General

• What does NMM stand for?
• What is NMM?
• What is so special about NMM?

Licensing

• What license is NMM distributed under?
• What is 'dual-licensing'?
• We are a company that wants to evaluate NMM and maybe lateron use it in one of our products. What restrictions are there in terms of licensing?
• We are a university using NMM in our research project. What do we need to know about licensing?
• I am developing software on top of NMM for fun. Do I need to care about licensing at all?

Features

• Which platforms/operating systems does NMM support?
• What are the new features of the current NMM release?
• Are all features of NMM included in the version that can be downloaded free?
• Which features are available in addition?

Help/Support

• Where can I find documentation?
• How do I get started with developing applications or plug-ins for NMM?
• I am trying to run an existing NMM application, but it does not work. What can I do?
• I encountered a problem when compiling/using NMM. Whom should I contact?
• We are a company requiring professional support and training for NMM. Is that available?
• What other services does Motama offer for NMM based developments?

Applications

• What has happened to the famous Multimedia-Box (mmbox)?
• When will the Multimedia-Box be available for the latest NMM version again?

History of the NMM project

• What is the relation between the 'old' NMM project and Motama?

What does NMM stand for? NMM stands for Network-Integrated Multimedia Middleware.

What is NMM? The Network-Integrated Multimedia Middleware (NMM) provides an architecture that allows to create distributed multimedia application easily: local and remote multimedia devices or software components can be controlled transparently and integrated into a common multimedia processing flow graph. NMM is implemented in C++ and NMM-IDL, an interface definition language. For using NMM to develop applications on top, you need a set of fundamental and optional NMM libraries. For further information, please read The Network-Integrated Multimedia Middleware (NMM) : Basic Introduction.

What is so special about NMM? What is special about NMM is the fact that NMM is a multimedia middleware. In general, a middleware is a software layer that spans across different networked systems. Therefore, NMM flow graphs can be distributed across the network: local and remote multimedia devices or software components can be controlled and integrated into a common multimedia processing flow graph. While this distribution is transparent for application developers, no overhead is added to all locally operating parts of the flow graph. In addition, NMM operates cross-platform: Arbitrary networking technologies and various operating systems are seamlessly supported. This means that your multimedia application developed for Linux can also be compiled and used on Windows. According to this definition, NMM is the only true multimedia middleware solution available. For further information, please read The Network-Integrated Multimedia Middleware (NMM) : Basic Introduction.

What license is NMM distributed under? Motama offers a flexible licensing policy for NMM, which allows NMM to be used in Open Source and research projects as well as in commercial products. NMM is distributed with different licenses: The Linux/Mac OS/PS3 version of NMM is distributed for free as Open Source under the terms and conditions of the GNU General Public License (GPL) version 2. The Windows XP/Vista version of NMM is distributed for free as binary version under the terms and conditions of the NMM Non-Commercial License (NMM-NCL). All NMM versions (i.e. for all supported operating systems) are also distributed under different commercial licenses. The terms and conditions for such a commercial license strongly depend on your specific requirements. For example, we offer a license for commercially evaluating the Windows version of NMM. We will be happy to discuss a suitable license model based on your needs. Please contact us for further details. There are also specific advanced feature of NMM that are only available in the commercial version of NMM. Please refer the corresponding answer in section 'Features' if you want to learn more.

What is 'dual-licensing'? For NMM, the term 'dual-licensing' refers to the fact that NMM is available under different licenses from Motama: On the one hand, NMM is released for free. On the other hand, Motama also offers different commercial licenses for NMM. This allows companies to create products with proprietary closed-source application on top of NMM. In addition, Motama offers a full warranty and professional support for the commercial versions of NMM - a major requirement for companies creating new products and devices on top of NMM. Finally, dual-licensing is also the major business model of Motama: Money earned with licensing will be invested in the further development of NMM, resulting in an improved free version of NMM available to a broad audience. Please refer to the corresponding article on wikipedia for more information on dual-licensing.

We are a company that wants to evaluate NMM and maybe lateron use it in one of our products. What restrictions are there in terms of licensing? The Open Source version of NMM for Linux/Mac OS/PS3 can be used for free by your company according to the terms and conditions of the GNU General Public License (GPL). This basically means that you are free to internally evaluate NMM. For distributing products based on the Open Source version of NMM, you will have to comply to the terms and conditions of the GPL. The Windows version of NMM is available for free under the terms and conditions of the NMM Non-Commercial License (NMM-NCL) for non-commercial use. For evaluating NMM for commercial use, Motama offers NMM versions for Windows under the terms and conditions of the NMM Commercial Evaluation License (NMM-CEL). Please contact us for further details. For all NMM versions, Motama offers two things to fulfill your requirements to bring NMM-based products to the market: Commercial licenses and professional support.

We are a university using NMM in our research project. What do we need to know about licensing? The Open Source version of NMM for Linux/Mac OS/PS3 can be used for free by your university according to the terms and conditions of the GNU General Public License (GPL). This basically means that you are free to internally use NMM. For distributing the outcome of your research, e.g. your software based on the Open Source version of NMM, you will have to comply to the terms and conditions of the GPL. The Windows version of NMM is available for free under the terms and conditions of the NMM Non-Commercial License (NMM-NCL) for non-commercial use. If the NMM-NCL does not fulfill your needs, please contact us for further details. Motama also offers NMM versions for Windows under the terms and conditions of the NMM Commercial-Evaluation License (NMM-CEL). For all NMM versions, Motama offers two things to fulfill your requirements for research and development projects that your university is doing with industrial partners: Commercial licenses and professional support.

I am developing software on top of NMM for fun. Do I need to care about licensing at all? Yes. The Open Source version of NMM for Linux/Mac OS/PS3 can be used for free according to the terms and conditions of the GNU General Public License (GPL). This basically means that you are free to use NMM for your software development. For distributing the outcome of your developments, e.g. your software based on the Open Source version of NMM, you will have to comply to the terms and conditions of the GPL. The Windows version of NMM is available for free under the terms and conditions of the NMM Non-Commercial License (NMM-NCL) for non-commercial use. If you want to distribute your software based on this version of NMM, please contact us for further details. Also please refer to the section 'Help/Support'.

Which platforms/operating systems does NMM support? The current NMM release supports following platforms:

• Linux PC, 32 and 64 bit
• MacOS X >=10.3, Intel and PPC
• Embedded Linux: Various platforms, such as Intel XScale microarchitecture, e.g. PXA270 at 520 MHz CPU, or iPAQ-PDAs, Nokia 770, etc.
• Playstation 3 (Cell platform)
• Windows XP 32 bit (64 bit version is available upon request)
• Windows VISTA 32 bit (64 bit version is available upon request)

NMM versions for other operating systems/platforms are available upon request. Please contact us for further details.

What are the new features of the current NMM release?

• True and native cross-platform support: Linux PC (32/64bit), embedded Linux, PS3, MacOS, Windows XP/Vista, ...
• Completely re-designed network architecture: Including Parallel Binding feature, QoS tagging, improved RTP support, ...
• Increased modularity for customized building of NMM: Completely re-designed directory structure, enable/disable all optional NMM features and plug-ins, use NMM as middleware, or as multimedia middleware
• Discovery service in registry: Dynamically find all NMM systems in your network
• Many new and improved plug-ins: Windows XP and Vista: audio and video renderers, audio codec support (e.g. WMA, MP3), and CD support, MacOS : audio renderer, Linux iPAQ : iPAQDisplayNode, and many others.
• Improved documentation: Installation process, development, API, ...
• New helloworld examples, for example discovery and multicast streaming using RTP with synchronized rendering
• Dual-licensing Open Source and commercial versions available

Are all features of NMM included in the version that can be downloaded for free? Yes and no. All features of NMM that you will need for creating a full-featured NMM application are available in the NMM versions that can be downloaded for free. There are, however, a number of extension for NMM developed by Motama that are not included in the current releases. Please continue reading the next section.

Which features are available in addition? Motama continuously improves and extends the NMM architecture. Several advanced and ground-breaking new NMM features are at this time only available upon request:

• High-quality distributed audio/audio synchronization for rendering audio streams simultaneously in perfect synchronization on different networked devices. (Please notice that the current free release does included distributed audio/audio and audio/video synchronization. However, a higher-quality version is also available from Motama upon request.)
• Seamless audio handover for continuous and synchronized migration of (parts of) running flow graphs to distributed devices, e.g. for handing over media playback from a mobile system to a stationary system.
• QoS adaptive streaming for automatically adapting the quality of video and audio to optimally use the bandwidth currently available in the network in order to always deliver the best possible user experience.
• Additional plug-ins
• ... and many more 'secret' features!

If you want to find out whether your additional requirements can be fulfilled with such an extended version of NMM, please contact us for further details.

Where can I find documentation? The starting point for all documentation available is here.

How do I get started with developing applications or plug-ins for NMM? We recommend to read The Network-Integrated Multimedia Middleware (NMM) : Basic Introduction first. For developing software on top of NMM, we recommend to use the NMM Software Developer Kit (NMM-SDK). The NMM-SDK allows you to quickly get started with developing software based on the NMM. The NMM-SDK is available for all supported operating systems. Please refer to the documentation about the NMM-SDK for your operating system of choice. For using the NMM-SDK, you will need an installed version of NMM. If you want to develop an application on top of NMM, you should start by reading the documentation on Clic - An Application for Setting up NMM Multimedia Flow Graphs. Many different application setups can be tested and prototyped quickly by using the tool 'clic'. Then, you might want to read Hello World! Welcome to NMM Application Development. If you want to develop a plug-on for NMM, you should start by reading the documentation on Developing Plug-ins for NMM.

I am trying to run an existing NMM application, but it does not work. What can I do? Please first make sure that you followed all instructions for installing and setting up NMM. Many NMM application allow for displaying messages that might help to solve the problem. Try to run the example or application with the '-v' option for getting all error messages (or use '-vv' for error and warning messages, or '-vvvv' for all messages) and try if you can figure out what went wrong.

I encountered a problem when compiling/using NMM. Whom should I contact? There is an official web forum for NMM. If you require additional support, please contact us. The NMM forum is meant as a replacement for the mailing-list for NMM. If you think we should continue using the mailing-list, please let us know.

We are a company requiring professional support and training for NMM. Is that available? Yes. Please contact us for further information.

What other services does Motama offer for NMM based developments? Motama offers different services for companies and users requiring professional support.

What has happened to the famous Multimedia-Box (mmbox)? The Multimedia-Box is not yet fully ported to the new NMM version, i.e. from 0.9.1 to 1.0.0. Therefore, the Multimedia-Box is currently not included in the latest release of NMM. We are planning to release a new and extended version of the Multimedia-Box for Linux, Mac OS X, Windows XP and Vista as soon as possible as separate software package. If you do not know what the Multimedia-Box is, please continue reading here.

When will the Multimedia-Box be available for the latest NMM version again? We are planning to release a new and extended version of the Multimedia-Box as soon as possible as separate software package.

What is the relation between the 'old' NMM project and Motama? The NMM project started back in late 2000 at the Computer Graphics Lab of Prof. Philipp Slusallek at Saarland University, Germany. In 2002, a first version of NMM was released as Open Source software for Linux. If you want to learn more about the beginning of the NMM project, please refer to the official project homepage, in particular the section on 'News'. In 2005, the company Motama was founded. Since then, Motama is maintaining and continuously extending and improving the NMM software - and thereby also maintaining the NMM project itself. Many of the original developers of NMM are by now working for Motama. The Computer Graphics Lab is still involved in different research projects based on NMM.