Activities in the area of Computer Networks at PUC-Rio began in 1980.

In this decade, from the start of researches carried out at the TeleMedia Laboratory, the first Brazilian local networks emerged: Redpuc (at PUC-Rio) and Redusp (at USP), which supported the concepts distributed from the headquarters.

In the early 1990s, as it happened with groups from other countries, having already developed important applications such as video telephony systems, audiographic teleconferencing and multimedia e-mail, researchers noticed the need for a more formal treatment of the documents exchanged in various multimedia applications. Thus, the area of environments created HyperProp, a project for the development of hypermedia applications.

In Portuguese “hiper contra-regra”, HyperProp consisted of an open distributed hypermedia system capable of providing hypermedia facilities to its various user applications.

In 2005, with the experience acquired in more than two decades of research in the areas of Multimedia/Hypermedia Systems and Computer Networks, the HyperProp project focused on the area of Interactive Digital TV, resulting in the Ginga-NCL subsystem. In 2006 it became the declarative environment of the Brazilian standard for terrestrial digital TV middleware and, in 2009, it was the ITU-T H.761 Recommendation for IPTV services.

More recently, research and projects have been focusing on the application of Machine Learning to specific domains such as Interactive Digital TV, Sentiment Analysis within Multimedia content, compression and coding for video and images, always looking for interaction with the industry (in projects in partnership with Petrobras, RNP, and Microsoft). From these developments, new scenarios have been explored, like the ones based on Immersive Media (in particular those, exploring new Multi-sensorial Media and Virtual Reality scenarios).

Simultaneously to the research and combined with a strong scientific production, TeleMídia prioritizes the training of human resources. In line with this concern, Extension and Specialization courses in the areas of Digital TV and Computer Networks have been offered regularly.

Working intensively on the various projects, several Master and PhD students have been developing their thesis in the Laboratory. The doctoral and master’s degrees are added to dozens of post-graduates already graduated at the Laboratory. Several of these professionals work in important institutions, such as research centers, companies and government agencies, disseminating the knowledge acquired in the Laboratory during their training.