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C H A P T E R F I V E
MULTIMEDIA
Multimedia Defined While there are certainly similarities between interactive videodisc and multimedia, the two are different and distinct. Robert E. Bergman and Thomas V. Moore, writing in Managing Interactive Video/Multimedia Proj- ects, make the following observation: “For several years, the videodisc was the only source of motion video segments that could be accessed rapidly enough to support effective interactivity. Hence, the term applied to these applications came to be ‘interactive videodisc,’ ... Recently, however, digital technology has made it possible to provide motion video using other devices, especially the small optical discs called CD-ROM” (1990, p. 5). Bergman and Moore go on to state, “Another factor has been the development of image-based applications that use graphic pictures and digital audio, and no motion video at all:’ Thus, ‘The term ‘multimedia’ has been adapted as a generic reference to all such image-based applications” (p. 5). Thomas Reeves and Stephan Harmon, writing in the Fall 1991 issue of Interact, the Journal of the International Interactive Communications Society (p. 29), take matters a step further when they define multimedia as ‘... an interactive database that allows users to access information in multiple forms, including text, graphics, video, and audio:’
88 Winners! Producing Effective Electronic Media
They go on to define “hypermedia,” a subset of multimedia, as “an interactive database that allows users to access multiple forms of information, but is specifically designed with linked nodes of information to allow that access in any manner of the users’ choosing” (p. 29). The Microsoft Corporation, in a February 1993 Backgrounder, defined computer-based multimedia as “the integration of text, graphics, audio, video and other types of information into a single seamless whole” (p. 2). Clearly, multimedia has evolved from an integration of various digital, electronic, aural, and visual technologies into an interactive medium for use in the home and the office.
The Technology
Once used to refer to computer-controlled sound/slide presentations (they are now called multi- image presentations), the term multimedia is a generic term for sound-and image-based applications
delivered with a variety of technologies. For example, Interactive video: A convergence of video and computer technology. A user has control over a coordinated video program and computer program through the user’s actions, choices, and decisions which affects how the program unfolds.
Hardware Components
The purpose of the hardware is to deliver a message, the graphics, motion, and audio segments stored on various media. Various media mean a videodisc player compact disc player, personal computer, display, and touch screen. Software Components The general function of the software is to create and combine the media, define touch areas, build sequences of events, present the application to the use~ and interpret any interactions. To accomplish these multiple goals requires multiple software components. They fall into several categories: graphics packages, authoring facilities, general purpose languages, and presentation systems (Managing Interactive Video/Multimedia Projects, Robert E. Bergman & Thomas Moore). Multimedia may be the future medium of choice, if a CD-ROM product is distinguished by its accessibility, ease of use, and creative visualization. Two choices are critical to creating a superior CD-ROM product:
1 An interface that makes a user’s search intuitive; and
2 A search engine (i.e., searching tool) that enables the user to get anywhere easily, to
browse at will, and to find and aggregate information in any way desired. It is the interface between the user and the information on the CD-ROM that determines whether the user feels trapped inside a PC screen and goes fleeing to the Five Multimedia 89 nearest book, or feels in control of searching through masses of material in a way that no print index can ever allow. If an electronic product does not make the search easy and effective, then it is little more than a method for saving library shelf space, and the user will soon determine that he is better off browsing through a book. A quality search engine and interface will allow the user the following capabilities:
- Searching User defined searches, nested searching, fuzzy searching, thesaurus synonym searching, query saving, storing search results. - Proximity searching Within number of words, within sentence, within paragraph, order- dependent. - Links Interdocument links, searches on selected words in a document, bookmarks, attach notes to text, generate tables of contents based on text. - Documentation A search interface and engine also allow the user to browse the CD-ROM, browse a full text article in the data base, copy information to a printer, and copy material to a disk.
According to Hank Evers, of the Pioneer Corporation Multimedia System Division, multimedia’s benefits have persuaded many print-based publishers to reevaluate their businesses. Publishers are learning to identify their business in terms of the content (intellectual and artistic) that they own and to separate it from the medium in which it appears. This also holds true in network television. ABC News and the Discovery Channel find themselves in the same camp as The Encyclopedia Britannica: they are owners of content. Why has multimedia technology, particularly CD-ROM, received wider acceptance, not only in educational and medical institutions, but also in a growing number of business organizations as well? Dataware Technologies perceives two reasons: ‘First, technological developments have substantially lowered the barriers to cost-effective use of CD-ROM.... A technology that was once only potentially beneficial is now affordable, easy to use, and widely employed. Second, CD-ROM has demonstrated clear benefits.... More than 5,000 CD-ROM titles are now in print in a broad range of appli Five Multimedia 91 cations, including over 3,000 commercial products:’ (Guide to CD-ROM and Multimedia Publishing, Dataware Technologies, March 1993, p. 1). Dataware goes on to point out that one CD-ROM can hold the equivalent of 1,500 floppy disks, 250,000 pages of text, or 12,000 scanned images at an incremental media cost of $2 per disc. InfoTech, an international consulting and research firm specializing in optical disc and information technology markets, estimates that” ... the commercial market shipped 3,256 titles valued at nearly $2 billion in 1992 and forecasts growth to nearly 8,000 titles valued at over $4 billion by 1995” (Guide to CD-ROM and Multimedia Publishing, Dataware Technologies, March 1993, p. 29). But there is a long way to go before everything converts from print to optical. According to Dataware, estimates put print publishing at more than 90 percent of the publishing universe, with electronic at 10 percent. Optical publishing represents about 5 percent of the electronic publishing share, or 0.5 percent (Guide to CD-ROM and Multimedia Publishing, Dataware Technologies, March 1993, P. 28). The Future Market Early in 1992, Communications Week (January 6, 1992, P. 21) reported an overall exponential growth in the market, noting expenditures on multimedia equipment of $30 million in 1990, and projecting growth to $ billion by 1996. Other projections peg the future multimedia market in double digit billions. While the cases in the latter part of this chapter reveal that governmental, educa tional, and medical institutions seem to be embracing multimedia technology, this does not appear to be true of corporate America. As reported in Interactive Media Business (December 1992, p. 12), a survey by Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Forrester Research of sixty-four Fortune 1,000 Management Information Systems (MIS) executives revealed a uniform uncertainty about multimedia’s benefits. However, the report predicts that “within three years multimedia will be widely accepted and implemented:’ The report also indicated that, while “it took ten years for videoconferencing to become accepted ... one of the more promising uses for desktop video is desktop-based videoconferencing:’ Forrester Research estimates that desktop videoconferencing will grow to a $835 million market by
- The report also underscores that multimedia will continue to enjoy widespread popularity in education and training.
Guiding Principles
Multimedia is an outgrowth of other electronic media (linear video, interactive videodisc, audio CDs, computer graphics, and so on). In other words, these extant electronic media are the components that make up multimedia. Despite the fact that these component electronic media are standardized, standards for multimedia are just beginning to emerge. This lack of standards creates many challenges and problems for multimedia
92 Winners! Producing Effective Electronic Media
project producers. These challenges and problems range from whether to use a PC or Mac environment to truly getting the most out of multimedia. Deborah Blank, director of the Interactive Systems Division of Electronic Learning Facilitators, Inc. (Bethesda, Maryland) writing in the April 1993 issue of Multimedia & Videodisc Monitor, lists “Ten Truths About Developing Interactive Multimedia”: 1 Developing interactive multimedia is a creative, demanding, multifaceted software development effort. Build your team according to the expertise and experience dictated by each aspect of the application. 2 The learning curve for first-time developers is steep and slippery. Set realistic expectations, and involve experts from the start. 3 Each member of a development team needs to forego his or her ego. Keep egocentric people off your development team. 4 The final application is often very different from the original conception. While satisfying, these differences are usually expensive. Accept changes their inclusion is guaranteed to improve the application in a way that is obvious to both user and sponsor, and the sponsor is willing to pay for them. 5 A sign-off procedure for each deliverable keeps communication open and refines expectations as the application develops. Include the list of deliverables in your work plan or contract and obtain a sign-off for each. 6 The hardware platform selected at the beginning of development will be outmoded when the project is delivered. Choose a hardware platform with care, and never look back. 7 There are no significant shortcuts to development. Development always takes longer than you expect. Add at least 15 percent more time than you think it will take. 8 The last 10 percent of the development effort takes at least 25 percent of the development period. Value your authors/programmers, and don’t expect the impossible. 9 With discipline, applications can be completed on time and on budget. Value the bean counter, for he or she will make sure you stay in the multimedia development business.
10. The desktop computer will be a multimedia delivery platform within two years. The
possibilities are endless. Take advantage of the functionality of your multimedia system, and conceive useful, if not ground-breaking applications
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Interviewee Guidelines
The Interviewees in this chapter echo many of the guidelines Ms. Blank articulates. The cases included in
Choose the right people. Multimedia means teamwork It takes many talented people in specific
disciplines to make all of the pieces fit and work. A team atmosphere is required or you risk personality clashes that may bring the project to a screeching halt. And someone with managerial skills is needed to oversee the project. The case study producers in this chapter state that, because a talented, skilled, qualified, professional team is the key to creating a successful multimedia program, human resources will be your largest cost. The interviewees also suggest that the best way to handle human resources is to select a skeletal staff of three to seven people with their own specialties to work on the project and then to bring in others to flesh out the project team.
