Multimedia Presentation and Authoring

The digital representation of multimedia data simplifies many of the problems that have limited the use of analog audio and video editing systems to specialists. The most powerful contemporary authoring tools use a programming paradigm to allow complex interaction and synchronization relationships to be defined. These programming facilities are typically provided through either a scripting language or an iconic visual programming interface. Individual media types are edited using separate media-specific editors. 

Introduction:

Authoring and presentation systems are the software programs that allow people to create and deliver an experience for an end user. This experience can take many forms, from a computer based training course to a room-sized presentation or a virtual- reality environment requiring head mounted displays and spatial input gloves. The common denominator across all of these forms is that the experience is an interactive one: the end user interacts with the programs on the computer by providing input which affects the output from the computer. Authoring software is designed to support the creation of an interactive nonlinear experience in the sense that there are several pathways through the material , so the end user can make choices about where to go in the presentation, as well as how long to view each screen. There are often a variety of statistical reporting utilities included for the trainer as well. Presentation packages are designed to support the same media types, but without support for testing, scorekeeping, or tracking of end users. Presentation packages usually have a single price and simply offer different modes for creation and playback.