1 引言分布式多媒体系统是计算机网络技术、通信技术、多媒体信息处理技术、分布计算技术、数据压缩技术等众多技术相互结合的产物,其应用已涉及相当多的领域,如教育、办公、新闻、出版、医疗、金融、计算机支持协同工作(CSCW)等。分布式多媒体系统中一个十分重要的应用是视频点播(VOD),它将远程视频服务器上的媒体信息,通过计算机网络或其它通信设施传送到本地的媒体处理器和媒体终点上。本文利用ODP(开放式分布处理)方法讨论了VOD实验系统的设计。 1 Introduction Distributed multimedia system is a combination of many technologies such as computer network technology, communication technology, multimedia information processing technology, distributed computing technology and data compression technology. Its application has covered quite a few fields such as education, office, news, Publishing, Medical, Finance, Computer Support Collaboration (CSCW) and more. One of the most important applications in distributed multimedia systems is video on demand (VOD), which transmits media information from remote video servers to local media processors and media destinations over computer networks or other communication facilities. In this paper, ODP (open distributed processing) method is used to discuss the design of VOD experimental system.