Virtual Internet broadcasting

This article describes the design and first implementation of a virtual bro adcast system whereby a multimedia content program can be edited, produced, and streamed from different locations. Data are stored and distributed dec entrally, allowing multiple combinations of program objects to new programs . The virtual broadcast station is the network. This concept additionally o ffers the clients the opportunity to obtain an individual (personalized) pr ogram, still using bandwidth-economic multicast technologies. This is achie ved by dividing multimedia streams into temporal chunks (chunk streams), st reamed over different multicast host groups (distributed multicasting), usi ng existing Internet session control protocols (SDP) and Internet transport protocols (RTP). A client application assembles the transmitted chunks to form an individual program. This technique can also be used to insert perso nal/local advertisements into broadcast-like services.