On-line broadcast archives for interactive video

Delivery of user specified interactive multimedia digital services is drawing worldwide attention. With the availability of a greater number of channels as a result of video compression and the receding geographical barriers, content providers are hard pressed to meet the programme requirements. Broadcast archives are valuable multimedia resource centres, stocking audio and video material of interest to a vast population across the globe. There is a great potential for using these archives for on-line interactive access of these material. The paper describes the system architecture and implementation issues of an on-line broadcast archives management system (OLBAMS) which entails various functions of storage and dissemination, taking advantage of emerging digital technology, viz. video servers, OODBMS, CORBA, MPI video, use of Java applets for set-tops, webTV, or computers.