Control-Driven Media: A Unifying Model for Consistent, Cross-platform Multimedia Experiences

Abstract

Many media providers offer complementary prod-ucts on different platforms to target a diverse consumer base. Online sports coverage, for instance, may include professionally produced audio and video channels, as well as Web pages and native apps offering live statistics, maps, data visualizations, social commentary and more. Many consumers also engage in parallel usage, setting up streaming products and interactive interfaces on available screens, laptops and handheld devices. This ability to combine products holds great promise, yet, with no coordination, cross-platform user experiences often appear inconsistent and disconnected. We present Control-driven Media (CdM), an extension of the current media model that adds support for coordination and consistency across interfaces, devices, products, and platforms while remaining compatible with existing services, technologies, and workflows. CdM promotes online media control as an independent resource type in multimedia systems. With control as a driving force, CdM offers a highly flexible model, opening up for further innovations in automation, personalization, multi-device support, collaboration and time-driven visualization. Furthermore, CdM bridges the gap between continuous media and Web/native apps, allowing the combined powers of these platforms to be seamlessly exploited as parts of a single, consistent user experience. Extensive research in time-dependent, multi-device, data-driven media experiences supports CdM. In particular, CdM requires a generic and flexible concept for online, timeline-consistent media control, for which a candidate solution (State Trajectory) has recently been published. This paper makes the case for CdM, bringing the significant potential of this model to the attention of research and industry.