OVERVIEW COMPANY Electronic Data Systems Plano, Texas BUSINESS EXPERTISE Leveraging available multimedia information and communications capabilities. APPLICATION MediaVault(tm) PLATFORMS Silicon Graphics, MS Windows, Macintosh BUSINESS CHALLENGE Create a commercial environment for storing, searching, and retrieving digital multimedia data. VERSANT SOLUTION High performance repository allows real-time previewing and browsing of video clips across a wide-area-network. EXISTING CUSTOMERS DRUMS project at Sprint

The EDS team set out to build the system that would make possible a digital multimedia production and publishing environment. There were two portions of the project. "There are a variety of areas in which we were making breakthroughs," explained Tom Greenway, technical lead at EDS. "MediaVault(tm) is the first commercial implementation of basic technology and we knew that our approach had to be both general and specific at the same time. The design of the system needed to be appropriate for the first installation and yet provide a base for additional applications."

One half of the project involved building the semantic tools necessary for defining and utilizing video and other multimedia information. For example, the team needed to create ten categories for indexing and cataloging. These categories include the following: action; characters; objects (and relative positions); locations; times; weather; cinematographic properties; recording medium; screen depth; cinematic transition. Each of these indexes is embodied in a high-level language that supports the browsing and structure of the video content.

The most difficult part of the task is the temporal annotation and retrieval. While it's one thing to catalog a movie title and its characters, it's another to track the changes in the film over time: which characters are on film, in which location, and what's going on at a given point in time. "Before MediaVault(tm) , you couldn't use a text-retrieval system to search for a sequence of events," said Greenway. "How are you supposed to find a sequence like a man entering a room and then picking up a book? For a media producer, finding the right clip requires having these sort of flexible and powerful constructs."

The second major half of the system was to create the access capability. This part of the system allows clients to perform searches and access multimedia clips from a variety of sources across high capacity broadband networks. The combination of the generally available TCP/IP-based access system with an on-demand video and audio playback represents a large leap ahead in terms of network-supplied service. Additionally, the tool employs some unique bandwidth rationing techniques to ensure a sensible use of network resources. The initial port of the system was scheduled for deployment on systems from Silicon Graphics, Inc., (SGI).

WHY USE AN ODBMS

The primary challenge of the video definition language is to come up with techniques for representing and visualizing the complex structure of the actions of characters, objects, and the camera. As EDS recognized, a temporal retrieval system requires the use of a hierarchical, time-based system, a system that can only be modelled effectively with objects. "The temporal space being defined within MediaVault(tm) required the absolute flexibility provided by the object model," said Greenway. "A database that stores native objects allows us to leave our hierarchy in place. A relational database would have forced us to decompose objects in tables, severely impacting performance and development productivity."

The second reason to look at an object database was to gain competitive advantage. In the media and publishing worlds, EDS is in major competition for business with large relational database providers. EDS was keen about gaining advantages based on a pure object model. "Since we don't have to rebuild relational tables with each change to the models or the services we offer," added Greenway, "EDS gets a tremendous time-to-market advantage, especially as we add new services." Adding services to MediaVault(tm) will soon become a simple matter of extending the object model.

WHY USE VERSANT

Once the team knew they wanted an object database, it evaluated products from Versant, Gemstone, Illustra, and Object Design. In making the decision, the following were the key issues for the MediaVault(tm) project: full C++ language support, support for a variety of platforms (including UNIX workstations and PC and Macintosh clients), support for TCP/IP, and a distributed database architecture. Other critical considerations were the recommendations of other EDS groups and the stability of the company. With the Versant ODBMS the leading candidate, the team attended a Versant training course and was convinced.

"We knew that we needed to find a database that blends support for the full object model with the key database features we expect in a data management product," said Greenway. Versant allows the team such critical features as on-the-fly schema evolution and management, high availability, and a balanced client/server architecture. The team also found that the Versant architecture resulted in extremely high performance and utilized server resources efficiently.

Perhaps the most important consideration was the ability to use Versant as a fully distributed database. Versant was able to support clients from any location linking to servers in any location while treating the entire network as a single database. As the number of planned concurrent users grows to the hundreds and thousands, EDS can maximize locality of access and minimize network traffic to ensure high performance for future deployments.

IMPLICATIONS

EDS was able to get a base product up and running in about six months. The team utilized a set of tools including the SGI C++ compiler, the Galaxy visual development environment, and the core tools provided by Versant. The project has now been alive for over two years, and continues to have a team of four developers extending and enhancing the product.

One direction for the future involves using Versant to take advantage of more client-side capabilities. Like a relational database, Versant supports advanced queries and triggers as part of the back-end of a system. Unlike relational databases, Versant will provide EDS with a host of client-side application caching and transaction support. This combination of features will allow MediaVault(tm) to balance processing and playback across the Internet or across private networks while making EDS's application development even more efficient.

Versant has proved to be a worthy repository for the MediaVault(tm) application. Its high performance allows real-time previewing and browsing of video clips at a variety of resolutions across a wide-area-network. EDS currently has 257 GB of media data stored with the indexing being stored and managed by the Versant ODBMS. Versant's client/server architecture has been proven as well: EDS currently maintains a server in Los Angeles and allows client access from 32 locations across the US, including San Francisco and New York City.

In its first commercial instantiation, MediaVault(tm) is installed as the core engine of the DRUMS project at Sprint. Touted as the "World's First Virtual Production Studio" and combined with Sprint telecommunications technology and SGI server technology, EDS has developed a key platform for high-speed collaborative multimedia production services. The basic service provides on-line access to content while allowing simultaneous viewing and annotation of projects over long distances. Partners in the project include content providers, advertising agencies, and production houses.

"Versant is a key enabling technology for this commercialization effort," suggested Dyson. "Many groups are looking to provide revenue-generating services and technologies for the Internet and other advanced broadband networks - EDS has already delivered one. The MediaVault(tm) is a revolutionary approach to expanding multimedia usage across the enterprise."

The future will see the MediaVault(tm) as a key part of any development or production system that will reuse digital multimedia content. "We see applications in film and video production, new media and publishing, and for providing new telephony services," concluded Dyson.