VCC Receives Third U.S. Patent for Managing Video Audiences for TV

The Video Call Center (VCC) has been issued US Patent No. 10,904,386 featuring its novel solution that makes it possible to manage large numbers of participants, each using IP-based video calling from their smartphone or other devices, in the production of video shows. The approach makes it possible to create television shows and other video productions that feature massive numbers of filtered and pre-screened smartphone participants.

This is the third US patent issued to the VCC. Together with VCC’s other unique systems and processes, the caller queue techniques make it easy and cost-effective to create professionally-produced video content that includes participants located anywhere in the world, using just their smartphones or other Internet-connected devices. VCC also was recently issued its first patent in Japan and its second in China, in both cases for technology covered by previous US patents.

“Anyone can put one video caller on air, but only the VCC makes it possible to manage dozens, even hundreds of participants under all the pressures of live television production,” says VCC CEO Larry Thaler. “The VCC set out to make audience participation as easy and flexible for TV as radio call-in shows have had it for decades. We are delighted that the US patent office recognizes what our broadcast and web customers already know–that the VCC is unique in its understanding of the systems and methods needed to turn billions of smartphones into highly capable production tools that expand creative, financial, and audience engagement options.”

The newly patented process is already integral to VCC’s Caller Queue, a service used by several television networks. In one recent example, TLC’s Find Love Live!, a live dating show, used the service to manage more than 800 audience video callers. Caller Queue enables the producers of a show to:

• Invite virtually unlimited numbers of viewers anywhere in the world to use their smartphones, tablets, and computers to participate on-air, and on-screen, in a live television production
• Create a branded, virtual “green room” to retain guests prior to air. Guests can digitally sign legal releases and watch the show’s progress while waiting.
• Sort, filter, and prioritize available video callers to best meet creative requirements
• Communicate with callers to screen and prepare them prior to their appearance on air

VCC licenses its technology within and outside the video production industry through Software as a Service (SaaS) and also provides it to customers as part of its technical and production services products