User Generated Video Service for Cable Systems
Winner of the Chrysler Praxis Award
Modern cable networks were designed in a closed fashion and thus content on these networks has been controlled by a small set of providers. In today's technologically infused homes many forms of video capture devices can be found. As cable networks slowly become accepting of new content and new sources of content, the possibility has opened for anyone to become a content provider on these networks.
We have created a set of services that allow users to upload their own content and subsequently make that content accessible on a set top. The user does this by uploading video via their computer over the internet to what amounts to a social networking service. The user gives the video a name and description, and then sets wh in their buddy list is permitted to view the video on their set top.
Once the video is uploaded to the social network, the social network alerts the appropriate Cable Headend that a new video has been uploaded and is associated with one of the Headend’s users. The Cable Headend then retrieves the video, converts it to a stream-ready format and stores it.
When a user navigates to the User Generated Content Portal on their set top, they are presented with a display listing the videos they are permitted to watch. Upon selecting a video, it is then streamed to their set top.
All services are implemented in Java, deployed on a Glassfish application server and use a MySQL database.
Matt Beer, Randy Lyczynski, Maitland Marsh, Bethany Wenzel
