Media Grid
The Media Grid is a computational grid development platform designed specifically for a new generation of networked applications that utilize digital media. Based on open technology standards, the Media Grid combines traditional Internet and Web standards with Quality of Service (QoS), broadcast capabilities and distributed parallel processing to create a unique platform for media-rich applications.
The Media Grid is designed and developed through the MediaGrid.org open standards group by the Grid Institute in partnership with Boston College, Vertex Pharmaceuticals (a public biotech company in Cambridge, Massachusetts), Japan’s University of Aizu (the world’s first university dedicated entirely to computer science and computer-related fields), and LUA (a Boston-based medical company), with individual contributions from employees at Harvard University, Oracle, Hewlett-Packard, Sun Microsystems, John Hancock Financial Services, and other companies and universities.
The first commercial-grade Grid was created in 2004 by Aleric Technology, Inc. The initial deployment consisted of one central server and several hundred Grid nodes. According to the company's most recent statistics, there are now over 30,000 servers in about 82 countries in this Grid network. The recent media applications of the Grid are for high-definition video delivery. DVD-quality streaming may be achieved with cable modem or DSL internet access; high-definition 1080i or 1080P-quality streaming may be realized with high-speed broadband.
Commercial applications such as On-Demand movie and TV may be applied using the Media Grid. Other applications such as ones for (non-profit) Education and Medicine may also be applied. These include educational media applications such as - Virtual Classrooms, Virtual Tutoring; in Arts, Music, Language, Literature, Science, and Engineering; medical applications such as On-Demand Specialist, Remote Assisted Diagnoses and Surgery, Preventive Health Education, and video Wikis may also be realized using the Grid technology.