COMPONENTS OF MULTIMEDIA

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Components of Multimedia

The various components of multimedia are

Text, Audio, Graphics, Video and Animation.
All these components work together to
represent information in an effective and easy
manner.
Components of Multimedia

• Text:
Text is the most common medium of representing
the information. In multimedia, text is mostly use for
titles, headlines,menu etc.

The most commonly used software for viewing text

files are Microsoft Word, Notepad, Word pad etc.
Mostly the text files are formatted with ,DOC, TXT etc
extension.
 Components of Multimedia
• Audio:
In multimedia audio means related with recording,
playing etc. Audio is an important components of
multimedia because this component increase the
understandability and improves the clarity of the
concept. audio includes speech, music etc.

The commonly used software for playing audio files are:

i) Quick Time
ii) Real player
iii) Windows Media Player
Audio File Size is Determined by:

• Sampling rate – the number of samples per

second.
• Sample size – the number of bits used to save
one sample.
• Channels recorded – mono or stereo.
Audio File Formats

• AU – (Audio) file created by Sun Microsystems

and used on computers running the UNIX
operating system.
• MP3 – (Mpeg-1 Audio Layer 3) very compressed
file that is popular for music stored on portable
players and on the Internet because it can
reproduce near-CD quality audio in small file
sizes.
• MIDI – (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) file
format for creating and/or playing music with
instruments using synthesizers and sound cards.
Audio File Formats

• WAV – (Waveform) file format developed jointly by IBM

and Microsoft as the native format for Windows sound
files.
– Produces high-quality sound.
– Generates large file sizes because it is uncompressed.
– Commonly used to edit sound which is then saved in a different
compressed format for distribution.
• WMA (Windows Media Audio) proprietary file format
developed by Microsoft originally to compete with the
.MP3 format.
– Produces high-quality sound.
– More compressed than .WAV files.
Components of Multimedia
• Graphics:
Every multimedia presentation is based on graphics.
The used of graphics in multimedia makes the
concept more effective and presentable.the
commonly used software for viewing graphics are
windows Picture, Internet Explorer etc.

The commonly used graphics editing software is

Adobe Photoshop through which graphics can be
edited easily and can be make effective and
attractive.
Graphics:

• Graphics are an important part of the communication

process.
• They can be used to:
– Highlight information
– Set a mood or tone
– Provide examples
– Serve as backgrounds
• The two types of graphic used in multimedia are raster
and vector.
– Vector graphics are made up of arcs and lines..
– Raster graphics are made of dots.
Graphics:
When using graphics, the multimedia designer must:
• Determine the best balance between the size and quality.
• Use appropriate graphics for the intended purpose and audience.
• Choose appropriate file formats
– Standard for the internet:
• JPEG (Joint Photographer Experts Group)
• GIF (Graphics Interchange file format)
• PNG (Portable Network Graphics)
– Most popular
• TIFF - Tagged Image File Format
• BMP – Bitmap
• PCX - Windows Paint
• PICT - Macintosh
Components of Multimedia
• Video:
Video means moving pictures with sound. It is the
best way to communicate with each other. In
multimedia it is used to makes the information more
presentable and it saves a large amount of time.

The commonly used software for viewing videos are:

i) Quick Time
ii) Window Media Player
iii) Real Player
Video:

• Videos can be used in:

– CD-ROMS
– Games
– Presentations
– Video simulations
– Videoconferences
– Websites.

• Videos vary in quality.

Video Format:

The file format of the video determines:

– Which programs can open and play it.
– How much storage space it occupies.
– How fast it travels over an Internet connection.
Video File Format:

• AVI (Audio Video Interleave)

– Windows format, plays in Windows Media Player
– Very good quality, even at smaller resolutions
– Large file size – not recommended for delivering video over the
Internet.
– Popular format for videos stored on a computer.

• MOV (Movie)
– Apple format, plays in the QuickTime Player
– Very good quality
– Popular format for videos downloaded from the Internet.
Video File Format:
• MPEG (Moving Pictures Expert Group)
– The standard for compression and storage of audio and motion
video for use on the World Wide Web.
• Creates video small file sizes.
• Popular format for videos downloaded from the Internet.
– Its biggest advantage is that It will play in many different media
players.

• RM (RealMedia)
– Plays in the RealPlayer player.
– Typically contains a movie clip.
– Popular format for streaming video viewed over the Internet.
– Real Player is generally supported by many different computers and
operating systems.
Video File Format:

• WMV (Windows Media Video)

• Proprietary video format developed by Microsoft.
• Plays in Windows Media Player.
• Popular format for streaming video viewed over the Internet.

• FLV (Flash Video)

• New file format widely used on the Internet.
• Plays in Adobe Flash Player.
• Very small file size.
• Popular format for streaming video viewed over the Internet
Components of Multimedia
• Animation:
In computer animation is used to make changes to
the images so that the sequence of the images
appears to be moving pictures. An animated
sequence shows a number of frames per second to
produce an effect of motion in the user's eye.

Some of the commonly used software for viewing

animation are:
i) Internet Explorer
ii) Windows Pictures
iii) Fax Viewer
Animation:

• 2-D and 3-D animations are useful in multimedia

in the areas of entertainment, education, and
training.
• They can be used to create simplified illustrations
of a simulation or dramatization.
• They can be much easier to understand because
they are less complex than video.
• 2-D animations have smaller file sizes that video
files which means quicker loading or
downloading of the files.
Additional:
Multimedia involves multiple modalities of text, audio,
images, drawings, animation, and video.

Examples of how these modalities are put to use:

•Video teleconferencing.
•Distributed lectures for higher education.
•Tele‐medicine.
•Co‐operative work environments.
•Searching in (very) large video and image databases
for target visual objects.
"Augmented"reality: placing real‐appearing
computer graphics and video objects into
scenes.
•Including audio cues for where video‐conference
participants are located.
•Building searchable features into new video, and
enabling very high‐to very low‐bit‐rate use of new
scalable multimedia products.
•Making multimedia components editable.
•Building"inverse‐Hollywood"applications that can
recreate the process by which a video was made.
•Video understanding has also been called an inverse
Hollywood problem.
•Using voice‐recognition to build an interactive
environment, say a kitchen‐wall web browser.
Tip
• Common file types include:
• Text Only: TXT
• Text with other elements: DOC, DOCX, PDF
• Images: JPG, PNG, TIF, BMP
• Audio: MP3, WAV, WMA
• Video: AVI, WMV, FLV, MOV, MP4
• Animation: GIF, FLV