MULTIMEDIA SYSTEMS

UNIT-IV

Introduction
A multimedia project is a classic software project which is developed using
multimedia technology with the specific aim of distributing information in an entertaining
and compelling manner. Multimedia projects require creativity, artistic as well as
programming skills. While developing the multimedia application, the professionals have to
choose the hardware and software equipment and components a variety of software tools
are available. Like all other projects, the multimedia project is also developed in stages.

Stages of Multimedia Project Development

Following are the basic stages of multimedia project development.

 Project conceptualization
 Planning and Costing
 Design and Production
 Testing
 Delivery

Project conceptualization:

Every project begins with a concept. A multimedia project concept is actually the
definition of the project. To define the project, it is required for the development team and
the clients to do the various meetings and discussions to identify the actual problem. It may
be the upgradation of the existing one or the entirely new one. It must satisfy the existing
requirements of the customer.
Planning and Costing:

In this stage, the analysis of the idea is done which is to be translated into a
multimedia project. This idea can be further refined by outlining its messages and
objectives. Before starting to develop the multimedia project, it is necessary to plan what
writing skills, graphic art, music, video, and other multimedia skills will be required. It is also
necessary to estimate the time needed to prepare all elements of multimedia and prepare a
budget accordingly. After preparing a budget, a prototype of the concept can be developed.

Design and Production:

Once the project is taken up for development, the laborious project development cycle
starts. Under this stage, the various sub-stages are to be carried out.

 Data gathering
 Navigation map structure design
 Media content design
 Interface designing
 Storyboarding
 Integration (multimedia authoring)

Testing:

In every project, the Testing stage ensures that the product to be free from bugs.
Apart from bug elimination, another aspect of testing is to ensure that the multimedia
application meets the objectives of the project. It is also necessary to test whether the
multimedia project works properly on the planned delivery platforms and meets the needs
of the clients.

Delivery:

The final stage of the multimedia application development is to pack the project and
deliver the complete project to the end-user. This stage has several steps such as:

 Implementation,
 Maintenance,
 Shipping and marketing

What You Need: The Intangibles

We need hardware, software, and good ideas to make multimedia. To make good
multimedia, you need talent and skill. Multimedia development
of any scale greater than the most basic level is inherently a team effort:
artwork is performed by graphic artists, video shoots by video producers,
sound editing by audio producers, and programming by programmers. The following are
intangible needs of Multimedia.

Creativity
Before beginning a multimedia project, We must first develop a sense of
its scope and content. Let the project take shape in your head as you think
through the various methods available to get your message across to your
viewers.

The most precious asset we can bring to the multimedia workshop is

our creativity. It’s what separates run-of-the-mill or underwhelming multimedia from
compelling, engaging, and award-winning products, whether
we’re talking about a short sales presentation viewed solely by colleagues
within your firm or provided for a fully immersive online game.
We have a lot of room for creative risk taking, because the rules for
what works and what doesn’t work are still being empirically discovered,
and there are few known formulas for multimedia success. Indeed, com-
panies that produce a terrific multimedia title are usually rewarded in the
marketplace, but their success can be fleeting. This is because competi-
tors often reverse-engineer the product, and then produce knockoffs using
similar approaches and techniques, which appear on the market six months
later. Good web site ideas and programming are easily cloned.
The evolution of multimedia is evident when you look at some of the
first multimedia projects done on computers and compare them to today’s
titles. Taking inspiration from earlier experiments, developers modify and
add their own creative touches for designing their own unique multimedia
projects.

Organization

It’s essential that you develop an organized outline and a plan that rationally details
the skills, time, budget, tools and resources we will need for a
project. These should be in place before you start to render graphics, sounds,
and other components, and a protocol should be established for naming
the files so you can organize them for quick retrieval when you need them.
These files—called assets—should continue to be monitored throughout
the project’s execution.

Communication

Many multimedia applications are developed in workgroups comprising

instructional designers, writers, graphic artists, programmers, and musicians located in the
same office space or building. The workgroup members computers are typically connected
on a local area network (LAN). The client’s computers, however, may be thousands of miles
distant, requiring other methods for good communication.
 Communication among workgroup members and with the client is
essential to the efficient and accurate completion of our project. If our
client and you are both connected to the Internet, a combination of Skype
video and voice telephone, e-mail, and the File Transfer Protocol (FTP)
may be the most cost-effective and efficient solution for both creative devel-
opment and project management. In the workplace, use quality equipment
and software for your communications setup. The cost—in both time and
money—of stable and fast networking will be returned to us.

Multimedia Hardware
Most of the computers now-a-days come equipped with the hardware components
required to develop/view multimedia applications. Following are the various categories in
which we can define the various types of hardwares required for multimedia applications.

 Processor
The heart of any multimedia computer is its processor. Today Core 15 or higher
processor is recommended for a multimedia computer.
o CPU is considered as the brain of the computer.
o CPU performs all types of data processing operations.
o It stores data, intermediate result and instructions (program).
o It controls the operations of all parts of computer.

 Memory and Storage Devices

You need memory for storing various files used during production, original audio
and video clips, edited pieces and final mined pieces. You also need memory for
backup of your project files.

o Primary Memory- Primary memory holds only those data and instructions on
which computer is currently working. It has limited capacity and data gets lost
when power is switched off. It is generally made up of semiconductor device.
These memories are not as fast as registers. The data and instructions
required to be processed earlier reside in main memory. It is divided into two
subcategories RAM and ROM.
 o Flash Memory- Cache memory is a very high speed semiconductor memory,
which can speed up CPU. It acts as a buffer between the CPU and main
memory. It is used to hold those parts of data and program which are most
frequently used by CPU. The parts of data and programs are transferred from
disk to cache memory by operating system, from where CPU can access them.

o Secondary Memory: This type of memory is also known as external memory

or non-volatile. It is slower than main memory. These are used for storing
Data/Information permanently. CPU directly does not access these memories;
instead they are accessed via input-output routines. Contents of secondary
memories are first transferred to main memory and then CPU can access it.
For example, disk, CD-ROM, DVD, etc.

 Input Devices
Following are the various types of input devices which are used in multimedia
systems.
o Keyboard- Most common and very popular input device is keyboard. The
keyboard helps in inputting the data to the computer. The layout of the
keyboard is like that of traditional typewriter, although there are some
additional keys provided for performing some additional functions. Keyboards
are of two sizes 84 keys or 101/102 keys, but now 104 keys or 108 keys
keyboard is also available for Windows and Internet. The keys are following:

Sr.
Keys Description
No.

These keys include the letter keys (A-Z) and digits keys (0-9) which
1 Typing Keys
generally give same layout as that of typewriters.
 It is used to enter numeric data or cursor movement. Generally, it
Numeric
2 consists of a set of 17 keys that are laid out in the same
Keypad
configuration used by most adding machine and calculators.

The twelve functions keys are present on the keyboard. These are
Function
3 arranged in a row along the top of the keyboard. Each function key
Keys
has unique meaning and is used for some specific purpose.

These keys provide cursor and screen control. It includes four

Control directional arrow key. Control keys also include Home, End, Insert,
4
keys Delete, Page Up, Page Down, Control(Ctrl), Alternate(Alt),
Escape(Esc).

Special
Keyboard also contains some special purpose keys such as Enter,
5 Purpose
Shift, Caps Lock, Num Lock, Space bar, Tab, and Print Screen.
Keys

o Mouse - Mouse is most popular Pointing device. It is a very famous cursor-

control device. It is a small palm size box with a round ball at its base which
senses the movement of mouse and sends corresponding signals to CPU on
pressing the buttons. Generally, it has two buttons called left and right button
and scroll bar is present at the mid. Mouse can be used to control the position
of cursor on screen, but it cannot be used to enter text into the computer.

o Joystick - Joystick is also a pointing device, which is used to move cursor

position on a monitor screen. It is a stick having a spherical ball at its both
lower and upper ends. The lower spherical ball moves in a socket. The joystick
can be moved in all four directions. The function of joystick is similar to that of
a mouse. It is mainly used in Computer Aided Designing (CAD) and playing
computer games.
o Light Pen - Light pen is a pointing device, which is similar to a pen. It is used to
select a displayed menu item or draw pictures on the monitor screen. It
consists of a photocell and an optical system placed in a small tube. When
light pen's tip is moved over the monitor screen and pen button is pressed, its
photocell sensing element detects the screen location and sends the
corresponding signal to the CPU.

o Track Ball - Track ball is an input device that is mostly used in notebook or
laptop computer, instead of a mouse. This is a ball, which is half inserted and
by moving fingers on ball, pointer can be moved.Since the whole device is not
moved, a track ball requires less space than a mouse. A track ball comes in
various shapes like a ball, a button and a square.

o Scanner - Scanner is an input device, which works more like a photocopy

machine. It is used when some information is available on a paper and it is to
be transferred to the hard disc of the computer for further manipulation.
Scanner captures images from the source which are then converted into the
digital form that can be stored on the disc. These images can be edited before
they are printed.

o Digitizer - Digitizer is an input device, which converts analog information into

a digital form. Digitizer can convert a signal from the television camera into a
series of numbers that could be stored in a computer. They can be used by the
computer to create a picture of whatever the camera had been pointed at.
Digitizer is also known as Tablet or Graphics Tablet because it converts
 graphics and pictorial data into binary inputs. A graphic tablet as digitizer is
used for doing fine works of drawing and images manipulation applications.

o Magnetic Ink Card Reader (MICR) - MICR input device is generally used in
banks because of a large number of cheques to be processed everyday. The
bank's code number and cheque number are printed on the cheques with a
special type of ink that contains particles of magnetic material that are
machine readable. This reading process is called Magnetic Ink Character
Recognition (MICR). The main advantage of MICR is that it is fast and less error
prone.

o Optical Character Reader (OCR) - OCR is an input device used to read a

printed text. OCR scans text optically character by character, converts them
into a machine readable code and stores the text on the system memory.

o Bar Code Readers - Bar Code Reader is a device used for reading bar coded
data (data in form of light and dark lines). Bar coded data is generally used in
labelling goods, numbering the books, etc. It may be a hand-held scanner or
may be embedded in a stationary scanner.Bar Code Reader scans a bar code
image, converts it into an alphanumeric value, which is then fed to the
computer to which bar code reader is connected.

o Optical Mark Reader (OMR) - OMR is a special type of optical scanner used to
recognize the type of mark made by pen or pencil. It is used where one out of
a few alternatives is to be selected and marked. It is specially used for
checking the answer sheets of examinations having multiple choice questions.
o Voice Systems - Following are the various types of input devices which are
used in multimedia systems.
 Microphone- Microphone is an input device to input sound that is then
stored in digital form. The microphone is used for various applications
like adding sound to a multimedia presentation or for mixing music.

 Speaker- Speaker is an output device to produce sound which is stored

in digital form. The speaker is used for various applications like adding
sound to a multimedia presentation or for movies displays etc.

o Digital Camera - Digital camera is an input device to input images that is then
stored in digital form. The digital camera is used for various applications like
adding images to a multimedia presentation or for personal purposes.

o Digital Video Camera - Digital Video camera is an input device to input

images/video that is then stored in digital form. The digital video camera is
used for various applications like adding videos to a multimedia presentation
or for personal purposes.
 Output Devices - Following are few of the important output devices, which
are used in Computer Systems:

o Monitors - Monitor commonly called as Visual Display Unit (VDU) is the main
output device of a computer. It forms images from tiny dots, called pixels, that
are arranged in a rectangular form. The sharpness of the image depends upon
the number of the pixels. There are two kinds of viewing screen used for
monitors:
 Cathode-Ray Tube (CRT) Monitor- In the CRT, display is made up of
small picture elements called pixels for short. The smaller the pixels,
the better the image clarity or resolution. It takes more than one
illuminated pixel to form whole character, such as the letter 'e' in the
word help. A finite number of characters can be displayed on a screen
at once. The screen can be divided into a series of character boxes -
fixed location on the screen where a standard character can be placed.
Most screens are capable of displaying 80 characters of data
horizontally and 25 lines vertically.

 Flat-Panel Display Monitor- The flat-panel display refers to a class of

video devices that have reduced volume, weight and power
requirement compared to the CRT. You can hang them on walls or wear
them on your wrists. Current uses for flat-panel displays include
calculators, video games, monitors, laptop computer, graphics display.
The flat-panel displays are divided into two categories:
 Emissive Displays- The emissive displays are devices that
convert electrical energy into light. Examples are plasma panel
and LED (Light-Emitting Diodes).
 Non-Emissive Displays- The Non-emissive displays use optical
effects to convert sunlight or light from some other source into
graphics patterns. Example is LCD (Liquid-Crystal Device)

 Printers - Printer is the most important output device, which is used to print
information on paper.
o Dot Matrix Printer- In the market, one of the most popular printers is Dot
Matrix Printer because of their ease of printing features and economical price.
Each character printed is in form of pattern of Dot's and head consists of a
 Matrix of Pins of size (5*7, 7*9, 9*7 or 9*9) which comes out to form a
character that is why it is called Dot Matrix Printer.

o Daisy Wheel- Head is lying on a wheel and Pins corresponding to characters

are like petals of Daisy (flower name) that is why it is called Daisy Wheel
Printer. These printers are generally used for word-processing in offices which
require a few letters to be send here and there with very nice quality
representation.

o Line Printers- Line printers are printers, which print one line at a time.

o Laser Printers- These are non-impact page printers. They use laser lights to
produce the dots needed to form the characters to be printed on a page.

o Inkjet Printers- Inkjet printers are non-impact character printers based on a

relatively new technology. They print characters by spraying small drops of ink
onto paper. Inkjet printers produce high quality output with presentable
features. They make less noise because no hammering is done and these have
many styles of printing modes available. Colour printing is also possible. Some
models of Inkjet printers can produce multiple copies of printing also.
  Screen Image Projector - Screen image projector or simply projector is an output
device used to project information from a computer on a large screen so that a group
of people can see it simultaneously. A presenter first makes a PowerPoint
presentation on the computer. Now a screen image projector is plugged to a
computer system and presenter can make a presentation to a group of people by
projecting the information on a large screen. Projector makes the presentation more
understandable.

 Speakers and Sound Card - Computers need both a sound card and speakers to hear
audio, such as music, speech and sound effects. Most motherboards provide an on-
board sound card. This built-in-sound card is fine for the most purposes. The basic
functions of a sound card are that it converts digital sound signals to analog for
speakers making it louder or softer.

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 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 envelopes.
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. These softwares have the 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 artistic 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 Modelling Tools

An animation is to show the still images at a certain rate to give it visual

effect with the help of Animation and modeling 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.

Multimedia Authoring Tools

Multimedia authoring is a process of assembling different types of media contents
like text, audio, image, animations and video as a single stream of information with the help
of various software tools available in the market. Multimedia authoring tools give an
integrated environment for joining together the different elements of a multimedia
production. It gives the framework for organizing and editing the components of a
multimedia project. It enables the developer to create interactive presentation by
combining text, audio, video, graphics and animation.
Classification

Card or Page based authoring Tools

In these authoring systems, elements are organized as pages of a book or a stack of
cards. In the book or stack there are thousand of pages or cards available. These tools are
best used when the bulk of your content consists of elements that can be viewed
individually, for example the pages of a book or file cards in card file. You can jump from
page to page because all pages can be interrelated. In the authoring system you can
organize pages or cards in the sequences manner. Every page of the book may contain many
media elements like sounds, videos and animations.
One page may have a hyperlink to another page that comes at a much later stage and by
clicking on the same you might have effectively skipped several pages in between. Some
examples of card or page tools are:
 Hypercard (Mac)
 Tool book (Windows)
 PowerPoint (Windows)
 Supercard (Mac)

Advantages
Following are the advantages of card based authoring tools.
 Easy to understand.
 One screen is equal to 1card or 1page.
 Easy to use as these tools provide template.
 Short development time.

Disadvantages
Following are the disadvantages of card based authoring tools.
 Some run only on one platform.
 Tools not as powerful as equivalent stand alones.

Icon based or Event driven authoring tools

Icon-based tools give a visual programming approach to organizing and presenting
multimedia. First you build a structure or flowchart of events, tasks and decisions by
dragging appropriate icons from a library. Each icon does a specific task, for example- plays
a sound, open an image etc. The flowchart graphically displays the project's logic. When the
structure is built you can add your content text, graphics, animation, video movies and
sounds. A nontechnical multimedia author can also build sophisticated applications without
scripting using icon based authoring tools. Some examples of icon based tools are:
 Authorware Professional (Mac/Windows)
 Icon Author (Windows)
Advantages
Following are the advantages of icon/event based authoring tools.
 Clear Structure.
 Easy editing and updating

Disadvantages
Following are the disadvantages of icon/event based authoring tools.
 Difficult to learn.
 Expensive.

Time based authoring tools

Time based authoring tools allow the designer to arrange various elements and
events of the multimedia project along a well defined time line. By time line, we simply
mean the passage of time. As the time advances from starting point of the project, the
events begin to occur, one after another. The events may include media files playback as
well as transition from one portion of the project to another. The speed at which these
transitions occur can also be accurately controlled. These tools are best to use for those
projects, wherein the information flow can be directed from beginning to end much like the
movies. Some example of Time based tools are:
 Macromedia's Director
 Macromedia Flash
Advantages
Following are the advantages of time based authoring tools.
 Good for creating animation.
 Branching, user control, interactivity facilities.
Disadvantages
Following are the disadvantages of time based authoring tools.
 Expensive
 Large file size
 Steep learning curve to understand various features.

Object-Oriented authoring tools

Object oriented authoring tools support environment based on object. Each object
has the following two characteristics:
1. State or Attributes - The state or attributes refers to the built in characteristics of an
object. For example, a color T.V has the following attributes:
o Color receiver
o Volume control
 o Picture control
o 128 channels
o Remote control unit
2. Behavior or Operations - The behavior or operations of an object refers to its action.
For example, a T.V can behave in any of the following manner at a given point of
time:
o Switched on
o Switched off
o Displays picture and sound from
 A TV cable connection
 A TV transmitter
 A DVD
 A VCR

In these systems, multimedia elements events are often treated as objects that live
in a hierarchical order of parent and child relationships. These objects use messages passed
among them to do things according to the properties assigned to them. For example, a
video object will likely have a duration property i.e how long the video plays and a source
property that is the location of the video file. This video object will likely accept commands
from the system such as play and stop. Some examples of the object oriented tools are:
o mTropolis (Mac/Windows)
o Apple Media Tool (Mac/Windows)
o Media Forge (Windows)

Multimedia Production Team

A multimedia production team may require as many as 18 discrete
roles, including:

Executive Producer
Producer/Project Manager
Creative Director/Multimedia Designer
Art Director/Visual Designer
Artist
Interface Designer
Game Designer
Subject Matter Expert
Instructional Designer/Training Specialist
Scriptwriter
Animator (2-D/3-D)
Sound Producer
Music Composer
Video Producer
Multimedia Programmer
HTML Coder
Lawyer/Media Acquisition
Marketing Director

We can consolidate the above Team members in the following manner.

Multimedia Team (Project manager, Multimedia Designer, Interface Designer,

Writer, Video Specialist, Audio Specialist, Multimedia Programmer, The Sum Of the parts). A
typical team for developing multimedia for CD-ROM or the Web consists of people who
bring various capabilities to the table. Often, individual members of multimedia production
teams wear several hats.

1. Project Manager:
A project manager’s role is at the center of the action. He or she is
responsible for overall development and implementation of a project as well as
for day-to-day operations. Budgets, schedules, creative sessions, time sheets,
illness, invoices, team dynamics-the project manager is the glue that holds it
together.

2. Multimedia Designer:
Multimedia designers need variety of skills. We need to be able to analyze
content structurally and match it up with effective presentation methods. We
need to be an expert on different media types, and capable media integrator, in
order to create an overall vision.

3. Writer:
Multimedia writers do everything writers of linear media do, and more. They
create character, action, and point of view-a traditional scriptwriter’s tools of the
trade-and they also crate interactivity. They write proposals, they script voice –
over and actors’ narrations, they write text screens to deliver messages, and they
develop characters designed for an interactive environment.

4. Audio Specialist:
The quality of audio elements can make or break a multimedia project. Audio
specialist are the wizards who make a multimedia program come alive, designing
and producing music, voice-over narrations, and sound effects.

5. Multimedia Programmer:
A multimedia programmer or software engineer integrates all the multimedia
elements of a project into seamless whole using an authoring system or
programming language. Multimedia programming functions range from coding
simple displays of multimedia elements to controlling peripheral devices such as
laserdisc players and managing complex timing, transitions, and record keeping.
Creative multimedia programmers can coax extra performance from multimedia
authoring and programming systems. Without programming talent, there can be
 no multimedia. Code, whether written in Java Script, OpenScript, Lingo, C++, is
the sheet music played by a well-rehearsed orchestra.

6. The Sum Of Parts:

Successful multimedia projects begin the selecting “team Players”. But
selection is only the beginning of a team-building process that must continue
through a project’s duration. Team building refers to activities that help a group
and its members function at optimum levels of performance by creating a work
culture incorporating the styles of its members. We should encourage
communication styles that are fluid and inclusive, and we should develop
models for decision making that respect individual talents, expertise, and
personalities.