1 ) A large scale distributed multimedia system comprising the following: a) One or more server(s), wherein each server includes i) a main server thread; ii) one or more threads capable of monitoring incoming data feeds and instantiating the resultant data into the system (monitoring threads), and iii) one or more threads capable of handling incoming data requests (request threads); and iv) cache memory. b) logically connected to such server(s), a mass storage system (MSS), wherein such MSS stores information concerning the arrangement of one or more server(s) and is capable of controlling one or more robotic autoloader systems (robots); c) logically connected to such server(s), a types system for defining data types at a binary level and for associating those data types with one or more server(s) such that the mapping maps data types with the servers that must be addressed to obtain the corresponding data; and d) logically connected to such server(s), a query system for executing data queries on servers mapped to the data type being queried.