Presentation scheduling of multimedia objects and its impact on network and operating system support

Abstract

The presentation of a multimedia object is concerned with the conveyance of information for a human user. The information conveyed depends not only on the contents presented, but also on their layout in time and space, i.e. on a specific presentation behaviour. The specification of the presentation behaviour in a system- and application-independent way provides for a compatible presentation of the multimedia object at different locations of a distributed, heterogeneous system. The paper concentrates on the temporal aspects of an abstract presentation behaviour description, i.e. the synchronization and control of temporally related presentation actions. The operating system and network support required for the execution of a presentation schedule is outlined.