Distributed scheduling of media channel playout

Abstract

Multiple scheduling producers such as content management systems, advertisement systems, and emergency broadcast systems can independently send scheduling events to scheduling consumers such as streaming servers, guide generators, and playlogs. The scheduling consumers maintain state machines with persistent storage to process scheduling events from scheduling producers and output media channel playlists, channel guides, and/or content. Scheduling producers can contribute independently to define a channel playout while information at scheduling consumers remains synchronized.

1 .- 20 . (canceled) 
     
     
         21 . A method for distributed scheduling comprising:
 receiving, at a scheduling event messaging middleware, a plurality of scheduling events and their associated time-stamps from a plurality of scheduling producers;   dynamically prioritizing the received plurality of scheduling events in an order based on a user interest; and   sending, from the scheduling event messaging middleware, the received plurality of scheduling events and their associated time-stamps in the prioritized order, that were received from the plurality of scheduling producers to a plurality of scheduling consumers, wherein the scheduling event messaging middleware is further configured to send scheduling events and their associated time-stamps to any number of different scheduling consumers;   wherein each of the plurality of scheduling consumers includes a state machine that turns the plurality of scheduling events into playouts for each channel in a plurality of channels, wherein each time-stamp identifies a time for a specific channel, from the plurality of channels, at which the specific channel is to play one or more of the plurality of scheduling events.   
     
     
         22 . The method of  claim 21 , further comprising:
 determining user interest in the received plurality of scheduling events, wherein the determination is made based on monitoring the user's activity on a mobile device; and   using the determined user interest to determine a type of media clip that the user may be interested in viewing on their mobile device.   
     
     
         23 . The method of  claim 21 , wherein the scheduling event messaging middleware is configured to receive the plurality of scheduling events from any number of different scheduling producers over the network. 
     
     
         24 . The method of  claim 21 , wherein the plurality of scheduling producers are separate devices connected to the scheduling event messaging middleware over the network. 
     
     
         25 . The method of  claim 21 , wherein the user interest is gathered from a user profile. 
     
     
         26 . The method of  claim 21 , wherein the user interest is gathered by monitoring activity performed by the user on an electronic device. 
     
     
         27 . The method of  claim 21 , further comprising, the plurality of scheduling consumers unrolling each channel in the plurality of channels into identical playouts. 
     
     
         28 . The method of  claim 21 , further comprising, determining a fault-tolerance for the plurality of scheduling consumers, wherein the determination comprises look ahead in schedule to approximate a channel playout out to a predetermined time in the future. 
     
     
         29 . The method of  claim 21 , further comprising:
 receiving an emergency broadcast or late-breaking news; and   in response to receiving the emergency broadcast or late-breaking news modifying the dynamically prioritizing order of scheduling events to play the emergency broadcast or late-breaking news at a higher priority.   
     
     
         30 . The method of  claim 29 , further comprising: returning to the dynamically prioritizing order of scheduling events after the completion of the emergency broadcast or late-breaking news 
     
     
         31 . A system, comprising:
 a processor;   memory connected to the processor; and   scheduling event messaging middleware stored in the memory and configured to:
 receive a plurality of scheduling events and their associated time-stamps from a plurality of scheduling producers; 
 dynamically prioritize the received plurality of scheduling events in an order based on a user interest; and 
 send the received plurality of scheduling events and their associated time-stamps in the prioritized order, that were received from the plurality of scheduling producers to a plurality of scheduling consumers, wherein the scheduling event messaging middleware is further configured to send scheduling events and their associated time-stamps to any number of different scheduling consumers; 
 wherein each of the plurality of scheduling consumers includes a state machine that turns the plurality of scheduling events into playouts for each channel in a plurality of channels, wherein each time-stamp identifies a time for a specific channel, from the plurality of channels, at which the specific channel is to play one or more of the plurality of scheduling events. 
   
     
     
         32 . The system of  claim 31 , further comprising, the scheduling event messaging middleware configured to:
 determine user interest in the received plurality of scheduling events, wherein the determination is made based on monitoring the user's activity on a mobile device; and   use the determined user interest to determine a type of media clip that the user may be interested in viewing on their mobile device.   
     
     
         33 . The system of  claim 21 , wherein the scheduling event messaging middleware is configured to receive the plurality of scheduling events from any number of different scheduling producers over the network. 
     
     
         34 . The system of  claim 21 , wherein the plurality of scheduling producers are separate devices connected to the scheduling event messaging middleware over the network. 
     
     
         35 . The system of  claim 31 , wherein the user interest is gathered from a user profile. 
     
     
         36 . The system of  claim 31 , wherein the user interest is gathered by monitoring activity performed by the user on an electronic device. 
     
     
         37 . The system of  claim 31 , further comprising, the plurality of scheduling consumers unrolling each channel in the plurality of channels into identical playouts. 
     
     
         38 . The system of  claim 31 , further comprising, the scheduling event messaging middleware configured to determine a fault-tolerance for the plurality of scheduling consumers, wherein the determination comprises look ahead in schedule to approximate a channel playout out to a predetermined time in the future. 
     
     
         39 . The system of  claim 31 , further comprising, the scheduling event messaging middleware configured to:
 receive an emergency broadcast or late-breaking news; and   in response to receiving the emergency broadcast or late-breaking news: modify the dynamically prioritizing order of scheduling events to play the emergency broadcast or late-breaking news at a higher priority.   
     
     
         40 . The system of  claim 29 , further comprising, the scheduling event messaging middleware configured to return to the dynamically prioritizing order of scheduling events after the completion of the emergency broadcast or late-breaking news