Importance

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Abstract

A media streamer (10) includes at least one storage node (16, 17) comprising mass storage for storing a digital representation of at least one video presentation; and a plurality of communication nodes (14) each having at least one input port that is coupled to an output of the at least one storage node for receiving a digital representation of a video presentation therefrom. Each of the plurality of communication nodes further includes a plurality of output ports, individual ones of the plurality of output ports being operable for transmitting a digital representation as a data stream to a consumer of the digital representation. Individual ones of the output ports also have an associated data buffer for buffering a portion of a digital representation prior to a transmission of the digital representation. Each of the plurality of communication nodes further includes a scheduler for scheduling, for individual ones of the data buffers, a read request to the at least one storage node for a next sequential portion of the digital representation for storage within individual ones of the data buffers. Each read request for a particular individual one of the data buffers is scheduled at a predetermined time such that a requested next sequential portion of the digital representation is available to a requesting communications node prior to a time that the requested next sequential portion is required to be transmitted from the output port that is associated with the data buffer for which the read request was scheduled. The at least one storage node further includes a scheduler for scheduling a read request to the mass storage such that a next sequential portion of a digital representation is available for outputting, prior to the at least one storage node receiving a read request for the next sequential portion from one of the communication nodes.

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First Claim