Brief description
This module will provide students with an overview of the techniques and technology required for the design, storage and delivery of multimedia material in distributed information systems. Through coursework, it will provide practical experience of the capture and delivery of such material.

Learning outcomes
On successful completion of the module, students will be able to:

• explain the problems, techniques and difficulties associated with the digital representation of multimedia information;
• build a multimedia system;
• use hardware and software tools to capture and edit various forms of media for insertion within a multimedia system;
• explain the limitations imposed if a distributed multimedia system operates over a network such as the Internet.

Aims
The module, building upon prior learning obtained through study of module CS25610, will specifically address techniques and technologies required for the design, storage and delivery of multimedia in distributed information systems. The module will address

• digital representation of multimedia information;
• capture, storage, tranmission and rendering of multimedia information;
• hyperlinking with multimedia systems;
• HCI issues associated with multimedia systems;
• hardware and software technology and tools for multimedia systems design and deployment;
• Internet support for multimedia.

Syllabus
1. Introduction - 4 Lectures
An overall introduction to the module and a review of typical interactive multimedia systems and their particular characteristics and challenges.

2. Aspects of Multimedia Systems - 5 Lectures
Information structuring and hyperlinking. Elements of design - graphic design, integration, synchronisation, interleaving, multiple modality. Visibility issues in multimedia.

3. Multimedia Design Techniques - 5 Lectures
Story boarding, planning, delivery tools, stress and robustness testing.

4. Multimedia Technologies - 5 Lectures
Hardware and software tools, capture and editing of media material, compression and storage techniques, analogue and digital multimedia, architectures, databases, markup languages, virtual reality. Standards for the storage and transmission of media materials.

5. Network based Multimedia Systems - 3 Lectures
Multimedia communications, Web and other Internet support for multimedia systems and transmission of media streams. Emerging standards and protocols for communication with network based multimedia systems.