Multimedia

Introduction
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:
o 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.
o 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:
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

Characteristics of multimedia
Following are some major characteristics or features of a Multimedia System:
Very High Processing Power: To deal with large amount of data, very high processing power is
used.
File System: File system must be efficient to meet the requirements of continuous media. These
media files requires very high-disk bandwidth rates. Disks usually have low transfer rates and
high latency rates. To satisfy the requirements for multimedia data, disk schedulers must reduce
the latency time to ensure high bandwidth.

File formats that support multimedia: Multimedia data consists of a variety of media formats or
file representation including ,JPEG, MPEG, AVI, MID, WAV, DOC, GIF,PNG, etc. AVI files can
contain both audio and video data in a file container that allows synchronous audio-with-video
playback. Like the DVD video format, AVI files support multiple streaming audio and video.
Because of restrictions on the conversion from one format to the other, the use of the data in a
specific format has been limited as well.

Input/Output: In multimedia applications, the input and output should be continuous and fast.
Real-time recording as well as playback of data are common in most of the multimedia
applications which need efficient I/O.

Operating System: The operating system must provide a fast response time for interactive
applications. High throughput for batch applications, and real-time scheduling,

Storage and Memory: Multimedia systems require storage for large capacity objects such as
video, audio, animation and images. Depending on the compression scheme and reliability video
and audio require large amount of memory.

Network Support:It includes internet, intranet, LAN, WAN, ATM, Mobile telephony and others.
In recent years, there has been a tremendous growth of multimedia applications on the internet
like streaming video, IP telephony, interactive games, teleconferencing, virtual world, distance
learning and so on. These multimedia networking applications are referred as continuous-media
applications and require high communication latency. Communication Latency is the time it
takes for a data packet to be received by the remote computer.

Software Tools:For the development of multimedia applications, the various software tools like
programming languages, graphics software’s, multimedia editing software’s scripting
languages: authoring tools, design software’s etc are required. In addition to these the device
drivers are required for interfacing the multimedia peripherals.