Abstract:
A multimedia system and method that provides easy universal text searching for non-technical users, is disclosed. A configuration of the multimedia system and method of the present invention also facilitates content delivery through multiple, independent, simultaneous feeds from a single source to two or more different destinations without impairing audio and/or video and/or data stream quality.

Description:
FIELD OF INVENTION 
   The present invention generally relates to the manipulation of multimedia content. More particularly, the present invention relates in part to a searching capability and the simultaneous transmission of multiple streams of data, such as audio data and/or video data and/or a data stream, including data stored on a media, such as a compact disc (CD) and/or digital versatile disc (DVD), to different locations. 
   BACKGROUND OF INVENTION 
   A variety of laser-readable discs are played in conventional single-disc or multiple-disc loading trays in an office, home or university environment. Examples of laser-readable discs generally include a compact disc (CD), CD-ROM, digital versatile disc (DVD), DVD-Audio, DVD-Video, DVD-ROM, and the like. 
   The technology that allowed multiple-disc loading is a carousel mechanism capable of holding several CDs or DVDs, for example. However, a major shortcoming of the carousel mechanism required only one disc to be played at a time. In addition, the mechanical switching from one disc to another was slow. 
   These shortcomings were solved by storing the contents of the discs onto a computer hard drive in order to allow more flexible access to the contents and to facilitate faster disc selection. However, applications of the hard drive technology were not without its accompanying drawbacks. 
   In one application, for instance, an MPEG compression scheme is employed to reduce the size of the data files stored on hard drives for faster music selection, for example. However, this compression scheme results in an audible reduction in sound quality. Moreover, this application has no DVD capability. 
   In another application where an MPEG compression scheme is not employed, in order to improve poor sound quality, flexible access to the contents on the hard drive became problematic because of searching capability drawbacks. Here again, this application is not capable of handling DVDs. 
   Accordingly, there is an increasing need to be able to provide students, faculty, staff, professionals and any variety of users, with a multi-media system that allows, in part, content delivery via multiple, simultaneous, independent feeds from a single source without impairment of audio/video quality. 
   SUMMARY OF INVENTION 
   The present invention satisfies, to a great extent, the foregoing and other needs not currently satisfied by existing technologies, while eliminating the problems with one or more of the above-mentioned conventional applications. 
   It is a feature and advantage of the present invention to provide a multi-media system and method that provides easy universal text searching for a non-technical user. 
   It is another feature and advantage of the present invention to provide a multi-media system and method that provides simultaneous and independent delivery/transmission of multi-media content via a single source to multiple different destinations. 
   It is yet another feature and advantage of the present invention to provide a multi-media system and method that provides easy access and manipulation of multi-media content from a multi-media library. 
   It is another feature and advantage of the present invention to provide a multi-media system and method that is compatible with existing control systems. 
   It is another feature and advantage of the present invention to provide a multi-media system and method that is configurable for connectivity with one or more electronic devices. 
   It is another feature and advantage of the present invention to provide a multi-media system and method that is controllable by a variety of electronic devices. 
   It is another feature and advantage of the present invention to provide a multi-media system and method that allows instantaneous multi-media selection. 
   It is another feature and advantage of the present invention to provide a multi-media system and method that enhances user enjoyment without impairment of audio/video quality. 
   It is another feature and advantage of the present invention to provide a multi-media system and method that allows quick and easy access/manipulation of media selections from both CDs and DVDs. 
   It is another feature and advantage of the present invention to provide a multi-media system and method that allows independent simultaneous access by each user to the entire multi-media library, whether accessed locally or via remote. 
   It is another feature and advantage of the present invention to provide a multi-media system and method that offers simplified management of multi-media libraries. 
   It is another feature and advantage of the present invention to provide a multi-media system and method that allows easy retrieval of multi-media selections for playback. 
   It is another feature and advantage of the present invention to provide a multi-media system and method having a capability to create customized play lists. 
   The above features and advantages are generally accomplished, in part, in the present invention by integrating a computing system configured with specialized software or program procedures, with one or more audio and/or video distributors. It is to be understood that the written description may be presented in terms of program procedures executed on a computer, computing system or network of computers. These procedural descriptions and representations are meant to convey the substance of the inventors&#39; work to those skilled in the art. 
   A procedure is generally conceived to be a self-consistent sequence of steps leading to a desired result. Involved in those steps are physical manipulations of physical quantities generally in the form of electrical or magnetic signals capable of being stored, transferred, combined, compared and otherwise manipulated. The manipulations performed, such as adding or comparing or matching, are commonly associated with mental operations performed by a human operator. No such capability of a human operator is necessary or desirable in most cases in any of the operations forming a part of the present invention; the operations are machine operations. 
   The present invention also relates to apparatus for performing these operations, where such apparatus may be specially constructed for the required purpose. This apparatus may also comprise a general purpose computer as selectively reconfigured by a computer program or program procedures stored therein. The procedures presented herein are not inherently related to a particular computer or other apparatus. Various general purpose machines may be used with programs written in accordance with the teachings herein, or it may prove more convenient to construct more specialized apparatus to perform the required method steps. 
   In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, a music server is provided. The music server comprises a computing system configured with a Linux operating system, a SQL database, a central controller or control program, and a user interface program. The computing system is configured for connectivity with one or more audio distributors via a universal serial bus. 
   The control program is in communication with the user interface, the database, library and all periphery devices. Accordingly, it receives commands from the user interface program, other personal computers, touch-panel control systems, personal digital assistants or any other electronic device capable of two-way communications. 
   Through the control program, the multimedia system of the present invention executes commands and transmits multiple, independent audio streams over the bus to each audio distributor as a single stream. The audio distributor is configured to split the single inbound stream into one, two or more streams of audio data, depending on the number of audio modules in the audio distributor. By connecting the audio outputs of the audio distributor to a multi-room stereo system, for instance, each of the two or more independent streams of audio data may be directed simultaneously to two or more different destinations. 
   In addition, the control program is configured to receive and process high-level search commands and return all matching records from the SQL database based on a universal text search. 
   The user interface program allows the user to interact with the control program without having to learn any special commands. Types of user interfaces may include menu-driven or graphical user interfaces. The user interface is divided into three main sections or functionalities: Search and Play, Record, and System Information. 
   The Search and Play functionality provides music search and playback facilities, as well as custom play-list creation and management, and music database management functionality. The Record functionality provides access to a CD-RW drive, for adding music to the database collection as desired. The System Information functionality provides status overview information on the system&#39;s operation as well as various trouble-shooting tools. 
   In accordance with another embodiment of the present invention, a multimedia server is provided. The term multimedia is generally referred to mean the combination of sound, graphics, animation and video. The multimedia server comprises a computing system configured with a Linux operating system, a SQL database, a central control program and a user interface program. In this case, however, the control program is configured to handle video as well as audio data streams. Accordingly, the computing system is configured for connectivity with one or more audio distributors via a universal serial bus and one or more video distributors via an Ethernet network. 
   Each video distributor may be configured as a computing system with a high speed network interface module, a video controller and one or more streaming audio/video decoders. As with the music server, the multimedia server of this embodiment, through the video distributor, splits a single stream of video data into two or more independent video streams, which may be directed simultaneously any number of video display devices in different locations. 
   There has thus been outlined, rather broadly, the important features of the present invention in order that the detailed description thereof that follows may be better understood, and in order that the present contribution to the art may be better appreciated. There are, of course, additional features of the invention that will be described hereinafter and which will form the subject matter of the claims appended hereto. 
   In this respect, before explaining at least one embodiment of the present invention in detail, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited in its application to the details of construction and to the arrangements of the components set forth in the following description of illustrated in the drawings only. The invention herein described is capable of other embodiments and of being practiced and carried out in various ways. Also, it is to be understood that the phraseology and terminology employed herein are for the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting. 
   As such, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the conception, upon which this disclosure is based, may readily be used as a basis for designing of other structures, methods and systems for carrying out the several purposes of the present invention. It is important, therefore, that the claims be regarded as including such equivalent constructions insofar as they do not depart from the spirit and scope of the present invention. 
   Accordingly, the above features and advantages of the invention, together with other apparent features and advantages of the invention, along with the various features of novelty that characterize the invention, are pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed thereto and forming a part of this disclosure. For a greater understanding of the invention, its operation and the specific features and advantages attained by its uses, reference should be had to the accompanying drawings and description, which illustrates preferred embodiments of the invention. 

   
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
       FIG. 1  illustrates a block diagram of the multi-media system of the present invention, in accordance with a preferred embodiment. 
       FIGS. 2A ,  2 B and  2 C shows an exemplary embodiment of a SQL database table structure of the present invention. 
       FIGS. 3A ,  3 B,  3 C and  3 D is an exemplary screen shot each showing the Search functionality of the multi-media system of the present invention. 
       FIG. 4A  shows a top view of an exemplary audio distributor for use with the multi-media system of the present invention. 
       FIG. 4B  shows a back view of the audio distributor of  FIG. 4A . 
       FIG. 5A  illustrates a block diagram of an exemplary video distributor for use with the multimedia system of the present invention. 
       FIG. 5B  illustrates one embodiment of a video distributor board and connections. 
   

   DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
   Referring to  FIG. 1 , wherein the same reference numbers refer to the same parts throughout the various figures, there is shown a block diagram of an exemplary embodiment of the multi-media system of the present invention. 
   Viewed externally, the multimedia system  100  generally comprises a computing system  100 , one or more audio distributors  102 , zero or more video distributors  104  and at least one input/output device or mechanism. The input/output device may take the form of a keyboard  106 , mouse  108 , monitor  110 , another computing system  112 , a touch panel control system  114 , a personal digital assistant  116 , or any electronic device  118  capable of two way communications. 
   In a preferred embodiment, the multimedia system  100  is configured with a Linux operating system, such as Red Hat 7.2, and capable of multi-tasking and multi-threading. Viewed internally, the system  100  includes a database  120 , multimedia library  122 , control program  124 , and user interface  126 . The SQL database  120 , such as MySQL 3.23, is configured to store information to the multimedia library  122 . The library  122  preferably comprises of hard disk space from one or more drives, formatted to accept records, files and folders containing multimedia content. 
   In the case of multiple hard drives, each drive is preferably configured as a member of level 0 RAID, which creates a singular logical drive. With this configuration, the control program  124  accesses the logical drive as if the multimedia library  122  constituted a single (large) physical drive. Additionally, each disk space in the library  122  is preferably formatted using an ‘ext3’ file system, which provides excellent crash recovery in the event of power loss. 
   The multimedia library&#39;s file system is preferably divided into two folders: audio and non-audio, such as digital versatile disc (DVD). The audio folder is used to store audio content where each record or file contains one or more pieces of information about a musical selection or collection of musical selections on a compact disc, for instance. The DVD folder is divided into subfolders so that each movie or disc preferably has its own folder. Each folder name corresponds to the value of a dvdId field stored in a DVD table, as later discussed. 
   As depicted in  FIG. 1 , the third component of the multimedia system  100  comprises a control program  124 . The control program  124  is configurable for communication with the SQL database  120  and the multimedia library  122 , through a variety of software or hardware interfaces, to provide access to the database  120  and library  122 . The control program  124  implements a number of commands usable to search the SQL database  120 , to retrieve a multimedia selection and control its delivery. Preferably, the program  124  receives commands via an RS232 port, an Ethernet port, other I/O ports available on the computer, or via software sockets. This allows the multimedia system  100  of the present invention to be controllable by essentially any electronic device  118  with a compatible input/output port. 
   The control program  124  executes a command and responds with a success or error code to a command initiator via the same route by which the command was received. In addition, when data is requested from the database  120 , as in the case of a search command, the results of the search are transmitted to the requestor via the same path by which the command was received. When the command requests retrieval of a multimedia selection, the control program  124  launches a detached thread which reads the appropriate multimedia content from the library  122 , decodes it as necessary and delivers it to the proper audio and/or video distributor(s)  102 ,  104 , respectively. 
   The control program  124  is also capable of executing a variety of commands that query the multimedia system  100  as to its operating status. The status information returned by the control program  124  preferably includes, for example, the total amount of space available in the multimedia library  122 , the amount of hard drive space used, the amount of space available for additional music titles, the number of titles stored in the database  120 , the internal system&#39;s temperature, the CPU temperature and the speed of the cooling fan. As with all other commands, the results are returned via the path received. 
   The fourth component of the multimedia system  100  is a user interface program  126  that is controllable using an input/output device, such as the keyboard  106  or mouse  108 . The user interface program  126  communicates with the control program  124  via a software socket to allow the user to interact with the control program  124  using simple keystrokes and mouse clicks. 
   Referring now to  FIGS. 2A ,  2 B and  2 C, there is shown an exemplary embodiment of a SQL database  120  table structure. The database  120  is preferably configured with three tables that allows for the storage of information about the multimedia library  122 . 
   The first of the three tables is a Music Titles Table  130 , as shown in  FIG. 2A . The Music Titles Table  130  contains one or more pieces of pertinent information relating to a collection of musical selections, which, for purposes of this discussion, is stored on a disc, that is present in the multimedia library  122 . The pertinent information is referred to as a record, and preferably contains four pieces of information: a cdId field  132 , which uniquely identifies the location of audio content of a CD in the library  122 ; the title  134  of the CD; the CD recording artist&#39;s name  136 ; and the genre  138  of the music. 
   The second table is the Track Information Table  140 , as shown in  FIG. 2B . The Track Information Table  140  contains one or more pieces of pertinent information relating to one song or musical selection, which may be stored on a disc as a track, that is present in the library  122 . The pertinent information is referred to as a record and the Track Information Table  140  stores one record per song or, alternatively stores one record per CD track. 
   Each record in the Track Information Table  140  preferably contains five pieces of pertinent information stored in the database  120 : the cdId field  132 , as previously discussed; a track number  142 ; the name  144  of the track; the length  146  of the track, preferably in minutes and seconds; and the format  148  (e.g., MP3, Wave, etc.) in which the audio content of that track is stored in the library  122 . The value of the cdId field  132  in combination with the track number  142  are used to pinpoint the location of a specific track in the multimedia library  122 . For example, the record or file 1.2.wav contains music from the second track of compact disc number 1 in Wave format. Note that the internal format of the music is added to the file name as an extension. 
   The third and final table in the database  120  table structure is a DVD Movie Table  150 , which stores one record per DVD movie or disc in the multimedia library  122 . Each record stores one or more pieces of pertinent information, such as the movie title  154  and one or more user-supplied keywords  156  that may be used to locate a desired movie. The keyword(s)  156  may comprise any combination of words descriptive of the movie&#39;s genre, actor/actress name(s), director name(s), year produced, and the like. As with the Music Titles Table  130 , a dvdId field  152  is also used to locate a particular movie inside the multimedia library  122 . 
   Referring now to  FIG. 3 , there is shown a series of exemplary screen shots helpful in aiding a greater understanding of the search functionality of the user interface program  126  of the multimedia system  100  of the present invention. 
   Generally, the user interface program  126  functionality is divided into three sections: Search and Play, Record, and System Information. In a preferred embodiment, each section is represented by a tabbed button on a computer screen for easy selection. Generally, the Search and Play feature allows a user to type a search string, in response to which the user interface program  126  displays all matching multimedia selections that are available in the library  122 . 
   More specifically, and referring to  FIGS. 3A ,  3 B,  3 C and  3 D, there is shown a screen shot representation of a universal text searching methodology, in accordance with one aspect of the present invention. In this instance, the present invention may be implemented in a university music school department where the information stored in the multimedia library  122  includes various types of music. 
   As depicted in  FIG. 3A , the search screen  160  is divided into two major areas: a search string entry area  162  and search results area  164 . The search string entry area  162  is used to enter one or more keywords comprising a search string, which is searchable in one or more fields in the SQL database  120 . The search results area  164  comprises eleven lines of musical selections, numbered  1  through  11 , and is divided into seven columns, discussed in more detail below. Each column contains a single piece of information describing an aspect of a musical selection present in the university&#39;s multimedia library  122 . 
   For example, the first four columns provide status feedback information to a user as to which area of the database  120  was found to contain a match in the search string entry area  162 . A check in each of the Title Status Column  166 , Song Status Column  168 , Artist Status Column  170  or Genre Status Column  172  indicates the search string was found in these corresponding areas of the database  120 . For example, a check in the Title Status Column  166  indicates that the search string is present in the database&#39;s title  134  file shown in  FIG. 2A . 
   The remaining three columns of the screen  160  do not provide status information; they provide specific information. For instance, the Artist Column  174  provides information on the recording artist&#39;s name. The Title Column  176  provides the title of the recording, such as a CD title or a movie title. The Genre Column  178  provides a brief description of the general classification of the music or movie, such as Classical, Rock, Jazz, Drama, Sci-Fi, and the like. 
   The features and advantages of the universal text searching capability is more fully understood with reference to  FIGS. 3B ,  3 C and  3 D. In the search screen  180  shown in  FIG. 3B , a user, such as a university student, seeking to locate musical selections by the Beatles, enters the letter ‘b’ in search string entry area  162 . In response, the multimedia system  100  substantially immediately updates the contents of musical selections  1  through  11 , shown in  FIG. 3A , with a new combination of musical selections  9  through  19 . Observe in  FIG. 3B  that musical selections  1  through  8  were deleted, that selections  9  through  11  remained and that new selections  12  through  19  are provided by way of update of additional titles and/or songs and/or artist and/or genre information containing the letter ‘b’. 
   Referring now to search screen  190  in  FIG. 3C , the student modifies the earlier search inquiry by adding the letter ‘e’, forming a new search string ‘be’ in the search string entry area  162 . Again, in response, the multimedia system  100  of the present invention updates the search results area  164  by removing all musical selections that do not contain the ‘be’ search string and adding additional musical selections that matches the search string ‘be’. Accordingly, prior musical selections  9  through  13 , and selection  1  are now displayed, in addition to new musical selections  20  through  24 . 
   Finally, in search screen  200  in  FIG. 3D , the user adds the letter ‘a’ to the earlier search string, forming the new search string ‘bea’. As before, the search results area  164  is updated to reflect a different combination of previous and new musical selections  9 ,  10 ,  20 ,  21 ,  22  and  25  through  30 . 
   The advantages of quick determination and easy selection provided by the status feedback columns  166 ,  168 ,  170 ,  172  can be seen in search screen  200  in  FIG. 3D . The search string, ‘bea’, entered by the user was found in the CD&#39;s title and its artist&#39;s name for musical selection  22 . Consequently, a check mark appears in the Title Status Column  166  and the Artist Status Column  170  for musical selection  22 , but not in the Song Status Column  169  or Genre Status Column  172 . 
   Similarly, when comparing both musical selections  21 ,  22  by the artist The Beatles, since the artist&#39;s name contains the string, ‘bea’, in both selections  21 ,  22 , in both instances the Artist Status Column  170  is checked. However, the CD title for musical selection  22  also contains the string ‘bea’, while the CD title for musical selection  21  does not. Therefore, the Title Status Column  166  is checked for musical selection  22 , but not for musical selection  21 . 
   The advantages of quick determination and easy selection is accomplished by a sorting program developed by the inventors. In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, the multimedia system  100  sorts musical selection titles based substantially on a one-to-one match of a character entered at the beginning of the search string area with the first character in the artist&#39;s name, and other characters entered sequentially thereafter. 
   As a further illustration of the sorting program, reference is made to  FIG. 3D . For example, although musical selections  9 ,  21 ,  22  all represent CDs by The Beatles, the musical selection  10  by Beau Jocque and musical selection  20  by Joe Beard are displayed in between selections  9  and  21  by The Beatles. The reason for that is because the search string ‘bea’ is located at the very beginning of the Artist&#39;s Column  174  for selection  9 . Consequently, it is moved to the top of the sort order. 
   While in selection  10 , Beau Jocque also contains the ‘bea’ search string at the very beginning of its Artist&#39;s Column  174 , because ‘Beau’ is alphabetically after ‘Beatles’, selection  10  is the second entry in  FIG. 3D . 
   Logically, the sort program of the multimedia system  100  of the present invention, performs a sequencing function that generally begins with locating all titles of recordings that contain a keyword search or search string in any location in any of the database fields. Each title is then assigned a priority value based on which column  166 ,  168 ,  170 ,  172 ,  174 ,  176 ,  178  the search entry was found in. 
   For example, if a keyword search entry was found in the Artist Column  174 , that musical selection title match is assigned a priority value of 1000. If the search entry was found in the Title Column  176 , that musical selection title match is assigned a priority value of 2000. Similarly, a match found in the Genre Column  178  and Song Column  168 , are assigned priority values of 3000 and 4000, respectively. 
   Next, each title is assigned a priority value based on the location within each column  166 ,  168 ,  170 ,  172 ,  174 ,  176 ,  178  where the search entry was found. Thus, in  FIG. 3D  for example, musical selections  9 ,  10  are assigned a priority value of 1001 while selections  20 ,  21 ,  22  all have priority values of 1004. The titles are then sorted by their priority values in ascending order. Titles having substantially the same priority number are sorted alphabetically by the Artist Column  174  field and then by the Title Column  176  field. 
   It is important to note that the Search and Play functionality of the user interface program  126  provides playback and transport control, so that once the desired selection is located, a user simply clicks the Play button to listen or view the desired selection. The transport control buttons offer the functionality of the comparable Stop, Pause, Next Track and Previous Track found on a CD or DVD player. 
   Finally, the Search and Play section of the user interface program  126  allows a user to create customized play-lists of any musical selection or movies present in the library  122 . Once created, a play-list may be viewed and/or listened as desired. 
   As to the Record section, the second section of the user interface program  126 , it allows a user to add one or more selections to the library  122 . In a preferred embodiment, upon selecting the Record section, a user is prompted to insert a CD or DVD of choice into a computer&#39;s drive. When possible, the contents of the disc are automatically detected by the multimedia system  100  using the Freedb database, which is a free CD identification service available over the Internet. 
   In instances when the user interface program  126  cannot identify the inserted multimedia medium, the user is prompted to fill-in the fields required in order to properly catalog the disc. The user interface program  126  then proceeds to transfer audio and/or video content into the multimedia library  122 . When completed, the SQL database  120  is updated to reflect the new selection. 
   The System Information section, which is the third and final section of the user interface program  126 , queries the control program  124  for various system statistics, such as total disc space, amount of space used, number of titles in the library  122 , and the like. The returned information is then presented to the user in a well-organized manner. 
   Referring now to  FIGS. 4A and 4B , there is shown top and rear views, respectively, of an exemplary audio distributor  102  usable with the multimedia system  100  of the present invention. The audio distributor  102  preferably comprises a universal serial bus (USB) hub  202  and up to six audio modules  204 . 
   The USB hub  202  allows the audio distributor  102  to be connected to a variety of peripherals, such as external CD-ROM drives, printers, modems, mice and keyboards, through a single, general-purpose port. The USB hub  202  is also designed to support the ability to automatically add and configure new devices, and the ability to add such devices, to the audio distributor  102  without having to shut down and restart the multimedia system  100 . 
   In a preferred embodiment, the USB hub  202  connectivity to each audio module  204  employs a standard USB cable connected to one of the seven USB connectors  206  on the USB hub  202  to a USB connector  208  on the audio module  204 . An external power jack  210  ( FIG. 4B ) is connected to the USB hub&#39;s power jack  212 . A power switch  214  is preferably in an ‘on’ position at all times. A USB B-type connector  216  on the USB hub  202  is connected to a USB B-type connector  218  on the rear panel. 
   Left and right analog audio inputs  220 ,  222  are connected to corresponding analog audio inputs  224 ,  226  on the audio distributor&#39;s rear panel  228  shown in  FIG. 4B . The digital audio input  246  is connected to the digital audio input  234  on the rear panel  228  shown in  FIG. 4B . 
   In a similar fashion, the left and right analog audio outputs  236 ,  238  from each audio module  204  are connected to the audio distributor&#39;s rear panel&#39;s analog audio outputs  240 ,  242 . The digital audio output  248  from each audio module  204  is connected to the rear panel&#39;s  228  digital audio output  249 . All audio connections are preferably made using standard audio cables and connectors. 
   Alternatively and optionally, one or more audio distributors  102  may be connected to the multimedia system  100  using such USB cables and hubs  202 . The rear view of the audio distributor  102  in  FIG. 4B  shows, in addition to the USB B-type connector  218 , one digital audio input  234 , a pair of analog audio inputs  224 ,  226 , six digital audio outputs  249 , and six pairs of analog audio outputs  240 ,  242  mounted thereon. 
   The operating system of the multimedia system  100  is configured with the proper device files for each audio module  204  present in order to provide the control program  124  with access to each audio module  204  individually. More specifically, device files are created in a ‘/dev’ folder for each audio module  204  with appropriate major and minor numbers using a ‘mknod’ command, for instance. These device files are used by the control program  124  to assist in identifying the final destination of an audio stream. By connecting the audio outputs of the audio distributor  102  to a university&#39;s multi-room stereo system, the university may direct music from any output to any desired room or desk area for individual use by students. 
   In a preferred embodiment, the Linux operating system addresses devices by using a major and minor number scheme. The major number identifies the type of device while the minor number identifies the specific physical device. 
   For example, the major number designated for audio devices is 14, and the minor numbers designated for physical devices start at 3 with an increment of 16. In this instance, the first audio module  204  may be addressed as “14,3”, where a second audio module  204  is addressed as “14,19”, and the like. 
   Referring now to  FIG. 5A , there is shown a block diagram of an exemplary video distributor  104  for use with the multimedia system  100  of the present invention. Viewed internally, the video distributor  104  may be configured as a computing system equipped with a fast Ethernet network interface module  250 , a multi-headed video card or video controller  252 , and one or more audio/video decoders  254 . The video controller  252  comprises software components that receive a single composite stream of data, split it into one or more individual streams, and route each stream to a designated streaming audio/video decoder  254 . Each decoder  254  transmits the decoded video stream to a video graphics adapter  253  ( FIG. 5B ), which then sends the decoded video stream on to a video display. As depicted in  FIG. 1 , one or more video distributors  104  may be connected to the system  100  using standard fast Ethernet hubs and cables. 
   Preferably, the video distributor  104  is loaded with a Linux operating system and a standardized set of display-handling routines, such as an X-Windows system. The X-Windows system is configured to use a separate physical display device for generating a display of text or graphics output provided by an appropriate hardware component, such as a multi-headed video graphics adapter  253 . 
   In one embodiment, a Matrox G200MMS card may be used with four outputs where the X-Windows system is configured to perform four separate and independent sessions, with each session using a unique output on the card. The video controller  252  awaits commands and video streams from the control program  124 . As soon as the control program  124  initiates a video stream, the video controller  252  launches a detached thread, which receives the streaming coded video data, decodes it via the decoder  254 , and transmits the data to the appropriate X-Windows session. 
   As depicted in the embodiment of the video distributor shown in  FIG. 5B , the multi-headed video graphics adapter  253  is capable of emulating up to four video graphics adapter (VGA) boards in a single board, and may be connected to one or more analog display device using VGA-type connectors  256 . Additionally, the video graphics adapter  253  may also be connected to one or more digital display devices using digital connectors  258 . 
   In order to synchronize audio with the video stream, the multimedia system  100  preferably employs an audio distributor  102  in conjunction with a video distributor  104 . With this connectivity through the multimedia system  100 , when a student requests a movie from the university&#39;s multimedia library  122  to be played via a particular video output, for example, the audio stream for that movie is transmitted to the proper audio module  204  corresponding to the particular video output. 
   The many features and advantages of the present invention are apparent from the detailed specification. Thus, it is intended by the appended claims to cover all such features and advantages of the invention that fall within the true spirit and scope of the invention. 
   Further, since numerous modifications and variations will readily occur to those skilled in the art, it is not desired to limit the invention to the exact construction and operation illustrated and described. Accordingly, all suitable modifications and equivalents fall within the scope of the invention.