Abstract:
According to aspects of the invention there are provided a method for distributing content from one or more content sources over a communications network to a plurality of users by a content distribution system, the content distribution system comprising a master node and a plurality of local nodes in communication with the master node, each local node serving a group of users from the plurality of users, the method comprising: maintaining, at the master node, a content directory associated with a plurality of content items from the one or more content sources, the content directory comprising content location data for the plurality of content items and information associated with each of the content items; generating, at each local node, user content location data for each user in the group of users based on selecting a plurality of content items from the content directory according to a user profile of each user, the user content location data for each user including locations of the selected content items; and transmitting, by the local node, the user content location data for each user to a content player associated with said each user for use in retrieving the corresponding content items from the one or more content sources for seamless playback of the selected content items.
Abstract:
According to aspects of the invention there are provided a method for modifying a content stream distributed to one or more users, the method comprising: generating a content stream comprising a plurality of content items from one or more content providers; constructing one or more filters for modifying the content steam, wherein the one or more filters is constructed by defining one or more parameters relating the content items; applying the one or more filters to the content stream; selecting one or more content items from the content stream based on defined parameters; and modifying the content stream by applying the constructed filter to the plurality of content items in the content stream.
Abstract:
According to aspects of the invention there are provided a computer-implemented method for distributing content from one or more content sources over a communications network to a plurality of users by a master node of a content distribution system, the content distribution system further comprising a plurality of local nodes in communication with the master node, each local node serving a group of users from the plurality of users, the method comprising: maintaining a content directory associated with a plurality of content items of the one or more content sources, the content directory comprising content location data for the plurality of content items and information associated with each of the content item; transmitting the content directory to one or more of the local nodes; maintaining a user profile bank comprising one or more user profiles for each of the plurality of users; and transmitting the user profile bank to one or more of the local nodes for use in generating, at each local node, user content location data for each user in the group of users based on selecting a plurality of content items from the content directory according to a user profile of said user, the user content location data including locations of the selected content items, wherein the user content location data for each user is transmitted to a content player associated with said each user for use in retrieving the corresponding content items from the one or more content sources for seamless playback of the selected content items.