Lights, Camera, Action! The Role of Multimedia in Web Applications Leading Multimedia Formats in Use Today What You Need to Know to Include Them in Your

Lights, Camera, Action!

The Role of Multimedia in Web ApplicationsLeading Multimedia Formats in Use TodayWhat You Need to Know to Include Them in Your

WebApp Server Applications

Speaker: Randall Rutherford, Product Marketing Manager,

WebApp Server Software Suite

“Multimedia”

“The use of computers to present text, graphics, video, animation and sound in an integrated way.”

From webopedia.internet.com

Types of Web Multimedia

Text ImagesAudioVideoStreaming Media

The Role of Multimedia

Deliver ContentEntertainmentNewsTraining

Enhance UsabilityNavigation

Instruction

UsabilityWhat is Good Design?

Design Supports the Purpose of SiteShockwave vs. Credit Card ApplicationUser should be able to complete an application

quickly and successfully without making mistakes. Ideally, User should also feel engaged by the

experience.

Multimedia Techniques

AnimationsAudioVideoStreaming Media

Flash/ShockwaveSVGSMILDHTML

Animation

Animated GIFsAdobe ImageReady (Photoshop)Macromedia FireworksJasc Paint Shop Pro & Animation Shop

Flash / ShockwaveDynamic HTML

Macromedia Flash (.swf)

Authoring SWF Files

Macromedia Flash (www.macromedia.com/flash)

Macromedia Director (www.macromedia.com/)

Swish (www.swishzone.com)

Adobe LiveMotion (www.adobe.com/livemotion)

… Authoring SWF Files

2D Animation tools that export SWFAdobe IllustratorMacromedia FreehandAdobe Streamline can import bitmaps & convert to vectors

3D Animation Tools that export SWF 3D Studio MaxVecta3DSwift 3D

Flash / Shockwave

Director or Flash?

Use Director to create interactive multimedia productions

Use Flash to create resizable and extremely compact web site components

Macromedia Generator

“Generator is a high-performance, scalable solution for delivering real-time, visual content to audiences who require fast, time-sensitive and personalized Web sites.”


What's the difference between Generator and Flash? Both can be used to deliver customized visual

content to a browser

Flash customization occurs on the client browser, using the Macromedia Flash Player

Generator customization occurs on the server, and is delivered to the client in a variety of formats


… What's the difference between Generator and Flash?Generator delivers content in a variety of formats:

GIF, JPG, PNG, QuickTime and .swf

The main delivery method for Flash is a Macromedia Flash movie (.swf).

Integrate differently with databases and application servers


Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG)

An open-standard vector graphics language

Based on Extensible Markup Language (XML)

High-resolution graphics for Web sites

Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG)

Audio

Web pages are by no means limited to text and graphics…

… but few mainstream Web sites include sound

CD-standard audio hogs up about 10 megabytes of bandwidth per minute

Audio

MP3WaveMIDIStreaming Audio

Video

MPEGQuicktime (.mov)AVI

Adding Video to a Web Page<HTML>

<HEAD><TITLE>GODZILLA® 2000</TITLE></HEAD>

<BODY>

<CENTER>

<EMBED src="godzilla2000_trailer320.mov" width=320 height=255

BORDER="0" AUTOPLAY="TRUE" LOOP="FALSE" CONTROLLER="TRUE">

</CENTER>

</BODY>

</HTML>

Streaming Media

The media file begins playing while it is still downloading

RealPlayer, Flash and Shockwave also incorporate streaming audio

Creating RealAudio files is easy Must have a dedicated streaming media

server to deliver content

Streaming versus Downloading

Streaming video has the advantage of realtime download and playbackAt slow internet speeds quality may suffer

Downloading video offers high quality playbackMust download entire file before it can be

viewed

Streaming Media

RealNetworks RealPlayer

Microsoft Windows Media Player

Apple Quicktime

Emblaze

Thin Client Multimedia

Streaming Video for Phones Released June, 2000

Media Player for Palm Released July, 2000

Streaming Video for Palm Released September, 2000

SMILDeveloped by the World Wide Web

Consortium (W3C)Enables the division of multimedia content

into separate files and streams (audio, video, text, and images),

Sends streams to a user's computer individually

Displays streams together as if they were a single multimedia stream

Integrating Multimedia with WebApp

WebApp Server in no way interferes with deploying any multimedia components in a web application

Multimedia delivery to cell phones, PDAs, other thin clients still not practical

Bandwidth available to user is critical in decision to deploy

Must serve the purpose of the WebApp

Documents

Lights, Camera, Action! The Role of Multimedia in Web Applications Leading Multimedia Formats in Use Today What You Need to Know to Include Them in Your