A method and system for consolidating multimedia object management in heterogeneous media systems

Today?s multimedia systems use different types of media with different play-out devices. Currently we are heading towards a situation where for example cellular content providers, the home entertainment industry and networked multimedia over the Internet provide different content and different formats that are incompatible with devices from the other systems. This is in stark contrast with the current trend in the distributed systems and Internet communities where consolidation and interoperation of heterogeneous technologies is a prime target. If the vision of a future integration of different multimedia capable devices should become reality, we must Consolidate the usage of multimedia objects and enable each player to use the different formats. This paper suggests a method and system to achieve such consolidation. We present our initial work and prototyping and aim at stirring a debate around the system to stimulate interest and future research.