Implementation of streaming audio and video for online Web based courses using MySQL database server and PHP

Abstract

Next generation database systems will need to support both textual data and other types of multimedia data. These two types of data differ in their organization and management. Multimedia data comprises static media like text and images, that do not vary with time, and dynamic or continuous media like audio and video, that varies with time and requires a guaranteed transfer rate. Conventional database systems are designed for managing textual and numerical data, and retrieving such data is often based on simple comparisons of text/numerical values. However, this simple method of retrieval is longer adequate for the multimedia data, since the digitized representation of images, video, or data itself does not convey the reality of these media items. Multimedia data has certain characteristics that complicate their storage in conventional databases or file systems. First, multimedia data tends to be voluminous. Second, continuous media data, such as video and audio have timing characteristics associated with them. The proposed method is to store multimedia objects in a relational database, which offers several advantages over file system storage, like secure back up, concurrent login, and faster retrieval. The paper shows how database systems can be architected to support multimedia data, making use of a relational database system such as MySQL and the application of real time video streaming in delivering such data. Based on the user query, the retrieved audio/video data is streamed over the Web using Real System G2 which provides high quality audio and video at all bit rates and even under lossy network conditions.