Integration of value-added audio playback capacity into computer network

Multimedia PCs with audio and video capabilities are used as information kiosks to provide entertainment multimedia information services to users and visitors on the NTU campus. The paper describes the development of a prototype multimedia information kiosk that incorporates the capabilities of recording an playback of FM radio programmes in a network environment. The system includes a dedicated server program that is capable of recording requested radio programmes. Subsequently, all network multimedia PCs will be able to access these recorded sound files via a user friendly interface which allows them to select and playback any of the pre-recorded FM radio programmes. The server makes use of the existing file services in the network for transmitting audio information. The file services allow a client PC residing anywhere within the network to access the contents of a particular file in the server. To playback the sound files, the MCI (multimedia control interface) services provided by Microsoft Windows 3.1 are also used extensively. With this interface, several sound controls such as play, pause, forward, rewind as well as recordings are made available.