Words Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla
There was a time, not too long ago, when the term multimedia referred to CD-ROMs that carried volumes of audio, video and
animation information like pictographic encyclopaedias, educational kiddie games, or even virtual cookbooks with short videos
teaching you how to properly caramelize your onions or blanche your carrots.
Multimedia took time back then. The CD had to be read and the data sent to your PC, which would figure it out and slowly attempt
to render the graphics on your monitor. The whole read-write-render process was slow by today's standards, but it was quite amazing
even then. To think that everything was contained in a silvery disc was even more staggering.
Internet Boost
Computer specs and CD-ROM read-write cycles increased tenfold since those old multimedia days, but one thing that revolutionized
the whole concept was the Internet. When the Internet emerged and went mainstream, technology had no recourse but to chase it at
full speed.
The result was the creation of more portable and transferable formats for sending multimedia across the wires. Formats like the
ubiquitous Apple Quicktime, RealPlayer and Media Player from Microsoft shrank video to miniscule sizes while preserving most of
the detail. Best of all was that these could be posted on servers and downloaded on demand or even streamed real-time wherein frames
are sent to you as they are captured with only seconds of delay no matter where you are in the world.
Music formats became even more dynamic as MP3 emerged and shrank songs to one tenth of their data size without seriously
compromising quality. When, in the past, a CD could hold roughly ten songs, it could now hold a hundred. Other music formats
soon followed but none have beaten MP3 in popularity or notoriety as it remains to be the most downloaded format on the Internet.
The advent of DVD also changed the landscape considerably. Capable of storing four times the capacity of CDs, within the same
physical size, DVDs were simply evolution taking place and so much information could be crammed into them. With DVDs you don't
just get a movie but the trailers, the director's narrative, actor's filmographies and extra features such as additional camera angles,
mini-documentaries and sometimes even video games. Multimedia really went from curiosity to mainstream in a big way.
Flash This
The technology most representative of today's multimedia is the Web-based Flash format created by Macromedia. Now in its 7th version,
Flash and its supporting technologies such as Shockwave manage to place audio, video, animation, programming and databases into
engaging and highly portable files that can be downloaded and sent effortlessly through the Internet and email.
Nothing defines multimedia more today than Flash technology. It does integrate so many forms and it is also thoroughly immersive.
Over 50% of websites are said to be Flash-enabled, which means that they can, in theory, give four or five times more information
than a static webpage. The beauty of Flash is that pretty soon you can run it not just on your computer but also in your PDA and even
on your phones. Flash is also cross-platform and low requirement-capable. Older computers can run it. If you don't have the plug-in,
you can get it in less than ten minutes.
Go to Shockave.com (http://www.shockwave.com) and download greeting cards and even old school arcade games. You'll be amazed
at how a 2MB file runs better than an entire Space Invaders or Defender arcade box did.
Flix Fix
The latest phenomenon is video. High-speed broadband connection plus Kazaa equals the top ten movies of the week, the latest Just
Shoot Me episode and all The Simpsons cartoons at your fingertips. Video-on-demand is not too far away.
With formats for video like MP4 shrinking content, people will download video into their computers. Entire movies are being copied
off servers even before they make it to certain theaters. While this is certain to cause outrage and fury from the film distribution
end, it is a technological marvel that promises many great things around the corner. Multimedia, it seems, has really just began.
