Video/audio network

1. An audio/video network comprising:

a packet-switched network over which data including audio and/or video data packets can be carried;

at least one data source connected to the network and operable to assemble packetised data comprising multiple respective audio/video data streams at a first resolution and at a second resolution greater than the first resolution, and to transmit data packets carrying said multiple audio/video streams at the first resolution by multicast network transmission; and

at least one client connected to the network, being a data handling device for handling packetised audio/video data and being arranged to join a multicast group to receive the multiple audio/video streams at the first resolution,

wherein the client is associated with a graphical user interface configured in conjunction with a processor to select an audio/video stream, the processor is arranged to issue a unicast command to cause transmission of the selected audio/video stream at the second resolution from the source to the client, and the client is configured to synchronize the alignment of frames upon switching of frames from a stream at said first resolution to frames of the selected stream at the said second resolution in accordance with delay information.

2. The network according to claim 1 , in which the graphical user interface is operable to display a representation of a selected audio/video stream at the first resolution.

3. The network according to claim 1 , in which the audio/video data at the second resolution are carried by multicast network transmission.

4. The network according to claim 1 , further comprising:

a packet-based network switch; and

a network control arrangement coupled to the network switch, the network control arrangement being arranged to provide virtual circuit-switched connections for transfer of packetised data from a source to a destination via the network switch by:

a) assigning multicast group identifier to sources, so that a source launches packetised data onto the network as multicast data packets identified by a multicast group identifier, and

b) instructing a client to issue a request to the network switch to join the multicast group of a source so as to receive data packets from that source.

5. The network according to claim 4 , in which the network control arrangement is arranged to store for each client the multicast group identifier from which it receives data.

6. The network according to claim 5 , in which the network control arrangement is arranged to store for each client an identifier of the source from which it receives data.

7. The network according to claim 6 , in which the network control arrangement is arranged to store an identifier in respect of each client.

8. The network according to claim 7 , in which each identifier comprises:

an identifier of a network interface by which that source or client is connected to the network; and

an identifier of the port of the interface by which the source or client is connected.

9. The network according to claim 8 , in which the network control arrangement is arranged to store a network address for each network interface.

10. The network according to claim 1 , in which the network is arranged to carry control data packets for controlling at least one of the data sources and/or clients.

11. The network according to claim 1 , in which the audio/video streams at the first resolution comprise video streams at a first video resolution.

12. The network according to claim 1 , wherein the client further comprises a buffer and depacketizer configured to depacketize data representing audio/video streams into frames of audio/video.

13. The network according to claim 1 , wherein the packet-switched network includes a network manager that stores the delay information.

14. The network according to claim 1 , wherein the network manager stores the delay information as a 32-bit line delay value that specifies a number of video lines by which to delay playout.

15. The network according to claim 1 , wherein the client receives the multiple audio/video streams using the Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP).

16. The network according to claim 1 , wherein the client receives the multiple audio/video streams in messages including an IP multicast header, a User Datagram Protocol (UDP) header, and a Real-Time Protocol (RTP) header.

17. The network according to claim 1 , wherein the client sends the unicast command in a message including a non-multicast IP header and a User Datagram Protocol (UDP) header.

18. An audio/video network comprising:

a packet-switched network over which data including audio and/or video data packets can be carried;

a plurality of data sources connected to the network and operable to assemble respective packetised data comprising audio/video data at a first resolution and at a second resolution greater than the first resolution, and to transmit data packets carrying said audio/video streams at the first resolution by multicast network transmission; and

at least one client connected to the network, being a data handling device for handling packetised audio/video data and being arranged to join multicast groups to receive respective audio/video streams at the first resolution from the plurality of data sources,

wherein the client is associated with a graphical user interface configured in conjunction with a processor to select an audio/video stream originating from a respective data source, the processor is arranged to issue a unicast command to the respective data source to cause transmission of the selected audio/video stream at the second resolution from said respective data source to the client, and the client is configured to synchronize the alignment of frames upon switching of frames from a stream at said first resolution to frames of the selected stream at the said second resolution in accordance with delay information.