (iv) Protocol.
4. The method of claim 1 wherein the priority level of each of the data streams is one of (i) expedited forwarding, (ii) assured forwarding or (iii) best effort forwarding.
5. The method of claim 1 wherein the priority level of each of the data streams is assigned by each of the ENG units.
6. The method of claim 1 wherein the priority level of each of the data streams is assigned by a base station of the at least one base station.
7. The method of claim 1 wherein the priority level of each of the data streams is assigned by a selection mechanism, the selection mechanism configured to allow an operator to prioritize the transmission of each of the data streams.
8. The method of claim 7 further comprising step f) prior to step c), step f) comprising:
transmitting network control information with the selection mechanism to the plurality of ENG units and the at least one base station, the network control information assigning the priority level to each of the data streams.
9. The method of claim 8 wherein the network control information changes the priority level of a first data stream from a first ENG unit of the plurality of ENG units to expedited forwarding and the priority level of remaining data streams of remaining ENG units of the plurality of ENG units to either assured forwarding or best effort forwarding, thereby ensuring that the first data stream has the highest priority level of the data streams.
10. The method of claim 1 wherein the at least one base station is part of at least one of the following: a mobile cellular network, a Wi-Fi network, a public WiMax network, a private WiMax network, a VSAT, a BGAN and a satellite network.
11. The method of claim 1 wherein each of the data streams comprises audio and video data.
12. The method of claim 1 wherein the broadcast station receives the data stream substantially in real time.
13. The method of claim 1 wherein each of the data streams are sent as single data streams from the plurality of ENG units to the broadcast station.
14. An electronic news gathering (ENG) network comprising:
a plurality of ENG units, each ENG unit comprising a camera, an encoder and a transceiver, each of the ENG units configured to: (1) record a live event at a remote location as a signal including both audio and video data, (2) encode the signal as a data stream, and (3) wirelessly transmit the data stream to at least one base station;
the at least one base station comprising a transceiver, the at least one base station configured to: (1) receive each of the data streams from the plurality of ENG units; and (2) transmit each of the data streams to the broadcast station;
the broadcast station comprising a transceiver and a decoder, the broadcast station configured to: (1) receive each of the data streams from the at least one base station; and (2) decode each of the data streams; and
wherein the ENG network is configured to: (1) assign a priority level to each of the data streams; and (2) prioritize the transmission of each of the data streams from the plurality of ENG units to the broadcast station based on the assigned priority levels, wherein a first ENG unit of the plurality of ENG units is configured to mark a first data stream of the plurality of data streams, the first data stream being encoded by the first ENG unit, with a priority level indicator based on the assigned priority levels.
15. The ENG network of claim 14 wherein the priority level of each of the data streams is assigned using a differentiated services (DS) field and a differentiated services code point (DSCP) field in each data stream.
16. The ENG network of claim 14 wherein the assignment of the priority level of each of the data streams is based on parameters, the parameters comprising (i) Destination IP and Port, (ii) Source IP and Port, (iii) WAN Tag, and (iv) Protocol.
17. The ENG network of claim 14 wherein the priority level to each of the data streams is one of (i) expedited forwarding, (ii) assured forwarding or (iii) best effort forwarding.
18. The ENG network of claim 14 wherein an ENG unit of the plurality of ENG units is configured to assign the priority level of each of the data streams.
19. The ENG network of claim 14 wherein a base station of the at least one base station is configured to assign the priority level of each of the data streams.
20. The ENG network of claim 14 further comprising:
a selection mechanism configured to assign the priority level of each of the data streams, the selection mechanism operated by an operator.
21. The ENG network method of claim 20 wherein the selection mechanism is further configured to transmit network control information to the plurality of ENG units and the at least one base station, the network control information assigning the priority level to each of the data streams.
22. The ENG network of claim 21 wherein the transmitted network control information is configured to change the priority level of a first data stream of a first ENG unit of the plurality of ENG units to expedited forwarding and the priority level of remaining data streams of remaining ENG units of the plurality of ENG units to either assured forwarding or best effort forwarding, thereby ensuring that the first data stream has the highest priority level of each of the data streams.
23. The ENG network of claim 14 wherein the at least one base station is part of at least one of the following: a mobile cellular network, a WiFi network, a public WiMax network, a private WiMax network, a VSAT, a BGAN and a satellite network.
24. The ENG network of claim 14 wherein each of the data streams comprises video and audio data.
25. The ENG network of claim 14 wherein the reception of at least one data stream of each of the data streams by the broadcast station is done substantially in real time.
26. The ENG network of claim 14 wherein the plurality of ENG units are further configured to transmit the data stream to the at least one base station as a single data stream.
27. A method of prioritizing the upload of a recording of a live event from a remote location comprising:
transmitting network control information with a selection mechanism to an electronic news gathering (ENG) network, the network control information assigning a priority level of a data stream of a first ENG unit in the ENG network, the ENG network comprising at least two ENG units, at least one base station and a broadcast station;
recording the live event at the remote location using the first ENG unit, the live event being recorded by the first ENG unit as a signal including both audio and video data;
encoding the signal into the data stream with the first ENG unit;
transmitting the data stream with the first ENG unit to the broadcast station via the at least one base station, wherein the first ENG unit wirelessly transmits the data stream to the at least one base station, wherein the transmission of the data stream is prioritized based on the assigned priority level, and wherein the first ENG unit is configured to mark the data stream with a priority level indicator based on the assigned priority level; and
receiving and decoding the data stream at the broadcast station.
28. The method of claim 27 wherein a plurality of other data streams from a plurality of other ENG units are being transmitted over the ENG network during the transmission of the data stream of the first ENG unit, the transmission of the data stream of the first ENG unit being prioritized over the transmission of the other data streams.
29. The method of claim 27 where the priority level of the first data stream is assigned using a differentiated services (DS) field and a differentiated services code point (DSCP) field in the data stream.