Framework for Multimedia Systems

The framework presented here provides an overall picture of the development of distributed multimedia systems from which a system architecture can be developed. The framework highlights the dominant feature of multimedia systems: the integration of multimedia computing and communications, including raditional telecommunications and telephony functions.
Low-cost multimedia technology is evolving to provide richer information processing and communications systems. These systems, though tightly interrelated, have distinct physical facilities, logical models, and functionality. Multimedia information systems extend the processing, storage, and retrieval capabilities of existing information systems by introducing new media data types, including image, audio, and video. These new data types offer perceptually richer and more accessible representations for many kinds of information. Multimedia communication systems extend I existing point-to-point connectivity by permitting synchronised multipoint group communications.