interMedia is a set of platform services that provide
for Oracle 10g management of multimedia data including images, audio,
and video. Through the use of media datatypes, Oracle interMedia enables
Oracle10g to manage and deliver image, audio, and video data in an integrated
fashion with other enterprise information. interMedia provides the means
to add media columns or objects to existing database tables, insert and retrieve
multimedia data, and deliver it to web authoring tools and servers. interMedia
provides plugins that enable RealNetworks and Microsoft Windows Media Streaming
Services to stream multimedia data from the database. interMedia is also
integrated with JDeveloper and Oracle Portal enabling easy multimedia application
development.
Q: Is the Oracle database up to the job of handling
multimedia?
A large US based financial institution with terabytes of data
in an Oracle database has a 0.4 second maximum response time to render images
of checks on the Web. A US state government has scaled their road inventory
image Oracle Database to upwards of 5 TB. The largest federal bank in Brazil
has loaded 3000 check images per minute into Oracle Database. A Federal Reserve
Branch keeps sensitive check images in Oracle Database for security. Be it scalability,
capacity, performance, or security, the Oracle Database is up to the toughest
multimedia applications.
Q: What's the value of managing multimedia data with the
database?
There are several benefits to managing media data in the database.
Secure and Synchronized:
Unlike media managed in a file system, media managed in a database and its associated
relational data are kept synchronized, are kept secure, and are managed together.
Ease of Location: By parsing
out the metadata embedded in the multimedia data and using it for indexes, it
is far easier to find the media being searched for.
Development and Operational Savings:
Database management of media also results in application deployment and system
operational savings, which can be passed on as customer cost savings.
Q: Do I have to buy a separate option or license to do it?
No. Oracle10g includes a component called interMedia
that makes it possible to manage digital media. interMedia is a component
of the Oracle Database and is included in Oracle Database licensing.
Through the use of media datatypes, interMedia enables
Oracle Database to manage and deliver image, audio, and video data in an integrated
fashion with other enterprise information. interMedia provides the means
to add media columns or objects to existing database tables, insert and retrieve
multimedia data, and deliver it to web authoring tools and servers. It also
provides plugins that enable the industry streaming servers to source streaming
audio and video from Oracle Database.
Q: What media formats are supported?
interMedia recognizes most of the popular desk top
publishing and web media formats. Exemplary image formats include GIF, JPEG,
PNG, and BMP. Exemplary audio formats include MP3, AU, WAV, and MPEG. Exemplary
video formats include REAL, ASF, AVI, and MPEG. Consult the interMedia
Reference Manual for a complete list of supported formats. Note also that interMedia
is extensible and it is possible to integrate support for additional formats.
Q: What is metadata?
Metadata is information about the data. In our case, it is
data embedded in the media and describes the media that is being managed. There
are two types of metadata that we are concerned with: 1) format metadata and
2) application metadata. Format metadata typically includes information about
the media such as how many pixels and scan lines are there in an image. Application
metadata is information that an application might associate with a media object
such as the name of the photographer of an image and the location it was taken.
interMedia extracts both format and application metadata
for formats that it understands and makes them available for indexing, making
it easier to search for and find media objects.
Q: Where is the media stored?
interMedia makes it possible to store media in the
database under transaction control, using blobs Alternatively, media may be
stored in operating system flat files, in web servers addressed with url's,
and in specialty servers and referenced from the database. interMedia
makes it possible to migrate media data between the database and flat files
using import and export methods. The highest security is provided when the data
is stored within the database.
Q: Can the media be stored compressed?
interMedia provides the ability to both compress and
decompress media data. The compression type depends upon the media format. See
the interMedia Reference Manual for compression details.
Q: Can Oracle be used to manage a large amount of media?
Yes, a US state government system built to contain photographic
images of state roadways has grown to over 5 TB in size. All of the images are
stored under transactional control in the database. The photographic image database
is used to keep track of road conditions and signage. A novel application that
uses these images is a "virtual drive" from some starting point to
some ending point on the road ways. Today the maximum size of an image, audio,
or video is 4GB, and the maximum size of the Oracle 10g database is measured
in Exabytes (10**15).
Q: Is it possible to rapidly load a large media database?
The largest Federal bank in Brazil with over 7000 branches
loaded upwards of 140 million images at rates of 3000 document images per minute
with interMedia. The application involved putting personal financial
statements on line for web access by customers. Load performance tests have
shown that media data can be loaded into Oracle Database at near device speeds
(disks).
Q: Is media stored securely using interMedia?
When the media (images, audio, and video) is stored within
the database using interMedia, it is stored as securely as any other
type of database data. A large US based financial institution stores checks
in Oracle Database for security and legal archive reasons.
Q: Can web applications perform reasonably with media stored
in the database?
A large US based financial institution with Terabytes of data
in the database reports 0.4s maximum response time to render image of checks
on the Web.
Q: Can I stream audio and video from the database?
Most media data is delivered to clients in batch mode. This
means that the media is delivered altogether and cannot be processed until every
bit of it arrives. Streaming means that media data can be output, as soon as
the first bits of it arrive. Thereafter the media is processed or output as
it arrives, long before the last bits of it are sent from the server.
There are several streaming media servers on the market today.
The two most prominent formats are Real Networks and Microsoft Windows Streaming
Media Services. Both support streaming of multiple data formats including such
formats as MPEG.
Q: Can I associate media data with traditional relational
data?
With interMedia, you can type columns of relational
tables as containing media. For example, you can take an existing human resources
table that contains name, address, and other traditional data, and add an image
column to contain a picture of an employee. Or you could take a product table
and add a video column to show products in use. There is not limit on the number
of media columns that can be added to a table. Through this mechanism, media
can be easily associated with traditional, relational data.
Q: What computer languages can I use to develop multimedia
database applications?
interMedia offers api's to the developer for many different
languages including most 3GLs. interMedia in particular offers robust
support for SQL and Java developers including those creating servlets and JSP
applications.
Q: Can managing media in the database result in real cost
savings for users?
A British online medical journal publisher, with prestigious
customers such as the World Health Organization and Harvard Medical, realized
nearly a 100 fold decrease in end user cost of access of the online publication
compared to traditional paper journals. The journal's contents including all
media are stored in Oracle and accessed there by various publication functions
through the publication process.
Q: Are there any development tools that can expedite development
of a media application?
Oracle has two powerful application development tools that
work with interMedia. The first is JDeveloper a Java interactive development
environment. Through the use of code wizards, JDeveloper makes it easy to develop
Java servlet and JSP media enabled applications. Oracle also offers high level
media development technology that works with JDeveloper such as the Business
Components for Java (BC4J). The second tool, Oracle Portal, also uses wizards
that make it easy to develop media enabled forms and reports.
Q: Why should I use interMedia versus long RAWs or
BLOBs?
interMedia provides both an object and a relational
interface. This makes it possible for applications that choose to store media
in blobs to benefit from many of interMedia services. That said, there
are several advantages to storing media in interMedia objects including:
The object type indicates what is stored in the column.
Other tools such as JDeveloper and Portal recognize the interMedia
objects for what they are (image, audio, or video) and can act accordingly.
With a straight BLOB, the tools do not know what is stored there.
Object methods can automatically extract metadata and populate
the media object attributes. Such as height, width, mimetype ...etc.
The objects offer convenience methods that can be applied
to the objects, such as converting bmp to internet friendly JPEG or GIF, or
to import from the file system or internet. (The scaling method is often used
to create and store a thumbnail of an image for fast perusal.)
interMedia objects provide the ability to store
the media internally (as blobs) or externally as operating system flat files
and to migrate between them.
Q: Where can I get more information?
You can get interMedia documentation including the
interMedia User's Guide, interMedia Reference Manual, and the
interMedia Java Classes Reference Manual, sample code, and downloadable software
from the Oracle Technology Network Website (OTN) at:
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