LOS ANGELES—The United States Patent and Trademark Office has granted a patent to Prime Focus Technologies for its Just-in-Time embedded watermarking solution of streaming proxies within the company’s CLEAR platform. 

This patent (No. 10,904,595) covers two innovations. First, the ability to apply user-specific burnt-in watermarks, real-time; and secondly, making a Just-in-Time watermarked stream “as seamless as that of a CLEAN stream,” PFT says.

According to PFT, Just-in-Time watermarking treats streaming segments requests from a user’s video player as an atomic segment that needs to be transcoded by a GPU-farm and handed back in real-time to the player, as well as meeting the needs of standard streaming protocols, including HLS/DASH. As a result, any segment requested, across any bit rate, is served with a watermark and any high-speed trick-play request (up to 3x) is served elegantly.

“Piracy has been and continues to heavily impact our industry at the world-wide level. Such an invention now provides studios and content owners the ability to protect their pre-release content through strong and reliable deterrence mechanisms that are embedded within their streaming infrastructures” said Ramki Sankaranarayanan, founder and global CEO, Prime Focus Technologies. “With Cloud costs continuing to drop and GPUs becoming even more affordable, it is a matter of time when the industry will decide to provide streaming URLs to their content-partners and vendors, instead of creating copies of content, individually watermarked for their use.” 

For more information, visit www.primefocustechnologies.com.  

PALISADES, N.Y.—The Video Call Center has been granted a patent for its caller queue process, which TV shows can use to help manage people calling into TV and video programs via smartphones.

U.S. Patent No. 10,904,386 covers VCC’s technology that manages participants using IP-based video calling from smartphones or other devices in the production of TV shows. This is designed to help TV shows, and other video productions, navigate pre-screened smartphone participants.

The technology is integrated in the VCC product Caller Queue. With it, producers can virtually invite unlimited numbers of viewers from anywhere to participate in live TV production; create a branded, virtual green room to retain guests prior to air, from which they watch the show or sign legal releases; sort, filter and prioritize available video callers; and communicate with callers to screen and prepare them prior to going on-air.

“Anyone can put one video caller on air, but only the VCC makes it possible to manage dozens, even hundreds of participants under all the pressures of live television production,” said VCC CEO Larry Thaler. “The VCC set out to make audience participation as easy and flexible for TV as radio call-in shows have had it for decades. We are delighted that the U.S. patent office recognizes what our broadcast and web customers already know—that the VCC is unique in its understanding of the systems and methods needed to turn billions of smartphones into highly capable production tools that expand creative, financial, and audience engagement options.”

VCC says that TV shows from Discovery Channel, TLC, Food Network and NBCUniversal are already using the technology.

This is the third patent that VCC has been granted.

For more information, visit www.thevcc.tv.  

SAN JOSE, Calif.—Red’s patented process for compressing digital video so footage can remain as high-quality as possible, which is part of its Redcode codec, is coming under fire from Apple.

Apple filed a petition against the patent in May of this year, arguing that Red simply combined previously developed processes resulting in nothing novel, and therefore not protectable. This would allow for Apple—which currently has to pay a fee to Red to use the technology for its own ProRes Raw technology—and other companies to use the technology without paying a fee.

Red recently came back disputing Apple’s petition, saying that the process for its technology was first discussed in 2005 and developed for the Red One Cinema Camera in 2007.

Sony has previously attempted a similar lawsuit against Red in 2013, but it was defeated.

Read the full story at Digital Camera World.

Manteo, N.C.— Through wind and rain, stage fights, environmental acoustics and more, Point Source Audio mics have weathered all the challenges in The Lost Colony, the outdoor theatre production located on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. The audio team, confident in their PSA investment since 2013, recently added the new patent-pending CO2 Confidence Collectiondual-element headset mic to their collection of 24 active on set mics.

“We were excited to see a product that made the application of the dual elements simpler by combining those wire runs and keeping things as tidy as possible. That mic has been a great benefit to the production,” says Sound Designer/composer Michael Rasbury. “The [lead] character is most likely to have a mic issue due to the activity required by this role; stage combat; perspiration.”

Since 1937, The Lost Colony has been telling the story of the first English colonies in North America and their mysterious disappearance. Over the past few years, the audio systems have been overhauled, upgraded and redesigned, including the ever-important microphones.

Robust equipment to withstand elements including water—in the form of rain and perspiration— as well as wind and heat is invaluable for theatre, but especially for outdoor theatre. The associate producer Lance Culpepper explains: “To provide our audience the experience that they’re expecting, we really have to put a lot of our resources into ensuring that the audio equipment can sustain itself through all of these dynamic changes. That’s one of the reasons why microphones are so important to us. Prior to the Point Source mics, we saw a much shorter lifespan with the previous microphones and we had to send them out for servicing more frequently. We don’t see those problems with the Point Source mics.”

“I am beyond pleased with the addition of Point Source microphones to our production,” states A1 Joseph Reynolds. “The waterproof elements are paramount to an outdoor period drama, where the perspiration of the talent could compromise mic functionality. I especially enjoy the dual behind the ear headsets. It helps to have consistent placement and keeps the mic off the talent’s face.”

Placement is an important consideration as noted by Rasbury. “From a design perspective, the low profile of these microphones is key for getting the mic near the voice without detracting from the 16th-century costume design. Our show is also very physical in nature. We have a large company and large-scale fight choreography. Given the way these mics attach to both ears, they stay on the actor and in the correct place throughout the show.”

The other feature of the PSA mics that the team wants to highlight is that “the frequency response of these elements is excellent (20Hz to 20kHz),” says Rasbury. “Our show also includes gunshots, explosions, and loud actor responses; these do not distort at high SPL.” Reynolds adds, “The frequency response is tailored nicely to the full range of human speech and I don’t have to slice up every channel with a parametric scalpel.”

The CO2 Confidence Collection has two waterproof and frequency-matched elements, each measuring a tiny 3mm. Both elements offer built-in redundancy and integrate PSA’s first-to-market features including IP 57 waterproof rating and the “unbreakable” headset boom. Point Source Audio mics are engineered for durability and to endure challenging mic applications.

Culpepper appreciates the support from Point Source Audio. “They’ve been great to work with,” he says. “The communication has been excellent as well as customer service-wise. Knowing that we’re not just another account number with them means a lot to our organization.”

The audio team at The Lost Colony includes sound designer Michael Rasbury, A1 Joe Reynolds, and A2 Josiah Rodgers. Microphones supplied by Wake Forest, NC-based Provision Audio Video Solutions.

For more information about Point Source Audio and its products, visit www.point-sourceaudio.com.

AboutThe Lost Colony

First staged in 1937, The Lost Colony is the nation’s premier and longest-running outdoor symphonic drama. Written by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Paul Green and produced by the Roanoke Island Historical Association, a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit, The Lost Colony’s 2019 season runs May 31-Aug. 23, 2019 at Roanoke Island’s Waterside Theatre, located within the Fort Raleigh National Historic Site on the Outer Banks. For information, go to www.thelostcolony.org

About Point Source Audio

Point Source Audio (@PSA_audio) manufactures and distributes worldwide their SERIES8, EMBRACE, and CONFIDENCE collection of miniature microphones—a unique line of headset, earworn and earmounted microphones known for their robust bendable boom and waterproof features. The company also holds two patents for the EMBRACE concealable microphone as well as the patent for the world’s first modular in-ear comms headset that is supporting the hearing health for audio, lighting and camera techs using headsets everywhere from sports to space. Founded in 2004, Point Source Audio is headquartered in Petaluma, California. For more information call (415) 226-1122 or visit www.point-sourceaudio.com. Follow the company on Twitter at www.twitter.com/PSA_audio.

PHILADELPHIA—Comcast, which is currently in the middle of multiple patent cases over its technology, earned a victory in one of them for its voice control technologies over the California-based Promptu Systems Corp. As a result, the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board invalidated Promptu’s patent defined as “system and method of voice recognition nera a wireline node of a network supporting cable television and/or video delivery.”

For more information, read the full story on TVT’s sister publication Multichannel News.

RASTATT, Germany—Following Evertz filing a lawsuit on seven instances of patent infringement against it, Lawo has come out with a statement “strongly denying” the accusations, saying that the allegedly infringed patents “are invalid.”

On Monday, March 18, Evertz filed its lawsuit against Lawo AG, Lawo Inc. and Lawo North America Corp in the Federal District Court for the District of Delaware. The lawsuits alleges infringement on Evertz’s IP-based video routing and switching technology.

Evertz had previously filed litigation against Lawo and former Evertz employees in the Superior Court of Ontario. However, Lawo asserts in its response that Evertz failed to state in its press release that the Canadian action was struck down by the court in February because “Evertz failed to articulate a material basis for its claim.”

“This press release is part of a global public relations campaign, which obviously goes beyond the mere protection of Evertz’s alleged rights in court,” reads Lawo’s statement.

“We will vigorously defend the lawsuits and will pursue all appropriate legal actions against Evertz,” said Claudia Nowak, CFO of Lawo in the statement. “Business will continue as usual and there should not be any impact on our customers while these matters are pending.”

SOUTHFIELD, MICH.—United States patent number 7,047,191 B2 now belongs to Enco, per a company press release. Entitled “Method and System for Providing Automated Captioning for AV Signals,” the patent encompasses captioning technology and methods that help automate and accelerate speech-to-text translation to deliver open or closed captions; it specifically relates to Enco’s enCaption series of technology.

Enco’s software-defined enCaption systems provide accurate captioning for live and recorded content in near real time. The patent covers new advances that improve accuracy of enCaption’s speech-to-text engine, using advances in machine learning technology to develop a deep neural network approach to voice recognition.

This new technology includes a method that separates an audio signal from a combined AV signal and converts the audio signal to text data. The original AV signal is then encoded with the converted text data to produce, record and display a captioned AV signal. The patent also covers automatic translation of spoken words of a first language into a second language, with the translated words included in the captioning information.

BURLINGTON, MASS. &SAN JOSE, CALIF.—Avid and Harmonic have a court date. The two have been locked in a patent battle since 2011, when Avid went after Harmonic over patents covering large-file storage and retrieval processes. Both are set to meet in court Nov. 6, 2017, over six claims related to a patent for decompressed video data output that Avid claims Harmonic used in its Spectrum media servers.

“Pertinent to this appeal, [the disputed technology] requires switching to provide video data to a second decompression array at a ‘predefined period of time’ after the first video compression array receives data,” the March 1, 2016 U.S. Court of Appeals decision stated.
Disputed Claims
The disputed claims over patent 291 are described in the March 1, 2016 federal court decision as follows:
A video decompression system comprising:
A first switch coupled to at least two video data input lines, the first switch controlling the direction and rate of video data flow from the video data input lines;
At least two video data decompression arrays coupled to the first switch, the video data decompression arrays storing compressed video data, decompressing the stored compressed video data, and storing the decompressed video data;
A second switch coupled to the video data decompression arrays and to an output bus, the second switch directing output from the at least two video data decompression arrays to the output bus; and
A controller coupled to the first switch, the video data decompression arrays, and to the second switch for controlling the flow of video data through the system.
The system, wherein the controller commands the first switch to provide video data to the first video data decompression array at a first rate, and to provide video data to the remaining video data decompression arrays at a second rate a predefined period of time after the first video data array begins receiving the video data at the first rate.
Avid has two parallel suits against Harmonic. This particular claim started in June of 2012 with an infringement claim filed by Avid in the Delaware U.S. District Court, in which Avid sought injunctive relief and unspecified damages. The claim involved Patent No. 5,495,291, “Decompression system for compressed video data for providing uninterrupted decompressed video data output,” which Avid said Harmonic was using in its Spectrum servers.

According to Avid, Harmonic responded by seeking to have the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office review and nullify Avid’s ’291 patents through re-examination and inter partes review. In 2014, the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board found Avid’s patent claims one through 10 to be invalid, but affirmed the validity of claims 11-16. (See sidebar.)

Harmonic appealed. Briefs were filed. The federal appeals court in D.C. upheld the Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s finding in the aforementioned March 1, 2016 order, with Circuit Judges Kara Farnandez Stoll, Raymond T. Chen, and Haldane Robert Mayer presiding.

Added June 20, 2017—Avid’s further clarification of ’291
Avid’s 291 patent covers a video decompression system for decompressing two streams of compressed video so that they can be played out sequentially in a seamless manner, i.e., without any intervening interruption, such as blank frames. Claims 11-14 are specifically directed to systems that perform such decompression at different rates or at the same rates for the first stream and for the second stream.
Claims 15 and 16 are directed to the timing of switches that direct the compressed streams to the decompression hardware and route the resulting decompressed video to the output display.
Avid also continues to assert claims 17-20 of the 291 patent against Harmonic. Claim 17 is directed to a method that performs the seamless decompression referred to above but does not include any requirements regarding decompression rates of the two incoming streams. Claims 18-20 include specific requirements regarding the decompression rates. A second suit filed in October of 2011, involved two patents that Avid said Harmonic was infringing on with its MediaGrid shared storage system—Patent No. 6,760,808, “Computer system and process for transferring multiple high bandwidth streams of data between multiple storage units and multiple applications in a scalable and reliable manner,” and Patent No. 7487309, “Computer system and process for transferring multiple high bandwidth streams of data between multiple storage units and multiple applications in a scalable and reliable manner.” These patents correspond with Avid’s Nexis storage system.

Harmonic won the second suit on a unanimous verdict in a January 2014 jury trial, according to a summary of court activities in Harmonic’s quarterly report for the period ending March 31, 2017. Avid appealed in the federal circuit, which vacated the verdict in January of 2016 and ordered a new trial.

Harmonic again requested a re-examination and inter partes review of Avid’s claims involving patents ’808 and ’309. On April 10, 2017, the patent office rejected the ’808 claims but affirmed those involving ’309. Avid is appealing the patent office’s rejection of its ’808 infringement claims in the federal circuit.

“Now that the claims of the ’309 patent have been confirmed as patentable, Avid’s infringement case against Harmonic and its MediaGrid system is expected to proceed to the new trial ordered by the Federal Circuit,” Avid said in a statement. “Based on expert testimony, Avid expects its claim against Harmonic could result in up to $35 million in damages through 2013. Avid expects that this amount has increased materially since then. However, the outcome of litigation is inherently uncertain and Avid may not recover any or all of damages it seeks.”

For its part, Harmonic deferred to comment beyond its SEC filings. Again, from the 1Q17: “The company is unable to predict the outcome of these lawsuits and therefore is unable to estimate an amount or range of any reasonably possible losses resulting from them. An unfavorable outcome on any litigation matter could require that the company pay substantial damages, or, in connection with any intellectual property infringement claims, could require that the company pay ongoing royalty payments or could prevent the company from selling certain of its products.”

Michael Balderston contributed to this report.

FAIRFIELD, N.J.—The Essex QAR series rack from Middle Atlantic is the latest patent recipient from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, specifically for its design that is meant to speed up integration and assembly.

The patent specifically refers to the Essex’s snap-together design, which allows it to be integration-ready in five minutes, according to Middle Atlantic. The rack serves as a foundation for residential AV systems and can be used as a skeleton rack or configured with sides, doors and a series of Essex power and accessory options.

Middle Atlantic is offering the Essex in 12 possible sizes, but all versions feature lockable casters, optional leveling feet for fixed installation, and a mounting bracket for vertical power distribution.

DUESSELDORF, GERMANY—Apple may be forced to remove some of its video streaming features for its products in Germany after a German district court ruled the company violated patents held by Swiss security company Kudelski’s OpenTV. This ruling, which was reported by Reuters, could affect Apple products like the iPhone, iPad, Mac computers, iTunes, Quicktime and Apple TV.

Apple Store in Munich

The ruling was passed down on Tuesday by a three-judge panel at a Dusseldorf district court and stated that Apple must not supply software that infringes on OpenTV’s patent that covers the mixing of video, audio and online information in a single video stream. “The claim is predominantly valid and well-founded,” explained the Dusseldorf court in its ruling.

The patent in question is entitled “An Integrated Interactive Video and Internet System” and was filed in 1997 by ACTV Inc., which was later acquired by OpenTV. Kudelski subsequently acquired OpenTV in 2010 and initiated the German case in 2014. OpenTV has filed a similar case against Apple in the U.S. That case is still outstanding.

This is not the only patent infringement case that Kudelski/OpenTV has filed in recent years. Since 2012 OpenTV has filed patent lawsuits against Netflix and Verizon. OpenTV also previously filed patent lawsuits against Disney, which was settled in 2004, and in 2002 with Liberate Technologies.

In the case of Apple, this ruling could require the company to come to a licensing deal from Kudelski. However, Apple could also comply by removing or disabling the infringing features from its video streaming products. Another option would be Apple being forced to remove the products from the market.

If it fails to comply, Apple could face fines up to 250,000 euros per infringement; the ruling did not specify the potential total amount of penalties. Apple can apply to appeal to the regional appeals court for a stay of enforcement, but there has been no comment by the company as of yet if it will do so. Reuters reports that Apple did file to have OpenTV’s patent invalidated in the Federal Patent Court in Munich, but the Dusseldorf court stated in the ruling that patent challenge would not succeed.

BRISTOL, ENGLAND—The U.K. patent office has granted patent protection to Vidcheck for the core process used to interrogate and auto-correct digital video and audio signals. The patent covers improvements to the techniques available for correcting out-of-specification video and audio signal levels.

The Vidcheck patent defines a multi-stage process based on the concept of the ‘connected area’ to provide industry standard parameters to video and audio content that exceed the permitted levels without degrading quality. Vidcheck products perform the multi-stage algorithm. All correction activity is logged and specific levels can be set to issue an alert.

Vidcheck is a developer of software for automated quality control and automated correction of file-based media.