Abstract: A system for the management of relational information between media sources, which includes a plurality of procedures to set and query the information. Relations are established either via interaction with the sources or by user's specifications. Further the invention provides for the separation of information concerning source relations, actual media stored for these sources, and binding of media to specific needs for the media within the system.

Abstract: To enable a user to rapidly identify one or more sets of values for parameters of an operation, templates are generated dynamically from sets of values already used for these parameters in content available to the system. Each unique set of values may be extracted from the currently available content. Each of these sets of values may be sorted, for example, by recent modification date, for presentation to a user. The user may then select a set of values from among those displayed for use in the operation.

Abstract: The problem of editing motion data can be solved by providing a way to specify control points (herein called “handles”) along the path of the motion data and to describe the motion data as a combination of layers of information describing the motion in relationship to these handles. A first layer may describe, for each point in the motion data, the distance of the point between the handles. For example, a path between two handles may be defined. Each point in the motion data is closest to a point along that path. That point along the line has a distance to the two handles. These distances may be defined as a percentage of the length of the path. A second layer may describe the offset of points in the motion data from the line between the two handles.

Abstract: Processing video data with a combination of one or more operations, such as special effects, on a general-purpose computer may be improved by enabling one or more operations to access and process multiple samples of video data from other operations that introduce latencies for each request for data. Operations that introduce latencies include, for example, hardware for decompression and compression, network interfaces, and file systems. Because a computer program to implement the operations may be executed on several different general-purpose platforms, exact specifications of available hardware are not known in advance. For each operation, a computer program determines the available system memory and an amount of data that can be processed by each operation used in a composition or portion of a composition while sharing the available memory with other operations. Available system memory is allocated among the operations being used.

Abstract: By providing an index that stores information about how to access each grouping of elements in an interleaved data stream and each element within each grouping, random access to each element in the interleaved data stream can be achieved. The index may store a temporal offset for each grouping for interleaved data streams in which the order of data samples in the interleaved data stream is different from the order in which those data samples are used to present the data stream. The information that allows each element in a grouping to be accessed may include information defining the length of each element, or information describing the relative position of each element in a grouping, such as a map table. Such a map table may have an entry for each data type, wherein each entry includes an indication of information used to access a sample of the data type.

Abstract: Multiple applications request data from multiple storage units over a computer network. The data is divided into segments and each segment is distributed randomly on one of several storage units, independent of the storage units on which other segments of the media data are stored. Redundancy information corresponding to each segment also is distributed randomly over the storage units. The redundancy information for a segment may be a copy of the segment, such that each segment is stored on at least two storage units. The redundancy information also may be based on two or more segments. This random distribution of segments of data and corresponding redundancy information improves both scalability and reliability. When a storage unit fails, its load is distributed evenly over to remaining storage units and its lost data may be recovered because of the redundancy information.

Abstract: If graphics data is imported into and then exported from a nonlinear editing system several times, image quality tends to degrade due to multiple filtering operations applied to the graphics data on import. Sometimes, a portion of graphics data imported into a nonlinear editing system has been processed by a nonlinear editing system, whereas another portion has not. To avoid such degradation of image quality, portions of graphics data that have been previously filtered and decimated are identified and not filtered prior to decimation. Other portions of graphics data are filtered and decimated.

Abstract: A computer system on a computer network with shared storage and that is connected through a network to playback and other systems, enables editing systems using the shared storage to turn over responsibility for transferring data to these playback and other systems. Using information from an automation control system, such as a playlist, indicating the order in which stories are to be played back by a playback system, the computer system schedules the transfer of data to the playback system in an efficient manner. The computer system may maintain a queue of requests to transfer data for programs that is ordered according to the order of the programs in a playlist specified using, for example, broadcast automation control system.

Abstract: An ellipsoid chroma region of a chroma plane may be defined to specify a range of chromas for which a secondary chroma modification is to be applied, and to determine an output chroma for each chroma of the chroma plane based on the ellipsoid chroma region. Further, two or more different-shaped chroma regions of a chroma plane may be defined and manipulated, each chroma region specifying a range of chroma for which a secondary chroma modification is to be applied, and to determine an output chroma for each chroma of the chroma plane based on the two or more different-shaped chroma regions. Also, chroma-matching techniques may be used to define and manipulate the chroma region of a chroma plane that specifies a range of chroma for which a secondary chroma modification is to be applied, and an output chroma may be determined for each chroma of the chroma plane based on the chroma region.

Abstract: A method and system is provided to avoid the duplicate storage and transfer of multimedia data in a playback device, thereby increasing system bandwidth and available playback memory. A multimedia composition describes an edited piece of audio and video multimedia data. The composition is created and transferred to a playback device. The composition is examined to determine whether the multimedia data referred to in the composition is already stored in the playback device. If the data is stored in the playback device, or in transit to the playback device, it is not transferred to the playback device.

Abstract: Multiple applications request data from multiple storage units over a computer network. The data is divided into segments and each segment is distributed randomly on one of several storage units, independent of the storage units on which other segments of the media data are stored. At least one additional copy of each segment also is distributed randomly over the storage units, such that each segment is stored on at least two storage units. This random distribution of multiple copies of segments of data improves both scalability and reliability. When an application requests a selected segment of data, the request is processed by the storage unit with the shortest queue of requests. Random fluctuations in the load applied by multiple applications on multiple storage units are balanced nearly equally over all of the storage units.

Abstract: Systems and methods for correlating color correction instruction between two color correcting devices are disclosed. The method includes performing a nulling test on a representation a first device has of a known standard and retaining the results of the test. A second color correcting device performs a nulling test on the same known standard and the results of this test are retained. From the results of these two tests a color correction instruction of one of the devices may be converted to a color correction instruction on the other device so that substantially the same color correction effect is achieved.

Abstract: Creating a transition between a first sequence of video frames and a second sequence of video frames. The method includes storing a table of values that express a non-linear response to certain levels of light, generating a transition between the sequences, and adjusting the intensity at which material of the first sequence is displayed relative to the intensity at which material of the second sequence is displayed within the transition, based on the values stored in the step of storing.

Abstract: Audio associated with a video program, such as an audio track or live or recorded commentary, may be analyzed to recognize or detect one or more predetermined sound patterns, such as words or sound effects. The recognized or detected sound patterns may be used to enhance video processing, by controlling video capture and/or delivery during editing, or to facilitate selection of clips or splice points during editing.

Abstract: A computer system is provided such that histograms are displayed in a histogram window according so that a spike in the histogram that is significantly larger than the other histogram values is not used as the scaling factor for displaying the histogram. Rather, a histogram value other than the largest histogram value is used to scale the histogram in the histogram window. Consequently other peaks in the histogram are emphasized in the display and the largest peak does not dwarf the other peaks due to the scaling used to fully represent the largest peak.

Abstract: The present invention provides for a method and system for identifying a sonic event of interest within a received audio signal. A sonic event is characterized by a predetermined rate of change in the perceived audio volume, and is associated with the loudness of the audio. The present invention detects a sonic event such as a percussive hit without requiring that the detector be disabled for a fixed time to avoid false triggering. Because the detector is not disabled during the detection process, sonic events occurring in close proximity are easily recognized and not ignored as in some conventional systems.

Abstract: A non-linear editing (NLE) system for editing and/or modifying 3D animation information comprises elements represented by clip objects which can be positioned and/or manipulated relative to a time line. The elements can comprise conventional 1D (audio) or 2D (video) information or can comprise 3D animation information which can include animation objects and animation parameters associated with them, as well as 2D renderings of those objects. Positioning and/or manipulation of clip objects representing 3D animation elements can result in alteration of the 2D rendering and or re-rendering of the 3D information, as appropriate.

Abstract: The invention disclosed herein is a media recorder for recording live and prerecorded analog audio and/or video information. It is capable of receiving, digitizing, and storing analog audio and/or video information in real time The invention detects discontinuities in the reception of the analog information and automatically terminates the storage of the information, so the previously received audio and/or video information is stored as a self-contained clip of digitized information. The invention is also capable of receiving and storing digital audio and/or video information from other sources, so that the system can play both the digital audio and/or video information digitized by it and that received from the other sources. This allows both the newly recorded and previously recorded media segments to be evaluated both individually and in context with other segments.

Abstract: A system provides real-time previsualization of effects to be added to high definition (HD) video data and real-time rendering of the HD video data including the added effects. The computer based system for editing high definition television (HDTV) resolution video includes a high definition video system connected to a standard definition video system and a high definition storage system. A resizer reformats the high definition video data to standard definition resolution for real-time processing and previsualization.

Abstract: A nonlinear editing system for audio, video and/or other source materials comprises a system to define at least one time line representing the edit, the time line being represented in the editing system as an operator graph. The operator graph includes operators, representing sources and time-based effects, and time varying connections therebetween. For each period of the defined time line wherein the connections do not change, a expression tree comprising a simplified representation of the operators and the connections required to render that portion of the time line is extracted. Each expression tree can be examined to ensure that all of the required sources and/or connections are available to render that portion of the time line in real time and, if this is not the case, a determination can be made of which portions of the expression tree can be pre-rendered to an intermediate result, the intermediate result being substituted into expression tree to provide real time rendering.