Multimedia is a form of communication that uses a combination of different content forms. These include writing, audio, images, animations, or video, into a single presentation. This is in contrast to traditional mass media, such as printed material or audio recordings, which only feature one form of media content. Popular examples of multimedia include video podcasts, audio slideshows, and animated videos. Creating multimedia content involves the application of the principles of effective interactive communication. The five main building blocks of multimedia are text, image, audio, video, and animation. Multimedia encompasses various types of content, each serving different purposes:
Text - Fundamental to multimedia, providing context and information. Audio - Includes music, sound effects, and voiceovers that enhance the overall experience. Recent developments include spatial audio and advanced sound design. Images - Static visual content, such as photographs and illustrations. Advances include high-resolution and 3D imaging technologies. Video - Moving images that convey dynamic content. High-definition (HD), 4K, and 360-degree video are recent innovations enhancing viewer engagement. Animation - the technique of creating moving images from still pictures, often used in films, television, and video games to bring characters and stories to life. Generation - the technique of creating media using algorithmic or artificial intelligence systems. This includes text, images, audio, video, or animations created through artificial intelligence, in response to user input. Multimedia can be recorded for playback on computers, laptops, smartphones, and other electronic devices. In the early years of multimedia, the term "rich media" was synonymous with interactive multimedia. Over time, hypermedia extensions brought multimedia to the World Wide Web, and streaming services became more common.
Terminology The term multimedia was originally coined by singer and artist Bob Goldstein (later 'Bobb Goldsteinn') to promote the July 1966 opening of his "Lightworks at L'Oursin" show in Southampton, New York, Long Island. Goldstein was perhaps aware of an American artist named Dick Higgins, who had previously discussed a new approach to art-making which he called "intermedia". On August 10, 1966, Richard Albarino of Variety borrowed the terminology, reporting: "Brainchild of song scribe-comic Bob ('Washington Square') Goldstein, the 'Lightworks' is the latest multi-media music-cum-visuals to debut as discothèque fare." Two years later, in 1968, the term "multimedia" was re-appropriated to describe the work of a political consultant, David Sawyer, husband of Iris Sawyer—one of Goldstein's producers at L'Oursin.
In the intervening forty years, the word has taken on different meanings. In the late 1970s, the term referred to presentations consisting of multi-projector slide shows timed to an audio track. However, by the 1990s, 'multimedia' had taken on its current meaning. In the 1993 first edition of Multimedia: Making It Work, by Tay Vaughan, this book contained the Tempra Show software. This was a later, rebranded version of the 1985 DOS multimedia software VirtulVideo Producer, about which the Smithsonian declared, "It is one of the first, if not the first, multi-media authoring systems on the market." The German language society Gesellschaft für deutsche Sprache recognized the word's significance and ubiquity in the 1990s by awarding it the title of German 'Word of the Year' in 1995. In common usage, multimedia refers to the usage of multiple media of communication, including video, still images, animation, audio, and text, in such a way that they can be accessed interactively. Video, still images, animation, audio, and written text are the building blocks on which multimedia takes shape. In the 1990s, some computers were called "multimedia computers" because they represented the advances in graphical and audio quality, such as the Amiga 1000, which could produce up to 4096 colors (12-bit color), outputs for TVs and VCRs, and four-voice stereo audio. Changes in removable storage technology during this time were also important, as the standard CD-ROM can hold on average 700 megabytes of data, while the maximum size a 3.5-inch floppy disk can hold is 2.8 megabytes, with an average of 1.44 megabytes. Greater storage allowed for larger digital media files and therefore more complex multimedia. The term "video", if not used exclusively to describe motion photography, is ambiguous in multimedia terminology. Video is often used to describe the file format, delivery format, or presentation format instead of "footage" which is used to distinguish motion photography from "animation" of rendered motion imagery. Multiple forms of information content are often not considered modern forms of presentation, such as audio or video. Likewise, single forms of information content with single methods of information processing (e.g., non-interactive audio) are often called multimedia, perhaps to distinguish static media from active media. In the fine arts, for example, Leda Luss Luyken's ModulArt brings two key elements of musical composition and film into the world of painting: variation of a theme and movement of and within a picture, making ModulArt an interactive multimedia form of art. Performing arts may also be considered multimedia, considering that performers and props are multiple forms of both content and media. In modern times, a multimedia device can be referred to as an electronic device, such as a smartphone, a video game system, or a computer. Each and every one of these devices has a main function but also has other uses beyond their intended purpose, such as reading, writing, recording video and audio, listening to music, and playing video games. This has led them to be called "multimedia devices." While previous media was always local, many are now handled through web-based solutions, particularly streaming.
… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.
