Informative as well as tutorial, this book explores the design of advanced multimedia systems in depth--the characteristics of multimedia systems, the design challenges, the emerging technologies that support advanced multimedia systems, design methodologies, and implementation techniques for converting the design to produce efficient, flexible, and extensive applications.

Written in an easy, conversational style, this is one of the first references to address concepts, architecture, and design of networked multimedia systems--giving equal treatment to both multimedia and networking. Using an abundance of examples and illustrations to explain concepts, it gives balanced treatment to all topics in designing systems.

Multimedia Database Systems: Design and Implementation Strategies is a compendium of the state-of-the-art research and development work pertaining to the problems and issues in the design and development of multimedia database systems. The chapters in the book are developed from presentations given at previous meetings of the International Workshop on Multi-Media Data Base Management Systems (IW-MMDBMS), and address the following issues: development of adequate multimedia database models, design of multimedia database query and retrieval languages, design of indexing and organization techniques, development of efficient and reliable storage models, development of efficient and dependable retrieval and delivery strategies, and development of flexible, adaptive, and reliable presentation techniques.

Multimedia has two fundamental characteristics that can be expressed by the following formula: Multimedia = Multiple Media + Hypermedia. How can software engineering take advantage of these two characteristics? Will these two characteristics pose problems in multimedia systems design? These are some of the issues to be explored in this book. The first two chapters will be of interest to managers, software engineers, programmers, and people interested in gaining an overall understanding of multimedia software engineering. The next six chapters present multimedia software engineering according to the conceptual framework introduced in Chapter One. This is of particular use to practitioners, system developers, multimedia application designers, programmers, and people interested in prototyping multimedia applications. The next three chapters are more research-oriented and are mainly intended for researchers working on the specification, modeling, and analysis of distributed multimedia systems, but will also be relevant to scientists, researchers, and software engineers interested in the systems and theoretical aspects of multimedia software engineering. Multimedia Software Engineering can be used as a textbook in a graduate course on multimedia software engineering or in an undergraduate course on software design where the emphasis is on multimedia applications. It is especially suitable for a project-oriented course.

This book is a clear and comprehensive survey of multimedia system design for a networked world. It's also a perfect companion for multimedia server designers as well as the multimedia application developer ... or anyone building the 'best of breed' products and services that scale to the Internet. Dr. Eric Schmidt, Chairman and CEO Novell, Inc. This is a book on an extremely timely subject. With coming broadband access to the home, there will be an explosion in demand for multimedia streaming applications. This book will be a "must" read for anyone designing the servers that will support them. Don Towsley, Dept. of Computer Science University of Massachusetts- Amherst This book will undoubtedly satisfy the needs of application developers, server designers, integrators, and service providers, as it provides end-to-end, top-down coverage: from application-specific issues to low-level components. Inside, the authors offer specific design, development, and implementation approaches that take into account the complexity of the environments in which multimedia servers operate. You'll learn which techniques are best suited for different kinds of applications and different kinds of networks. You'll master the challenges associated with resource scheduling, collaborative computing, session set-up, and distributed storage. Most importantly, you'll discover how to put all of these solutions to work as part of a coherent strategy aimed at exploiting economies of scale and meeting quality of service requirements. Features Presents optimized design algorithms developed by the authors and other leading researchers. Deals comprehensively with the systems supporting the large-scale storage, retrieval, and distribution of audio and video data. Balances the coverage of current technologies with forward-looking discussions to help you devise a sustainable, evolvable solution. Covers key issues in video-on-demand and other multimedia systems: resource scheduling, local caching, interactivity, architectural strategies, and more.

Designing Effective and Usable Multimedia Systems presents research and development and industrial experience of usability engineering for multimedia user interfaces. The book discusses the methods, tools and guidelines for multimedia use and implementation and covers the following topics in detail: Design methods for multimedia (MM) systems; Social and cognitive models for MM interaction; Empirical studies of the effects of MM on learning and behavior; Design and prototyping support tools; Intelligent MM Systems and Design support; Usability evaluation. £/LIST£ Designing Effective and Usable Multimedia Systems contains the proceedings of the International Working Conference on Designing Effective and usable Multimedia Systems, sponsored by the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP), held in Stuttgart, Germany, in September 1998. It is essential reading for computer scientists, software developers, information systems managers and human scientists, especially those working in the applied disciplines such as human factors and interface design.

Rapid progress in software, hardware, mobile networks, and the potential of interactive media poses many questions for researchers, manufacturers, and operators of wireless multimedia communication systems. Wireless Multimedia Communication Systems: Design, Analysis, and Implementation strives to answer those questions by not only covering the underlying concepts involved in the design, analysis, and implementation of wireless multimedia communication systems, but also by tackling advanced topics such as mobility management, security components, and smart grids. Offering an accessible treatment of the latest research, this book: Presents specific wireless multimedia communication schemes that have proven to be useful Discusses important standardization processing activities regarding wireless networking Includes wireless mesh and multimedia sensor network architectures, protocols, and design optimizations Highlights the challenges associated with meeting complex connectivity requirements Contains numerous figures, tables, examples, references, and a glossary of acronyms Providing coverage of significant technological advances in their initial steps along with a survey of the fundamental principles and practices, Wireless Multimedia Communication Systems: Design, Analysis, and Implementation aids senior-level and graduate-level engineering students and practicing professionals in understanding the processes and furthering the development of today’s wireless multimedia communication systems.