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he combination of different types of
media, such as text, audio, video and animations, into some sort of
informational whole that can be displayed on a computer. The role of
multimedia in computing has undergone many transformations since its early
days. Once a clumsy novelty used merely to entertain, it benefited greatly
from more powerful hardware and more imaginative software design tools. Its
use in cd-rom-based
educational software, particularly encyclopedias, helped to illustrate its
potential. The much-vaunted cd-rom market proved to be an expensive illusion
for many firms involved in producing educational cds in the late 1990s, but
multimedia's promise is strong than ever because of the internet and its
ability to deliver original content to a widely distributed audience.
As more bandwidth has become available to consumers, multimedia usage on
websites has grown (although many argue that the taste of its designers has,
if anything, decreased) and it is now an important part of rich media
advertising. |
