From: nigel@comp.lancs.ac.uk (Nigel Davies)
Newsgroups: news.announce.conferences
Subject: Colloquium on Distributed Multimedia Environments
Date: 21 Aug 92 00:00:10 GMT
Expires: Mon, 28 Sep 1992 07:00:00 GMT
Organization: Department of Computing at Lancaster University, UK.


                     Call for Participation

        COLLOQUIUM ON DISTRIBUTED MULTIMEDIA ENVIRONMENTS

           Monday 28th September 1992 (10.30 to 16.45)

          DTI, Kingsgate House, Victoria Steet, London

Hosted by the DTI/SERC Communications and Distributed Systems Club


1. AIMS OF THE COLLOQUIUM

This colloquium focuses  on  the  research  area  of  distributed
multimedia  support  environments,  with  particular  emphasis on
environments based  on  object-oriented  principles.  Distributed
multimedia  support  environments  bridge  the  gap  between  the
emerging technologies, such as multimedia workstations  and  high
speed  networks,  and  emerging  applications, such as multimedia
conferencing,  collaborative  design  environments  and   medical
information systems.

The key  issue  in  the  development  of  distributed  multimedia
environments is systems integration. More specifically, solutions
are required which bring together areas such as:-

o       standards and technologies for distributed systems,

o       standards and technologies for multimedia,

o       object oriented database technologies, and

o       multimedia information systems.

The colloquium has a range of talks  covering  this  spectrum  of
activity.   The  first  session is devoted to the DTI/SERC funded
Zenith project which concludes in September of this year.  Zenith
has  the  explicit  aim of bringing together expertise in object-
oriented databases and  distributed  multimedia  technologies  to
develop   a  generalised  support  environment  for  a  range  of
applications. Zenith is a  collaborative  project  involving  the
University  of  Kent  at  Canterbury  and  Lancaster  University.
Following this first session there  are  a  number  of  talks  on
related projects and ongoing technical challenges in the area.

The colloquium also features a keynote address by Steve Pink from
the  Distributed  Systems  Laboratory of the Swedish Institute of
Computer  Science.  Steve  was  educated  at  the  University  of
Minnesota  and  Cornell University and has been on the faculty at
the University of Rochester. He is currently  a  Senior  Research
Scientist  at  the  Swedish Institute of Computer Science and has
been heavily involved in  the  successful  Multi-G  initative  in
Sweden.

The colloquium is organised by members of the Zenith project, and
hosted  by  the  DTI/SERC  Communications and Distributed Systems
Club.

2. GETTING THERE

The colloquium will take place at the following address:-

Department of Trade and Industry,
Kingsgate House,
66-74 Victoria Street,
London SW1E 6SW.

The nearest tube station  is  Victoria.  From  there,  walk  down
Victoria Street. You will see Kingsgate House on your left.

3. REGISTRATION INFORMATION

To register for this event,  send  your  name,  company  details,
address and telephone number either by post or fax to:-

Gordon Blair,
Distributed Multimedia Research Group,
Computing Department,
Lancaster University,
Bailrigg,
Lancaster LA1 4YR
Tel: 0524 65201 ext 3809	Fax: 0524 381707

or (preferably) by e-mail to:-

gordon@comp.lancs.ac.uk

Closing date for registration is Friday 18th September. The event
is  free.  However, because of DTI regulations, attendees must be
registered in advance. It will not be possible to admit people on
the day.

4. PROVISIONAL PROGRAMME

10.00   Registration and Coffee

10.30   Session 1: The Zenith Project
Chair: J.A. Mariani (Lancaster University)

     "Issues in Distributed Multimedia Information Systems",
     G.S. Blair (Lancaster University)

     "Fundamentals of Zenith",
     E.A. Oxborrow (University of Kent at Canterbury)

     "Object Management Services in Zenith",
     R. Thearle (University of Kent at Canterbury)

     "Support  for  Distribution  and  Multimedia  in  the   Base
     Services Platform",
     N. Davies (Lancaster University)

     "Concluding Remarks",
     G.S. Blair (Lancaster University)

     Discussion

12.00   Lunch

     A buffet lunch will be provided.

13.00   Session 2: Related Projects
Chair: To be announced

     Keynote Address: "Multi-G: Extending Distributed Systems for
     Multimedia and High Speed Networks",
     Steve Pink, Swedish Institute of Computer Science

     "A  Multimedia  Application  and   Development   Environment
     (MADE)",
     M. Crossley (BT Labs)

     Discussion

14.30   Tea

15.00   Session 3: Ongoing Challenges
Chair: To be announced

     "An Overview of OMG",
     Andrew Hutt (ICL)

     "Support for Video in Palantir",
     P.F. Linington (University of Kent at Canterbury)

     "A CSCW Perspective",
     S. Benford (University of Nottingham)

     Discussion

16.30   General Discussion

16.45   Colloquium Ends