Issues in theDesign of Continuous MediaSystems

This paper presents an overview of the issues that need to be addressed in the design of digital continuous media systems. Digital audio and video are two forms of continuous media. A continuousmedium is any data type that digitally represents a continuous function, a function whose first derivative must always be defined. An overview of both audio and video continuous media is presented first. We then address issues such as time, buffering, and networked systems as well as the problems of jitter control and latency. We also attempt to give a common vocabulary for discussing different types of continuous media.