Multimedia

Multimedia is an interactive media and provides multiple ways to represent

information to the user in a powerful manner.
It provides an interaction between users and digital information.
It is a medium of communication. Some of the sectors where multimedia’s is
used extensively are education, training, reference material, business
presentations, advertising and documentaries.

Applications of Multimedia
Following are the common areas of applications of multimedia.

● Multimedia in Business- Multimedia can be used in many applications in a

business. The multimedia technology along with communication technology
has opened the door for information of global wok groups. Today the team
members may be working anywhere and can work for various companies. Thus
the work place will become global. The multimedia network should support the
following facilities:
o Voice Mail
o Electronic Mail
o Multimedia based FAX
o Office Needs
o Employee Training
o Sales and Other types of Group Presentation
o Records Management

● Multimedia in Marketing and Advertising- By using multimedia marketing

of new products can be greatly enhanced. Multimedia boost communication on
an affordable cost opened the way for the marketing and advertising personnel.
Presentation that have flying banners, video transitions, animations, and sound
effects are some of the elements used in composing a multimedia based
advertisement to appeal to the consumer in a way never used before and
promote the sale of the products.

● Multimedia in Entertainment- By using multimedia marketing of new

products can be greatly enhanced. Multimedia boost communication on an
affordable cost opened the way for the marketing and advertising personnel.
Presentation that have flying banners, video transitions, animations, and sound
 effects are some of the elements used in composing a multimedia based
advertisement to appeal to the consumer in a way never used before and
promote the sale of the products.

● Multimedia in Education- Many computer games with focus on education are

now available. Consider an example of an educational game which plays
various rhymes for kids. The child can paint the pictures, increase reduce size
of various objects etc apart from just playing the rhymes.Several other
multimedia packages are available in the market which provide a lot of detailed
information and playing capabilities to kids.
● Multimedia in Bank- Bank is another public place where multimedia is
finding more and more application in recent times. People go to bank to open
saving/current accounts, deposit funds, withdraw money, know various
financial schemes of the bank, obtain loans etc. Every bank has a lot of
information which it wants to impart to in customers. For this purpose, it can
use multimedia in many ways. Bank also displays information about its various
schemes on a PC monitor placed in the rest area for customers. Today on-line
and internet banking have become very popular. These use multimedia
extensively. Multimedia is thus helping banks give service to their customers
and also in educating them about banks attractive finance schemes.
● Multimedia in Hospital- Multimedia best use in hospitals is for real time
monitoring of conditions of patients in critical illness or accident. The
conditions are displayed continuously on a computer screen and can alert the
doctor/nurse on duty if any changes are observed on the screen. Multimedia
makes it possible to consult a surgeon or an expert who can watch an ongoing
surgery line on his PC monitor and give online advice at any crucial juncture.

In hospitals multimedia can also be used to diagnose an illness with

CD-ROMs/ Cassettes/ DVDs full of multimedia based information about
various diseases and their treatment. Some hospitals extensively use
multimedia presentations in training their junior staff of doctors and nurses.
Multimedia displays are now extensively used during critical surgeries.

● Multimedia Pedagogues- Pedagogues are useful teaching aids only if they

stimulate and motivate the students. The audio-visual support to a pedagogue
can actually help in doing so. A multimedia tutor can provide multiple numbers
of challenges to the student to stimulate his interest in a topic. The instruction
provided by pedagogue have moved beyond providing only button level control
to intelligent simulations, dynamic creation of links, composition and
collaboration and system testing of the user interactions.
● Communication Technology and Multimedia Services- The advancement of
high computing abilities, communication ways and relevant standards has
started the beginning of an era where you will be provided with multimedia
facilities at home. These services may include:
 o Basic Television Services
o Interactive entertainment
o Digital Audio
o Video on demand
o Home shopping
o Financial Transactions
o Interactive multiplayer or single player games
o Digital multimedia libraries
o E-Newspapers, e-magazines

Multimedia Software
Multimedia software tells the hardware what to do. For example, multimedia software
tells the hardware to display the color blue, play the sound of cymbals crashing etc. To
produce these media elements (movies, sound, text, animation, graphics etc.) there are
various software available in the market such as Paint Brush, Photo Finish, Animator,
Photo Shop, 3D Studio, Corel Draw, Sound Blaster, IMAGINET, Apple Hyper Card,
Photo Magic, Picture Publisher.
Multimedia Software Categories
Following are the various categories of Multimedia software
● Device Driver Software- These softwares are used to install and configure the
multimedia peripherals.
● Media Players- Media players are applications that can play one or more kind
of multimedia file format.
● Media Conversion Tools- These tools are used for encoding / decoding
multimedia contexts and for converting one file format to another.
● Multimedia Editing Tools- These tools are used for creating and editing
digital multimedia data.
● Multimedia Authoring Tools- These tools are used for combing different
kinds of media formats and deliver them as multimedia contents.
Multimedia Application:
Multimedia applications are created with the help of following mentioned tools and
packages.
The sound, text, graphics, animation and video are the integral part of multimedia
software. To produce and edit these media elements, there are various software tools
available in the market. The categories of basic software tools are:
● Text Editing Tools- These tools are used to create letters, resumes, invoices,
purchase orders, user manual for a project and other documents. MS-Word is a
good example of text tool. It has following features:
o Creating new file, opening existing file, saving file and printing it.
o Insert symbol, formula and equation in the file.
o Correct spelling mistakes and grammatical errors.
o Align text within margins.
o Insert page numbers on the top or bottom of the page.
o Mail-merge the document and making letters and envelops.
o Making tables with variable number of columns and rows.

● Painting and Drawing Tools- These tools generally come with a graphical
user interface with pull down menus for quick selection. You can create almost
all kinds of possible shapes and resize them using these tools. Drawing file can
be imported or exported in many image formats like .gif, .tif, .jpg, .bmp, etc.
Some examples of drawing software are Corel Draw, Freehand, Designer,
Photoshop, Fireworks, Point etc.These software have following features:
o Tools to draw a straight line, rectangular area, circle etc.
o Different colour selection option.
o Pencil tool to draw a shape freehand.
o Eraser tool to erase part of the image.
o Zooming for magnified pixel editing.

● Image Editing Tools- Image editing tools are used to edit or reshape the
existing images and pictures. These tools can be used to create an image from
scratch as well as images from scanners, digital cameras, clipart files or
original artwork files created with painting and drawing tools. Examples of
Image editing or processing software are Adobe Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro.

● Sound Editing Tools- These tools are used to integrate sound into multimedia
project very easily. You can cut, copy, paste and edit segments of a sound file
by using these tools. The presence of sound greatly enhances the effect of a
mostly graphic presentation, especially in a video. Examples of sound editing
software tools are: Cool Edit Pro, Sound Forge and Pro Tools. This software
has following features:
o Record your own music, voice or any other audio.
 o Record sound from CD, DVD, Radio or any other sound player.
o You can edit, mix the sound with any other audio.
o Apply special effects such as fade, equalizer, echo, reverse and more.

● Video Editing Tools- These tools are used to edit, cut, copy, and paste your
video and audio files. Video editing used to require expensive, specialized
equipment and a great deal of knowledge. The aritistic process of video editing
consists of deciding what elements to retain, delete or combine from various
sources so that they come together in an organized, logical and visually
planning manner. Today computers are powerful enough to handle this job, disk
space is cheap and storing and distributing your finished work on DVD is very
easy. Examples of video editing software are Adobe Premiere and Adobe After
Effects.

● Animation and Modeling Tools- An animation is to show the still images at a

certain rate to give it visual effect with the help of Animation and modelling
tools. These tools have features like multiple windows that allow you to view
your model in each dimension, ability to drag and drop primitive shapes into a
scene, color and texture mapping, ability to add realistic effects such as
transparency, shadowing and fog etc. Examples of Animations and modeling
tools are 3D studio max and Maya.