Tgw: a webcast transcoding gateway

Internet webcasting is gaining attention as the cost of communications and computer processing declines. The UC Berkeley Multimedia, Interfaces, and Graphics Seminar is webcast worldwide oil the Internet using IETF standards on the Multicast Backbone (Mbone). Many potential viewers are unable to receive the webcast due to network problems and/or the lack of software supporting the Mbone protocols and codecs. The Transcoding Gateway, called tgw, simplifies the management of simulcasting several transmissions that use different transport protocols, media formats, and network bandwidth. Tgw incorporates transmission bandwidth allocation, transcoding to alternative formats, and redirection of streams to alternate addresses to manage transmission of a webcast.