Patent ID: 7669206

Claim:
A method comprising: listening at an application programming interface for a notification indicating that a change is to be made in a topology of streaming media software components, wherein the change includes at least one of adding or removing one or more streaming media software components to the topology; when the notification is received, notifying a media engine, wherein: the media engine is capable of reconfiguring the topology in accordance with the indicated change to form a reconfigured topology; and at least one of the topology or the reconfigured topology has: one streaming media software component located on a computing device; and another streaming media software component located on another computing device; registering to receive the notification from an operating system via a notification manager, wherein the notification manager listens to change events from a plurality of named events defined in a registry signaling a change is to be made in a topology streaming media software component; and initializing the reconfigured topology to have an execution state relative to streaming media that matches an execution state of the topology when the notification was received.