AUTOMATICALLY ALLOWING INTERNET ACCESS FOR PLURALITY OF GUEST USER DEVICES TRIGGERED UPON DETECTING DEVICE IDENTIFIER OF ONE OF THEM ON NETWORK OF HOSPITALITY ESTABLISHMENT
A service controller includes a network interface for coupling to a local area network of a hospitality establishment, and one or more processors coupled to the network interface. The one or more processors are configured to detect a device identifier of a user device on a local area network of a hospitality establishment, determine whether a guest of the hospitality establishment is associated with the device identifier, and automatically activate a service for the user device at the hospitality establishment in response to detecting the device identifier on the local area network when a guest of the hospitality establishment is determined to be associated with the device identifier.
G06F 16/955 - Retrieval from the web using information identifiers, e.g. uniform resource locators [URL]
H04L 61/103 - Mapping addresses of different types across network layers, e.g. resolution of network layer into physical layer addresses or address resolution protocol [ARP]
Activating media function on particular media device at hospitality establishment utilizing passkey generated according to current time and identifier of the particular media device
A media system includes a plurality of set-top boxes coupled to a coax network and a controller. The controller displays a first passkey to a user in response to receiving a request from the user to activate playback of a media content on a particular set-top box. The set-top box receives the first passkey from the user and determines whether the user is authorized to activate playback of the media content by comparing the first passkey received from the user with a second passkey obtained from a passkey module on the set-top box. When the user is determined by the set-top box to be authorized to activate playback of the media content, the set-top box determines a radio frequency channel of the coax network according to the first passkey received from the user and begins playback of the media content received on the radio frequency channel on a display device.
H04N 21/214 - Specialised server platform, e.g. server located in an airplane, hotel or hospital
H04N 21/472 - End-user interface for requesting content, additional data or servicesEnd-user interface for interacting with content, e.g. for content reservation or setting reminders, for requesting event notification or for manipulating displayed content
H04N 21/475 - End-user interface for inputting end-user data, e.g. PIN [Personal Identification Number] or preference data
H04N 21/258 - Client or end-user data management, e.g. managing client capabilities, user preferences or demographics or processing of multiple end-users preferences to derive collaborative data
H04N 7/10 - Adaptations for transmission by electrical cable
H04N 7/18 - Closed-circuit television [CCTV] systems, i.e. systems in which the video signal is not broadcast
H04N 7/20 - Adaptations for transmission via a GHz frequency band, e.g. via satellite
H04N 21/236 - Assembling of a multiplex stream, e.g. transport stream, by combining a video stream with other content or additional data, e.g. inserting a URL [Uniform Resource Locator ] into a video stream, multiplexing software data into a video streamRemultiplexing of multiplex streamsInsertion of stuffing bits into the multiplex stream, e.g. to obtain a constant bit-rateAssembling of a packetised elementary stream
H04N 21/436 - Interfacing a local distribution network, e.g. communicating with another STB or inside the home
H04N 21/6547 - Transmission by server directed to the client comprising parameters, e.g. for client setup
H04H 20/63 - Arrangements specially adapted for specific applications, e.g. for traffic information or for mobile receivers for local area broadcast, e.g. instore broadcast to plural spots in a confined site, e.g. MATV [Master Antenna Television]
3.
Allowing mobile device to remotely control authorized subset of controllable devices utilizing content available in registered guest room
A mobile device is configurable by a controller to remotely operate a target controllable device, the controller and the target controllable device being part of a hospitality media system. A communication module establishes a connection to the controller and performs data transfer between the mobile device and the controller. A customization module receives customization information from the controller and customizes a user interface of the mobile device accordingly. A status information regarding the target controllable device is received from the controller and displayed on the user interface of the mobile device. A user of the mobile device thereafter issues a command via the user interface to the controller, the command containing instruction intended for the target controllable device. The controller receives the command and operates the target controllable devices in dependence upon instruction contained in the command received from the mobile device.
H04N 21/214 - Specialised server platform, e.g. server located in an airplane, hotel or hospital
H04N 21/258 - Client or end-user data management, e.g. managing client capabilities, user preferences or demographics or processing of multiple end-users preferences to derive collaborative data
H04N 21/6375 - Control signals issued by the client directed to the server or network components for requesting retransmission
H04N 21/647 - Control signaling between network components and server or clientsNetwork processes for video distribution between server and clients, e.g. controlling the quality of the video stream, by dropping packets, protecting content from unauthorised alteration within the network, monitoring of network load or bridging between two different networks, e.g. between IP and wireless
H04N 21/41 - Structure of clientStructure of client peripherals
H04N 21/436 - Interfacing a local distribution network, e.g. communicating with another STB or inside the home
H04N 21/422 - Input-only peripherals, e.g. global positioning system [GPS]
G06F 21/30 - Authentication, i.e. establishing the identity or authorisation of security principals
G06F 21/62 - Protecting access to data via a platform, e.g. using keys or access control rules
H04L 12/28 - Data switching networks characterised by path configuration, e.g. LAN [Local Area Networks] or WAN [Wide Area Networks]
H04N 21/414 - Specialised client platforms, e.g. receiver in car or embedded in a mobile appliance
4.
Sharing service entitlement of network service between multiple guest devices
Network traffic is received from an unrecognized guest device on a computer network. A user profile server is queried to determine a user identifier that is associated with the device identifier of the unrecognized guest device. A login database is queried to find an unexpired login record of an authorized guest device associated with the user identifier. The unexpired login record grants the authorized guest device access to the network service with a service entitlement for an allowed access duration, and a stored device identifier in the unexpired login record of the authorized guest device is different from the device identifier of the unrecognized guest device. The service entitlement of the network service specified in the unexpired login record is shared between the authorized guest device and the unrecognized guest device for a remaining portion of the allowed access duration of the unexpired login record of the authorized guest device.
A walled garden system includes a firewall controlling access between a first network and a second network at least by allowing connection requests originating from a user device on the first network to a destination IP address on the second network in response to determining that the destination IP address matches a cleared IP address on a cleared IP addresses list. A controller receives a domain name service (DNS) reply from a DNS server on the second network, and determines whether a domain name specified within the DNS reply matches a cleared domain name on a cleared domain names list. In response to determining that the domain name specified within the DNS reply matches the cleared domain name on the cleared domain names list, the controller adds a resolved IP address specified in the DNS reply to the cleared IP addresses list as a new cleared IP address.
H04L 61/4511 - Network directoriesName-to-address mapping using standardised directoriesNetwork directoriesName-to-address mapping using standardised directory access protocols using domain name system [DNS]
6.
Leveraging push notification capabilities on mobile device to dynamically upgrade network service entitlement for a different device
An app server receives a device token from a software application on a mobile device. The device token identifies the mobile device for pushing notification messages of the software application to the mobile device via a push notification system. The mobile device is monitored while accessing the Internet in order to detect when the user may benefit from upgraded access to the Internet. The app server then sends one or more notification message(s) to the user such as by sending a message to the device token of the mobile device via the push notification system or to a display device associated with the user at the hospitality establishment. The notification message invites the user to upgrade their Internet access. The push notification system alerts the user to the notification message via the user interface of the mobile device even when the software application is not running on the mobile device.
Allowing both internet access and network-based media sharing with media devices of particular guest room in response to confirming personal details received from guest device match registered guest of hospitality establishment
A media system includes a computer network, a media device supporting a network-based media sharing protocol, a plurality of output devices located at a plurality of physical locations within a hospitality establishment, and a system controller. In response to a first event, the system controller assigns the media device to a particular guest device by reconfiguring one or more components of the computer network to enable the particular guest device to utilize the network-based media sharing protocol to share media over the computer network with the media device, and commands an output device located at a physical location associated with the particular guest device to play media corresponding to the media signal outputted by the media device on the output port. In response to a second event, the system controller un-assigns the media device from the particular guest device and commands the output device to stop playing the media.
H04L 41/0893 - Assignment of logical groups to network elements
H04L 41/0816 - Configuration setting characterised by the conditions triggering a change of settings the condition being an adaptation, e.g. in response to network events
H04N 21/436 - Interfacing a local distribution network, e.g. communicating with another STB or inside the home
H04L 65/611 - Network streaming of media packets for supporting one-way streaming services, e.g. Internet radio for multicast or broadcast
H04L 65/612 - Network streaming of media packets for supporting one-way streaming services, e.g. Internet radio for unicast
H04L 65/1045 - Proxies, e.g. for session initiation protocol [SIP]
H04L 67/52 - Network services specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
A set-top box receives original video streams and generates a guide video stream that includes each of the original video streams resized and arranged as a plurality of scaled video streams such that all of the scaled video streams are simultaneously visible and playing on the guide video stream. The guide video stream is displayed on a display device and the set-top box provides an interactive user interface on the display device in conjunction with the guide video stream to allow a user of the set-top box to select one of the scaled video streams for full screen playback. In response to the user selecting a particular scaled video stream on the guide video stream for full screen playback, the set-top box plays full screen on the display device a particular original video stream corresponding to the particular scaled video stream as received via the communication interface.
H04N 21/431 - Generation of visual interfacesContent or additional data rendering
H04N 21/482 - End-user interface for program selection
H04N 21/434 - Disassembling of a multiplex stream, e.g. demultiplexing audio and video streams or extraction of additional data from a video streamRemultiplexing of multiplex streamsExtraction or processing of SIDisassembling of packetised elementary stream
H04N 21/2387 - Stream processing in response to a playback request from an end-user, e.g. for trick-play
H04N 21/44 - Processing of video elementary streams, e.g. splicing a video clip retrieved from local storage with an incoming video stream or rendering scenes according to encoded video stream scene graphs
H04N 21/214 - Specialised server platform, e.g. server located in an airplane, hotel or hospital
9.
Pairing mobile device with media device at hospitality establishment based on internet access login record of the mobile device without requiring user to input media device connect code
A media server is for enabling codeless pairing between a mobile device and a particular one of a plurality of media devices. The media server is communicatively coupled to the mobile device and the media devices via a computer network. The media server receives a request by a first media device to enter a codeless pairing mode, queries a database to determine whether any other of the media devices is currently in the codeless pairing mode—and, when yes, the media server transmits a busy message to the first media device, and, when no, the media server detects a media session initiated by the mobile device. Upon detecting the media session, the media server pairs the mobile device with the first media device and causes the first media device to play media content associated with the media session.
G06F 15/16 - Combinations of two or more digital computers each having at least an arithmetic unit, a program unit and a register, e.g. for a simultaneous processing of several programs
H04L 29/08 - Transmission control procedure, e.g. data link level control procedure
10.
Activating media function on particular media device at hospitality establishment utilizing passkey generated according to current time and identifier of the particular media device
A media system includes a plurality of set-top boxes coupled to a coax network and a controller. The controller displays a first passkey to a user in response to receiving a request from the user to activate playback of a media content on a particular set-top box. The set-top box receives the first passkey from the user and determines whether the user is authorized to activate playback of the media content by comparing the first passkey received from the user with a second passkey obtained from a passkey module on the set-top box. When the user is determined by the set-top box to be authorized to activate playback of the media content, the set-top box determines a radio frequency channel of the coax network according to the first passkey received from the user and begins playback of the media content received on the radio frequency channel on a display device.
H04N 21/214 - Specialised server platform, e.g. server located in an airplane, hotel or hospital
H04N 21/472 - End-user interface for requesting content, additional data or servicesEnd-user interface for interacting with content, e.g. for content reservation or setting reminders, for requesting event notification or for manipulating displayed content
H04N 21/475 - End-user interface for inputting end-user data, e.g. PIN [Personal Identification Number] or preference data
H04N 21/258 - Client or end-user data management, e.g. managing client capabilities, user preferences or demographics or processing of multiple end-users preferences to derive collaborative data
H04N 7/10 - Adaptations for transmission by electrical cable
H04N 7/18 - Closed-circuit television [CCTV] systems, i.e. systems in which the video signal is not broadcast
H04N 7/20 - Adaptations for transmission via a GHz frequency band, e.g. via satellite
H04N 21/236 - Assembling of a multiplex stream, e.g. transport stream, by combining a video stream with other content or additional data, e.g. inserting a URL [Uniform Resource Locator ] into a video stream, multiplexing software data into a video streamRemultiplexing of multiplex streamsInsertion of stuffing bits into the multiplex stream, e.g. to obtain a constant bit-rateAssembling of a packetised elementary stream
H04N 21/436 - Interfacing a local distribution network, e.g. communicating with another STB or inside the home
H04N 21/6547 - Transmission by server directed to the client comprising parameters, e.g. for client setup
H04H 20/63 - Arrangements specially adapted for specific applications, e.g. for traffic information or for mobile receivers for local area broadcast, e.g. instore broadcast to plural spots in a confined site, e.g. MATV [Master Antenna Television]
11.
Service controller at first establishment updating central user profile server to associate device identifier of user device with user identifier to facilitate automatic network service activation for the user device at second establishment
A service controller includes a network interface for coupling to a local area network of a hospitality establishment, and one or more processors coupled to the network interface. The one or more processors are configured to detect a device identifier of a user device on a local area network of a hospitality establishment, determine whether a guest of the hospitality establishment is associated with the device identifier, and automatically activate a service for the user device at the hospitality establishment in response to detecting the device identifier on the local area network when a guest of the hospitality establishment is determined to be associated with the device identifier.
G06F 16/955 - Retrieval from the web using information identifiers, e.g. uniform resource locators [URL]
H04L 61/103 - Mapping addresses of different types across network layers, e.g. resolution of network layer into physical layer addresses or address resolution protocol [ARP]
A hospitality media system includes a media system controller and a plurality of media devices located in a plurality of rooms and coupled to the media system controller. Each room has one or more in-room media devices located therein for performing a media function. A connection port allows a user of a room to establish data communications between the media system controller and a guest device. The media system controller is coupled to the connection port and configured to catalogue guest content available on the guest device to thereby form a guest content list, associate the guest content with one or more associated rooms at least including the user's room, and perform the media function utilizing content selected from the guest content list only on the in-room media devices located within the one or more associated rooms.
H04L 67/51 - Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
H04L 67/04 - Protocols specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilitiesProtocols specially adapted for terminal portability
H04N 21/214 - Specialised server platform, e.g. server located in an airplane, hotel or hospital
H04N 21/231 - Content storage operation, e.g. caching movies for short term storage, replicating data over plural servers or prioritizing data for deletion
H04N 21/472 - End-user interface for requesting content, additional data or servicesEnd-user interface for interacting with content, e.g. for content reservation or setting reminders, for requesting event notification or for manipulating displayed content
H04N 21/41 - Structure of clientStructure of client peripherals
H04N 21/45 - Management operations performed by the client for facilitating the reception of or the interaction with the content or administrating data related to the end-user or to the client device itself, e.g. learning user preferences for recommending movies or resolving scheduling conflicts
Network traffic, including a device identifier, is received from an unrecognized guest device on a computer network of a hospitality establishment. A user profile server is queried to determine a user identifier that is associated with the device identifier of the guest device. A properly management system is queried to determine whether the user identifier is associated with a current guest of the hospitality establishment, and, when yes, to determine a guest area registered to the current guest. A login database is queried to find an unexpired login record of an authorized guest device associated with the guest area, the unexpired login record granting the authorized guest device access to the network service for an allowed access duration. The unrecognized guest device is automatically granted access to the network service for a remaining portion of the allowed access duration of the unexpired login record.
Content selector dynamically changing core set of streaming channels available for viewing at hospitality location according to guest related customization criteria
A content selector retrieves customization criteria corresponding to a plurality of guests of a hospitality location. According to the criteria, a core set of channels is automatically selected to make available from a plurality of available channels for streaming via the external computer network. Bandwidth between the external computer network and the hospitality location is reserved to ensure all core channels can be concurrently streamed to the hospitality location. An interactive program guide available on the entertainment devices is customized to list at least one of the core channels as available for viewing. For each channel of the core set, the channel is streamed to the hospitality location only when the channel is being viewed on at least one of the entertainment devices. Updated guest related customization criteria is retrieved and the core channels available for viewing are dynamically changed as the guests of the hospitality location change over time.
H04N 21/45 - Management operations performed by the client for facilitating the reception of or the interaction with the content or administrating data related to the end-user or to the client device itself, e.g. learning user preferences for recommending movies or resolving scheduling conflicts
H04N 7/10 - Adaptations for transmission by electrical cable
H04N 7/18 - Closed-circuit television [CCTV] systems, i.e. systems in which the video signal is not broadcast
H04N 21/214 - Specialised server platform, e.g. server located in an airplane, hotel or hospital
H04N 21/2668 - Creating a channel for a dedicated end-user group, e.g. by inserting targeted commercials into a video stream based on end-user profiles
H04N 21/2665 - Gathering content from different sources, e.g. Internet and satellite
H04N 21/472 - End-user interface for requesting content, additional data or servicesEnd-user interface for interacting with content, e.g. for content reservation or setting reminders, for requesting event notification or for manipulating displayed content
H04N 21/442 - Monitoring of processes or resources, e.g. detecting the failure of a recording device, monitoring the downstream bandwidth, the number of times a movie has been viewed or the storage space available from the internal hard disk
A media server is for enabling codeless pairing between a mobile device and a particular one of a plurality of media devices. The media server is communicatively coupled to the mobile device and the media devices via a computer network. The media server receives a request by a first media device to enter a codeless pairing mode, queries a database to determine whether any other of the media devices is currently in the codeless pairing mode—and, when yes, the media server transmits a busy message to the first media device, and, when no, the media server detects a media session initiated by the mobile device. Upon detecting the media session, the media server pairs the mobile device with the first media device and causes the first media device to play media content associated with the media session.
G06F 15/16 - Combinations of two or more digital computers each having at least an arithmetic unit, a program unit and a register, e.g. for a simultaneous processing of several programs
H04L 29/08 - Transmission control procedure, e.g. data link level control procedure
16.
Method of remotely operating one or more controllable devices by mobile device
A mobile device is configurable by a controller to remotely operate a target controllable device, the controller and the target controllable device being part of a hospitality media system. A communication module establishes a connection to the controller and performs data transfer between the mobile device and the controller. A customization module receives customization information from the controller and customizes a user interface of the mobile device accordingly. A status information regarding the target controllable device is received from the controller and displayed on the user interface of the mobile device. A user of the mobile device thereafter issues a command via the user interface to the controller, the command containing instruction intended for the target controllable device. The controller receives the command and operates the target controllable devices in dependence upon instruction contained in the command received from the mobile device.
H04N 21/214 - Specialised server platform, e.g. server located in an airplane, hotel or hospital
H04N 21/258 - Client or end-user data management, e.g. managing client capabilities, user preferences or demographics or processing of multiple end-users preferences to derive collaborative data
H04N 21/6375 - Control signals issued by the client directed to the server or network components for requesting retransmission
H04N 21/647 - Control signaling between network components and server or clientsNetwork processes for video distribution between server and clients, e.g. controlling the quality of the video stream, by dropping packets, protecting content from unauthorised alteration within the network, monitoring of network load or bridging between two different networks, e.g. between IP and wireless
H04N 21/41 - Structure of clientStructure of client peripherals
H04N 21/436 - Interfacing a local distribution network, e.g. communicating with another STB or inside the home
H04N 21/422 - Input-only peripherals, e.g. global positioning system [GPS]
G06F 21/30 - Authentication, i.e. establishing the identity or authorisation of security principals
G06F 21/62 - Protecting access to data via a platform, e.g. using keys or access control rules
H04L 12/28 - Data switching networks characterised by path configuration, e.g. LAN [Local Area Networks] or WAN [Wide Area Networks]
H04N 21/414 - Specialised client platforms, e.g. receiver in car or embedded in a mobile appliance
17.
DNS-based captive portal with integrated transparent proxy to protect against user device caching incorrect IP address
A server in a captive portal accepts a connection from a user device to the IP address of the server and receives a HTTP or HTTPS request over the connection. The connection may be a result of the user device being previously determined to be not logged in, and consequently provided the IP address of the server as a DNS resolved IP address, the user device thereafter caching the IP address of the server. The server responds with requested content if the target host of the request is a local host. If the target host is a remote destination, the server queries a login database to determine whether the user device is logged in. The server acts as a transparent proxy between the user device and the remote destination if the user device is logged in, else the server sends alternate content to the user device over the connection.
An interface gateway facilitates communication between a first device and a second device serving a hospitality establishment. The first device is one of a property management system (PMS) and a guest service device, and the second device is the other of the property management system (PMS) and the guest service device. One or more communication ports perform data communications with the first device and the second device. One or more processors receive a message from the first device, determine that the message is in a first format, determine that the message is applicable to the second device, determine that the second device supports a second format, convert the message to the second format, store the message in a transmit queue with an indication of whether a confirmation reply is expected from the second device, and send the message in the second format to the second device.
A media system includes a computer network, a media device supporting a network-based media sharing protocol, a plurality of output devices located at a plurality of physical locations within a hospitality establishment, and a system controller. In response to a first event, the system controller assigns the media device to a particular guest device by reconfiguring one or more components of the computer network to enable the particular guest device to utilize the network-based media sharing protocol to share media over the computer network with the media device, and commands an output device located at a physical location associated with the particular guest device to play media corresponding to the media signal outputted by the media device on the output port. In response to a second event, the system controller un-assigns the media device from the particular guest device and commands the output device to stop playing the media.
A method of managing wireless access to a network performed by an access point includes storing a programmable response time for defining a zone of operation around the access point, receiving from a client device a request to associate with the access point, transmitting a probe to the client device, when a response to the probe is received, measuring a round trip time between transmission of the probe and receipt of the response, determining whether the client device's request to associate with the access point should be granted or denied by comparing the round trip time to the programmable response time, granting the request to associate in response to determining that the round trip time is less than the programmable response time, and denying the request to associate with the access point in response to determining that the round trip time is longer than the programmable response time.
One or more processors receive a plurality of original video streams, generate a guide video stream that includes each of the original video streams resized and arranged such that all of the original video streams are simultaneously visible and playing on the guide video stream, and display the guide video stream on a display device. The one or more processors further provide an interactive user interface on the display device in conjunction with the guide video stream to thereby allow a user of the set-top box to select one of the original video streams shown playing on the guide video stream for full screen playback. In response to the user selecting a particular original video stream for full screen playback, the one or more processors play full screen on the display device the particular original video stream as selected by the user.
H04N 21/431 - Generation of visual interfacesContent or additional data rendering
H04N 21/482 - End-user interface for program selection
H04N 21/434 - Disassembling of a multiplex stream, e.g. demultiplexing audio and video streams or extraction of additional data from a video streamRemultiplexing of multiplex streamsExtraction or processing of SIDisassembling of packetised elementary stream
H04N 21/2387 - Stream processing in response to a playback request from an end-user, e.g. for trick-play
H04N 21/44 - Processing of video elementary streams, e.g. splicing a video clip retrieved from local storage with an incoming video stream or rendering scenes according to encoded video stream scene graphs
The described captive portal techniques cause client devices to display requested webpage for authorized device and modified content for unauthorized devices. One designated web page may be different than a requested web page such as when a client is not authorized to access the requested webpage and the requested webpage is not one of the walled garden websites. When the requested webpage is within walled garden website, the original content of the requested webpage is modified to include at least some original content. The captive portal may modify the designated web page to ensure that relative links lacking base domains now have specified base domains pointing to an authorized web server. Client web browser security measures related to redirection messages are thereby bypassed and load on the captive portal is minimal. The client device may also be prevented from caching the modified content of the requested web page.
A hotspot provides an open wireless network and a secure wireless network. The open wireless network has no network-level encryption and allows open association therewith. The secure wireless network employs network-level encryption and requires authentication of a received access credential from a client device before allowing association therewith. A system for authorizing the client device for secured access at the hotspot includes an access controller configured to establish an encrypted connection between the client device and a login portal of the hotspot over the open wireless network, and to store a user-specific access credential transmitted via the encrypted connection as a valid access credential in a credential database. The credential database is accessed by wireless access points of the hotspot to authenticate the received access credential from the client device in response to a request from the client device to associate with the secure wireless network.
A hospitality media system includes a media system controller and a plurality of media devices located in a plurality of rooms and coupled to the media system controller. Each room has one or more in-room media devices located therein for performing a media function. A connection port allows a user of a room to establish data communications between the media system controller and a guest device. The media system controller is coupled to the connection port and configured to catalogue guest content available on the guest device to thereby form a guest content list, associate the guest content with one or more associated rooms at least including the user's room, and perform the media function utilizing content selected from the guest content list only on the in-room media devices located within the one or more associated rooms.
H04L 29/08 - Transmission control procedure, e.g. data link level control procedure
H04N 21/214 - Specialised server platform, e.g. server located in an airplane, hotel or hospital
H04N 21/231 - Content storage operation, e.g. caching movies for short term storage, replicating data over plural servers or prioritizing data for deletion
H04N 21/472 - End-user interface for requesting content, additional data or servicesEnd-user interface for interacting with content, e.g. for content reservation or setting reminders, for requesting event notification or for manipulating displayed content
H04N 21/41 - Structure of clientStructure of client peripherals
H04N 21/45 - Management operations performed by the client for facilitating the reception of or the interaction with the content or administrating data related to the end-user or to the client device itself, e.g. learning user preferences for recommending movies or resolving scheduling conflicts
Network traffic, including a device identifier, is received from a guest device on a computer network of a hospitality establishment. The device identifier of the guest device is used to determine that the guest device is not already authorized to access the network service at a time the network traffic is received, the guest device hence considered an unrecognized guest device. A user profile server is queried to determine a user identifier that is associated with the device identifier of the guest device. A login database is queried to find an unexpired login record of an authorized guest device associated with the user identifier, the unexpired login record granting the authorized guest device access to the network service for an allowed access duration. The unrecognized guest device is automatically granted access to the network service for a remaining portion of the allowed access duration of the unexpired login record.
A user profile server stores a user profile corresponding to a user identifier. The user profile includes user-specific information of a user associated with the user identifier. The server receives a location update associated with the user identifier, the location update representing a current location of the user associated with the user identifier and determine a hospitality location within a predetermined distance of the current location represented by the location update. The server communicates at least one of the user-specific information to a controller associated with the hospitality location thereby allowing the controller to provide the user-tailored experience to the user according to the at least one of the user-specific information received from the user-profile server. In this way, users who travel during unplanned trips or to locations that do not accept reservations may benefit from user-tailored experiences.
H04N 21/45 - Management operations performed by the client for facilitating the reception of or the interaction with the content or administrating data related to the end-user or to the client device itself, e.g. learning user preferences for recommending movies or resolving scheduling conflicts
H04N 7/10 - Adaptations for transmission by electrical cable
H04N 7/18 - Closed-circuit television [CCTV] systems, i.e. systems in which the video signal is not broadcast
H04N 21/214 - Specialised server platform, e.g. server located in an airplane, hotel or hospital
H04N 21/2668 - Creating a channel for a dedicated end-user group, e.g. by inserting targeted commercials into a video stream based on end-user profiles
H04N 21/2665 - Gathering content from different sources, e.g. Internet and satellite
H04N 21/472 - End-user interface for requesting content, additional data or servicesEnd-user interface for interacting with content, e.g. for content reservation or setting reminders, for requesting event notification or for manipulating displayed content
H04N 21/442 - Monitoring of processes or resources, e.g. detecting the failure of a recording device, monitoring the downstream bandwidth, the number of times a movie has been viewed or the storage space available from the internal hard disk
A media system includes a plurality of set-top boxes coupled to a coax network and a controller. The controller displays a first passkey to a user in response to receiving a request from the user to activate playback of a media content on a particular set-top box. The set-top box receives the first passkey from the user and determines whether the user is authorized to activate playback of the media content by comparing the first passkey received from the user with a second passkey obtained from a passkey module on the set-top box. When the user is determined by the set-top box to be authorized to activate playback of the media content, the set-top box determines a radio frequency channel of the coax network according to the first passkey received from the user and begins playback of the media content received on the radio frequency channel on a display device.
H04N 21/214 - Specialised server platform, e.g. server located in an airplane, hotel or hospital
H04N 21/236 - Assembling of a multiplex stream, e.g. transport stream, by combining a video stream with other content or additional data, e.g. inserting a URL [Uniform Resource Locator ] into a video stream, multiplexing software data into a video streamRemultiplexing of multiplex streamsInsertion of stuffing bits into the multiplex stream, e.g. to obtain a constant bit-rateAssembling of a packetised elementary stream
H04N 21/258 - Client or end-user data management, e.g. managing client capabilities, user preferences or demographics or processing of multiple end-users preferences to derive collaborative data
H04N 21/436 - Interfacing a local distribution network, e.g. communicating with another STB or inside the home
H04N 21/472 - End-user interface for requesting content, additional data or servicesEnd-user interface for interacting with content, e.g. for content reservation or setting reminders, for requesting event notification or for manipulating displayed content
H04N 21/475 - End-user interface for inputting end-user data, e.g. PIN [Personal Identification Number] or preference data
H04N 21/6547 - Transmission by server directed to the client comprising parameters, e.g. for client setup
H04N 7/10 - Adaptations for transmission by electrical cable
H04N 7/18 - Closed-circuit television [CCTV] systems, i.e. systems in which the video signal is not broadcast
H04N 7/20 - Adaptations for transmission via a GHz frequency band, e.g. via satellite
H04H 20/63 - Arrangements specially adapted for specific applications, e.g. for traffic information or for mobile receivers for local area broadcast, e.g. instore broadcast to plural spots in a confined site, e.g. MATV [Master Antenna Television]
28.
Providing remote control of controllable device for performing media functionality with customized content list
A plurality of controllable devices is in communication with and remotely operable by a media system controller. A storage device stores associations between respective passkeys and one or more of the controllable devices that are currently associated therewith. The controller generates a passkey in response to an occurrence of a first event associated with a particular one of the controllable devices, stores in the storage device an association between the passkey and the particular one of the controllable devices, and the passkey is displayed by the particular one of the controllable devices. The passkey is entered into a mobile device by a user. The controller receives the passkey from the mobile device, finds the particular one of the controllable devices currently associated with the passkey, and transfers commands and status information between the particular one of the controllable devices and the mobile device until an occurrence of a second event.
A system includes a storage device for storing details of a plurality of reservations of a hospitality establishment. A particular reservation includes a set of reservation-specific settings affecting behavior of the computer network at the hospitality establishment during the reservation. The settings may include a registered device setting for affecting behavior of a computer network at the hospitality establishment toward a user device having a specified device identifier. The system further includes a clock unit for tracking time, and a system controller coupled to the computer network and having access to the storage device and the clock unit. The system controller automatically configures one or more network components of the computer network when a start time of the particular reservation is reached in order to activate the reservation-specific settings.
A captive portal system includes a login database, a web server, and a name server. The name server receives a DNS request from a user device, queries the login database to determine whether the user device is logged in, and responds to the DNS request with the IP address of the web server as a resolved IP address of the specified domain name when the user device is not logged in. The web server accepts a connection request from the user device to the IP address of the web server, receives an HTTP request specifying a non-local target URL from the user device, queries the login database to determine whether the user device is logged in according to the source address of the user device, and acts as a transparent proxy between the user device and the non-local target URL when the user device is logged in.
A service controller includes a network interface for coupling to a local area network of a hospitality establishment, and one or more processors coupled to the network interface. The one or more processors are configured to detect a device identifier of a user device on a local area network of a hospitality establishment, determine whether a guest of the hospitality establishment is associated with the device identifier, and automatically activate a service for the user device at the hospitality establishment in response to detecting the device identifier on the local area network when a guest of the hospitality establishment is determined to be associated with the device identifier.
Network traffic is received from a guest device on a computer network of a hospitality establishment, and a guest area of the hospitality establishment is accordingly identified. A login database is queried to find an unexpired login for the guest area, the unexpired login specifying a stored guest identifier corresponding to information retrieved from a property management system of the hospitality establishment regarding a guest of the guest area at a time when the unexpired login was created. The stored guest identifier of the unexpired login is compared with a current guest identifier of the guest area retrieved from the property management system regarding a current guest of the guest area. When the stored guest identifier matches the current guest identifier, the guest device is automatically allowed to access the network service for a remaining portion of the allowed access duration of the unexpired login.
A media server receives a request from an unpaired mobile device, queries a login database to determine whether the mobile device is logged in for high speed Internet access, and, when yes, identifies a particular guest area of the hospitality establishment according to details in its login record. One of the media devices accessible from within the particular guest area is selected and paired with the mobile device without requiring a user of the mobile device to input into the mobile device a connect code of the selected media device. In another example, a user initiates a codeless pairing mode on a particular one of the media devices and begins interacting with the media server utilizing an unpaired mobile device. Since, only one media device can be in that mode at a time, the media server pairs the newly detected unpaired mobile device with the particular media device.
G06F 15/16 - Combinations of two or more digital computers each having at least an arithmetic unit, a program unit and a register, e.g. for a simultaneous processing of several programs
H04L 29/08 - Transmission control procedure, e.g. data link level control procedure
34.
Event-triggered upgrading of network access service entitlement via audio-visual entertainment system
An app server receives a device token from a software application on a mobile device. The device token identifies the mobile device for pushing notification messages of the software application to the mobile device via a push notification system. The mobile device is monitored while accessing the Internet in order to detect when the user may benefit from upgraded access to the Internet. The app server then sends one or more notification message(s) to the user such as by sending a message to the device token of the mobile device via the push notification system or to a display device associated with the user at the hospitality establishment. The notification message invites the user to upgrade their Internet access. The push notification system alerts the user to the notification message via the user interface of the mobile device even when the software application is not running on the mobile device.
A hospitality media system includes a media system controller and a plurality of media devices located in a plurality of rooms and coupled to the media system controller. Each room has one or more in-room media devices located therein for performing a media function. A connection port allows a user of a room to establish data communications between the media system controller and a guest device. The media system controller is coupled to the connection port and configured to catalog guest content available on the guest device to thereby form a guest content list, associate the guest content with one or more associated rooms at least including the user's room, and perform the media function utilizing content selected from the guest content list only on the in-room media devices located within the one or more associated rooms.
H04L 29/08 - Transmission control procedure, e.g. data link level control procedure
H04N 21/214 - Specialised server platform, e.g. server located in an airplane, hotel or hospital
H04N 21/231 - Content storage operation, e.g. caching movies for short term storage, replicating data over plural servers or prioritizing data for deletion
H04N 21/472 - End-user interface for requesting content, additional data or servicesEnd-user interface for interacting with content, e.g. for content reservation or setting reminders, for requesting event notification or for manipulating displayed content
H04N 21/41 - Structure of clientStructure of client peripherals
H04N 21/45 - Management operations performed by the client for facilitating the reception of or the interaction with the content or administrating data related to the end-user or to the client device itself, e.g. learning user preferences for recommending movies or resolving scheduling conflicts
Enabling secured wireless access at hotspot by providing user-specific access credential for secure SSID during sign-up process conducted over open wireless network
A hotspot provides an open wireless network and a secure wireless network. The open wireless network has no network-level encryption and allows open association therewith. The secure wireless network employs network-level encryption and requires authentication of a received access credential from a client device before allowing association therewith. A system for authorizing the client device for secured access at the hotspot includes an access controller configured to establish an encrypted connection between the client device and a login portal of the hotspot over the open wireless network, and to store a user-specific access credential transmitted via the encrypted connection as a valid access credential in a credential database. The credential database is accessed by wireless access points of the hotspot to authenticate the received access credential from the client device in response to a request from the client device to associate with the secure wireless network.
A coax server acts as a proxy between a coax transmission infrastructure and an Internet Protocol (IP) transmission infrastructure. An incoming request is received from a particular one of a plurality of coax client devices on the coax infrastructure. A request for specific media content is transmitted to a media-on-demand server in response to receiving the incoming request. A media stream is received over the IP infrastructure from the media-on-demand server, the media stream corresponding to the specific media content, and the coax server allocates a coax channel of sufficient bandwidth on the coax infrastructure and transmits the media stream on the coax channel utilizing the RF modulation scheme. A pointer indicating the coax channel on which the media stream is being transmitted is sent to the particular coax client device. The coax channel is unknown to other of the coax client devices besides the particular coax client device.
H04N 21/472 - End-user interface for requesting content, additional data or servicesEnd-user interface for interacting with content, e.g. for content reservation or setting reminders, for requesting event notification or for manipulating displayed content
H04N 21/442 - Monitoring of processes or resources, e.g. detecting the failure of a recording device, monitoring the downstream bandwidth, the number of times a movie has been viewed or the storage space available from the internal hard disk
H04N 21/239 - Interfacing the upstream path of the transmission network, e.g. prioritizing client requests
H04N 21/266 - Channel or content management, e.g. generation and management of keys and entitlement messages in a conditional access system or merging a VOD unicast channel into a multicast channel
H04N 21/238 - Interfacing the downstream path of the transmission network, e.g. adapting the transmission rate of a video stream to network bandwidthProcessing of multiplex streams
H04N 21/24 - Monitoring of processes or resources, e.g. monitoring of server load, available bandwidth or upstream requests
H04N 21/647 - Control signaling between network components and server or clientsNetwork processes for video distribution between server and clients, e.g. controlling the quality of the video stream, by dropping packets, protecting content from unauthorised alteration within the network, monitoring of network load or bridging between two different networks, e.g. between IP and wireless
H04N 21/262 - Content or additional data distribution scheduling, e.g. sending additional data at off-peak times, updating software modules, calculating the carousel transmission frequency, delaying a video stream transmission or generating play-lists
H04N 21/434 - Disassembling of a multiplex stream, e.g. demultiplexing audio and video streams or extraction of additional data from a video streamRemultiplexing of multiplex streamsExtraction or processing of SIDisassembling of packetised elementary stream
A user profile server stores a particular user profile corresponding to a user who belongs to a plurality of separate loyalty programs, and the particular user profile includes a plurality of different loyalty program user identifiers each identifying the user on a respective one of the separate loyalty programs. The user profile server communicates user a preference included on the particular user profile to a first controller via the computer network and communicates the user preference included on the particular user profile to a second controller via the computer network. The first controller is associated with a first hospitality location where the user is identified according to a first loyalty program user identifier included on the particular user profile, and the second is controller is associated with a second hospitality location where the user is identified according to a second loyalty program user identifier included on the particular user profile.
H04N 21/45 - Management operations performed by the client for facilitating the reception of or the interaction with the content or administrating data related to the end-user or to the client device itself, e.g. learning user preferences for recommending movies or resolving scheduling conflicts
H04N 7/10 - Adaptations for transmission by electrical cable
H04N 7/18 - Closed-circuit television [CCTV] systems, i.e. systems in which the video signal is not broadcast
H04N 21/214 - Specialised server platform, e.g. server located in an airplane, hotel or hospital
H04N 21/2668 - Creating a channel for a dedicated end-user group, e.g. by inserting targeted commercials into a video stream based on end-user profiles
H04N 21/2665 - Gathering content from different sources, e.g. Internet and satellite
H04N 21/472 - End-user interface for requesting content, additional data or servicesEnd-user interface for interacting with content, e.g. for content reservation or setting reminders, for requesting event notification or for manipulating displayed content
H04N 21/442 - Monitoring of processes or resources, e.g. detecting the failure of a recording device, monitoring the downstream bandwidth, the number of times a movie has been viewed or the storage space available from the internal hard disk
A plurality of controllable devices is in communication with and remotely operable by a media system controller. A storage device stores associations between respective passkeys and one or more of the controllable devices that are currently associated therewith. The controller generates a passkey in response to an occurrence of a first event associated with a particular one of the controllable devices, stores in the storage device an association between the passkey and the particular one of the controllable devices, and the passkey is displayed by the particular one of the controllable devices. The passkey is entered into a mobile device by a user. The controller receives the passkey from the mobile device, finds the particular one of the controllable devices currently associated with the passkey, and transfers commands and status information between the particular one of the controllable devices and the mobile device until an occurrence of a second event.
A bandwidth management system includes a plurality of queues respectively corresponding to a plurality of zones. An enqueuing module receives network traffic from one or more incoming network interfaces, determines a belonging zone to which the network traffic belongs, and enqueues the network traffic on a queue corresponding to the belonging zone. A dequeuing module selectively dequeues data from the queues and passes the data to one or more outgoing network interfaces. When dequeuing data from the queues the dequeuing module dequeues an amount of data from a selected queue, and the amount of data dequeued from the selected queue is determined according to user load of a zone to which the selected queue corresponds.
A walled garden system includes a firewall controlling access between a first network and a second network at least by allowing connection requests originating from a user device on the first network to a destination IP address on the second network in response to determining that the destination IP address matches a cleared IP address on a cleared IP addresses list. A controller receives a domain name service (DNS) reply from a DNS server on the second network, and determines whether a domain name specified within the DNS reply matches a cleared domain name on a cleared domain names list. In response to determining that the domain name specified within the DNS reply matches the cleared domain name on the cleared domain names list, the controller adds a resolved IP address specified in the DNS reply to the cleared IP addresses list as a new cleared IP address.
A media system providing customized media functions at a hospitality establishment includes a first device operable to display a first passkey to a user attempting to activate a media function on a particular media device. The hospitality establishment includes a plurality of media devices installed at a plurality of different locations therein. A second device is operable to receive the first passkey from the user, determine whether the first passkey received from the user matches a second passkey associated with the particular media device, and activate the media function on the particular media device in response to determining that the first passkey received from the user matches the second passkey associated with the particular media device.
H04N 21/214 - Specialised server platform, e.g. server located in an airplane, hotel or hospital
H04N 21/236 - Assembling of a multiplex stream, e.g. transport stream, by combining a video stream with other content or additional data, e.g. inserting a URL [Uniform Resource Locator ] into a video stream, multiplexing software data into a video streamRemultiplexing of multiplex streamsInsertion of stuffing bits into the multiplex stream, e.g. to obtain a constant bit-rateAssembling of a packetised elementary stream
H04N 21/258 - Client or end-user data management, e.g. managing client capabilities, user preferences or demographics or processing of multiple end-users preferences to derive collaborative data
H04N 21/436 - Interfacing a local distribution network, e.g. communicating with another STB or inside the home
H04N 21/472 - End-user interface for requesting content, additional data or servicesEnd-user interface for interacting with content, e.g. for content reservation or setting reminders, for requesting event notification or for manipulating displayed content
H04N 21/475 - End-user interface for inputting end-user data, e.g. PIN [Personal Identification Number] or preference data
H04N 21/6547 - Transmission by server directed to the client comprising parameters, e.g. for client setup
H04H 20/63 - Arrangements specially adapted for specific applications, e.g. for traffic information or for mobile receivers for local area broadcast, e.g. instore broadcast to plural spots in a confined site, e.g. MATV [Master Antenna Television]
H04N 7/10 - Adaptations for transmission by electrical cable
H04N 7/18 - Closed-circuit television [CCTV] systems, i.e. systems in which the video signal is not broadcast
H04N 7/20 - Adaptations for transmission via a GHz frequency band, e.g. via satellite
43.
Interface gateway and method of interfacing a property management system with a guest service device
An interface gateway interfaces between a first device and a second device serving a hospitality establishment. The first device is one of a property management system (PMS) and a guest service device, and the second device is the other of the property management system (PMS) and the guest service device. One or more communication ports perform data communications with the first device and the second device. One or more processors receive a message from the first device, determine that the message is in a first format, convert the message from the first format to an internal data structure, parse the message in the internal data structure to determine that the message is applicable to the second device, determine that the second device supports a second format, convert the message from the internal data structure to the second format, and send the message in the second format to the second device.
A PBX system complements the mobile phones of users. Custom incoming and outgoing call rules are dynamically activated for users when the users begin utilizing a facility having at least one phone number and a number of internal phones. A custom rule causes outgoing calls made from an internal phone used by a user to have a caller ID phone number of the user's personal mobile phone rather than the facility's phone number. Another custom rule causes incoming calls made to the facility's phone number that have a source caller ID phone number matching a phone number in the user's mobile phone address book to be automatically forwarded directly to an internal phone currently utilized by the user. The user may install an application on their mobile phone, and another custom rule causes incoming calls at the user's mobile phone to be twinned while the user is at the facility.
A system includes a storage device for storing details of a plurality of reservations of a hospitality establishment. A particular reservation includes a set of reservation-specific settings affecting behavior of the computer network at the hospitality establishment during the reservation. The settings may include a registered device setting for affecting behavior of a computer network at the hospitality establishment toward a user device having a specified device identifier. The system further includes a clock unit for tracking time, and a system controller coupled to the computer network and having access to the storage device and the clock unit. The system controller automatically configures one or more network components of the computer network when a start time of the particular reservation is reached in order to activate the reservation-specific settings.
A media system includes a computer network, a media device supporting a network-based media sharing protocol, a plurality of output devices located at a plurality of physical locations within a hospitality establishment, and a system controller. In response to a first event, the system controller assigns the media device to a particular guest device by reconfiguring one or more components of the computer network to enable the particular guest device to utilize the network-based media sharing protocol to share media over the computer network with the media device, and commands an output device located at a physical location associated with the particular guest device to play media corresponding to the media signal outputted by the media device on the output port. In response to a second event, the system controller un-assigns the media device from the particular guest device and commands the output device to stop playing the media.
H04L 29/06 - Communication control; Communication processing characterised by a protocol
H04L 12/24 - Arrangements for maintenance or administration
H04N 21/436 - Interfacing a local distribution network, e.g. communicating with another STB or inside the home
H04L 29/08 - Transmission control procedure, e.g. data link level control procedure
47.
Captive portal that modifies content retrieved from requested web page within walled garden to add link to login portal for unauthorized client devices
The described captive portal techniques cause client devices to render and display designated web pages. One designated web page may be different than a requested web page such as when a client is not authorized to access the requested page and is instead caused to display a login portal. The captive portal may modify the designated web page to ensure that relative links lacking base domains now have specified base domains pointing to an authorized web server. The modified content is sent from the captive portal to the client device for display. Client web browser security measures related to redirection messages are thereby bypassed and load on the captive portal is minimal. Another designated web page may be the same as the requested web page such as when the requested page is an authorized page even for non-logged in clients. Authorized pages may be modified to add a login link.
A server is deployed on a network and manages operation of a plurality of server instances each with a virtual frame buffer. A client establishes a connection with the server at a start of a user session. The server allocates a server instance to the client and a user interface application renders a corresponding graphical user interface to the virtual frame buffer of the allocated server instance. The server forwards updates of the graphical user interface from the virtual frame buffer to the client, where at least some of the updates include transparency information for blending the graphical user interface with additional visual information at the client. When the session is complete the server reclaims the server instance allocated to the client. In-room device requirements in guest rooms of a hospitality establishment are thereby minimized while providing enhanced user interface performance. Locations in other applications include private residences and businesses.
G06F 9/451 - Execution arrangements for user interfaces
H04N 21/214 - Specialised server platform, e.g. server located in an airplane, hotel or hospital
H04N 21/231 - Content storage operation, e.g. caching movies for short term storage, replicating data over plural servers or prioritizing data for deletion
H04N 21/239 - Interfacing the upstream path of the transmission network, e.g. prioritizing client requests
H04N 21/431 - Generation of visual interfacesContent or additional data rendering
H04N 21/436 - Interfacing a local distribution network, e.g. communicating with another STB or inside the home
H04N 21/472 - End-user interface for requesting content, additional data or servicesEnd-user interface for interacting with content, e.g. for content reservation or setting reminders, for requesting event notification or for manipulating displayed content
H04N 21/482 - End-user interface for program selection
H04N 21/6543 - Transmission by server directed to the client for forcing some client operations, e.g. recording
49.
Operating controllable device of media system in dependence upon commands received by mobile device
A plurality of controllable devices is in communication with and remotely operable by a media system controller. A storage device stores associations between respective passkeys and one or more of the controllable devices that are currently associated therewith. The controller generates a passkey in response to an occurrence of a first event associated with a particular one of the controllable devices, stores in the storage device an association between the passkey and the particular one of the controllable devices, and the passkey is displayed by the particular one of the controllable devices. The passkey is entered into a mobile device by a user. The controller receives the passkey from the mobile device, finds the particular one of the controllable devices currently associated with the passkey, and operates the particular one of the controllable devices in dependence upon commands received from the mobile device until an occurrence of a second event.
H04N 21/41 - Structure of clientStructure of client peripherals
H04N 21/436 - Interfacing a local distribution network, e.g. communicating with another STB or inside the home
H04N 21/422 - Input-only peripherals, e.g. global positioning system [GPS]
H04N 21/414 - Specialised client platforms, e.g. receiver in car or embedded in a mobile appliance
H04L 12/28 - Data switching networks characterised by path configuration, e.g. LAN [Local Area Networks] or WAN [Wide Area Networks]
H04N 21/214 - Specialised server platform, e.g. server located in an airplane, hotel or hospital
50.
Authorizing secured wireless access at hotspot according to user-specific access credential received from client device during predetermined sign-up process
A hotspot provides an open wireless network and a secure wireless network. The open wireless network has no network-level encryption and allows open association therewith. The secure wireless network employs network-level encryption and requires authentication of a received access credential from a client device before allowing association therewith. A system for authorizing the client device for secured access at the hotspot includes an access controller configured to establish an encrypted connection between the client device and a login portal of the hotspot over the open wireless network, and to store a user-specific access credential transmitted via the encrypted connection as a valid access credential in a credential database. The credential database is accessed by wireless access points of the hotspot to authenticate the received access credential from the client device in response to a request from the client device to associate with the secure wireless network.
A user profile server stores a particular user profile corresponding to a user who belongs to a plurality of separate loyalty programs, and the particular user profile includes a plurality of different loyalty program user identifiers each identifying the user on a respective one of the separate loyalty programs. The user profile server communicates user a preference included on the particular user profile to a first controller via the computer network and communicates the user preference included on the particular user profile to a second controller via the computer network. The first controller is associated with a first hospitality location where the user is identified according to a first loyalty program user identifier included on the particular user profile, and the second is controller is associated with a second hospitality location where the user is identified according to a second loyalty program user identifier included on the particular user profile.
H04N 21/45 - Management operations performed by the client for facilitating the reception of or the interaction with the content or administrating data related to the end-user or to the client device itself, e.g. learning user preferences for recommending movies or resolving scheduling conflicts
A bandwidth management system includes a plurality of queues respectively corresponding to a plurality of zones. An enqueuing module receives network traffic from one or more incoming network interfaces, determines a belonging zone to which the network traffic belongs, and enqueues the network traffic on a queue corresponding to the belonging zone. A dequeuing module selectively dequeues data from the queues and passes the data to one or more outgoing network interfaces. When dequeuing data from the queues the dequeuing module dequeues an amount of data from a selected queue, and the amount of data dequeued from the selected queue is determined according to user load of a zone to which the selected queue corresponds.
A system includes a storage device for storing details of a plurality of reservations of a hospitality establishment. A particular reservation includes a set of reservation-specific settings affecting behavior of the computer network at the hospitality establishment during the reservation. The settings may include a registered device setting for affecting behavior of a computer network at the hospitality establishment toward a user device having a specified device identifier. The system further includes a clock unit for tracking time, and a system controller coupled to the computer network and having access to the storage device and the clock unit. The system controller automatically configures one or more network components of the computer network when a start time of the particular reservation is reached in order to activate the reservation-specific settings.
A media system providing customized media functions at a hospitality establishment includes a first device operable to display a first passkey to a user attempting to activate a media function on a particular media device. The hospitality establishment includes a plurality of media devices installed at a plurality of different locations therein. A second device is operable to receive the first passkey from the user, determine whether the first passkey received from the user matches a second passkey associated with the particular media device, and activate the media function on the particular media device in response to determining that the first passkey received from the user matches the second passkey associated with the particular media device.
H04N 21/214 - Specialised server platform, e.g. server located in an airplane, hotel or hospital
H04N 21/236 - Assembling of a multiplex stream, e.g. transport stream, by combining a video stream with other content or additional data, e.g. inserting a URL [Uniform Resource Locator ] into a video stream, multiplexing software data into a video streamRemultiplexing of multiplex streamsInsertion of stuffing bits into the multiplex stream, e.g. to obtain a constant bit-rateAssembling of a packetised elementary stream
H04N 21/258 - Client or end-user data management, e.g. managing client capabilities, user preferences or demographics or processing of multiple end-users preferences to derive collaborative data
H04N 21/436 - Interfacing a local distribution network, e.g. communicating with another STB or inside the home
H04N 21/472 - End-user interface for requesting content, additional data or servicesEnd-user interface for interacting with content, e.g. for content reservation or setting reminders, for requesting event notification or for manipulating displayed content
H04N 21/475 - End-user interface for inputting end-user data, e.g. PIN [Personal Identification Number] or preference data
H04N 21/6547 - Transmission by server directed to the client comprising parameters, e.g. for client setup
H04H 20/63 - Arrangements specially adapted for specific applications, e.g. for traffic information or for mobile receivers for local area broadcast, e.g. instore broadcast to plural spots in a confined site, e.g. MATV [Master Antenna Television]
H04N 7/10 - Adaptations for transmission by electrical cable
H04N 7/18 - Closed-circuit television [CCTV] systems, i.e. systems in which the video signal is not broadcast
H04N 7/20 - Adaptations for transmission via a GHz frequency band, e.g. via satellite
55.
Allowing first module of computer code to make use of service provided by second module while ensuring security of system
A system for integrating modules of computer code may include a sandbox validator for receiving a first module and verifying that the first module complies with one or more sandbox constraints. A computing device may execute the first module within a runtime environment. A module integrator may operate within the runtime environment for receiving a request from the first module to access a service provided by a second module and only allowing the first module to access the service when the first module is authorized to access the service according to a service authorization table. The sandbox validator may ensure the first module correctly identifies itself when requesting a service provide by another module and that the first module includes runtime policing functions for non-deterministic operations. A service authorizer may generate an authorization policy for the first module, which is sent to the computing device along with the first module.
G06F 21/53 - Monitoring users, programs or devices to maintain the integrity of platforms, e.g. of processors, firmware or operating systems during program execution, e.g. stack integrity, buffer overflow or preventing unwanted data erasure by executing in a restricted environment, e.g. sandbox or secure virtual machine
G06F 21/62 - Protecting access to data via a platform, e.g. using keys or access control rules
Client in distributed computing system that monitors request time and operation time in order to detect performance problems and automatically issue alerts
A client device sends a request to a server via a network and times a request time duration while waiting for results to be received. The client further times an operation time duration substantially corresponding to a period of time that the client device is performing an operation that causes the client device to make the request. After receiving the results from the server, a processor of the client is operable to dynamically calculate a client processing time threshold at least according to a type of the operation and historic time durations for one or more previous operations performed by the client device. The processor further subtracts the request time duration from the operation time duration to thereby calculate a client processing time duration, and transmits one or more alert messages to a network operation center when the client processing time duration is greater than the client processing time threshold.
Systems and methods are described for off-site user access control to communications services via a site-based communications network. Embodiments operate in context of sites, each having one or more site-based networks in communication with external networks via one or more on-site routers. User devices are provided with controlled access to those external networks via wired or wireless connections between those user devices and the site based networks. In some embodiments, on-site routers maintain route maps that indicate which user devices are authorized. Standard routing functions are used so that traffic from authorized devices is routed normally, while traffic from unauthorized devices is automatically forwarded to an off-site (e.g., cloud-based) authentication system. As devices become remotely authenticated, the off-site authentication system can remotely update route maps of the on-site routers to add those devices.
An interface gateway interfaces between a first device and a second device serving a hospitality establishment. The first device is one of a property management system (PMS) and a guest service device, and the second device is the other of the property management system (PMS) and the guest service device. One or more communication ports perform data communications with the first device and the second device. One or more processors receive a message from the first device, determine that the message is in a first format, convert the message from the first format to an internal data structure, parse the message in the internal data structure to determine that the message is applicable to the second device, determine that the second device supports a second format, convert the message from the internal data structure to the second format, and send the message in the second format to the second device.
A hospitality media system includes a media system controller and a plurality of media devices located in a plurality of rooms and coupled to the media system controller. Each room has one or more in-room media devices located therein for performing a media function. A connection port allows a user of a room to establish data communications between the media system controller and a guest device. The media system controller is coupled to the connection port and configured to catalog guest content available on the guest device to thereby form a guest content list, associate the guest content with one or more associated rooms at least including the user's room, and perform the media function utilizing content selected from the guest content list only on the in-room media devices located within the one or more associated rooms.
H04L 29/08 - Transmission control procedure, e.g. data link level control procedure
H04N 21/214 - Specialised server platform, e.g. server located in an airplane, hotel or hospital
H04N 21/231 - Content storage operation, e.g. caching movies for short term storage, replicating data over plural servers or prioritizing data for deletion
H04N 21/472 - End-user interface for requesting content, additional data or servicesEnd-user interface for interacting with content, e.g. for content reservation or setting reminders, for requesting event notification or for manipulating displayed content
H04N 21/41 - Structure of clientStructure of client peripherals
H04N 21/45 - Management operations performed by the client for facilitating the reception of or the interaction with the content or administrating data related to the end-user or to the client device itself, e.g. learning user preferences for recommending movies or resolving scheduling conflicts
Users store information relevant to first responders in the event of an emergency. When a user later places an emergency call, the user's emergency information is automatically made available to the public-safety answering point operator handling the call. Hotel personal are notified of the call and may listen to and break in to the ongoing call in order to assist. A reverse 9-1-1 broadcast enables hotel personnel to quickly notify guests of an emergency situation via in-room and mobile phones. In the event that police need to conduct surveillance on a target location, the onsite PBX server reconfigures phones within the vicinity of the target location to operate in an open mode and records the audio/visual information received. An incoming call to a hotel room from the PSAP is automatically connected to the in-room phone even if other incoming calls not from the PSAP are being screened by front desk.
A user profile server stores a particular user profile corresponding to a user who belongs to a plurality of separate loyalty programs, and the particular user profile includes a plurality of different loyalty program user identifiers each identifying the user on a respective one of the separate loyalty programs. The user profile server communicates user a preference included on the particular user profile to a first controller via the computer network and communicates the user preference included on the particular user profile to a second controller via the computer network. The first controller is associated with a first hospitality location where the user is identified according to a first loyalty program user identifier included on the particular user profile, and the second is controller is associated with a second hospitality location where the user is identified according to a second loyalty program user identifier included on the particular user profile.
H04N 21/45 - Management operations performed by the client for facilitating the reception of or the interaction with the content or administrating data related to the end-user or to the client device itself, e.g. learning user preferences for recommending movies or resolving scheduling conflicts
H04N 7/10 - Adaptations for transmission by electrical cable
H04N 7/18 - Closed-circuit television [CCTV] systems, i.e. systems in which the video signal is not broadcast
H04N 21/214 - Specialised server platform, e.g. server located in an airplane, hotel or hospital
H04N 21/2668 - Creating a channel for a dedicated end-user group, e.g. by inserting targeted commercials into a video stream based on end-user profiles
H04N 21/2665 - Gathering content from different sources, e.g. Internet and satellite
H04N 21/472 - End-user interface for requesting content, additional data or servicesEnd-user interface for interacting with content, e.g. for content reservation or setting reminders, for requesting event notification or for manipulating displayed content
H04N 21/442 - Monitoring of processes or resources, e.g. detecting the failure of a recording device, monitoring the downstream bandwidth, the number of times a movie has been viewed or the storage space available from the internal hard disk
A system includes a storage device for storing details of a plurality of reservations of a hospitality establishment. A particular reservation includes a set of reservation-specific settings affecting behavior of the computer network at the hospitality establishment during the reservation. The settings may include a registered device setting for affecting behavior of a computer network at the hospitality establishment toward a user device having a specified device identifier. The system further includes a clock unit for tracking time, and a system controller coupled to the computer network and having access to the storage device and the clock unit. The system controller automatically configures one or more network components of the computer network when a start time of the particular reservation is reached in order to activate the reservation-specific settings.
One or more processors receive a plurality of original video streams, generate a guide video stream that includes each of the original video streams resized and arranged such that all of the original video streams are simultaneously visible and playing on the guide video stream, and display the guide video stream on a display device. The one or more processors further provide an interactive user interface on the display device in conjunction with the guide video stream to thereby allow a user of the set-top box to select one of the original video streams shown playing on the guide video stream for full screen playback. In response to the user selecting a particular original video stream for full screen playback, the one or more processors play full screen on the display device the particular original video stream as selected by the user.
H04N 21/431 - Generation of visual interfacesContent or additional data rendering
H04N 21/482 - End-user interface for program selection
H04N 21/434 - Disassembling of a multiplex stream, e.g. demultiplexing audio and video streams or extraction of additional data from a video streamRemultiplexing of multiplex streamsExtraction or processing of SIDisassembling of packetised elementary stream
H04N 21/2387 - Stream processing in response to a playback request from an end-user, e.g. for trick-play
H04N 21/44 - Processing of video elementary streams, e.g. splicing a video clip retrieved from local storage with an incoming video stream or rendering scenes according to encoded video stream scene graphs
An interface gateway interfaces between a first device and a second device serving a hospitality establishment. The first device is one of a property management system (PMS) and a guest service device, and the second device is the other of the property management system (PMS) and the guest service device. One or more communication ports perform data communications with the first device and the second device. One or more processors receive a message from the first device, determine that the message is in a first format, convert the message from the first format to an internal data structure, parse the message in the internal data structure to determine that the message is applicable to the second device, determine that the second device supports a second format, convert the message from the internal data structure to the second format, and send the message in the second format to the second device.
G06F 15/16 - Combinations of two or more digital computers each having at least an arithmetic unit, a program unit and a register, e.g. for a simultaneous processing of several programs
H04L 29/08 - Transmission control procedure, e.g. data link level control procedure
H04L 12/28 - Data switching networks characterised by path configuration, e.g. LAN [Local Area Networks] or WAN [Wide Area Networks]
H04L 29/06 - Communication control; Communication processing characterised by a protocol
65.
Hospitality media system that avoids network congestion and server load while providing media experience within guest room, and computer server and method thereof
A method of servicing requests for information at a server includes receiving a request for information from a client device, and determining a number of attempts of the request made by the client device. Both the client device and the server may count the number of attempts for each request. When the number of attempts is greater than a threshold, the method includes servicing the request and sending the information to the client device. When the number of attempts is not greater than the threshold, the method includes sending a service unavailable message to the client device. A retry-after delay may be calculated by the server according to a predicted time for the server to exit an overloaded state and included in the service unavailable message. The predicted time may take into account both requests currently being serviced and requests that have been scheduled to be serviced in the future.
G06F 15/16 - Combinations of two or more digital computers each having at least an arithmetic unit, a program unit and a register, e.g. for a simultaneous processing of several programs
H04N 21/647 - Control signaling between network components and server or clientsNetwork processes for video distribution between server and clients, e.g. controlling the quality of the video stream, by dropping packets, protecting content from unauthorised alteration within the network, monitoring of network load or bridging between two different networks, e.g. between IP and wireless
H04L 29/08 - Transmission control procedure, e.g. data link level control procedure
Systems and methods are described for off-site user access control to communications services via a site-based communications network. Embodiments operate in context of sites, each having one or more site-based networks in communication with external networks via one or more on-site routers. User devices are provided with controlled access to those external networks via wired or wireless connections between those user devices and the site based networks. In some embodiments, on-site routers maintain route maps that indicate which user devices are authorized. Standard routing functions are used so that traffic from authorized devices is routed normally, while traffic from unauthorized devices is automatically forwarded to an off-site (e.g., cloud-based) authentication system. As devices become remotely authenticated, the off-site authentication system can remotely update route maps of the on-site routers to add those devices.
A bandwidth management system includes a plurality of queues respectively corresponding to a plurality of zones. An enqueuing module receives network traffic from one or more incoming network interfaces, determines a belonging zone to which the network traffic belongs, and enqueues the network traffic on a queue corresponding to the belonging zone. A dequeuing module selectively dequeues data from the queues and passes the data to one or more outgoing network interfaces. When dequeuing data from the queues the dequeuing module dequeues an amount of data from a selected queue, and the amount of data dequeued from the selected queue is determined according to user load of a zone to which the selected queue corresponds.
A hotspot provides an open wireless network and a secure wireless network. The open wireless network has no network-level encryption and allows open association therewith. The secure wireless network employs network-level encryption and requires authentication of a received access credential from a client device before allowing association therewith. A system for authorizing the client device for secured access at the hotspot includes an access controller configured to establish an encrypted connection between the client device and a login portal of the hotspot over the open wireless network, and to store a user-specific access credential transmitted via the encrypted connection as a valid access credential in a credential database. The credential database is accessed by wireless access points of the hotspot to authenticate the received access credential from the client device in response to a request from the client device to associate with the secure wireless network.
A server is deployed on a network and manages operation of a plurality of server instances each with a virtual frame buffer. A client establishes a connection with the server at a start of a user session. The server allocates a server instance to the client and a user interface application renders a corresponding graphical user interface to the virtual frame buffer of the allocated server instance. The server forwards updates of the graphical user interface from the virtual frame buffer to the client, where at least some of the updates include transparency information for blending the graphical user interface with additional visual information at the client. When the session is complete the server reclaims the server instance allocated to the client. In-room device requirements in guest rooms of a hospitality establishment are thereby minimized while providing enhanced user interface performance. Locations in other applications include private residences and businesses.
G06F 15/16 - Combinations of two or more digital computers each having at least an arithmetic unit, a program unit and a register, e.g. for a simultaneous processing of several programs
H04N 21/431 - Generation of visual interfacesContent or additional data rendering
G06F 9/44 - Arrangements for executing specific programs
H04N 21/214 - Specialised server platform, e.g. server located in an airplane, hotel or hospital
H04N 21/231 - Content storage operation, e.g. caching movies for short term storage, replicating data over plural servers or prioritizing data for deletion
H04N 21/239 - Interfacing the upstream path of the transmission network, e.g. prioritizing client requests
H04N 21/436 - Interfacing a local distribution network, e.g. communicating with another STB or inside the home
H04N 21/472 - End-user interface for requesting content, additional data or servicesEnd-user interface for interacting with content, e.g. for content reservation or setting reminders, for requesting event notification or for manipulating displayed content
H04N 21/482 - End-user interface for program selection
H04N 21/6543 - Transmission by server directed to the client for forcing some client operations, e.g. recording
70.
Media proxy that transparently proxies network-based media sharing protocol between guest device and an associated one of a plurality of media devices
A media system includes a computer network, a media device supporting a network-based media sharing protocol, a plurality of output devices located at a plurality of physical locations within a hospitality establishment, and a system controller. In response to a first event, the system controller assigns the media device to a particular guest device by reconfiguring one or more components of the computer network to enable the particular guest device to utilize the network-based media sharing protocol to share media over the computer network with the media device, and commands an output device located at a physical location associated with the particular guest device to play media corresponding to the media signal outputted by the media device on the output port. In response to a second event, the system controller un-assigns the media device from the particular guest device and commands the output device to stop playing the media.
A media server receives a request from an unpaired mobile device, queries a login database to determine whether the mobile device is logged in for high speed Internet access, and, when yes, identifies a particular guest area of the hospitality establishment according to details in its login record. One of the media devices accessible from within the particular guest area is selected and paired with the mobile device without requiring a user of the mobile device to input into the mobile device a connect code of the selected media device. In another example, a user initiates a codeless pairing mode on a particular one of the media devices and begins interacting with the media server utilizing an unpaired mobile device. Since, only one media device can be in that mode at a time, the media server pairs the newly detected unpaired mobile device with the particular media device.
G06F 15/16 - Combinations of two or more digital computers each having at least an arithmetic unit, a program unit and a register, e.g. for a simultaneous processing of several programs
H04L 29/08 - Transmission control procedure, e.g. data link level control procedure
72.
DEVICE PAIRING AND LOGIN FOR DIFFERENT NETWORK SERVICES OFFERED AT HOSPITALITY ESTABLISHMENT
A media server receives a request from an unpaired mobile device, queries a login database to determine whether the mobile device is logged in for high speed Internet access, and, when yes, identifies a particular guest area of the hospitality establishment according to details in its login record. One of the media devices accessible from within the particular guest area is selected and paired with the mobile device without requiring a user of the mobile device to input into the mobile device a connect code of the selected media device. In another example, a user initiates a codeless pairing mode on a particular one of the media devices and begins interacting with the media server utilizing an unpaired mobile device. Since, only one media device can be in that mode at a time, the media server pairs the newly detected unpaired mobile device with the particular media device.
H04N 21/63 - Control signaling between client, server and network componentsNetwork processes for video distribution between server and clients, e.g. transmitting basic layer and enhancement layers over different transmission paths, setting up a peer-to-peer communication via Internet between remote STB'sCommunication protocolsAddressing
H04W 4/30 - Services specially adapted for particular environments, situations or purposes
09 - Scientific and electric apparatus and instruments
35 - Advertising and business services
38 - Telecommunications services
41 - Education, entertainment, sporting and cultural services
Goods & Services
Software for streaming audiovisual and multimedia content, namely, music, concerts, videos, radio, television, news, sports, games, cultural events, and entertainment-related and educational programs via the internet and global communications networks; software for streaming audiovisual and multimedia content, namely, music, concerts, videos, radio, television, news, sports, games, cultural events, and entertainment-related and educational programs to mobile digital electronic devices; software for searching, organizing, and recommending multimedia content, namely, music, concerts, videos, radio, television, news, sports, games, cultural events, and entertainment-related and educational programs; computer software, namely, software development tools for creating software and mobile applications; Computer hardware for streaming audiovisual and multimedia content, namely, music, concerts, videos, radio, television, news, sports, games, cultural events, and entertainment-related and educational programs via the internet and global communications networks, namely, digital media streaming devices, digital video recorders, DVD and high definition video disc players, home theater systems comprised of audio and video receivers and disc players; televisions, and television set-top boxes On-line retail store services featuring non-downloadable movies and television shows and downloadable movies and television shows from an Internet web site Video-on-demand transmission services; video broadcasting, namely, broadcasting of television programs and movies; Electronic transmission of voice, audio, video, images, signals, messages and information; Streaming of audiovisual and multimedia content, namely, music, concerts, videos, radio, television, news, sports, games, cultural events, and entertainment-related and educational programs via the Internet; transmission and delivery of audiovisual and multimedia content, namely, music, concerts, videos, radio, television, news, sports, games, cultural events, and entertainment-related and educational programs via the internet Entertainment and educational services, namely, providing non-downloadable movies and television shows via a video-on-demand service, as well as information, reviews, and recommendations regarding movies and television shows; providing a website featuring non-downloadable television shows, movies, and multimedia entertainment content, namely, music, concerts, videos, radio, television, news, sports, games, cultural events, and entertainment-related and educational programs, as well as information, reviews, and recommendations regarding television shows, movies, and multimedia entertainment content, namely, music, concerts, videos, radio, television, news, sports, games, cultural events, and entertainment-related and educational programs; Provision of non-downloadable movies and television shows via a video-on-demand service; rental of movies and television shows that may be downloaded from an Internet web site
74.
Automated entry of hidden service-configuration menu for target configurable device selected from plurality of configurable devices in rooms of hospitality establishment
A configuration apparatus includes a user interface allowing a user to initiate configuration of at least a target configurable device selected from a plurality of configurable devices. A command module is coupled to the user interface for dynamically generating a sequence of commands required to configure the target configurable device. The sequence of commands includes commands for entering a hidden service-configuration menu of the target configurable device. A communication module is coupled to the command module for transmitting the sequence of commands to the target configurable device.
G06F 3/00 - Input arrangements for transferring data to be processed into a form capable of being handled by the computerOutput arrangements for transferring data from processing unit to output unit, e.g. interface arrangements
G06F 13/00 - Interconnection of, or transfer of information or other signals between, memories, input/output devices or central processing units
H04N 5/445 - Receiver circuitry for displaying additional information
H04L 12/24 - Arrangements for maintenance or administration
G06F 3/0482 - Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
G06F 3/0484 - Interaction techniques based on graphical user interfaces [GUI] for the control of specific functions or operations, e.g. selecting or manipulating an object, an image or a displayed text element, setting a parameter value or selecting a range
H04N 21/475 - End-user interface for inputting end-user data, e.g. PIN [Personal Identification Number] or preference data
H04N 21/485 - End-user interface for client configuration
75.
Playing pay-per-view program at set-top box connected to one-way broadcast-only RF coax network after receiving passkey targeting identifier of that set-top box from user
A hospitality media system includes a plurality of set-top boxes (STBs) coupled to a radio frequency (RF) coax network. Each STB has an identifier for identifying the STB. A content source broadcasts media content to the STBs utilizing the RF coax network and an update server distributes software data to the STBs. The software data causes a particular STB to perform a media function customized for the particular STB according to the identifier of the particular STB.
H04N 21/214 - Specialised server platform, e.g. server located in an airplane, hotel or hospital
H04N 21/236 - Assembling of a multiplex stream, e.g. transport stream, by combining a video stream with other content or additional data, e.g. inserting a URL [Uniform Resource Locator ] into a video stream, multiplexing software data into a video streamRemultiplexing of multiplex streamsInsertion of stuffing bits into the multiplex stream, e.g. to obtain a constant bit-rateAssembling of a packetised elementary stream
H04N 21/258 - Client or end-user data management, e.g. managing client capabilities, user preferences or demographics or processing of multiple end-users preferences to derive collaborative data
H04N 21/436 - Interfacing a local distribution network, e.g. communicating with another STB or inside the home
H04N 21/472 - End-user interface for requesting content, additional data or servicesEnd-user interface for interacting with content, e.g. for content reservation or setting reminders, for requesting event notification or for manipulating displayed content
H04N 21/475 - End-user interface for inputting end-user data, e.g. PIN [Personal Identification Number] or preference data
H04N 21/6547 - Transmission by server directed to the client comprising parameters, e.g. for client setup
H04H 20/63 - Arrangements specially adapted for specific applications, e.g. for traffic information or for mobile receivers for local area broadcast, e.g. instore broadcast to plural spots in a confined site, e.g. MATV [Master Antenna Television]
H04N 7/10 - Adaptations for transmission by electrical cable
H04N 7/18 - Closed-circuit television [CCTV] systems, i.e. systems in which the video signal is not broadcast
H04N 7/20 - Adaptations for transmission via a GHz frequency band, e.g. via satellite
76.
Coax server acting as proxy between coax transmission infrastructure and internet protocol (IP) transmission infrastructure for media on demand content
A coax server acts as a proxy between a coax transmission infrastructure and an Internet Protocol (IP) transmission infrastructure. An incoming request is received from a particular one of a plurality of coax client devices on the coax infrastructure. A request for specific media content is transmitted to a media-on-demand server in response to receiving the incoming request. A media stream is received over the IP infrastructure from the media-on-demand server, the media stream corresponding to the specific media content, and the coax server allocates a coax channel of sufficient bandwidth on the coax infrastructure and transmits the media stream on the coax channel utilizing the RF modulation scheme. A pointer indicating the coax channel on which the media stream is being transmitted is sent to the particular coax client device. The coax channel is unknown to other of the coax client devices besides the particular coax client device.
H04N 21/472 - End-user interface for requesting content, additional data or servicesEnd-user interface for interacting with content, e.g. for content reservation or setting reminders, for requesting event notification or for manipulating displayed content
H04N 21/442 - Monitoring of processes or resources, e.g. detecting the failure of a recording device, monitoring the downstream bandwidth, the number of times a movie has been viewed or the storage space available from the internal hard disk
H04N 21/239 - Interfacing the upstream path of the transmission network, e.g. prioritizing client requests
H04N 21/266 - Channel or content management, e.g. generation and management of keys and entitlement messages in a conditional access system or merging a VOD unicast channel into a multicast channel
H04N 21/238 - Interfacing the downstream path of the transmission network, e.g. adapting the transmission rate of a video stream to network bandwidthProcessing of multiplex streams
H04N 21/24 - Monitoring of processes or resources, e.g. monitoring of server load, available bandwidth or upstream requests
H04N 21/647 - Control signaling between network components and server or clientsNetwork processes for video distribution between server and clients, e.g. controlling the quality of the video stream, by dropping packets, protecting content from unauthorised alteration within the network, monitoring of network load or bridging between two different networks, e.g. between IP and wireless
H04N 21/262 - Content or additional data distribution scheduling, e.g. sending additional data at off-peak times, updating software modules, calculating the carousel transmission frequency, delaying a video stream transmission or generating play-lists
H04N 7/10 - Adaptations for transmission by electrical cable
H04N 7/173 - Analogue secrecy systemsAnalogue subscription systems with two-way working, e.g. subscriber sending a programme selection signal
H04N 21/214 - Specialised server platform, e.g. server located in an airplane, hotel or hospital
H04N 21/434 - Disassembling of a multiplex stream, e.g. demultiplexing audio and video streams or extraction of additional data from a video streamRemultiplexing of multiplex streamsExtraction or processing of SIDisassembling of packetised elementary stream
Methods and apparatus are described for providing digital content to televisions or other devices having media playback capabilities over a network infrastructure using virtual set top boxes (VSTBs).
H04N 21/214 - Specialised server platform, e.g. server located in an airplane, hotel or hospital
H04N 21/222 - Secondary servers, e.g. proxy server or cable television Head-end
H04N 21/2665 - Gathering content from different sources, e.g. Internet and satellite
H04N 21/4402 - Processing of video elementary streams, e.g. splicing a video clip retrieved from local storage with an incoming video stream or rendering scenes according to encoded video stream scene graphs involving reformatting operations of video signals for household redistribution, storage or real-time display
H04N 21/258 - Client or end-user data management, e.g. managing client capabilities, user preferences or demographics or processing of multiple end-users preferences to derive collaborative data
H04N 21/2343 - Processing of video elementary streams, e.g. splicing of video streams or manipulating encoded video stream scene graphs involving reformatting operations of video signals for distribution or compliance with end-user requests or end-user device requirements
H04N 21/431 - Generation of visual interfacesContent or additional data rendering
H04N 21/436 - Interfacing a local distribution network, e.g. communicating with another STB or inside the home
H04N 21/482 - End-user interface for program selection
A user profile server stores a particular user profile corresponding to a user who belongs to a plurality of separate loyalty programs, and the particular user profile includes a plurality of different loyalty program user identifiers each identifying the user on a respective one of the separate loyalty programs. The user profile server communicates user a preference included on the particular user profile to a first controller via the computer network and communicates the user preference included on the particular user profile to a second controller via the computer network. The first controller is associated with a first hospitality location where the user is identified according to a first loyalty program user identifier included on the particular user profile, and the second is controller is associated with a second hospitality location where the user is identified according to a second loyalty program user identifier included on the particular user profile.
H04N 7/20 - Adaptations for transmission via a GHz frequency band, e.g. via satellite
H04N 21/2668 - Creating a channel for a dedicated end-user group, e.g. by inserting targeted commercials into a video stream based on end-user profiles
H04N 7/10 - Adaptations for transmission by electrical cable
H04N 7/18 - Closed-circuit television [CCTV] systems, i.e. systems in which the video signal is not broadcast
H04N 21/214 - Specialised server platform, e.g. server located in an airplane, hotel or hospital
H04N 21/45 - Management operations performed by the client for facilitating the reception of or the interaction with the content or administrating data related to the end-user or to the client device itself, e.g. learning user preferences for recommending movies or resolving scheduling conflicts
H04N 21/2665 - Gathering content from different sources, e.g. Internet and satellite
H04N 21/472 - End-user interface for requesting content, additional data or servicesEnd-user interface for interacting with content, e.g. for content reservation or setting reminders, for requesting event notification or for manipulating displayed content
79.
Allowing first module of computer code received from vendor to make use of service provided by second module while ensuring security of system
A system for integrating modules of computer code may include a sandbox validator for receiving a first module and verifying that the first module complies with one or more sandbox constraints. A computing device may execute the first module within a runtime environment. A module integrator may operate within the runtime environment for receiving a request from the first module to access a service provided by a second module and only allowing the first module to access the service when the first module is authorized to access the service according to a service authorization table. The sandbox validator may ensure the first module correctly identifies itself when requesting a service provide by another module and that the first module includes runtime policing functions for non-deterministic operations. A service authorizer may generate an authorization policy for the first module, which is sent to the computing device along with the first module.
G06F 21/53 - Monitoring users, programs or devices to maintain the integrity of platforms, e.g. of processors, firmware or operating systems during program execution, e.g. stack integrity, buffer overflow or preventing unwanted data erasure by executing in a restricted environment, e.g. sandbox or secure virtual machine
80.
Automatic switch-mapping and client device location detection
An apparatus for automatic client device location detection includes a controller module configured to receive first network traffic transmitted on a computer network of a hospitality establishment from a known location within the hospitality establishment. The controller module is further configured to query one or more network components of the computer network to determine a source access-node from which the first network traffic originated, and store a mapping of the source access-node to the known location in the storage device. The controller module is further configured to receive second network traffic transmitted on the computer network by a client device at the hospitality establishment, query the one or more network components of the computer network to determine that the second network traffic originated from the source access-node, and automatically determine the client device to be at the known location according to the mapping in the storage device.
H04L 29/06 - Communication control; Communication processing characterised by a protocol
H04N 21/214 - Specialised server platform, e.g. server located in an airplane, hotel or hospital
H04N 21/258 - Client or end-user data management, e.g. managing client capabilities, user preferences or demographics or processing of multiple end-users preferences to derive collaborative data
09 - Scientific and electric apparatus and instruments
35 - Advertising and business services
38 - Telecommunications services
41 - Education, entertainment, sporting and cultural services
Goods & Services
(1) Software for streaming audiovisual and multimedia content, namely music, concerts, videos, radio, television, news, sports, games, cultural events, and entertainment-related and educational programs via the internet and global communications networks; software for streaming audiovisual and multimedia content, namely music, concerts, videos, radio, television, news, sports, games, cultural events, and entertainment-related and educational programs to mobile digital electronic devices; software for searching, organizing, and recommending multimedia content, namely music, concerts, videos, radio, television, news, sports, games, cultural events, and entertainment-related and educational programs; computer software, namely, software development tools for creating software and mobile applications
(2) Hardware for streaming audiovisual and multimedia content, namely music, concerts, videos, radio, television, news, sports, games, cultural events, and entertainment-related and educational programs via the internet and global communications networks, namely, digital media streaming devices, digital video recorders, DVD and high definition video disc players, home theater systems comprised of audio and video receivers and disc players; televisions, and television set-top boxes (1) Video-on-demand transmission services; video broadcasting, namely broadcasting of television programs and movies; data transmission services via wireless networks, cable networks, wide area networks of voice, audio, video, images, signals, messages and information; Streaming of audiovisual and multimedia content, namely music, concerts, videos, radio, television, news, sports, video games, cultural events, and entertainment-related and educational programs via the Internet; transmission and delivery of audiovisual and multimedia content, namely music, concerts, videos, radio, television, news, sports, video games, cultural events, and entertainment-related and educational television programs via the internet; video-on-demand transmission services
(2) Entertainment and educational services, namely, providing non-downloadable movies and television shows via a video-on-demand service, as well as information, reviews, and recommendations regarding movies and television shows; providing a website featuring non-downloadable television shows, movies, and multimedia entertainment content, namely music, concerts, videos, radio, television, news, sports, video games, cultural events, and entertainment-related and educational television programs, as well as information, reviews, and recommendations regarding television shows, movies, and multimedia entertainment content, namely music, concerts, videos, radio, television, news, sports, video games, cultural events, and entertainment-related and educational television programs
(3) Sale and rental of movies and television shows that may be downloaded from an Internet web site
82.
Providing to a public-safety answering point emergency information associated with an emergency call
Users store information relevant to first responders in the event of an emergency. When a user later places an emergency call, the user's emergency information is automatically made available to the public-safety answering point operator handling the call. Hotel personal are notified of the call and may listen to and break in to the ongoing call in order to assist. A reverse 9-1-1 broadcast enables hotel personnel to quickly notify guests of an emergency situation via in-room and mobile phones. In the event that police need to conduct surveillance on a target location, the onsite PBX server reconfigures phones within the vicinity of the target location to operate in an open mode and records the audio/visual information received. An incoming call to a hotel room from the PSAP is automatically connected to the in-room phone even if other incoming calls not from the PSAP are being screened by front desk.
A PBX system complements the mobile phones of users. Custom incoming and outgoing call rules are dynamically activated for users when the users begin utilizing a facility having at least one phone number and a number of internal phones. A custom rule causes outgoing calls made from an internal phone used by a user to have a caller ID phone number of the user's personal mobile phone rather than the facility's phone number. Another custom rule causes incoming calls made to the facility's phone number that have a source caller ID phone number matching a phone number in the user's mobile phone address book to be automatically forwarded directly to an internal phone currently utilized by the user. The user may install an application on their mobile phone, and another custom rule causes incoming calls at the user's mobile phone to be twinned while the user is at the facility.
Custom incoming and outgoing call rules are dynamically activated for users when the users begin utilizing a facility having at least one phone number and a number of internal phones. A custom rule causes outgoing calls made from an internal phone used by a user to have a caller ID phone number of the user's personal mobile phone rather than the facility's phone number. Another custom rule causes incoming calls made to the facility's number that have a source caller ID phone number matching a phone number in the user's mobile phone address book to be automatically forwarded directly to an internal phone currently utilized by the user. The user may install an application on their mobile phone, and another custom rule causes incoming calls at the user's mobile phone to be twinned while the user is at the facility.
Users store information relevant to first responders in the event of an emergency. When a user places an emergency call, the user's emergency information is automatically made available to the public-safety answering point operator handling the call. Hotel personal are notified of the call and may listen and break in to the ongoing call in order to assist. A reverse 9-1-1 broadcast enables hotel personnel to quickly notify guests of an emergency situation via in-room and mobile phones. In the event that police need to conduct surveillance on a target location, the onsite PBX server reconfigures phones within the vicinity of the target location to operate in an open mode and records the audio/visual information received. An incoming call to a hotel room from the PSAP is automatically connected to the in-room phone even if other incoming calls not from the PSAP are being screened by front desk.
H04M 11/04 - Telephonic communication systems specially adapted for combination with other electrical systems with alarm systems, e.g. fire, police or burglar alarm systems
H04W 4/14 - Short messaging services, e.g. short message service [SMS] or unstructured supplementary service data [USSD]
A hospitality establishment includes guest rooms having media devices installed therein. Each guest room has one or more in-room media devices for providing a pay-per-use media function. A media system controller dynamically associates a credit corresponding to a monetary value with a particular guest room in response to an occurrence of a first event, configures an in-room media device of the particular guest room to indicate the credit associated with the particular guest room and allow a guest of the particular guest room to utilize at least an amount of the credit toward an order of the pay-per-use media function, activates the pay-per-use media function on at least one of the in-room media devices of the particular guest room in response to a received order, and decreases the credit associated with the particular guest room according to the amount of the credit utilized toward the received order.
H04N 21/214 - Specialised server platform, e.g. server located in an airplane, hotel or hospital
H04N 21/472 - End-user interface for requesting content, additional data or servicesEnd-user interface for interacting with content, e.g. for content reservation or setting reminders, for requesting event notification or for manipulating displayed content
H04N 21/258 - Client or end-user data management, e.g. managing client capabilities, user preferences or demographics or processing of multiple end-users preferences to derive collaborative data
87.
Wireless access point with wildcard SSID response enabling association by client device requesting any SSID and system and method thereof
A wireless access point includes an antenna, a connection port providing wired communications with a network, one or more processors, and a storage device having software stored therein. When executed by the one or more processors the software causes the wireless access point to respond to a probe from a client device requesting a specific service set identifier according to a wildcard service set identifier response in order to facilitate wireless association of the client device with the wireless access point regardless of the specific service set identifier requested by the client device, and to provide the client device with wireless access to the network. In this way, the client device is enabled to associate with the wireless access point and receive access to the network without a specific service set identifier requested by the client device being preprogrammed into the wireless access point.
Client in distributed computing system that monitors service time reported by server in order to detect performance problems and automatically issue alerts
A client device in a distributed system sends a request to a server via a network and receives a service time duration from the server. The service time duration corresponds to time that the server spent servicing the request. A processor of the client device compares the service time duration with a dynamically generated service time threshold, and automatically issues one or more alert messages to a network operation center (NOC) when the service time duration is greater than the service time threshold. The service time threshold is dynamically calculated according to historic service time durations received from the server for a plurality of previous requests sent by the client device. The service time threshold is dynamically calculated according to historic service time durations of only previous requests of a same type as the request, where the previous requests sent by the client device are of a plurality of types.
A hospitality media system includes a media system controller and a plurality of media devices located in a plurality of rooms and coupled to the media system controller. Each room has one or more in-room media devices located therein for performing a media function. A connection port allows a user of a room to establish data communications between the media system controller and a guest device. The media system controller is coupled to the connection port and configured to catalogue guest content available on the guest device to thereby form a guest content list, associate the guest content with one or more associated rooms at least including the user's room, and perform the media function utilizing content selected from the guest content list only on the in-room media devices located within the one or more associated rooms.
G06F 3/00 - Input arrangements for transferring data to be processed into a form capable of being handled by the computerOutput arrangements for transferring data from processing unit to output unit, e.g. interface arrangements
H04N 7/18 - Closed-circuit television [CCTV] systems, i.e. systems in which the video signal is not broadcast
H04L 29/08 - Transmission control procedure, e.g. data link level control procedure
H04N 21/214 - Specialised server platform, e.g. server located in an airplane, hotel or hospital
H04N 21/231 - Content storage operation, e.g. caching movies for short term storage, replicating data over plural servers or prioritizing data for deletion
H04N 21/472 - End-user interface for requesting content, additional data or servicesEnd-user interface for interacting with content, e.g. for content reservation or setting reminders, for requesting event notification or for manipulating displayed content
90.
Automatically adjusting bandwidth allocated between different zones in proportion to summation of individual bandwidth caps of users in each of the zones where a first-level zone includes second-level zones not entitled to any guaranteed bandwidth rate
A bandwidth management system includes a plurality of queues respectively corresponding to a plurality of zones. An enqueuing module receives network traffic from one or more incoming network interfaces, determines a belonging zone to which the network traffic belongs, and enqueues the network traffic on a queue corresponding to the belonging zone. A dequeuing module selectively dequeues data from the queues and passes the data to one or more outgoing network interfaces. When dequeuing data from the queues the dequeuing module dequeues an amount of data from a selected queue, and the amount of data dequeued from the selected queue is determined according to user load of a zone to which the selected queue corresponds.
A system includes a storage device for storing details of a plurality of reservations of a hospitality establishment. A particular reservation includes a set of reservation-specific settings affecting behavior of the computer network at the hospitality establishment during the reservation. The settings may include a registered device setting for affecting behavior of a computer network at the hospitality establishment toward a user device having a specified device identifier. The system further includes a clock unit for tracking time, and a system controller coupled to the computer network and having access to the storage device and the clock unit. The system controller automatically configures one or more network components of the computer network when a start time of the particular reservation is reached in order to activate the reservation-specific settings.
A captive portal system includes a login database, a web server, and a name server. The name server receives a DNS request from a user device, queries the login database to determine whether the user device is logged in, and responds to the DNS request with the IP address of the web server as a resolved IP address of the specified domain name when the user device is not logged in. The web server accepts a connection request from the user device to the IP address of the web server, receives an HTTP request specifying a non-local target URL from the user device, queries the login database to determine whether the user device is logged in according to the source address of the user device, and acts as a transparent proxy between the user device and the non-local target URL when the user device is logged in.
H04L 29/06 - Communication control; Communication processing characterised by a protocol
H04L 29/12 - Arrangements, apparatus, circuits or systems, not covered by a single one of groups characterised by the data terminal
93.
Increasing pay-per-use credit associated with guest room in response to notification message tracking usage of service offered by hospitality establishment
A hospitality establishment includes guest rooms having media devices installed therein. Each guest room has one or more in-room media devices for providing a pay-per-use media function. A media system controller dynamically associates a credit corresponding to a monetary value with a particular guest room in response to an occurrence of a first event, configures an in-room media device of the particular guest room to indicate the credit associated with the particular guest room and allow a guest of the particular guest room to utilize at least an amount of the credit toward an order of the pay-per-use media function, activates the pay-per-use media function on at least one of the in-room media devices of the particular guest room in response to a received order, and decreases the credit associated with the particular guest room according to the amount of the credit utilized toward the received order.
H04N 21/472 - End-user interface for requesting content, additional data or servicesEnd-user interface for interacting with content, e.g. for content reservation or setting reminders, for requesting event notification or for manipulating displayed content
94.
Method of operating one or more controllable devices in dependence upon commands received from a mobile device and system controller thereof
A system controller for operating one or more controllable devices in dependence upon commands received from a mobile device includes a first communication interface for receiving a command from the mobile device and a second communication interface for receiving a message from a controllable device. One or more processors are configured to determine whether the mobile device that sent the command is authorized to operate a target controllable device to which the command pertains, and generate a command identifier for identifying the command, and send an instruction corresponding to the command and including the command identifier to the target controllable device when the mobile device is authorized to operate the target controllable device. The system controller replies to a pending command identified by a particular command identifier with a response indicating transaction complete when the message from the controllable device acknowledges the particular command identifier.
H04N 21/239 - Interfacing the upstream path of the transmission network, e.g. prioritizing client requests
H04N 21/258 - Client or end-user data management, e.g. managing client capabilities, user preferences or demographics or processing of multiple end-users preferences to derive collaborative data
H04N 21/41 - Structure of clientStructure of client peripherals
H04N 21/442 - Monitoring of processes or resources, e.g. detecting the failure of a recording device, monitoring the downstream bandwidth, the number of times a movie has been viewed or the storage space available from the internal hard disk
Methods and apparatus are described for providing access to arbitrary applications via an interactive television service using a pool of remote virtual desktops.
G06F 9/44 - Arrangements for executing specific programs
H04N 21/254 - Management at additional data server, e.g. shopping server or rights management server
H04N 21/462 - Content or additional data management e.g. creating a master electronic program guide from data received from the Internet and a Head-end or controlling the complexity of a video stream by scaling the resolution or bit-rate based on the client capabilities
H04L 29/06 - Communication control; Communication processing characterised by a protocol
H04N 5/445 - Receiver circuitry for displaying additional information
Systems and methods are described for off-site user access control to communications services via a site-based communications network. Embodiments operate in context of sites, each having one or more site-based networks in communication with external networks via one or more on-site routers. User devices are provided with controlled access to those external networks via wired or wireless connections between those user devices and the site based networks. In some embodiments, on-site routers maintain route maps that indicate which user devices are authorized. Standard routing functions are used so that traffic from authorized devices is routed normally, while traffic from unauthorized devices is automatically forwarded to an off-site (e.g., cloud-based) authentication system. As devices become remotely authenticated, the off-site authentication system can remotely update route maps of the on-site routers to add those devices.
A user profile server stores a particular user profile corresponding to a user who belongs to a plurality of separate loyalty programs, and the particular user profile includes a plurality of different loyalty program user identifiers each identifying the user on a respective one of the separate loyalty programs. The user profile server communicates user a preference included on the particular user profile to a first controller via the computer network and communicates the user preference included on the particular user profile to a second controller via the computer network. The first controller is associated with a first hospitality location where the user is identified according to a first loyalty program user identifier included on the particular user profile, and the second is controller is associated with a second hospitality location where the user is identified according to a second loyalty program user identifier included on the particular user profile.
H04N 7/18 - Closed-circuit television [CCTV] systems, i.e. systems in which the video signal is not broadcast
H04N 21/2668 - Creating a channel for a dedicated end-user group, e.g. by inserting targeted commercials into a video stream based on end-user profiles
H04N 7/10 - Adaptations for transmission by electrical cable
H04N 21/214 - Specialised server platform, e.g. server located in an airplane, hotel or hospital
H04N 21/45 - Management operations performed by the client for facilitating the reception of or the interaction with the content or administrating data related to the end-user or to the client device itself, e.g. learning user preferences for recommending movies or resolving scheduling conflicts
98.
Dynamic assignment of central media device supporting network-based media sharing protocol to guest device of hospitality establishment for media sharing purposes
A media system includes a computer network, a media device supporting a network-based media sharing protocol, a plurality of output devices located at a plurality of physical locations within a hospitality establishment, and a system controller. In response to a first event, the system controller assigns the media device to a particular guest device by reconfiguring one or more components of the computer network to enable the particular guest device to utilize the network-based media sharing protocol to share media over the computer network with the media device, and commands an output device located at a physical location associated with the particular guest device to play media corresponding to the media signal outputted by the media device on the output port. In response to a second event, the system controller un-assigns the media device from the particular guest device and commands the output device to stop playing the media.
A method of automatic hostname configuration includes receiving a request from a client device. A location detection module may be utilized for determining a location identifier representing a location at which the client device is located. A hostname is formed including at least the location identifier, and a control server assigns the hostname to the client device by sending an acknowledgement including the hostname to the client device. The request and acknowledgement may be communicated using DHCP. Simple network management protocol messages may be sent to one or more switches to query for a MAC address of the client device to determine the source switch and port from which the request originated. The switch-port-to-location table may include several ports that map to a same location identifier. The hostname may further be formed by including a device type identifier associated with the client device.
Captive portal that modifies content retrieved from designated web page to specify base domain for relative link and sends to client in response to request from client for unauthorized web page
The described captive portal techniques cause client devices to render and display designated web pages. One designated web page may be different than a requested web page such as when a client is not authorized to access the requested page and is instead caused to display a login portal. The captive portal may modify the designated web page to ensure that relative links lacking base domains now have specified base domains pointing to an authorized web server. The modified content is sent from the captive portal to the client device for display. Client web browser security measures related to redirection messages are thereby bypassed and load on the captive portal is minimal. Another designated web page may be the same as the requested web page such as when the requested page is an authorized page even for non-logged in clients. Authorized pages may be modified to add a login link.
