Interactive Multimedia – since the ’80s technology advances have let us experiment with mixing audio, text, moving images and interactivity to tell stories and influence markets. But the reality of interactive multimedia has been something less than promised. Now with the release of the Apple iPad in the midst of an explosion of digital media production we may have taken the final step in delivering on the promise.
In the ’80s slide shows made a huge leap with simple digital control of projectors. Before digital control of a projector most productions consisted of a single projector and a sound track that went “beep” so you’d know when to click to advance. Suddenly we were loading up racks of six, twelve and even twenty-four projectors controlled by dedicated computers and programmed to match stunning images to high end sound tracks.
Then somebody came up with the idea of “branching” and everything changed.
Branching means that when you arrive at a certain point in the show you provide two or more paths for the show to follow. You might provide an overview then give an option for more details or advance to the next section of the overview. You could tailor the show to meet the needs of the situation.
We were delivering sound, text and moving images in an interactive environment. What a concept – Interactive Multimedia 1.0!
In the early 90′s we made another huge leap with DVD media. We went from 700 MB to 4.7 GB on a single disk. We had disc access times fast enough to play small video files on screen.
We could put dozens of programs on a single disk that each was more powerful than our expensive, noisy, difficult-to-manage twelve projector slide show. And we could include pdf files for spec sheets, detailed drawings, and order forms.
And we could author environments with almost endless branching.
Then the web explosion began and we took a huge step back in bandwidth and media standards but gained instant delivery to any computer connected to the net. We are still delivering sound, text and moving images but now in a much more powerful and pervasive interactive environment so let’s call it Interactive Multimedia 2.0.
This month we have another potential leap about to happen.
With the launch of the iPad the promise of interactive multimedia delivered anywhere in the world looks like it’s finally going to become real.
Take a look at this prototype of a totally digital publication – interactive books and magazines with text, audio and full motion video embedded.
VIV Mag Interactive Feature Spread – iPad Demo from Alexx Henry on Vimeo.
Yes, it’s sexy in so many ways. They’ve combined a titillating topic, seductive images, interesting headlines delivered in a stimulating conceptual environment. Bingo!
Could they hope to produce a new issue every month and keep up the production value?
We have a well developed network and cable broadcast industry that cranks out a hundreds of new episodes every week to millions of viewers. And with the newspaper and magazine industries struggling to stay alive it shouldn’t be hard to find good writers, art directors and other staff highly skilled in periodic production workflow. Put the right team together and you’d have no problem producing a great issue like this once a month.
What’s this got to do with DSLR video?
Whether you have a calling as a producer or a shooter, your skill in delivering digital video will continue to be in demand for the foreseeable future. If you’re a producer you need to get well versed in interactive environments. I don’t mean just adding a streaming video to a web page. And I don’t count the simple click-to-advance arrow in this prototype as great interactive programming.
Like said, letting the user drive the show while making it easy for them to get vital information is still an art that most people in this business have not mastered. But guess what?
Hundreds of thousands of programmers producing games and applications for mobile phones have learned a lot about user interfaces and interactivity. Add some of those guys to your production team and get ready for some real excitement.
The iPad is not the only show in town for Interactive Multimedia 3.0. Go to vook.com and check out their publication list. Sure, the quality varies greatly and that will always be the case. But the writing on the wall for the future of this business is not youtube.com – it’s fully interactive multimedia programs that captivate an audience enough to make them easily part with their hard earned cash.
I think we’re about to go through another learning curve so hold on for the ride.
