Requirements and Strategy for Presentation Stage Synchronization of Multi-object Multimedia Applications

For multi-object multimedia applications (MMAs), synchronization between the media objects is an inevitable problem. Current available literature focus on transmission synchronization and only two media objects are considered. Experiments show that synchronization performance is unacceptable in MMAs without presentation stage synchronization strategy even if local media objects are played. In MMAs, each media object has its own importance and each media object pair has its own synchronization requirements. We analysis these factors in detail and quantitative criteria are given. Accordingly, synchronization performance metrics which considers these factors comprehensively is proposed. In order to ensure reasonable synchronization performance, versatile synchronization strategy (VSS) is proposed. Synchronization operations of important media objects and media object pairs with strict requirements are scheduled as the priority jobs. Experimental results show that it works well. It is a promising presentation stage synchronization strategy for MMAs.