If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it? — A. Einstein

About Us

We are a subgroup of researchers in the Visual Computing and Multimedia research group at the Department of Computer Sciences of the Paris Lodron University of Salzburg, Austria. Our current main areas of interest are satellite communications, DVB/MHP, intelligent caching, and IP multicast work. Our expertise includes:

Optimized protocols for satellite communications
Digital Video Broadcast (DVB)-based gateway architectures
Multimedia Home Platform (MHP) application and service development
Reliable multicast transport protocols
Multicast web caching technologies
Multimedia and hypermedia applications
Design of network communication hardware and software
Traffic monitoring, measurement and analysis

There are also detailed instructions on how to contact us and how to visit us.

The group operates two development laboratories with more than 50 PCs and Workstations running various Windows and Unix flavours.

A dedicated IP/DVB and MHP Test Center has been recently set up, interconnecting the IRT/MHP Playout Server with an IP/DVB encapsulator/multiplexer and several set-top boxes and PCs over three DVB transmission chains (DVB-S, -T, -C) in a local loop trial environment. Several analysers for TS/MPEG-2 level and MHP are available for monitoring and verification purposes.

History

The Institute of Computer Sciences at the Paris Lodron University of Salzburg was founded in 1988 and authorised to develop a new curriculum called "Computing Sciences and System Analysis", oriented towards applied informatics. This program has been very successful, and today more than 600 students are enrolled. In 2000 the curriculum was granted permanent status by the Austrian government under the technical studies program and renamed "Applied Informatics" ("Angewandte Informatik"). Currently, about 60 graduate students are working towards their master's degree (Dipl.Ing.).

The Multimedia Communications Group was initiated in 1993 as the NetLab research group under the Lead of O.Univ.-Prof. Dr. Horst D. Clausen, and re-formed in 2004 as a research group in the Department of Scientific Computing. This department has been joined with the Department of Informatics in 2006 to form the Department of Computer Sciences, where we are now part of the Visual Computing and Multimedia group.