A Component-based Architecture for Scalable Distributed Multimedia

Digital video and audio multimedia systems will rapidly take the place of existing analog systems in the next millennium's radio and television broadcasts. Current initiatives in digital radio will soon provide near-CD quality radio channels in many countries. However, due to the very nature of their broadcasting architecture, user interactivity and exibility is limited. We demonstrate an architecture for capturing, distributing, and displaying digital multimedia content through existing Internet and intranet infrastructures using personal computers. Our solution is much more exible than previous systems, increases the degree of interactivity between the user and the broadcasting system, and opens a new range of possibilities not ooered before. The distribution infrastructure supports both live and stored data and enables a exible combination of diierent policies and mechanisms. A component-based architecture for the development of customized multimedia clients and servers facilitates software maintenance and updates as application requirements evolve. Moreover, it promotes a large degree of code reuse. Initial experiments with the worldwide broadcast of NASA's JPL Pathhnder mission delivered more than one million live video streams to dozens of countries across the planet.