CHAPTER 2- MULTIMEDIA PROJECTS AND SYSTEMS

COMPONENTS

Multimedia Projects and its Stages

A multimedia project is a classic software project which is developed using multimedia

technology with the specific aim of distributing information in an entertaining and compelling
manner. Multimedia projects require creativity, artistic as well as programming skills. While
developing the multimedia application, the professionals have to choose the hardware and
software equipment and components a variety of software tools are available. Like all other
projects, the multimedia project is also developed in stages.

a) Project conceptualization:
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Every project begins with a concept. A multimedia project concept is actually the definition of
the project. To define the project, it is required for the development team and the clients to do
the various meetings and discussions to identify the actual problem. It may be the upgradation
of the existing one or the entirely new one. It must satisfy the existing requirements of the
customer.

b) Planning and Costing:

In this stage, the analysis of the idea is done which is to be translated into a multimedia project.
This idea can be further refined by outlining its messages and objectives. Before starting to
develop the multimedia project, it is necessary to plan what writing skills, graphic art, music,
video, and other multimedia skills will be required. It is also necessary to estimate the time
needed to prepare all elements of multimedia and prepare a budget accordingly. After
preparing a budget, a prototype of the concept can be developed.

c) Design and Production:

Once the project is taken up for development, the laborious project development cycle starts.
Under this stage, the various sub-stages are to be carried out.

 Data gathering
 Navigation map structure design
 Media content design
 Interface designing
 Storyboarding - A storyboard is a sequential series of images and captions that provides an
outline of your film story, as seen through the camera lens. Storyboards visually map out and
provide a synopsis of your film
 Integration (multimedia authoring)
d) Testing:
In every project, the Testing stage ensures that the product to be free from bugs. Apart from
bug elimination, another aspect of testing is to ensure that the multimedia application meets the
objectives of the project. It is also necessary to test whether the multimedia project works
properly on the planned delivery platforms and meets the needs of the clients.

e) Delivery:

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The final stage of the multimedia application development is to pack the project and deliver the
complete project to the end-user. This stage has several steps such as:

 Implementation,
 Maintenance,
 Shipping and marketing

COMPONENTS OF MULTIMEDIA SYSTEMS

a) Multimedia Hardware

Most of the computers now-a-days come equipped with the hardware components required to
develop/view multimedia applications.

Following are the various categories in which we can define the various types of hardware
required for multimedia applications.

Multimedia related hardware includes video and audio equipment required at multimedia

production and presentation. This equipment’s can be divided into

a) Image and video capturing equipment

b) Image and video storage equipment

c) Image and Video output equipment

d) Audio equipment

a) Image and video capturing equipment:

Still camera, video camera, scanners and video recorders

• Still Camera/Digital Camera - Digital camera is an input device to input images

that is then stored in digital form.

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• Digital Video Camera - Digital Video camera is an input device to input images/video that is
then stored in digital form. The normal consumer cameras use single image sensor chip, whose
output has to be multiplexed to produce three colors red, green, blue. The three sensor camera
has a separate chip for each color. The three sensor camera is used when there are various stages
of generation of the video and audio signals.

The RGB output produces more than 400 lines per frame. The RGB system produce three output
signals: S-video, Composite video and RF output.

 S-video-high quality,used at Y/C stage,it combines luminance and chrominance of color,

resolution 400 lines per frame.

 composite video–a single signal contains the complete picture information,while the audio is
represented by a separate signal.resolution 200 lines per frame.

 RF output- lowest quality ,not used for multimedia, combines both audio and video signals.

• Scanner - Scanner is an input device, which works more like a photocopy machine. It is used
when some information is available on a paper and it is to be transferred to the hard disc of the
computer for further manipulation. Scanner captures images from the source which are then
converted into the digital form that can be stored on the disc.

These images can be edited before they are printed.

• Video Tape/Cassette Recorders (VTR ,VCR) is a tape recorder designed to record and play
back video and audio material on magnetic tape. They were used in television studios, serving as
a replacement for motion picture film stock and making recording for television applications
cheaper and quicker. the machines which play them are called video cassette recorders.

b) Image, audio and video storage equipment:

Storage Devices, laser discs, video tapes, optical discs

 Memory and Storage Devices - we need memory for storing various files, audio and

video clips, edited images.

 Primary Memory- Primary memory holds only those data and instructions on

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which computer is currently working. It has limited capacity and data gets lost

when power is switched off. The data and instructions required to be processed

earlier reside in main memory. It is divided into two subcategories RAM and

ROM

 Flash Memory- Cache memory is a very high speed semiconductor memory, which can speed
up CPU. It acts as a buffer between the CPU and main memory. It is used to hold those parts of
data and program which are most frequently used by CPU.

 Secondary Memory: This type of memory is also known as external memory or nonvolatile. It
is slower than main memory. These are used for storing Data/Information permanently. CPU
directly does not access these memories; instead they are accessed via input-output routines.
Contents of secondary memories are first transferred to main memory and then CPU can access
it. For example, laser discs, video tapes, optical discs(CD-ROM, DVD), etc.

 Laser Discs, LaserDisc (LD) is a home video format and the first commercial optical disc
storage medium,

 Optical Discs An optical disc is an electronic data storage medium that can be written to

and read from using a low-powered laser beam. Originally developed in the late 1960s,

the first optical disc, created by James T. Russell, stored data as micron-wide dots of light

and dark.

CD-ROM Standards: CD-I(CD Interactive), CD DA(CD Digital Audio),CD-ROM XA(CD-

ROM Extended Architecture),CD-MO(magneto Optic),CD-WO(CD Write Once),CD-R(CD-
Recordable),CD-Bridge, photo CD, video CD.

c) Image and Video Output Equipment:

Interactive display devices, projectors, printers

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 TV, Monitors - Monitor commonly called as Visual Display Unit (VDU) is the main output
device. There are two kinds of viewing screen used for monitors:

 Cathode-Ray Tube (CRT) Monitor- In the CRT, display is made up of small picture
elements called pixels for short.The screen can be divided into a series of character boxes

 Flat-Panel Display Monitor- The flat-panel display refers to a class of video devices that
have reduced volume, weight and power requirement compared to the CRT. You can hang them
on walls or wear them on your wrists. Current uses for flat-panel displays include calculators,
video games, monitors, laptop computer, graphics display. The flat-panel displays are divided
into two categories:

 Emissive Displays- The emissive displays are devices that convert electrical energy into light.
Examples are plasma panel and LED (LightEmitting Diodes).

 Non-Emissive Displays- The Non-emissive displays use optical effects to convert sunlight or
light from some other source into graphics patterns. Example is LCD (Liquid Crystal Device).

 Screen Image Projector - Screen image projector or simply projector is an output device used
to project information from a computer on a large screen so that a group of people can see it
simultaneously. A presenter first makes a PowerPoint presentation on the computer. Now a
screen image projector is plugged to a computer system and presenter can make a presentation to
a group of people by projecting the information on a large screen. Projector makes the
presentation more understandable.

 Printers - Printer is the most important output device, which is used to print information

on paper.

 Dot Matrix Printer- In the market, one of the most popular printers is Dot Matrix Printer
because of their ease of printing features and economical price.

Each character printed is in form of pattern of Dot's and head consists of a Matrix of Pins of size
(5*7, 7*9, 9*7 or 9*9) which comes out to form a character that is why it is called Dot Matrix
Printer.

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 Daisy Wheel- Head is lying on a wheel and Pins corresponding to characters are like petals of
Daisy (flower name) that is why it is called Daisy Wheel Printer.

These printers are generally used for word-processing in offices which require a few letters to be
send here and there with very nice quality representation.

 Line Printers- Line printers are printers, which print one line at a time.

 Laser Printers- These are non-impact page printers. They use laser lights to produce the dots
needed to form the characters to be printed on a page.

 Inkjet Printers- Inkjet printers are non-impact character printers based on a relatively new
technology. They print characters by spraying small drops of ink onto paper. Inkjet printers
produce high quality output with presentable features.

They make less noise because no hammering is done and these have many styles of printing
modes available. Colour printing is also possible. Some models of Inkjet printers can produce
multiple copies of printing also.

d)Audio equipment:
Microphone, Audio Tape Recorder, Head Phone, Speakers

 Microphone- Microphone is an input device to input sound that is then stored in digital form.
The microphone is used for various applications like adding sound to a multimedia presentation
or for mixing music.

 Headphones (or head-phones in the early days of telephony and radio) traditionally refer to a
pair of small loudspeaker drivers worn on or around the head over a user's ears. They are
electroacoustic transducers, which convert an electrical signal to a corresponding sound.

 Speaker and Sound Card - Speaker is an output device to produce sound which is stored in
digital form. The speaker is used for various applications like adding sound to a multimedia
presentation or for movies displays etc.

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Computers need both a sound card and speakers to hear audio, such as music, speech and sound
effects. Most motherboards provide an on-board sound card. This built-insound card is fine for
the most purposes. The basic functions of a sound card are that it converts digital sound signals
to analog for speakers making it louder or softer.

B) 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.

Multimedia Software Categories

Following are the various categories of Multimedia software

a) Graphic and Image Editing Software

Some of us may already be familiar with a certain image editing software if we have edited our
own digital photo albums before. With graphics software programs we now can manipulate our
digital images through resizing, cropping, enhancing, or transforming them. Examples of the
more popular commercial ones are Adobe Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, Visualizer, Photo Studio,
and Corel Photo-Paint. Adobe Photoshop is claimed by Adobe Systems as the industry standard
for graphics professionals.

The following list indicates what image editing tools such as Photoshop can do:

(a) Merge images;

(b) Alter image size

(c) Crop image

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(d) Adjust colors;

(e) Remove unwanted elements

(f) Orientate image (change direction)

(g) Sharpen and soften image;

(h) Contrast change and brighten image; dan

(i) Add text onto image.

b) Audio and Sound Editing Software

In the 90s the only popular audio wave file editor was the Sound Designer. Today, the most
popular audio editing programs are Sony Sound Forge, Audacity and Adobe Audition. Sony
Sound Forge (known formerly as Sonic Foundry Sound Forge) is a digital audio editing software
for the professional as well as amateur or nonTOPIC professional user. Sound Forge lets us
create a stunning audio clip with various sound effects such as fading, echo, etc. from raw audio
files.

c)Video Editing Software

 Digital video brings the power to our multimedia presentation or project. With video editing
software, we can create our own original and unique movies for our personal or business
purposes. Examples of video editor software that we may choose from are Avid's Media
Composer and Xpress Pro, Apple's Final Cut Pro and Adobe's Premiere.

 Creating a video is always a complex, expensive and time-consuming task.However with

user friendly video editing software, we can become a semi-pro film producer. We can fully
utilize the software re-arranging or modifying segments of our raw video to form

another piece of video.

 To use a video editing tool such as Adobe Premier we first arrange our video clips (or

„footages‰) on a timeline. Then we can apply the built-in special effects for our movie

production. However, we have to be careful because video editing involves dual tracks of

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audio and video. Therefore, we need to make sure that the audio and video are

synchronised. For the final package we can opt to distribute it using a CD-ROM or DVD.

If we wish to distribute it online we can use streaming technology or the program

QuickTime.
d)Animation Authoring software

As more and more Flash movies are created, delivered, and viewed by over millions of Internet
users. We can use Flash to create simple animation, advertisements, or even online banners for
our personal homepage or web log (blog). We can even embed or integrate flash video into our
web pages.

Various Flash file formats include standalone Flash Player (in .SWF or .EXE format) or flash
video (.FLV). Adobe Flash has the capability to create online content such as web applications,
games and movies.

Recent development shows that TV animation production studios such as Warner Bros. and
Cartoon Network have started to produce industry-standard animation using Flash as well.

e) Device Driver Software –

A device driver is a program without a UI that manages hardware attached to a computer,
enabling it to function smoothly. These softwares are used to install and configure the

multimedia peripherals. A digital camera driver is a program that allows communication

between it and other devices, such as computers. Without the drivers, the OS will not detect this
device.
Graphic drivers allow graphic cards to interact with the computer’s operating system and are thus
essential to getting top performance from the graphic cards.

f) Media Conversion Tools - These tools are used for encoding / decoding multimedia
contexts and for converting one file format to another.

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 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:

a) 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 envelopes.
 Making tables with variable number of columns and rows.

b) 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.

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 Pencil tool to draw a shape freehand.
 Eraser tool to erase part of the image.
 Zooming for magnified pixel editing.

c) 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.

d) 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.

e) 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

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distributing your finished work on DVD is very easy. Examples of video editing software are
Adobe Premiere and Adobe After Effects.

f) 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.

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