Basics of MULTIMEDIA By Dolon Mukherjee Lecturer at George College of Management and Science, Kolkata, INDIA mukherjeedolon@rediffmail. com ……………… Well, before learning the definition of multimedia, let us know the meaning of medium. The entire topic is presented in question and answer format, so that it helps the reader to quickly understand and remember it. Q) What is medium ? Ans) A medium (plural media) is something that can be used for presentation of information. There are two basic ways to present some information :- ) Unimedium presentation :- In this case a single medium is used to present information. For e. g:- a music system is an example of unimedium device because it presents information by using sound medium only. b) Multimedia presentation:- In this case , more than one medium is used to present information. For e. g:- , a TV system is a multimedia device because it presents information by using both sound and video media. Q) What is Multimedia ? Ans) Multimedia can be defined as the use of more than one of the media (Text, Graphics, Animation, Audio and Video) for information presentation .
Q)What is a Multimedia Computer System ? Ans) A multimedia computer system can be defined as a computer having capability to integrate two or more types of media such as text, graphics, animation, audio and video for generation, storage, representation, manipulation and access of multimedia information. Q) Requirements of Multimedia computer system :- Ans) Generally, data size of multimedia information is much larger than textual information. Due to this, multimedia computer systems require:- ) Faster CPU ( for quicker processing of large amount of data) b) Larger storage devices ( for storing large data files) c) Larger main memory ( for running programs with large data size) d) Devices like keyboard, mouse, joystick, touch screen by which the user can interact with the system. e) A high resolution screen and graphics accelerator card that can output good quality still images, video clips as well as animations, text and graphics. f) Speakers for speech and music output. g) Microphone for audio recording. ) Sound card to capture, digitize and edit audio and video material. Q) Components of Multimedia Ans) The various components of Multimedia are as follows :- a) Text :- Inclusion of textual information in multimedia is the basic step towards development of multimedia software. Alphanumeric and special characters are used to present information in text form. Text can be of any type, may be a word, a single line, or a paragraph. The textual data can be developed using any text editor. However, to give special effects, one needs graphics software which supports this kind of job.
Even one can use any of the most popular word processing software to create textual data for inclusion in multimedia. The text can have different type, size, color and style to suit the professional requirement of the multimedia software. b) Graphics:- Computer graphics deals with generation, representation, manipulation and display of pictures with a computer. Graphics is an important component of multimedia because a picture is a powerful way to illustrate information i. e something that can’t be described with mere written words can be describe easily with the help of pictures. For e. :- , in a multimedia application for educating small children, displaying photograph of a horse along with its textual description, makes illustration much more effective. c) Animation :- Computer animation deals with generation, sequencing and display a set of images (called frames) to create an effect of visual change or motion, similar to a movie film (video). It uses the concept of ‘Persistence of vision’. It is an important component of multimedia, because just as a picture is a powerful way to illustrate information, a small animation clip is even more powerful and useful for illustrating concepts involving movement ) Audio :- Computer audio deals with synthesizing, recording and playback of audio or sound with a computer. It is yet another important component of multimedia, because in many cases sound can substantially help us to understand information presented in other ways and in some cases sound is the only way to provide desired information as for e. g:- it can be used to present any information to the visually impaired people. e) Video :- Like animation, computer video deals with recording and display of a sequence of images at a reasonable speed to create an impression of movement.
Each individual image of a sequence of images is called a frame. Like animation, video is also an important component of multimedia because it is very useful for illustrating concepts that involve movement. Q) Multimedia- Design, Production and Distribution Ans) As we know, all development works are based on three basic principles:- Planning and design, Production and Distribution of the final product,. This is true for multimedia development:- Planning / Design (Production (Distribution ) Planning / Design :- During the initial phase, all aspects of the related multimedia project is carefully thought about and planned, well before the production start. Every key element involved is discussed. There are various tools available to plan the project. A flowchart is one of them. It is one of the commonly used tools to prepare a blue print of the plan during the design phase. Like any other video program or movie, multimedia programs require a script on the subject involved. The script and flowchart works together to provide a printed version of text, graphics and sound to be used in the production of the multimedia program. ) Production of Multimedia :- It is process of creating the related media elements in a multimedia project including text, graphics, audio, animation and video. Once all the related media elements are created and digitized according to the specifications, then comes the final stage of the production process i. e. joining or combining these media elements which is also known as authoring. This process is used to join all the independent media elements such as graphics, text, animation and sound to produce an interactive presentation. ) Distribution of Multimedia :- Once all the media elements are combined together using authoring software they are bundled into a package and stored in various storage media for distribution. The main storage media used to store multimedia package is the CD-ROM and DVD-ROM. __________ REFERENCES:- 1)Multimedia: making it work ….. By Tay Vaughan …McGraw-Hill 2)MultiMedia: texts and contexts …. By Anne Cranny-Francis…SAGE Publications Ltd. 3) Multimedia …. By Tony Feldman…Chapman and Hall 4) Internet
