Multimedia and the Web from A to Z
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In some ways it is the sound equivalent of vector graphics.
It is not digitized sound, but a series of commands which a MIDI playback device interprets to reproduce the sound, for example the pressing of a piano key. Like vector graphics MIDI files are very compact, however, how the sounds produced by the MIDI file depend on the playback device, and it may sound different from one machine to the next. MIDI files are only suitable for recording music; they cannot be used to store dialogue.
They are also more difficult to edit and manipulate than digitized sound files, though if you have the necessary skills every detail can be manipulated. MPEG-2 provides better quality, with a resolution up to x, 60 frames per second and multiple audio channels, but obviously at the cost of increased bandwidth.
When producing video for the Web, the main consideration relating to bandwidth is "What resolution?
[Pub.11FCb] Multimedia and the Web from A to Z: 2nd Edition PDF | by Patrick M. Dillon
Although video can be streamed over a modem, audio files usually work better, as they are easier to compress and require less bandwidth. Delivering streamed files usually requires a specially configured Web server, and this may entail upgrading server hardware. TCP is a reliable protocol, which will retransmit information to ensure it is received correctly. This can cause delays, making it unsuitable for audio and video. RTP works alongside TCP to transport streaming data across networks and synchronize multiple streams. Unlike TCP, RTP works on the basis that it does not matter as much if there is an occasional loss of packets, as this can be compensated for.
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Bandwidth requirements can also be reduced through the support of multicast. With multicast, rather than sending out a separate packet to each user, a single packet is sent to a group receiver, reaching all recipients who want to receive it. While RTP is a transport protocol, RTSP is a control protocol, and will provide control mechanisms and address higher level issues, providing "VCR style" control functionality such as pause and fast forward.
To produce simple worlds, a text editor and knowledge of the VRML specification is all that is required. However, as worlds become more complex, there are additional tools that can help.
Introduction
Conversion programs are also available that take output from other packages and convert it to VRML. This supports a new node type, Vista, which is a scrollable dewarping background image. Scrollable degree scenes are also support in a number of other VRML browsers. Style sheets will be fully supported in HTML 4.
The browser will be responsible for applying the appropriate style sheets in a given circumstance. While additional functionality can be added using 'plug-ins' and Java, both approaches have limitations. Using 'plug-ins' locks data into proprietary data formats. Using Java requires a programmer, and content becomes embedded in specific programs.
It is hoped that XML will provide an extensible, easy to use to solution allowing data to be more easily manipulated and exchanged over the Web. SMIL will allow sets of independent multimedia objects to be synchronized, using a simple language. It has been designed to be easy to author, with a simple text editor, making it accessible to anyone who can use HTML. It will provide support for interactivity, allowing the user to move through the presentation, random access, and support for embedded hyperlinks. It also allows exact position and layering of text and objects.
However, despite all the formats and protocols described, the Web continues to be biased towards text. Searching the Web with a standard search engine will only search for text. For the Web to be a truly hypermedia system standard audio and video indexing and searching facilities are required. Although the Web can be reasonable easily defined and delimited, multimedia is much harder to pin down. A common definition is the use of two or more different media. This would make a video tape or television multimedia, which most people would agree they are not. What they lack is interactivity.
Text Text is often neglected when considering multimedia, but is a very important component, as most information is still conveyed as some form of text. It should be remembered that HTML is a structural markup language, i.
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How the HTML document appears to the reader will depend on how their browser interprets these tags. Cascading Style Sheets To give authors more control over how their documents appear, without losing device independence or adding new tags, Cascading Style Sheets CSS were developed. These allow attributes such as text colour, margins, font styles and sizes to be specified. For example, different fonts can be specified for headings and paragraphs. They also allow exact positioning of the content by specifying x and y coordinates, and supports a z-index, allowing items to overlap.
Style sheets can be embedded within the document or linked as an external file. These are not really text formats, as they also store graphics, fonts and layout information. This shows how important images have become.
It offers a number of advantages over GIF: More and more companies are making use of rich media as marketing tools and training programs. However, downloadable media is dependent on its format, and problems can arise when transmitting rich media from one player to another. Animations and audio files may play differently from one media player to another. A successful rich media presentation will be interesting, informative, and easily accessed by any user.
Hypermedia, used in online multimedia presentations such as rich media, refers to the hyperlinks embedded in visual media.
Multimedia
When a customer or employee clicks on a Web site link to learn more about a subject or choose a certain option, this is an example of hypermedia. It is ideal as a tool for allocating information on appropriate levels, giving users knowledge in pertinent pieces. These types of nonlinear interaction are becoming increasingly common in the business world.
As more people internationally gain access to hypermedia, companies are beginning to develop multimedia presentations to communicate their visions, opportunities, outsource training, and updates. Multimedia devices have an almost innumerable variety of applications. They are used in home-entertainment systems and can be extremely powerful educational tools.
Educators, for example, have been exceptionally creative in combining some of the exciting elements of video-game. The goal of using the multimedia edutainment approach is to entertain the user so effectively that the user remains unaware that he or she is actually learning in the process. Multimedia can also offer critical services in the business world.
While information can certainly be conveyed adequately by the singular use of still pictures, video, film, audio, or text, multimedia potentially multiplies the degree of effectiveness, in no small part due to the added entertainment value and the extent to which the viewers feel a part of the action. Such benefits can't easily be matched by the application of a singular medium.
The effectiveness of teaching, selling, informing, entertaining, promoting, and presenting are all dependent upon one factor: A dynamic multimedia presentation can usually be more effective than earlier methods at accomplishing this task with an audience that was raised on television and motion pictures. The computerized multimedia presentation offers the added benefit of cost-effective flexibility, allowing easy editing of the basic materials in order to tailor them to specific target audiences.
Training, informational and promotional materials, sales presentations, and point-of-sale displays that allow for customer interaction and communication both within and outside the organization are all common applications of multimedia in the business world. The equipment required to produce these presentations is relatively commonplace or otherwise easy to access.
Perhaps the vanguard application of multimedia is virtual reality , a combination of video, stereo, and computer graphics that attempts to create an interactive three-dimensional environment that immerses the user within the simulation. Virtual reality has been employed in a wide range of practical applications: One should still keep in mind, however, that even if rendered in a highly advanced multimedia format, an ineffectual presentation is still an ineffectual presentation. One should remain focused on the message being conveyed while shaping the choice and use of materials in accordance with that message.
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By the mids the processing speed and memory capacity of computers had advanced considerably, enabling users to do more than ever before on their PCs. It became possible to run applications like video games that combined text, sounds, video, and graphic animation in exciting ways.
The combination of these different media elements came to be known as multimedia.
By the mids the processing speed and memory capacity of computers had advanced considerably, enabling users to do more than ever before on their PCs. Despite the amount of platform dependent software available, cross platform applications are receiving support, not only from standards committees, but perhaps more importantly, major vendors such as Microsoft and Netscape. Multimedia is the term used to describe two or more types of media combined into a single package — usually denoting a combination of some or all of the following: The browser will be responsible for applying the appropriate style sheets in a given circumstance. By highlighting or choosing links and sections, users can manipulate the information environment, examining whatever knowledge is important to them. Virtual reality has been employed in a wide range of practical applications:
In addition to multimedia software, the use of multimedia technology began to increase on the World Wide Web. Consumers were able listen to music and news via Internet audio technology, such as that offered by RealNetworks; and view streaming video clips, films, and Web casts.
Multimedia technology was a powerful tool for companies engaging in e-commerce. However, it also allowed them to create more exciting promotional efforts that incorporated video and sound. For example, a hotel chain could allow potential visitors to take virtual tours that included previews of rooms, restaurants, and entertainment offerings at different properties. An online music store could provide sample songs from CDs prior to purchase.
Multimedia technology also made inroads in the area of e-mail marketing. In the early s, Radical Communications provided technology to leading companies like 20th Century Fox, the National Football League, Dell, Old Navy, and Kraft that allowed them to deliver audio and video to consumers via e-mail.
It did this through a product called RadicalMail. Despite rapid advancements in multimedia technology and the speeds at which consumers connected to the Internet , a survey conducted by Keynote Systems Inc. The organization expected conditions to improve as streaming technologies evolved and more users relied on high-speed connections to access the Internet. Bandwidth, or the amount of data that a network connection is able to carry, is important for multimedia transmission quality. According to Dataquest, the number of households with high-speed access was expected to reach 28 million by , increasing from 6 million at the end of Broadband to Connect 28 Million U.
Web Multimedia Still Low-Grade. In order to work with multimedia, a personal computer typically requires a powerful microprocessor, large memory and storage capabilities, a high-quality monitor and a video accelerator, external loudspeakers or headphones and a sound card or sound board for improved sound generation, and a CD-ROM see compact disc or DVD-ROM see digital versatile disc drive, as well as special software to utilize many of these devices. A multimedia computer may also use other devices, such as a microphone or keyboard for audio input, a digital camera or scanner for graphics input, and a videocassette recorder or camcorder for video input or output.