Multimedia applications are the juxtaposition and presentation of media elements through the user interface. Two key features help to manage and control multimedia presentations more efficiently.
- Presentation ID: Each presentation request for a media element returns a special handle called a presentationID, which can be passed as an argument to specify which presentation of a media element to control. Multiple presentations of a single media element can be created and controlled independently. This is more efficient than duplicating a media element in order to make and manipulate multiple presentations of it.
- Multimedia Broker: This media object factory allows access to media without needing to be aware of their actual format (MEgif, MEtiff, MEjpeg, etc.). When given a generic element type, it tests the media to determine the actual C++ class that must be constructed. The ADL programmer only needs to deals with abstract element types (such as image, audio, and movie). Since the Broker may construct any media type, specification of format may be supplied by external or run-time data. This increases the reusability of application interfaces because it is easier to construct interchangeable sets of media.
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