AN INTRODUCTION TO MULTIMEDIA

BY Ramlan Jantan, Mdes (Multimedia), Swinburne, Australia

Digital Media Issues
• Multimedia is all about using graphics (static and dynamic,
sound and interactivity

• Multimedia can be categorised to two –

- Spatial
- Temporal

• Spatial – Spatial media includes such elements as text and

static images
• Temporal – media includes such media as video, animation
and sound which adds a dimension of time to the data.

• Data designed to be stream and be played back overtime,

being accessed changes as time progresses.
 Multimedia data issues

• Fidelity – How close data represented using format – quality

issue: the higher the quality the larger the file size.

• Compression ratio – media format invariably apply a compression

scheme to media data- when stored or transmitted.
• - Reduce the size of file
• - Reduce fidelity
 Multimedia formats

• A media file format is a standard specifications for storing

digital representation of any media used by computer.

• File format exist for type of data stored, / including Word

Processor files, images, video, sounds.
 Multimedia media

• Static graphics - graphics formats with 2 dimensions either

vector or pixel based/ Jpeg, Gif, PSD, and Tiff.

• Video/ Animation formats – Dynamic streaming motion

graphics, exist as a series of frames. Example: MPEG, AVI,
CinePAK and Sorrenson.

• Sound formats – created by sampling or creating data

streams which are then played back as per video formats to
give impression of sound. Example – AIFF, WAV, MP3, MP4
Next week continue to ‘Graphics’