SightSound

Last updated
SightSound
Industry Intellectual Property & Audio / Video eCommerce
Founded1995
HeadquartersPittsburgh, USA
Key people
Arthur R. Hair & Scott C. Sander (founders)
Website http://www.sightsound.com/

SightSound Technologies is an intellectual property company focused on licensing its portfolio of domestic and international patents. SightSound Technologies has been issued 50 patents. [1] [2] [3]

Contents

History

SightSound Technologies began in the mid-1980s when company founder Arthur R. Hair invented a method and system for the electronic sale of digital audio and video recordings. In 1995, Mr. Hair and Scott C. Sander founded SightSound Technologies to commercialize Hair’s invention. On March 2, 1993, Arthur Hair was issued his first patent, "Method for Transmitting a Desired Digital Video or Audio Signal." [4]

On August 18, 1995, SightSound Technologies inked the first distribution deal with a recording artist to sell music on the internet as file downloads: The Gathering Field sold their debut album on SightSound.com. [2]

On October 7, 1997, Arthur Hair receives his second patent, "System for Transmitting Desired Digital Video or Audio Signals." [5]

On April 13, 1999, SightSound Technologies sold Darren Aronofsky's Pi as a pay-per-view download, making it the first ever film to be sold as a download on the Internet. [2] On April 18, 2000, SightSound Technologies announced an agreement with Miramax to distribute twelve of its films for download via Miramax's websites. [6]

On May 5, 2000, SightSound releases Quantum Project, the first celebrity-driven movie created to be distributed solely through the internet. [7] Quantum Project stars Stephen Dorff, Fay Masterson and John Cleese. [8]

Related Research Articles

In information theory, data compression, source coding, or bit-rate reduction is the process of encoding information using fewer bits than the original representation. Any particular compression is either lossy or lossless. Lossless compression reduces bits by identifying and eliminating statistical redundancy. No information is lost in lossless compression. Lossy compression reduces bits by removing unnecessary or less important information. Typically, a device that performs data compression is referred to as an encoder, and one that performs the reversal of the process (decompression) as a decoder.

Digital television Television transmission using digital encoding

Digital television (DTV) is the transmission of television signals using digital encoding, in contrast to the earlier analog television technology which used analog signals. At the time of its development it was considered an innovative advancement and represented the first significant evolution in television technology since color television in the 1950s. Modern digital television is transmitted in high-definition television (HDTV) with greater resolution than analog TV. It typically uses a widescreen aspect ratio in contrast to the narrower format of analog TV. It makes more economical use of scarce radio spectrum space; it can transmit up to seven channels in the same bandwidth as a single analog channel, and provides many new features that analog television cannot. A transition from analog to digital broadcasting began around 2000. Different digital television broadcasting standards have been adopted in different parts of the world; below are the more widely used standards:

Lossy compression Data compression approach that reduces data size while discarding or changing some of it

In information technology, lossy compression or irreversible compression is the class of data compression methods that uses inexact approximations and partial data discarding to represent the content. These techniques are used to reduce data size for storing, handling, and transmitting content. The different versions of the photo of the cat on this page show how higher degrees of approximation create coarser images as more details are removed. This is opposed to lossless data compression which does not degrade the data. The amount of data reduction possible using lossy compression is much higher than using lossless techniques.

MP3 Digital audio format

MP3 is a coding format for digital audio developed largely by the Fraunhofer Society in Germany, with support from other digital scientists in the United States and elsewhere. Originally defined as the third audio format of the MPEG-1 standard, it was retained and further extended — defining additional bit-rates and support for more audio channels — as the third audio format of the subsequent MPEG-2 standard. A third version, known as MPEG 2.5 — extended to better support lower bit rates — is commonly implemented, but is not a recognized standard.

MPEG-2 Video encoding standard

MPEG-2 is a standard for "the generic coding of moving pictures and associated audio information". It describes a combination of lossy video compression and lossy audio data compression methods, which permit storage and transmission of movies using currently available storage media and transmission bandwidth. While MPEG-2 is not as efficient as newer standards such as H.264/AVC and H.265/HEVC, backwards compatibility with existing hardware and software means it is still widely used, for example in over-the-air digital television broadcasting and in the DVD-Video standard.

Television Telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images

Television, sometimes shortened to TV or telly, is a telecommunication medium used for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, a television show, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, entertainment, news, and sports.

Telephone Telecommunications device

A telephone is a telecommunications device that permits two or more users to conduct a conversation when they are too far apart to be heard directly. A telephone converts sound, typically and most efficiently the human voice, into electronic signals that are transmitted via cables and other communication channels to another telephone which reproduces the sound to the receiving user. The term is derived from Greek: τῆλε and φωνή, together meaning distant voice. A common short form of the term is phone, which came into use almost immediately after the first patent was issued.

Digital audio Technology that records, stores, and reproduces sound

Digital audio is a representation of sound recorded in, or converted into, digital form. In digital audio, the sound wave of the audio signal is typically encoded as numerical samples in a continuous sequence. For example, in CD audio, samples are taken 44,100 times per second, each with 16-bit sample depth. Digital audio is also the name for the entire technology of sound recording and reproduction using audio signals that have been encoded in digital form. Following significant advances in digital audio technology during the 1970s and 1980s, it gradually replaced analog audio technology in many areas of audio engineering, record production and telecommunications in the 1990s and 2000s

Broadband Data transmission terminology

In telecommunications, broadband is wide bandwidth data transmission which transports multiple signals at a wide range of frequencies and Internet traffic types, that enables messages to be sent simultaneously, used in fast internet connections. The medium can be coaxial cable, optical fiber, wireless Internet (radio), twisted pair or satellite.

ATSC standards Standards for digital television in the US

Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) standards are an American set of standards for digital television transmission over terrestrial, cable and satellite networks. It is largely a replacement for the analog NTSC standard and, like that standard, is used mostly in the United States, Mexico, Canada, and South Korea. Several former NTSC users, in particular Japan, have not used ATSC during their digital television transition, because they adopted their own system called ISDB.

Podcast Type of audio digital media

A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosing. Streaming applications and podcasting services provide a convenient and integrated way to manage a personal consumption queue across many podcast sources and playback devices. There also exist podcast search engines, which help users find and share podcast episodes.

Video Encoded Invisible Light (VEIL) is a technology for encoding low-bandwidth digital data bitstream in video signal, developed by VEIL Interactive Technologies. VEIL is compatible with multiple formats of video signals, including PAL, SECAM, and NTSC. The technology is based on a steganographically encoded data stream in the luminance of the videosignal.

History of television Development of television

The concept of television was the work of many individuals in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots initially starting from back even in the 18th century. The first practical transmissions of moving images over a radio system used mechanical rotating perforated disks to scan a scene into a time-varying signal that could be reconstructed at a receiver back into an approximation of the original image. Development of television was interrupted by the Second World War. After the end of the war, all-electronic methods of scanning and displaying images became standard. Several different standards for addition of color to transmitted images were developed with different regions using technically incompatible signal standards. Television broadcasting expanded rapidly after World War II, becoming an important mass medium for advertising, propaganda, and entertainment.

Podcasts, previously known as "audioblogs", has its roots dating back to the 1980s. With the advent of broadband Internet access and portable digital audio playback devices such as the iPod, podcasting began to catch hold in late 2004. Today there are more than 115,000 English-language podcasts available on the Internet, and dozens of websites available for distribution at little or no cost to the producer or listener.

In audio and broadcast engineering, Audio over Ethernet is the use of an Ethernet-based network to distribute real-time digital audio. AoE replaces bulky snake cables or audio-specific installed low-voltage wiring with standard network structured cabling in a facility. AoE provides a reliable backbone for any audio application, such as for large-scale sound reinforcement in stadiums, airports and convention centers, multiple studios or stages.

Video sender Device for transmitting audio and video signals wirelessly

A video sender is a device for transmitting domestic audio and video signals wirelessly from one location to another. It is most commonly used for sending the output of a source device, such as a satellite television decoder, to a television in another part of a property and provides an alternative to cable installations.

MPEG Surround, also known as Spatial Audio Coding (SAC) is a lossy compression format for surround sound that provides a method for extending mono or stereo audio services to multi-channel audio in a backwards compatible fashion. The total bit rates used for the core and the MPEG Surround data are typically only slightly higher than the bit rates used for coding of the core. MPEG Surround adds a side-information stream to the core bit stream, containing spatial image data. Legacy stereo playback systems will ignore this side-information while players supporting MPEG Surround decoding will output the reconstructed multi-channel audio.

Pulse-code modulation (PCM) is a method used to digitally represent sampled analog signals. It is the standard form of digital audio in computers, compact discs, digital telephony and other digital audio applications. In a PCM stream, the amplitude of the analog signal is sampled regularly at uniform intervals, and each sample is quantized to the nearest value within a range of digital steps.

Cinavia

Cinavia, originally called Verance Copy Management System for Audiovisual Content (VCMS/AV), is an analog watermarking and steganography system under development by Verance since 1999, and released in 2010. In conjunction with the existing Advanced Access Content System (AACS) digital rights management (DRM) inclusion of Cinavia watermarking detection support became mandatory for all consumer Blu-ray Disc players from 2012.

Telecommunications Transmission of information between locations using electromagnetic technology

Telecommunication is the transmission of information by various types of technologies over wire, radio, optical, or other electromagnetic systems. It has its origin in the desire of humans for communication over a distance greater than that feasible with the human voice, but with a similar scale of expediency; thus, slow systems are excluded from the field.

References

  1. "SightSound Technologies Successfully Settles Patent Case Against CDnow and N2K" (Press release). PR Newswire. 24 February 2004. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 11 October 2011.
  2. 1 2 3 Petzinger Jr., Thomas (7 May 1999). "Two Entrepreneurs Try to Turn Net Patent Into a Blockbuster". Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on 2022-02-19. Retrieved 28 October 2011.
  3. Sweeting, Paul (23 February 2004). "Music e-tailers agree to play SightSound's tune". Variety. Archived from the original on 24 March 2016. Retrieved 12 October 2011.
  4. "US 5191573: Method for transmitting a desired digital video or audio signal". United States Patent 5191573. Retrieved 28 October 2011.
  5. "US 5675734: System for Transmitting Desired Digital Video or Audio Signals". United States Patent 5675734. Retrieved 28 October 2011.
  6. Orwall, Bruce (18 April 2000). "Disney's Miramax to Distribute Films Online via SightSound.com Technology". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on 20 February 2022. Retrieved 28 October 2011.
  7. "Future Features". Variety. 14 April 2000. Archived from the original on 19 February 2022. Retrieved 28 October 2011.
  8. Lyman, Rick (14 April 2000). "At The Movies; 'Quantum' Leap To The Internet". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 19 February 2022. Retrieved 28 October 2011.