MultiMonster - a new story.

INFO: If you'd like to be an mmguru and to join the developer corner, please check the section Downloads.

Origins ...

Initially the MultiMonster name was meant only for the physical equipment used by the RETAVIC project. However, thanks to the interest of Marc Iseler, Jörg Meier and Holger Velke (students of FAU, see Team) in the team work on multimedia, we've decided to initiate a new software project targeting delivery of multimedia data under the same code name in autumn of year 2003.

The origin goal of the MultiMonster was to support two ongoing projects, namely RETAVIC (by Maciej Suchomski) and COMQUAD (by Marcus Meyerhöfer). It had to deliver a system allowing presentation of the achievements of mentioned projects and thus supporting them by delivering a complete architecture treated as the executable environment. This executable environment would be a media delivery system...

Idea

The first very coarse idea of the media delivery system is depicted in Figure 1. It was proposed by Maciej Suchomski. It presented the first concept of the system. More detailed specification was prepared later together with Marcus Meyerhöfer. It showed the possible directions and identified main parts of the system (the sketch details can be found in "Sketch of Media Delivery Project"). After this specification the proposal was approved by Prof. Meyer-Wegener.

Figure 1. Coarse idea of the MultiMonster system.

Architecture

The final architecture, which is currently prototypically implemented, is depicted in Figure 2. Mainly it consist of two big parts: client and server. The server is divided into three more layers: persistence layer, transformation and management layer and client interface. Every of them included only specific system components that communicates with each other. The architecture depicts also few interesting new concepts in the media delivery services such as: pluggable  components and pipes. More detailed description can be found in [SMMW04] and [IMV04] .

Figure 2. The MultiMonster architecture.

Screenshots

Hint: Simple click to make them bigger and easy-readable.

Web front-end

On-line transformation providing many formats	Administration options

Hint: For more pictures check the publication list, namely the final presentation from Marc, Jörg and Holger.

Stand-alone client (based on Java/JMF)

Windows-based client - user perspective	Administration options

Downloads

We provide the source code based on GPL. However, we would like to know who have it, in order to stay with these people in contact. Additionally, we would like to coordinate development efforts in order to avoid reinventions. That's why it's only available when requested explicitly from

If you would like to help us with development, contact the same person as above. Moreover, you should be familiar with these technologies (or at least you should be willing to learn them):

• Java

• J2EE and EJB

• JBoss

We're planning to continue the development and the following topics are of our special interest:

• Plug-ins for MediaProxy and Transporter (MMS protocol)

• Plug-ins for Converter (for new audio-video transformations)

• Full implementation of ResourceManager and additional plug-ins

• Plug-ins for Editing

• Plug-ins for MediaAccess

• Optimization of efficiency of working prototype

Publications: papers, presentations and posters

1. [SMMW04] Suchomski, Maciej; Meyerhöfer, Marcus ; Meyer-Wegener, Klaus : "Open and Reconfigurable Multimedia Server Architecture". In: Czeslaw, Danilowicz : Multimedia and Network Information Systems 2004 (1st International Workshop on Multimedia Information Systems Technology - MMISTech'2004 in conjuction to the 4th National Conference Multimedia and Network Information Systems 2004 (MissI '04)) Szklarska Preba, Poland, Sep. 2004.
   [First page (of 8) available as . Full version only by email request to ]

2. Suchomski, Maciej: "Talk: Open and Reconfigurable Multimedia Server Architecture" given on MMISTech'2004 (see above).
   [Available in as: and .]

3. Poster presenting MultiMonster architecture on the Day of Computer Science 2004 (Tag Tag der Informatik'04) at Friedrich-Alexander University in Erlangen, Apr. 23rd, 2004.
   [Available in two language versions as: DE and EN .]

4. [IMV04] Iseler, Marc; Meier, Jörg; Velke, Holger: "Design und Realisierung eines Multimedia Server". Chair of Computer Science 6 (I6@FAU) at Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Erlangen, Jul. 20th, 2004.
   [First 10 pages (of 141) available only in German as . Full version only by email request to ]

5. Iseler, Marc; Meier, Jörg; Velke, Holger: "Final presentation (including demo screenshots)". Chair of Computer Science 6 (I6@FAU) at Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Erlangen, Dec. 13th, 2004.
   [Final presentation in German and screen shot demo ]

6. Müller, Frank: "Design und Realisierung eines graphischen Anwender-Werkzeugs für Multimedia Server". Chair of Computer Science 6 (I6@FAU) at Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Erlangen, Jan. 10th, 2005.

7. Nagy, Gergely: "An MPEG-7 and MPEG-21 compatible storage layer for the MultiMonster Multimedia Server". Chair of Computer Science 6 (I6@FAU) at Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Erlangen, Aug. 31st, 2006.