A presentation system is disclosed for synchronizing a performance of a
plurality of presentation content portions at a network node, wherein,
e.g., when two such content portions are to be presented concurrently at
the network node, at least one is delayed until the other such portion
can be presented concurrently therewith. That is, these two portions may
be received by the network node at times sufficiently far apart so that
the earlier received content portion must have its presentation
appropriately delayed in order to be presented concurrently with the
second content portion. In one embodiment, the content portions are
transmitted via at least a portion of the Internet to a plurality of
network nodes, wherein the presentation system can distribute the
presentation content data to the network nodes via a plurality of network
routes and presentation formats. In particular, a first portion of the
content data may be provided as slides in, e.g., HTML, while a second
portion of the content data may be provided as an audio/video stream.
Additionally, the present invention can provide various portions of the
content data from a plurality of network server nodes, and during a
performance of the presentation, the presentation receiving network nodes
can determine a particular variation of the presentation to retrieve from
the network server nodes. In particular, the retrieval of presentation
data depends upon the transmission characteristics of the network such as
data transmission rate. Thus, if a low transmission data rate is detected
at a first network node, presentation elements of a reduced size can be
retrieved. Alternatively, if a higher transmission rate is detected at a
second network node, presentation elements of greater size (and
corresponding enhanced quality of presentation) can be retrieved. Thus,
within a single performance, network nodes with varying available network
bandwidths can synchronously and simultaneously provide the presentation.