H.264/AVC encoding control for fast stream joiner in interactive multivision video

High functionality and interactivity of video services are strongly desired. This paper presents a proposal of an encoding scheme and a fast joining scheme for interactive multi-vision systems. The scheme enables numerous users to access any view area interactively with any desired resolution. The joining means the combination of multiple streams into a single video stream. The server joins pre-encoded multiple streams into one bitstream according to a user request, and then transmits it simultaneously to many clients. This structure obviates complexity at the client terminal because the client terminal simply receives and decodes the single stream. However, if joining processing loads are high, then it is difficult to provide services to many users. This paper presents a proposal of a new encoding method with prediction restrictions, MB-line size insertion, and Macro Block (MB) line byte alignment for a fast and lightweight stream joiner. Results of experiments described in this paper underscore the proposed method´s effectiveness.