Method and apparatus for scheduling and mixing media in a multi-media environment

摘要

A real-time media driver for scheduling and mixing media in a multimedia environment. Implemented to operate in conjunction with a non-real-time operating system, the real-time media driver comprises a wave driver which controls a predominant percentage of the operations of the media hardware device and a mini-device driver which is software provided by the vendor of the media hardware device to support functions unique to the particular media hardware device. Furthermore, the real-time media driver comprises a media scheduler which (i) synchronizes multiple media streams prior to being input into a mixing/splitting device of the media scheduler; (ii) allows reconfiguration of attributes of media streams without loss of content prior to and after operations by the mixing/splitting device; and (iii) appropriately mixes media to produce multi-channel media according to a certain "prioritized sharing" policies.