Control and observation of physical devices, equipment and processes by multiple users over computer networks

A system for remote physical process access and operation, comprising:

• at least one laboratory server operatively coupled to at least one physical process and configured to monitor and control said at least one physical process;
• at least one client process configured to provide control instructions to said at least one physical process and to receive and store data indicative of said at least one physical process;
• a second server configured to receive physical process data indicative of said at least one physical process, the second server further configured to divide said physical process data into a plurality of segments, perform a discrete cosine transform on each of said plurality of segments to generate ideal transformed data, calculate a difference between said ideal transformed data and said data stored by said at least one client process, and send differential data indicative of said difference to said at least one client process;
• and
• a connection server capable of maintaining connections with at least three components selected from a group defined by said at least one client process, said at least one laboratory server and said second server, said connection server configured to route said control instructions from said at least one client process to at least one of said at least one laboratory server and said at least one client process and to route said differential data from said second server to said at least one client process.