Media Synchronization Control in Multimedia Communication

Media Synchronization Control in Multimedia Communication

Mya Sithu (Nagoya Institute of Technology, Japan) and Yutaka Ishibashi (Nagoya Institute of Technology, Japan)
Copyright: © 2016 |Pages: 37
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-8850-6.ch002

Abstract

In this chapter, first, we explain media synchronization control. Next, we make a survey of media synchronization control techniques and classify the techniques. Also, we compare group synchronization control schemes. Then, we propose new control called the dynamic local lag control in joint musical performance which has severe requirements on high quality of media synchronization and high interactivity. In the performance, multiple users play their respective same or different types of musical instruments together. However, the media synchronization quality and interactivity may seriously be deteriorated owing to the network delay. By Quality of Experience (QoE) assessment, we demonstrate that the new control can achieve high quality of media synchronization and keep the interactivity high. Finally, we discuss the future directions of media synchronization control.
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Media Synchronization Control

Media synchronization may be disturbed owing to network delays and skews, which are caused by many reasons such as the difference of time in capturing media among terminals, the difference of time in protocol processing, media interleaving, network delay jitter, packet loss, the difference of decoding time at the playout process, and clock difference. Media synchronization control is carried out to compensate for the network delay jitter. We can identify two types of media synchronization control: Object (or event-driven) and continuous synchronization control (Campbell et al., 1992). Object synchronization control means synchronization control among multimedia objects. The control adjusts the beginning output timings of media according to a scenario. Under continuous synchronization control, the output timings (e.g., output times and speeds) among media streams can be synchronized with each other. In this chapter, we focus on continuous synchronization control. Media synchronization control is categorized into three types:

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    Intra-stream

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    Inter-stream (Blalowski & Steinmetz, 1995; Ehley et al., 1994; Ishibashi & Tasaka, 1995, 2000; Huang et al., 2013; Boronat et al., 2009, Ishibashi et al., 2003), and

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    Group (or inter-destination) synchronization control (Ishibashi et al., 1997; Ishibashi & Tasaka, 1997, 1999).

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