Media Banks: Entertainment and the Internet

There are two emerging models for delivering high-density, synchronized audiovisual presentations: video-on-demand and the Internet. The first is based on long-lived connections and guaranteed timeliness; the second assumes short spurts of low-bandwidth data on demand. We present the design for a Media Bank that intermediates between them. It provides on-demand access to media elements that are assembled on-the-fly by the recipient to reproduce synchronized audiovisual presentations. The Media Bank uses a fully distributed architecture that assumes a community of viewers. Any member citizen can request or deliver sound, picture, descriptive annotations, or programs to control assembly. Data are redundantly stored in small segments and are cataloged by content and format to facilitate personalized and interactive retrieval.