Publishing on the WWW Multimedia for the WWW

Introduction What is multimedia ? Mostly experienced via CD-Roms, games, from hard drive. Needs power and speed for best quality.

Combining Media Page based Synchronisation based Interactive user control

Options (1): ‘Page’ Based Extend HTML: MIME types

Example <OBJECT data=“movies/intro.mov” type=“video/quicktime”>

Options (2) – ‘Page’ Based Programming JavaScript ActiveX Streaming Media Streaming Technologies

Options (3) – ‘Synchronised’ Pure hypermedia has no temporal structure. Synchronised Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL). Allows media to be coordinated and played over time.

SMIL Example: Timeline

SMIL Example: Implementation <video src = “movies/logo.mov” type = “video/quicktime” /> <img src = “images/house1.jpeg” type = “image/jpeg” dur = “5s” />…

Difficulties Multimedia is bandwidth intensive. Still need a power computer to display the multimedia. Vagaries of net traffic.

Solutions 1 Compress data (sound, images etc) Compression = degradation = Poorer quality Have to strike a balance in compression - optimisation

Solutions 2 Embed the multimedia application Flash Shockwave Toolbook Neuron

Solutions 3 JavaScript Integral to browsers Downloaded in HTML of web page Component of DHTML