Multimedia Applications for Parallel and Distributed Systems

This Chapter deals with multimedia applications in parallel and distributed systems. After a brief introduction to the subject, several issues are discussed. They include at first an overall explanation of MPEG, the most popular digital audio-video standard. Next, the crucial networking topic is treated with particular attention paid to ATM networks. Later the CORBA standard and Java language are presented as the most accredited software environments for multimedia development in a typical heterogenous scenario Finally, the last section presents the most diffused multimedia applications: the Video on Demand, the Digital Video Broadcasting, and the Multimedia Conferencing.