MULTIMEDIA TECHNOLOGY

Q1. What are Typeface and font?

A typeface is a family of graphic characters that includes

many type sizes and styles (such as Times, Arial,

Helvetica)

A font is a collection of characters of a single size and

style belonging to a typeface family (such as bold,

italic)

Q2.What are serifs and san serif?

Type either has a little decoration at the end of the letter -called a serif

Or

It doesn’t - sans serif ( “sans” from the French meaningwithout decoration)

Examples ( Times - serif “T” )

( Arial - sans serif “T”)

Q3 What is MIDI?

MIDI ( Musical Instrument Digital Interface) is a communications standard forelectronic instruments and computers.

MIDI files are much more compact than digital audio files, and the size of MIDI file is completely independent of playback quality.

In some cases, MIDI files may sound better than digital audio files if the MIDI sound source you are using is of high quality

The quality of MIDI depends on source and destination hardware.

You can change the length of a MIDI file by varying itsTempo

MIDI files embedded in web pages load and play muchfaster than digital

With high quality MIDI devices, MIDI files may actually sound better than digital

MIDI files are completely editable.

Voices cannot be recorded in MIDI.

Q4. What are the differences between MIDI and Digital audio?

MIDI data and digital audio are like vector andbitmapped graphics:

MIDI data is device dependent; digital audio is not

MIDI files are much smaller than digitized audio.

MIDI files sound better than digital audio files when played onhigh-quality MIDI device

Q5. What are the different roles required for a multimedia project?

To produce good multimedia, you will need a similar diverse range of skills – detailed knowledge of computers, text, graphic, arts, sound and video. These are multimedia skill set., may be available in a single individual or more likely in a composite group of individuals working as a team.

A multimedia project may require as many as 18 different roles:

  • Executive Producer
  • Producer/Project Manager
  • Creative Director/Multimedia Designer
  • Artist
  • Interface Designer
  • Game Designer
  • Subject Matter Expert
  • Instructional Designer/Training Specialist
  • Scriptwriter
  • Animator (2-D/3-D)
  • Sound Producer
  • Music Composer
  • Video Producer
  • Multimedia Programmer
  • HTML Coder
  • Lawyer/Media Acquisition
  • Marketing Director

Project manager is responsible for overall development & implementation of a project as well as for day to day operations. Budgets, schedule, creative sessions, time sheets, illness, invoices and team dynamics – the project manager is the glue that holds it together.

Multimedia designer: The work & feel of a multimedia project should be pleasing and aesthetic as well as inviting and engaging. Navigation cues should be clear and consistent, icons should be meaningful and screen elements should be simple and straightforward.

Instructional designer – are specialists in education or training and make sure that subject matter is closer and properly presented for the intended audience.

Interface designer- devises the navigation pathways and content maps.

Information Designers: Structure content, determines user pathways and feedback, and select presentation media.

Interface Designer: Designs the simplicity of multimedia, the ease with which a user can move about within a project, effective use of windows, backgrounds, icons and control panels - all these are interface designers work.

Writer: Multimedia writer do everything writers of linear media do , but more.

They create characters, action and point of view – a traditional script writers tools o the trade – and they also create interactivity. They write proposals, actors narrations, they write text screens to deliver messages and they develop characters designed for an interactive environment.

Video Specialist: For high quality producers it may be necessary for a video specialist to be responsible for an entire team of videographers, sound technicians, lighting designers, set designers, script supervisors & production assistants, actors. Video specialists needs to understand how to shoot quality video, how to transfer the video footage to a computer and how to prepare the completed video files for the most efficient delivery on CD-DVD or the web.

Audio specialist: They design and produce music, voice over, narrations & sound effects. They perform a variety of functions on the multimedia.

Multimedia Programmer: or software engineer integrates all the multimedia elements of a project into a seamless whole using an authoring system or a programming language.

Q6. Explain Stereophony and quadraphonic.

Stereophonic sound or, more commonly, stereo, is a method of sound reproduction that creates an illusion of directionality and audible perspective. This is usually achieved by using two or more independent audio channels through a configuration of two or more loudspeakers (or stereo headphones) in such a way as to create the impression of sound heard from various directions, as in natural hearing.Thus the term "stereophonic" applies to so-called "quadraphonic" and "surround-sound" systems as well as the more common two-channel, two-speaker systems. It is often contrasted with monophonic or "mono" sound, where audio is in the form of one channel, often centered in the sound field (analogous to a visual field). Stereo sound is now common in entertainment systems such as broadcast radio and TV, recorded music and the cinema.

In common usage, a "stereo" is a two-channel sound reproduction system, and a "stereo recording" is a two-channel recording. This is cause for much confusion, since five (or more)-channel home theater systems are not popularly described as "stereo".

Label for 2.0 sound (stereo)

Quadraphonic (or Quadrophonic & sometimes Quadrasonic) sound – similar to what is now called 4.0 surround sound – uses four channels in which speakers are positioned at the four corners of the listening space, reproducing signals that are (wholly or in part) independent of one another. Quadraphonic audio was the earliest consumer product in surround sound. It was a commercial failure due to many technical problems and format incompatibilities. Quadraphonic audio formats were more expensive to produce than standard two-channel stereo. Playback required additional speakers and specially designed decoders and amplifiers.

The rise of home theatre products in the late 1980s and early 1990s brought multi-channel audio recording back into popularity, although in new digitally based formats. Thousands of quadraphonic recordings were made during the 1970s, and some of these recordings have been reissued in modern surround sound formats such as DTS, Dolby Digital, DVD-Audio and Super Audio CD.

4 channels Quadraphonic label

Q7. Explain Line, graphical and Java enabled browsers.

Browsers comes in various forms and capabilities.

Basically it has three types:

1. Line Browsers:A Line browser is a text based browser that provides command-line

interface to its users. For example: Lynx does not support graphics. Browsing in Lynx consists of highlighting the chosen linkusing cursor keys, or having all links on a pagenumbered and entering the chosen link's number.

2. Graphical browsers :A Graphical browser is designed to take full advantage

of the www’s ability to handle all kinds of digital media

such as graphics, image, video and sound.

Example: Mosaic, Netscape, Cello, Viola, MacWeb,

Internet Explorer etc.

3. Java-enabled browsers:These are based on Java programming languagesand have the ability to

dynamically download Java applets.(Dynamic Content) Full animation, play sound andinteract with the user in real time when executed.

Q8. What is Virtual Reality and what are its types?

Virtual reality (VR), sometimes referred to as immersive multimedia, is a computer-simulated environment that can simulate physical presence in places in the real world or imagined worlds. Most current virtual reality environments are primarily visual experiences, displayed either on a computer screen or through special stereoscopic displays, but some simulations include additional sensory information, such as sound through speakers or headphones.

Types of Virtual reality

Immersive VR: A type of VR in which the user becomes immersed(deeply involved) in a virtual world. it is also a formof VR that uses computer related components.The user has no visual contact with the physical word.Often equipped with a Head Mounted Display (HMD).

Nonimmersive VR

Text based:When readers of a certain text form a mentalmodel of this virtual world in their minds from the description of peoples places and things.

Augmented:Augmented reality (AR) is a live direct or indirect view of a physical, real-world environment whose elements are augmented (or supplemented) by computer-generated sensory input such as sound, video, graphics or GPS data. It is related to a more general concept called mediated reality, in which a view of reality is modified (possibly even diminished rather than augmented) by a computer.

Q9 What are the differences between lossy and lossless compression algorithms?

Lossy / Lossless
Stored data can reproduce something that looks “close” to original data / Stored image data can reproduce original image / data exactly
Takes less storage space / Takes more storage space
Uses both quantization and entropy coding / Uses Entropy coding only
Example : JPEG / Example: GIF, TIFF, Huffman