This composition addresses a number of topics related to the synchronizing of multimedia and SMIL. These synchronized multimedia topics include: concepts, examples, definition, contacts, tutorials, editors, source for "clip media", general information sites, future issues, articles, and books.
Concepts
The Internet and the World Wide Web format have promoted and accelerated a convergence in the way we compose and communicate our ideas. This convergence consists of the merger of many media into one super-media. These media once required separate technologies for play and display but are now being played and displayed with one, the web. I have called the field of study of how to carry out these unified compositions "comprehensive composition". This emerging area is the result of the historical interaction between composition, personal computers, multi-media and the Internet.From this new web based perspective, a composition in just one medium, whether TV, paint or text is a fractional composition, one kind of perspective among many possible. The synthesis of thought brought about by this convergence however has not simplied the composition or expression of ideas. Its primary accomplishment to date is to have raised the bar in defining what it will mean to become a literate person in the 21st century. It has added numerous formerly specialized skills to the standard of text based composition or what to date we have called writing. The composition tools for each of the media are still unique and specialized to fit each individual medium. This requires even more study and experience to use each. For many, reaching towards some level of competence with each medium will be sufficient. But the study of comprehensive composition addresses a higher level of design. Once one has gained some fluency for example in video, music and text composition, additional composition skills are needed to integrate them into one web composition. It is the purpose of this web page to address the thinking, problems and tools involved in this merger.
Those who have learned to compose with music are perhaps closest to understanding the rich potential of the integration of the distinctive voices, which is what the web is rapidly becoming. Other media by their nature emphasize a sequential expression of thought. We read this book, then that article, then see that movie, each of which is a sequential activity unto itself. In some contrast, music and stage theater emphasize simultaneous expression. Music carries this simultaneous expression of distinctive voices to the furthest degree. For example,count up the number of unique voices that are heard at the same time in a full orchestral composition. To compose in such an arena, the mind must be prepared with concepts and language to address the often simultaneous merger of distinctive and sometimes conflicting means of expression. Such ways of thinking have been well developed over centuries of creation in musical composition and in the invention of a wide range of musical instruments. The musical thoughts of consonance and dissonance and harmony and disharmony come to mind. The web has brought new and enhanced reasons for teaching and learning musical composition that extend far beyond aesthetic music appreciation and the composition of music.
This web essay assumes that the reader is ready to explore the next step. It assumes that the reader is capable of at least finding, playing, capturing or downloading many different forms of media on the Internet, such as text, animation, music, sound, video, still images, virtual reality and electronics control. This writing does not presume that you are capable of creating anything more than text compositions in a digital environment, such as a word processing document. However, each area of additional competence further magnifies your power to compose at the next higher level.
The composition tools that make this web merger of different media possible are still being formed and enhanced as we discuss this concept. Several different concepts about how to do this are being developed and promoted in complement and competition with each other. Actual examples will be provided in a moment. Frame page web design was the first composition form to emerge that allowed many media to converge into one web page composition. To the degree that control by the "reader" of the display of the composition is required, it remains the undisputed tool of choice. However, if the author wants to control exactly when different media and different elements are presented, other tools will prove superior, such as SMIL editors, or Flash editors. Stream Anywhere technology from Sonic Foundry and Microsoft's HTML+Time proposal compete with the SMIL and Flash composition tools.
How can we place our bets on which of the competing methods will emerge the winner? How will we know how that our time spent in learning new methods will have long term viability? Flash composition is a de facto standard on the web for animation and for more sophisticated synchronized multimedia. However, it is a proprietary format. In the long term, international standard setting bodies which create open standards for the World Wide Web have had a major say. Frame based web design has been incoporated into web standards for years. More recently, SMIL 1.0 composition has gained the official backing of the international standard setting bodies for the Web and a 2.0 or expanded version of SMIL is in development. Frame based design is here to stay. In the synchronized multimedia arena, given current conditions, the current race for long term dominance is between between Flash and SMIL. Much of the remainder of this essay will be given to an understanding of SMIL composition.
An issue then that emerges in such composition is to decide who will do the primary synchronizing or sequencing of the presentation, the reader of the piece or the author of the piece. But though frame design lacks a formalized way to automatically synchronize the timing between one display and the next, it is still complementary to synchronized multimedia (SM) which could play in one or more frames of a frames based composition.
For readers who have made it this far, I suspect that this has been a hike into ever stranger territory. Any further understanding will have to come from witnessing and exploring such compositions, followed next by trying one's hand at creating them. Accomplish what you can with the time you have.
Frame based Multimedia (the "reader" takes primary control over the sequencing of the presentations)
Water Study (presumes that quicktime 4.0 or later is installed on your Windows or Mac computer) Synchronized Multimedia-SMIL (the "author" takes primary control over the sequencing of the presentations)
The Razor's Edge (presumes that Real Player is installed on your computer) Statue of Liberty (presumes that Quicktime 4.1 is installed on your Windows or Mac computer operating system) RealNetwork's Slideshow Showcase (presumes that Real Player is installed on your computer) RealNetwork's View Source Gallery (includes both examples of SMIL source code and working examples; presumes that Real Player is installed on your computer) Streaming Media World's SMIL Gallery (presumes that Real Player is installed on your computer) Competitors to SMIL
Stream Anywhere from Sonic Foundry Microsoft's HTML+Time proposal: developer intro.; Spice Up Your Web Pages with HTML+TIME article. Macromedia's Flash and Director
Whatis.com's basic one screen definition of SMIL and links to sites with futher details and tutorials on its use.John Maxwell Hobbs (September 14, 1998). The Synchronized Multimedia Interface Language (SMIL). Developer.com Journal: Tech Workshop.
W3C User Interface Domain Specification for Synchronized Multimedia -SMIL.
The W3C SYMM Working Group has released a new version of the Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL) Boston Specification, a W3C Working Draft 22 June 2000 which can be found at http://www.w3.org/TR/smil-boston/
SMIL mail archives.
Jeff Rule's tutorials
- A tutorial introduction to SMIL. (December 14, 1998). WDVL.com.
- RealText and SMIL tutorial. (February 1, 1999) Web Developer.com.
- RealPix: The SMIL Graphics Format. (February 1, 1999). WDVL.com.
- RealText--Text Synchronization with Digital Media.(February 22, 1999). WDVL.com.
- RealAudio - Using audio with SMIL. (March 22, 1999). WDVL.com.
- RealVideo - Waiting on Broadband. (April 19, 1999). WDVL.com.
- SMIL at Work. (Mar. 12, 1999). Webreview.com.
- Streaming Graphics with RealPix. (Mar. 12, 1999)
- RealText and SMIL. (?). RuleWeb.com.
- RealVideo and SMIL. (?). RuleWeb.com.
Scott Clark's tutorials Quicktime and SMIL. (Apple Computer)
- Tutorial: RealSystem G2 & SMIL. (May, 1998). Web Developer.com.
- RealPix and SMIL Tutorial: RealSystem G2 & SMIL. (May, 1998). Web Developer.com.
- Realtext and SMIL. (June, 1998). Web Developer.com.
- SMIL Tools To Get the Job Done. (June, 1998). Web Developer.com.
Jose Ramirez (1999). Learn SMIL with a SMILUsing QuickTime extensions in your SMIL document QuickTime SMIL Extensions Tim Kennedy (March 7, 2000). QuickTime 4 Begins to SMIL. Streaming Media World.
Hervé FOUCHER (1998). SMIL tutorials. Helio Web Based Projects
John Maxwell Hobbs (September 24, 1998). Working with SMIL. Developer.com Journal: Tech Workshop.
John Maxwell Hobbs (December 1, 1998). Putting it all together: SMIL, Real Pix, and Real Text. Developer.com Journal: Tech Workshop.
John Maxwell Hobbs (November 19, 1999). Customizing Multimedia with a SMIL. Developer.com Journal: Tech Workshop.
Jeff Rule ( 1999). SMIL Tutorials, Demos and other resources. RuleWeb.
Apryl Lundsten and Robert Doiel, of University of Southern California Center for Scholarly Technology (4/22/99). Smil Tutorial. CNET Builder.com.
List of editors SOJA (Java version) SMIL Composer SuperTool (free) Real Audio/Video SuperTool. Convert WAV files to RealAudio files, convert AVIs to RealVideo, create RealMedia metafiles and insert RealPlayer plug-ins into your Web page.
If you can find and download different forms of media, you can begin to create SMIL and other comprehensive compositions without waiting until your own unique compositions have been created in different media. There are many places from which to acquire this material. Many applications tools such as Powerpoint by Microsoft come with a wide range of clip art that includes animations, video and sounds. Further, search the Lycos FTP archive database and enter relevant key words, e.g.: video clips, audio clips, video archives, video index, audio archives, etc. For video, still image and video, select the media type in the left column and search by keyword at Hotbot.com. Other search engines will may provide similar features. But, using general search engines to find files (especially video) that can be downloaded and saved to your hard drive can be very time consuming. It is much faster initially to not be too picky and work with some of the specialized archives below.
Still Images
Online Institutes Index to Clipart and Clipart collections Cool Archive a general collection ArtToday 40,000 free graphics, many more for a fee Absolute Web Graphics Archive over 10,000 Grab & Go Graphics Concept Corporation FTP WuArchives Index of /multimedia/images
Free Backgrounds
Ace of Space Graphics 3D Webscapes Absolute Background Textures Archive Animation
GIF format
Angela's animated clipart Dr. Black's Icon and Clipart Library at UTHCT Animation Library over 3500 animations MPEG Video
Yahoo's MPEG animation archive MPEG MOVIE ARCHIVES "A huge collection of hundreds of MPEG files including viewers." Index of MPEG Archive Sites Video
A collection of the Internet's Funniest Movies Yahoo's MPEG Archives American Saddle Bred Horse Gaits PC World FTP videoclips Downloadable Planet of the Ape's clips (QT) Music/Audio
Lycos Music Downloads for MP3 FTP WuArchives Index of /multimedia/MIDI
The CWI SMIL Page by CWI (Centrum voor Wiskunde en Informatica), the National Research Institute for Mathematics and Computer Science in the Netherlands. Streaming Media World's site which includes tutorials on Synchronized Multimedia. Scott Clark's WebDeveloper.com's SMIL Links and Resources. About.com > Computing/Technology > XML > SMIL Computers: Data Formats: Markup Languages: SMIL. by the Open Directory Project.
Microsoft (and Macromedia) Frowns on SMIL (1998). (they both have competing products).Tim Kennedy (November 11, 1999). The State of SMIL. Streaming Media World.
Lloyd Rutledge, Jacco van Ossenbruggen, Lynda Hardman, (1999?). Anticipating SMIL 2.0: The Developing Cooperative Infrastructure for Multimedia on the Web.
Bouthillier, Larry (September 1, 1998). Synchronized Multimedia On The Web: A New W3C Format Is All Smiles. Web Techniques, n9, p.53-57. Heid, Jim (February, 2000). SMIL: Markup for Multimedia: Create Bandwidth-Friendly Streaming Multimedia, Macworld, Vol. 17n2, p.111-113.
To date, I have not found any books or book chapters that focus on Synchronized Multimedia. These book titles however are helpful in addressing many important multimedia elements.Angle, Jonathan (1999). Realmedia Complete : Streaming Audio and Video over the Web.
Flckiger, François (1995 ). Understanding networked multimedia, Prentice Hall. [ISBN 0 - 13-190992-4.] "It
focuses specifically on the theory and applications of networked multimedia digital systems in terms of several
basic questions: What is multimedia? What can be done with multimedia today and in the future? How can it
be done? Why does it have to be done that way?" Prentice-Hall.Gulie, Steven W. (2000). Quicktime for the Web. Morgan Kaufmann Publishers. [$54.95;,729 pages Bk&Cd Rom edition; ISBN: 012471255X; description, table of contents, sample chapters] "This is the complete guide to creating QuickTime content and putting it on the web. It covers everything from the right way to embed a movie in a Web page to the best techniques for combining scrolling text, Flash animation, MP3 audio, live streams, and virtual reality in an engaging and easy to follow style."
Lee, William; Owens, Diana (2000). Multimedia-Based Instructional Design: Computer-Based Training, Web-Based Training, and Distance Learning with Cdrom. Jossey-Bass Inc. [$59.95; 350pp.; ISBN: 0787951595; publisher's web site description including complete preface]
Pogue, David (2000). iMovie: The Missing Manual. O'Reilly & Associates. [List Price: $19.95 400 pages; ISBN: 1565928598
Amazon.com description and reviews; O'Reilly & Associates web site description with sample chapters and more]
(c) Updated June 26, 2000 | Send updates and additions to Page Author: RSHoughton@hotmail.com