IP Library Granted Patent US 8,943,530
Granted Patent B2
US 8,943,530 · App. 13/540,084 · Granted Jan 27, 2015

Advertising metrics system and method

View Patent ↗
Loading inventors, assignments & file history…
Monitor This Case
Get email alerts when status or documents change.
Order Certified Copies
Most orders are placed with the USPTO same day — all within 24 business hours.
Order via The Patent Place →
Pre-filled with this patent's details
Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 8,943,530
App. No.
13/540,084
Granted
Jan 27, 2015
Kind
B2
Abstract

The present disclosure relates to a system and method for monitoring audio-video (AV) streams transported over a network. The system may include an AV probe deployed between an AV tuner and AV destination customer premise equipment. The AV probe may receive an incoming AV stream. The AV probe may generate a thumbnail stream by capturing thumbnails of the incoming AV stream. The AV probe may transmit, substantially in real-time, the thumbnail stream to a monitoring engine and the incoming AV stream to the AV destination customer premise equipment.

Claims (42)

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving, by an AV probe deployed between an AV tuner and AV destination customer premise equipment, an incoming AV stream;

generating, by the AV probe, a thumbnail stream by capturing thumbnails of the incoming AV stream;

transmitting, by the AV probe, substantially in real-time the thumbnail stream to a monitoring engine and the incoming AV stream to the AV destination customer premise equipment;

capturing, by the AV probe, user data;

transmitting, by the AV probe, the user data to the monitoring engine; and

generating a visual representation by transforming the captured user data to include a mosaic view that shows one of simultaneous thumbnail views for multiple AV probes and sequential thumbnails views from the AV probe.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the visual representation provides a graphical representation of the captured user data including at least one of baseband video and audio levels, metrics, statistics, video frame statistics, reports, logs with time stamps and marked with comments, and the thumbnails to verify content.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising

inspecting the thumbnail stream to verify that a first advertisement and a second advertisement were inserted into the incoming AV stream; and

identifying an end of the first advertisement and a beginning of the second advertisement.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3 , further comprising

determining that a number of black screens occurred between the end of the first advertisement and the beginning of the second advertisement and exceeded a threshold, indicating a late splice of the second advertisement.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 3 , wherein inspecting the thumbnail stream includes capturing at least one of delivery status, content outages, bit rates, advertisement splice performance, early start of splice, late start of splice, early end of splice, late end of splice, black frame performance, freeze frames, and audio levels during the advertisement.

6. A computer program product residing on a computer readable medium having a plurality of instructions stored thereon which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

receiving, by an AV probe deployed between an AV tuner and AV destination customer premise equipment, an incoming AV stream;

generating, by the AV probe, a thumbnail stream by capturing thumbnails of the incoming AV stream;

transmitting, by the AV probe, substantially in real-time the thumbnail stream to a monitoring engine and the incoming AV stream to the AV destination customer premise equipment;

capturing, by the AV probe, user data;

transmitting, by the AV probe, the user data to the monitoring engine; and

generating a visual representation by transforming the captured user data to include a mosaic view that shows one of simultaneous thumbnail views for multiple AV probes and sequential thumbnails views from the AV probe.

7. The computer program product of claim 6 , wherein the visual representation provides a graphical representation of the captured user data including at least one of baseband video and audio levels, metrics, statistics, video frame statistics, reports, logs with time stamps and marked with comments, and the thumbnails to verify content.

8. The computer program product of claim 6 , further comprising

inspecting the thumbnail stream to verify that a first advertisement and a second advertisement were inserted into the incoming AV stream; and

identifying an end of the first advertisement and a beginning of the second advertisement.

9. The computer program product of claim 8 , further comprising

determining that a number of black screens occurred between the end of the first advertisement and the beginning of the second advertisement and exceeded a threshold, indicating a late splice of the second advertisement.

10. The computer program product of claim 8 , wherein inspecting the thumbnail stream includes capturing at least one of delivery status, content outages, bit rates, advertisement splice performance, early start of splice, late start of splice, early end of splice, late end of splice, black frame performance, freeze frames, and audio levels during the advertisement.

11. A computing system including a processor and memory configured to perform operations comprising:

receiving, by an AV probe deployed between an AV tuner and AV destination customer premise equipment, an incoming AV stream;

generating, by the AV probe, a thumbnail stream by capturing thumbnails of the incoming AV stream;

transmitting, by the AV probe, substantially in real-time the thumbnail stream to a monitoring engine and the incoming AV stream to the AV destination customer premise equipment;

capturing, by the AV probe, user data;

transmitting, by the AV probe, the user data to the monitoring engine; and

generating a visual representation by transforming the captured user data to include a mosaic view that shows one of simultaneous thumbnail views for multiple AV probes and sequential thumbnails views from the AV probe.

12. The computing system of claim 11 , wherein the visual representation provides a graphical representation of the captured user data including at least one of baseband video and audio levels, metrics, statistics, video frame statistics, reports, logs with time stamps and marked with comments, and the thumbnails to verify content.

13. The computing system of claim 11 , further comprising

inspecting the thumbnail stream to verify that a first advertisement and a second advertisement were inserted into the incoming AV stream; and

identifying an end of the first advertisement and a beginning of the second advertisement.

14. The computing system of claim 13 , further comprising

determining that a number of black screens occurred between the end of the first advertisement and the beginning of the second advertisement and exceeded a threshold, indicating a late splice of the second advertisement.

15. The computing system of claim 13 , wherein inspecting the thumbnail stream includes capturing at least one of delivery status, content outages, bit rates, advertisement splice performance, early start of splice, late start of splice, early end of splice, late end of splice, black frame performance, freeze frames, and audio levels during the advertisement.

Assignments (7)
SECURITY INTEREST Recorded Jun 9, 2025
From: INEOQUEST TECHNOLOGIES, LLC; PROJECT GIANTS, LLC
To: FORTRESS CREDIT CORP.
Reel/Frame 071493/0030 →
CHANGE OF NAME Recorded Jun 2, 2025
From: INEOQUEST TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
To: INEOQUEST TECHNOLOGIES, LLC
Reel/Frame 071290/0204 →
CORRECTIVE ASSIGNMENT TO CORRECT THE APPLICATION NO. 14579432 AND MISSING 10681574 PREVIOUSLY RECORDED AT REEL: 054063 FRAME: 0234. ASSIGNOR(S) HEREBY CONFIRMS THE PATENT SECURITY INTEREST. Recorded Jun 1, 2021
From: INEOQUEST TECHNOLOGIES, LLC
To: FORTRESS CREDIT CORP., AS AGENT
Reel/Frame 057059/0756 →
RELEASE OF SECURITY INTEREST Recorded Oct 16, 2020
From: SILICON VALLEY BANK
To: INEOQUEST TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
Reel/Frame 054082/0549 →
SECURITY INTEREST Recorded Oct 15, 2020
From: INEOQUEST TECHNOLOGIES, LLC
To: FORTRESS CREDIT CORP., AS AGENT
Reel/Frame 054063/0234 →
SECURITY INTEREST Recorded Mar 28, 2017
From: INEOQUEST TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
To: SILICON VALLEY BANK
Reel/Frame 041759/0655 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Jul 2, 2012
From: TODD, MARC A.
To: INEOQUEST TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
Reel/Frame 028477/0989 →