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 multimedias is used
extensively are education, training, reference material, business
presentations, advertising and documentaries.
• Definition of Multimedia
• By definition Multimedia is a representation of information in an attractive and
interactive manner with the use of a combination of text, audio, video, graphics
and animation. In other words we can say that Multimedia is a computerized
method of presenting information combining textual data, audio, visuals
(video), graphics and animations. For examples: E-Mail, Yahoo Messenger, Video
Conferencing, and Multimedia Message Service (MMS).
• Multimedia as name suggests is the combination of Multi and Media that is
many types of media (hardware/software) used for communication of
information.
• Components of Multimedia
• Following are the common components of multimedia:
• Text- All multimedia productions contain some amount of text. The text can have various
types of fonts and sizes to suit the profession presentation of the multimedia software.
• Graphics- Graphics make the multimedia application attractive. In many cases people do
not like reading large amount of textual matter on the screen. Therefore, graphics are used
more often than text to explain a concept, present background information etc. There are
two types of Graphics:
 • Bitmap images- Bitmap images are real images that can be captured from devices such as digital cameras or scanners.
Generally bitmap images are not editable. Bitmap images require a large amount of memory.
• Vector Graphics- Vector graphics are drawn on the computer and only require a small amount of memory. These graphics
are editable.

• Audio- A multimedia application may require the use of speech, music and sound effects. These are called audio or
sound element of multimedia.Speech is also a perfect way for teaching. Audio are of analog and digital types.
Analog audio or sound refers to the original sound signal. Computer stores the sound in digital form. Therefore, the
sound used in multimedia application is digital audio.
• Video- The term video refers to the moving picture, accompanied by sound such as a picture in television. Video
element of multimedia application gives a lot of information in small duration of time. Digital video is useful in
multimedia application for showing real life objects. Video have highest performance demand on the computer
memory and on the bandwidth if placed on the internet. Digital video files can be stored like any other files in the
computer and the quality of the video can still be maintained. The digital video files can be transferred within a
computer network. The digital video clips can be edited easily.
• Animation- Animation is a process of making a static image look like it is moving. An
animation is just a continuous series of still images that are displayed in a sequence. The
animation can be used effectively for attracting attention. Animation also makes a
presentation light and attractive. Animation is very popular in multimedia application
• 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:
• Voice Mail
• Electronic Mail
• Multimedia based FAX
• Office Needs
• Employee Training
• Sales and Other types of Group Presentation
• 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.
• 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:
• Basic Television Services
• Interactive entertainment
• Digital Audio
• Video on demand
• Home shopping
• Financial Transactions
• Interactive multiplayer or single player games
• Digital multimedia libraries
• 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.
• 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:
• Creating new file, opening existing file, saving file and printing it.
• Insert symbol, formula and equation in the file.
• Correct spelling mistakes and grammatical errors.
• Align text within margins.
• Insert page numbers on the top or bottom of the page.
• Mail-merge the document and making letters and envolpes.
• 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:
• Tools to draw a straight line, rectangular area, circle etc.
• Different colour selection option.
• Pencil tool to draw a shape freehand.
• Eraser tool to erase part of the image.
• 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 software have following features:
• Record your own music, voice or any other audio.
• Record sound from CD, DVD, Radio or any other sound player.
• You can edit, mix the sound with any other audio.
• 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 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.
• Definition
• 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.
• Editing Features- Most authoring environment and packages exhibit capabilities to create edit and
transform different kinds of media that they support. For example, Macromedia Flash comes
bundled with its own sound editor. This eliminates the need for buying dedicated software to edit
sound data. So authoring systems include editing tools to create, edit and convert multimedia
components such as animation and video clips.
• Organizing Features- The process of organization, design and production of multimedia involve
navigation diagrams or storyboarding and flowcharting. Some of the authoring tools provide a
system of visual flowcharting or overview facility to showcase your project's structure at a macro
level. Navigation diagrams help to organize a project. Many web-authoring programs like
Dreamweaver include tools that create helpful diagrams and links among the pages of a website.
• Visual programming with icons or objects- It is simplest and easiest authoring process. For
example, if you want to play a sound then just clicks on its icon.
• Programming with a scripting language- Authoring software offers the ability to write
scripts for software to build features that are not supported by the software itself. With script
you can perform computational tasks - sense user input and respond, character creation,
animation, launching other application and to control external multimedia devices.
• Document Development tools- Some authoring tools offers direct importing of pre-formatted
text, to index facilities, to use complex text search mechanism and to use hypertext link-ing
tools.
• Interactivity Features- Interactivity empowers the end users to control the content and flow of
information of the project. Authoring tools may provide one or more levels of interactivity.
• Simple branching- Offers the ability to go to another section of the multimedia production.
• Conditional branching- Supports a go to base on the result of IF-THEN decision or events.
• Playback Features- When you are developing multimedia project, you will continousally
assembling elements and testing to see how the assembly looks and performs. Therefore authoring
system should have playback facility.
• Supporting CD-ROM or Laser Disc Sources- This software allows over all control of
CD-drives and Laser disc to integrate audio, video and computer files. CD-ROM drives,
video and laserdisc sources are directly controlled by authoring programs.
• Supporting Video for Windows- Videos are the right media for your project which are
stored on the hard disk. Authoring software has the ability to support more multimedia
elements like video for windows.
• Hypertext- Hypertext capabilities can be used to link graphics, some animation and other
text. The help system of window is an example of hypertext. Such systems are very useful
when a large amount of textual information is to be represented or referenced.
• Cross-Platform Capability- Some authoring programs are available on several platforms and
provide tools for transforming and converting files and programs from one to the other.
• Run-time Player for Distribution- Run time software is often included in authoring software
to explain the distribution of your final product by packaging playback software with content.
Some advanced authoring programs provide special packaging and run-time distribution for
use with devices such as CD-ROM.
• Internet Playability- Due to Web has become a significant delivery medium for multimedia,
authoring systems typically provide a means to convert their output so that it can be delivered
within the context of HTML or DHTML.
• 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.
• 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.