Method for transmitting data in a multimedia system, and software product and device for controlling the transmission of data in a multimedia system
Method and software product for transferring data, plus equipment for controlling data transfer in a multimedia system that includes a group of participants' terminals, with which multimedia data generated by participants' terminals contained in the group are sent to one or more participants' terminals contained in the group and played back there. A central synchronization unit generates synchronization labels containing time information and sends them to the participants' terminals contained in the group, and the synchronization labels are used to play back information in modified time.
1. A method for transmitting data in a multimedia system that includes a group of terminal devices, the terminal devices comprising a first terminal device and a second terminal device, multimedia data generated by the first terminal device being sent to at least the second terminal device and/or a synchronization unit for playing of the multimedia data, the method comprising:
generating synchronization labels, said synchronization labels comprising time information;
attaching the synchronization labels to the multimedia data generated via the first terminal device and sending the multimedia data with the received synchronization labels attached;
modifying the time information contained in the synchronization labels according to a time context for the multimedia data sent by the first terminal device and sending the multimedia data having the modified time information to the second terminal device and/or a synchronization unit to be played.
2. The method of claim 1 , comprising:
the second terminal device receiving the multimedia data with the attached modified synchronization labels and subsequently playing the multimedia data in the time context corresponding to the modified time information included in the synchronization labels.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the synchronization unit is a central synchronization unit and the method also comprises:
a local synchronization unit receiving the multimedia data with synchronization labels and performs the modifying of the time information contained in the synchronization labels corresponding to control information, which takes into account the properties of the participants' terminals that are sending and receiving the multimedia data and the properties of a transmission path.
4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the control information is contained in a control table located in the synchronization unit, wherein the control table generates the synchronization labels, said synchronization labels containing at least one context tag that describes the way the medium is used in the conversation, one conversation tag representing a unit of order for all the conversations managed by the central synchronization unit, and one media tag describing the type of medium.
5. The method of claim 3 , wherein the control information corresponds to the time information contained in the synchronization labels is dynamically modifiable.
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the multimedia data are transmitted in the form of data packets and respective synchronization labels are assigned to the data packets.
7. The method of claim 6 , wherein data packets are transmitted with differing period lengths, and wherein synchronization labels are generated corresponding to a periodic time sequence whose period length is equal to or shorter than the length of the data packet with the shortest period length.
8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the synchronization labels contain a time stamp or a respective sequential value based on a preset starting time and corresponding to the respective time.
9. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having program code stored thereon such that a computer device that executes the program code performs a method, the method comprising:
generating synchronization labels, said synchronization labels comprising time information;
attaching the synchronization labels to multimedia data generated via a first terminal device for sending the multimedia data with the received synchronization labels attached;
modifying the time information contained in the synchronization labels according to a time context for the multimedia data sent by the first terminal device and sending the multimedia data having the modified time information to the second terminal device and/or a synchronization unit to be played.
10. A system for controlling data transfer in a multimedia system, comprising:
a plurality of communication terminals with which multimedia data generated by the communication terminals are sendable to one or more terminals and/or a synchronization unit to be played, comprising:
synchronization unit configured to generate synchronization labels containing time information and sending them to each of the participants' terminals contained in the group so that the communication terminals receive the synchronization labels and attach the received synchronization labels to the multimedia data generated in the communication terminals and send the multimedia data with the received synchronization labels attached to the synchronization unit, and
the synchronization unit configured to receive the multimedia data with the attached synchronization labels from the communication terminals and modify the time information contained in the synchronization labels according to a time context for the multimedia data by the communication terminals and send the multimedia data to the communication terminals so that the multimedia data with the attached modified synchronization labels is receivable for playing back the multimedia data in the time context corresponding to the modified time information contained in the synchronization labels.
11. The system of claim 10 , wherein the synchronization unit is a local synchronization unit and the multimedia data sendable to the communication terminals is sent to a central synchronization unit to facilitate the playing back of the multimedia data in the time context corresponding to the modified time information contained in the synchronization labels.
12. The system of claim 11 , wherein modification of the time information contained in the synchronization labels corresponds to control information, which takes into account the properties of the communication terminals that are sending and receiving the multimedia data and the properties of a transmission path.
13. The system of claim 12 , wherein the control information is contained in a control table located in the synchronization unit that is configured to facilitate generation of the synchronization labels, said synchronization labels containing at least one context tag that describes the way the medium is used in the conversation, one conversation tag representing a unit of order for all the conversations managed by the central synchronization unit, and one media tag describing the type of medium.
14. The system of claim 12 , wherein the control information corresponds to the time information contained in the synchronization labels is dynamically modifiable.
15. The system of claim 10 wherein the multimedia data are transmitted in the form of data packets and the synchronization labels are assigned to the data packets.
16. The system of claim 15 , wherein data packets are transmitted with differing period lengths, and wherein the synchronization labels are generated corresponding to a periodic time sequence whose period length is equal to or shorter than the length of the data packet with the shortest period length.