TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure generally relates to adaptive media stream systems and, more particularly, relates to systems and methods wherein concatenated transport streams for distribution to a number of television receivers or other devices are generated from adaptive media streams received over a digital network.

BACKGROUND

Many service providers continue to utilize legacy video distribution systems to transmit television programming content to relatively large numbers of television receivers, such as set-top boxes located in the guest rooms of a resort or similar venue. The television programming may be received as an aggregated transport stream at the service provider's distributor headend. The aggregated transport stream may be provided by a content aggregator, which produces the transport stream by bundling a number of component streams containing the television programming. In instances wherein the service provider is remotely located relative to the content aggregator, a privately-owned point-to-point connection, such as a fiber optic circuit, may be utilized to transmit the aggregated transport stream from the content aggregator to the distributor headend. Leasing of such a privately-owned point-to-point connection can be costly and potentially cost prohibitive for smaller service providers. In certain cases, it may be possible to bypass the privately-owned point-to-point connection by wirelessly transmitting the transport stream directly to the distributor headend utilizing a satellite link. However, this may not be possible or desirable in all instances, such as when the distributor headend is located outside of the satellite footprint cast by the content provider or its affiliates.

Transport stream delivery architectures of the type described above are limited in another respect, as well; such delivery architectures are typically incompatible with emerging adaptive streaming technologies. During adaptive streaming, media content may be encoded into multiple sets of small segment files commonly referred to as “streamlets.” The streamlets are encoded to different parameters (e.g., different frame rates, bit rates, resolutions, and the like) such that a particular terminal device can request a lower or higher bandwidth stream depending upon the capabilities of the terminal device and resource allocation. As changes in network bandwidth or other factors occur, the terminal device is able to react to such changes by requesting future segments or streamlets encoded in accordance with varying parameters thereby providing a readily adaptable and highly reliable stream for viewing of the media content. The usage of such adaptive streaming techniques is, however, generally not possible in the case of legacy video distribution systems without upgrading existing set-top boxes or other television receivers to enable the installation of adaptive clients thereon, which is typically cost prohibitive or otherwise impractical in many instances wherein a large number of set-top boxes have already been deployed.

It is therefore desirable to provide systems and methods enabling the delivery of a transport stream to the video distribution system of a service provider without requiring the transmission of data over privately-owned point-to-point connections, such as fiber optic circuits, and without requiring upgrades in the existing equipment utilized by the service provider. It would further be desirable for such systems and methods to utilize adaptive stream technologies in the generation of such transport streams to enable the efficient resource management of the distribution system and reliable media streaming, while also allowing media streams to be multicast to any number of existing television receivers. Finally, it would still further be desirable to provide systems and method for generating concatenated transport streams from adaptive media streams received over a digital network wherein the concatenated transport stream can also be transmitted to legacy television receivers or other devices within a home environment. These and other desirable features and characteristics will become apparent from the subsequent Detailed Description and the appended Claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying Drawings and this Background section.

BRIEF SUMMARY

Embodiments of a method executable by an adaptive stream concatenation server to deliver a concatenated transport stream to a video distribution system are provided. In one embodiment, the method includes receiving an adaptive media stream containing television programming in an adaptive packet format at the adaptive stream concatenation server via a digital network. The contents of the adaptive media stream are concatenated by the adaptive stream concatenation server to create a concatenated transport stream containing the television programming in a streaming format different from the adaptive packet format and compatible with the video distribution system. The concatenated transport stream containing the television programming is then transmitted in the streaming format to the video distribution system.

In a further embodiment, the method is executable by an adaptive stream concatenation server to deliver a concatenated transport stream to a television distribution system distributing a multi-channel television content or programming, such as cable television content, to a plurality of television receivers. The method includes receiving a plurality of adaptive media streams each containing different television channels in an adaptive packet format at the adaptive stream concatenation server via a digital network The contents of the plurality of adaptive media streams are concatenated at the adaptive stream concatenation server to create a multicast Internet Protocol (“IP”) stream containing a multi-channel television programming in a streaming format different from the adaptive packet format and compatible with the video distribution system. The multicast IP stream containing the multi-channel television programming is then encrypted and transmitted in the streaming format to a headend distributor of the television distribution system for distribution to the plurality of television receivers.

Embodiments of an adaptive stream concatenation server are further provided. The adaptive stream concatenation server provides television programming for distribution to a plurality of television receivers. In one embodiment, the adaptive stream concatenation system comprises an interface to a digital network and a processor coupled to the interface. The processor is configured to: (i) receive an adaptive media stream containing television programming in an adaptive packet format at the adaptive stream concatenation server via a digital network; (ii) concatenate the contents of the adaptive media stream by the adaptive stream concatenation server to create a concatenated transport stream containing the television programming in a streaming format different from the adaptive packet format and compatible with the video distribution system; and (iii) transmit the concatenated transport stream containing the television programming in the streaming format to the video distribution system.

