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Time, Frequency and Phase Synchronisation for Multimedia—Basics, Issues, Developments and Opportunities

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Abstract

In this chapter, we provide a comprehensive overview of timing. We describe the underlying concepts that comprise timing through examples and then present a range of mature, standardised and evolving techniques to improve the so-called time awareness across the full Information and Communications Technology (ICT) infrastructure over which multimedia applications operate. Although the media synchronisation community is already acutely aware of timing issues, this chapter offers some valuable insights through its holistic approach to timing.

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Correspondence to Hugh Melvin .

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Definitions

Time

an instant (or time of day) on a selected time-scale.

Timescale

a family of time codes for a particular coordinate time that provide an unambiguous time ordering of events.

Time synchronisation

relative adjustment of two or more sources of time with the purpose of cancelling their time differences.

Frequency

refers to a rate of repetition (of an event) per unit of time and thus two clocks are frequency synchronised if they oscillate at the exact same rate.

Syntonisation

the relative adjustment of two or more frequency sources with the purpose of cancelling their frequency differences but not necessarily their phase difference.

Time Awareness

the extent to which a device, system or device/system model has an appropriate ability to sense and respond to timing signals/information.

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Melvin, H., Shannon, J., Stanton, K. (2018). Time, Frequency and Phase Synchronisation for Multimedia—Basics, Issues, Developments and Opportunities. In: Montagud, M., Cesar, P., Boronat, F., Jansen, J. (eds) MediaSync. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65840-7_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65840-7_4

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