Lehrstuhl für Informatik 4

Kommunikation und verteilte Systeme

Multimedia Systems

Lehrstuhl für Informatik IV

RWTH Aachen
Prof. Dr. Otto Spaniol
Dr. rer. nat. Dirk Thißen

Chapter 1: Introduction Page 1

 Lehrstuhl für Informatik 4
Kommunikation und verteilte Systeme

Organization
Lecture
April 21st 2005
• Lecture takes place on Thursday, 10:00 – 11:30 and
13:15 - 14:45 April 28th 2005

• The lecture is planned with 3 hours / week May 12th 2005

June 2nd 2005
• Not each date is needed, some are skipped
June 9th 2005
• First lecture dates are planned, the further dates are
announced in time June 16th 2005

Exercises
• In principle, every 14 days
• Exercise is given on Tuesday
• Frontal exercise
• Exact dates depend upon the lecture May 10th 2005
dates June 7th 2005
• Exercise sheets are provided on the June 21st 2005
web page two weeks before an
exercise date
Chapter 1: Introduction Page 2
 Lehrstuhl für Informatik 4
Kommunikation und verteilte Systeme

Organization

Slide Copies
• Copies to the lecture slides as well as exercise sheets are placed on the web page to
the lecture:
http://www-i4.informatik.rwth-aachen.de/content/teaching/lectures/sub/mms/mmsSS05/index.html

Written Exam
At the end of summer term

Contact Information for questions regarding lecture/exercises

Prof. Dr. Otto Spaniol, Dr. Dirk Thißen
Lehrstuhl für Informatik IV, RWTH Aachen
Ahornstraße 55, 52074 Aachen
Phone: 0241 / 80 – 21400/21450
eMail: {spaniol, thissen}@informatik.rwth-aachen.de

Chapter 1: Introduction Page 3

 Lehrstuhl für Informatik 4
Kommunikation und verteilte Systeme

Literature

Books
• Steinmetz, R,; Nahrstedt, K.: Media Coding and Content Processing. Prentice Hall,
2002
• Steinmetz, R.; Nahrstedt, K.: Multimedia Systems. Springer Verlag, 2004
• Steinmetz, R.; Nahrstedt, K.: Multimedia Applications. Springer Verlag, 2004
• Froitzheim: Multimedia Kommunikation. dpunkt, 1997

Magazines
• Multimedia Systems, ACM/Springer
• Multimedia Magazine, IEEE

Chapter 1: Introduction Page 4

 Lehrstuhl für Informatik 4
Kommunikation und verteilte Systeme

What is ‘Multimedia’?

Simple definition of Multimedia: Multi - Media

→ Any kind of system that supports more than one kind of medium

Is Television Multimedia?

Definition:
Multimedia means the integration of continuous media (e.g., audio, video) and
discrete media (e.g., text, graphics, images) through which the digital information
can be conveyed to the user in an appropriate way.

→ Multi: many, much, multiple

→ Medium: A means to distribute and represent information

Chapter 1: Introduction Page 5

 Lehrstuhl für Informatik 4
Kommunikation und verteilte Systeme

Facets of “Medium”

1. Perception Medium - How do humans perceive information in a computer

environment? (by seeing, by hearing, ...)
2. Representation Medium - How is the information encoded in the computer?
(ASCII, PCM, MPEG, ...)
3. Presentation Medium - Which medium is used to output information from the
computer or to bring it into the computer?

Output: paper, loudspeaker, monitor,...

Input: keyboard, microphone, camera, ...
4. Storage Medium - Where is the information stored?
5. Transmission Medium - Which kind of medium is used to transmit the information?
(copper cable, radio, ...)
6. Information Exchange Medium (combination of storage and transmission media) -
Which information carrier will be used for information exchange between different
locations?

Chapter 1: Introduction Page 6

 Lehrstuhl für Informatik 4
Kommunikation und verteilte Systeme

Classification of Media

Each medium defines

• Representation values
• Representation space

Representation values determine the information representation of different media:

• continuous representation values (e.g. electro-magnetic waves)
• discrete representation values (e.g. characters of a text in digital form)

Representation space determines the technique to output the media information, usually
visually (e.g., paper, slideshow) or acoustically (e.g., speakers)
• Spatial dimensions:

Two dimensional (2D graphics)

Three dimensional (holography)
• Temporal dimensions:

Time independent (document) - discrete media (e.g. text of a book)

Time dependent (movie) - continuous media (e.g. sound, video)
Chapter 1: Introduction Page 7
 Lehrstuhl für Informatik 4
Kommunikation und verteilte Systeme

Data Streams
When transmitted or played out, continuous media need a changing set of data in terms of
time, i.e. data streams. How to deal with such streams?

Asynchronous Transmission
• Suitable for communication with no time restrictions (discrete media)
• E.g. electronic mail
Synchronous Transmission
• Beginning of transmission may only take place at well-defined times
• A clock signal runs the synchronization between a sender and a receiver
Isochronous Transmission
• Periodic transmissions, time separation between subsequent transmissions is a multiple
of a certain unit interval
• A maximum and a minimum end-to-end delay for each packet of a data stream (limited
jitter) is required
• An end-to-end network connection is isochronous if it has a guaranteed bit rate and if the
jitter also is guaranteed and small
Chapter 1: Introduction Page 8
 Lehrstuhl für Informatik 4
Kommunikation und verteilte Systeme

Data Stream Characteristics

Strongly periodic data streams

• Identical intervals T t
• No jitter (optimally) T

• Example: uncompressed audio

Weakly periodic data streams

t
• Periodic intervals T
T1 T2 T3 T1 T2 T3
• Timing variations in the intervals T T
• Example: segmented transmission

Aperiodic data streams

• Arbitrary intervals t
• Example: transmission of mouse T1 T2 T3 T4 T5 T6
control signals

Chapter 1: Introduction Page 9

 Lehrstuhl für Informatik 4
Kommunikation und verteilte Systeme

Data Stream Characteristics

Strongly regular data streams T

• Quantity remains constant during the entire lifetime
of the stream D1 D1 D1 D1 D1
t
• Typical for uncompressed video/audio

Weakly regular data streams T

• Quantity varies periodically

• Can result from some compression techniques
D1 D2 D3 D1 D2 D3
• E.g. videos coded with MPEG t

Irregular data streams

• Quantity is neither constant nor periodically changing
...
• Typical for compressed audio/video D1 D2 D3 Dn
t
• Harder to transmit/process

Chapter 1: Introduction Page 10

 Lehrstuhl für Informatik 4
Kommunikation und verteilte Systeme

Data Stream Characteristics

Continuous media consist of a time-dependent sequence of individual information units:
Logical Data Units (LDUs)
Example: Symphony
• A symphony consists of independent movements, movements consists of scores
• Using e.g. PCM, 44.100 samples are made per second. On a CD, samples are grouped
into units with a duration of 1/75 second
• Possible LDUs with different granularity: movements, scores, groups, samples. Used in
digital signal processing: sampling values as LDUs
Example: Movie
• Consists of scenes represented by clips, clips Movie
consist of single frames, frames consist of blocks
of e.g. 16x16 pixels. Pixels can consist of Clips
chrominance and luminance values Frames
• Using e.g. MPEG, inter-frame coding is used,
thus image sequences are the smallest Blocks
sufficient LDUs
Pixels
Chapter 1: Introduction Page 11
 Lehrstuhl für Informatik 4
Kommunikation und verteilte Systeme

Fields of the Lecture

Applications
Usage
Learning Design User Interfaces

Group
Services
Content
Documents Security … Synchro-
Communi-
Analysis nization
cation

Databases Programming
Systems Media Server Operating Systems Communication
Optical Storage Quality of Service Networks

Compression
Computer
Basics Graphics &
Architecture Animation Video Audio
Images
Chapter 1: Introduction Page 12
 Lehrstuhl für Informatik 4
Kommunikation und verteilte Systeme

Content

Chapter 2: Basics
• Audio Technology
• Images and Graphics
• Video and Animation
Chapter 3: Multimedia Systems - Communication Aspects and Services
• Voice over IP, Video conferencing
• Group Communication, Synchronization
• Quality of Service and Resource Management
Chapter 4: Multimedia Systems – Storage Aspects
• Optical storage media
• Multimedia file systems, Multimedia databases
Chapter 5: Multimedia Usage
• Design and User Interfaces, Abstractions for Programming

Chapter 1: Introduction Page 13