Unified EPG Use Case

This Use Case enables users to consume and create content with both TV and PC. Hereto a user defines a virtual channel, which is a query with criteria like keywords, category, publication date etc. Such a virtual channel becomes part of the user's TV channel line up and can be consumed on a STB or on a mobile as a regular TV channel.

To create a virtual channel requests are sent from the target device to a search engine. The search engine crawls user-generated web pages for indexing all relevant metadata. Then, the search engine can provide these results in an XML form that can be parsed on different target devices.

But defining a virtual channel on a STB with a remote control is not easy. To that aim a web portal has been introduced for enabling users to manage in an easy way all tasks that can not be performed on their users. Virtual channel is one of the features offered in this web portal. The user has also the ability to set his preference on a per device basis (nickname, look & feel customization). The preference also includes the social network account of the user for importing the social network communities he wishes to use in his TV or mobile environment. This web application is also an opportunity for offering a new set of features that could not be done before on the devices: sort the list of favourite channels or favourite radios, define a list of personal TV searches and a TV guide. From the TV guide, the user can select the list of TV channels he wishes to consult, and for each TV event, he can get detailed information as well as: rating information (with community filter if any), booking record on his STB. From everywhere on the Internet the user can customize his preferences. An update menu is also available for updating its STB in real time (if his STB is connected to the web portal). In any case, the web portal stores the user preferences loaded by devices at the boot time.

In the sharing / discovery experience of content, the community concept from the social network has been introduced in the regular TV content environment. By considering a community is a group of users that share one or more fields of interests, a user can define on the web portal the communities he wishes to use on his TV set. By this way, a user can rate TV programs or he can get recommendation from his communities. It is a new method for discovering content.

In the meantime, the TV user can get audience information on TV channel with community filters for knowing which TV programs is the most popular at the current time. Once again, social communities are used for improving the content selecting process.

A TV user can also contribute to social network. From his STB, the user can rate TV events. Based on rating value thresholds set in the web portal, the system automatically on the user's social network account a bulletin or a blog entry for indicating he is very interested in the rated event. The system automatically adds metadata information to this post (poster, TV event summary, channel information, etc. ...).