CS 414 - Multimedia Systems

Spring 2014

TitleRubricSectionCRNTypeHoursTimesDaysLocationInstructor
Multimedia SystemsCS414C331357LCD31300 - 1350 M W F  0216 Siebel Center for Comp Sci Klara Nahrstedt
Multimedia SystemsCS414C439314LCD41300 - 1350 M W F  0216 Siebel Center for Comp Sci Klara Nahrstedt

Official Description

Organization and structure of modern multimedia systems; audio and video encoding; quality of service concepts; scheduling algorithms for multimedia within OS and networks multimedia protocols over high-speed networks; synchronization schemes, user-interface design; multimedia teleservices. Course Information: 3 undergraduate hours. 3 or 4 graduate hours. Prerequisite: CS 241 or ECE 391.

Course Director

Learning Goals

Be able to explain and do a system design and implementation of a fairly complex multimedia system such as video-on-demand system or a A/V conferencing system, e.g., a simplified YouTube service, a simplified SKYPE video conference system or video chat on a mobile phone. (1,2,6)
Be able to explain and apply in the multimedia system design and implementations the real-time inter-dependencies among various system components, e.g., video recorder, video player, video transportation system components to enable end-to-end multimedia applications and systems (1,2,6)
Be able to explain and analyze system tradeoffs based on system design decisions, e.g., if one decides on unreliable video transportation versus reliable video transportation system, what kind of tradeoffs do we see in video conference performance? (1,2,6)
Be able to explain and argue about the performance impact of multimedia data and their coding characteristics when used in on-demand and conversational multimedia system components, e.g., if we consider MPEG video encoded data, what kind of performance impact does the MPEG compression have on end-to-end delay for video-on-demand system versus video conferencing system? (1,2,3,6)
Be able to explain, analyze and argue about performance impact of current wired and wireless networks on audio and video quality when transmitting multimedia data, e.g., if we send MPEG compressed audio from one laptop to another laptop via wireless networks versus wired networks, what kind of performance impact will we see on the audio quality that we hear? (1,2,3,6)

Be able to differentiate between concepts such as quality of service and quality of experience when evaluating different types of multimedia systems, e.g., if one uses video chat system on a mobile phone when located in a busy street on versus video chat system on a laptop when located in one's office. (1,2,6)

Be able to understand metrics for quality of experience, conduct objective and subjective evaluation studies of quality of experience for any multimedia system. (1,3).


Topic List

Multimedia data characteristics
Multimedia data compression including lossless and lossy techniques (JPEG, MPEG, H.26X, semantic compression and others)
Multimedia networking (basics) including Quality of Service Management, multimedia protocols (SIP, RTP/RTCP, RTSP, DASH and others)\

Multimedia Streaming including Peer-to-Peer Streaming, Video-on-Demand DASH Streaming, Content Distribution Networks
Multimedia Systems (basics) including time-sensitive storage, caching, buffering algorithms and protocols, and soft-real-time scheduling approaches.
Multimedia Synchronization including in-band and out-band synchornization, synchronization skews, and synchronization specification

Multimedia Wireless Systems including impact of mobility, LTE, 4G networks on multimedia systems design and implementation,
Multimedia Quality of Experience - Objective and Subjective Evaluation principles

Multimedia Advanced systems including teleimmersion (e.g., multi-camera 3D systems, AR/VR systems), multi-view TV systems, SKYPE, YouTube services and others

Assessment and Revisions

Revisions in last 6 years
No significant changes (there were no structural changes of the course in terms of major concepts, but we have updated the material based on relevant conference papers as the area is moving forward very fast - for example new versions of multimedia compression algorithms, network streaming and media storage updates )

Required, Elective, or Selected Elective

Selected Elective.

Last updated

3/15/2019by Leonard B. Pitt