The Interactive Multimedia Jukebox (IMJ): a new paradigm for the on-demand delivery of audio/video

Straightforward, one-way delivery of video programming through television sets has existed for many decades. In the 1980s, new services like Pay-Per-View and Video-on-Demand were touted as the “killer application” for next-generation Internet and TV services. However, the hype has quickly died away leaving only hard technical problems and costly systems. As an alternative, and what we propose, is a new paradigm offering flexibility in how programs are requested and scheduled for playout, ranging from complete viewer control (true VoD), to complete service provider control (traditional broadcast or cable TV). In this paper, we describe our proposed jukebox paradigm and relate it to other on-demand paradigms. Our new paradigm presents some challenges of its own, including how to best schedule viewer requests, how to provide VCR-style interactive functions, and how to track viewer usage patterns. In addition to addressing these issues we also present our implementation of a jukebox-based service called the Interactive Multimedia Jukebox (IMJ). The IMJ provides scheduling via the World Wide Web (WWW) and content delivery via the Multicast Backbone (MBone). We discuss the challenges of building a functioning system and our ongoing efforts to improve the jukebox paradigm.