Multimedia Key Concepts

Resolution
Refers to the density of pixels in a picture or movie frame.
o This is a measure of quality
o The higher the resolution the bigger picture can be enlarged before it starts to get pixilated
o High resolution = Large file size = Slow transfer rate (if uncompressed)
o Resolution can also be used to describe sound quality
o Generally RGB (Red Green Blue)is used to describe images but other systems such as HLI (Hue,
Luminance, Intensity) are used, commonly on High Definition TV, and minance, Intensity) are used,
commonly on High Definition TV, and CYMK (Cyan, magenta, yellow, and key (black)) used in
printing, can also be used when talking about resolution

Colour Depth (or Bit depth)

The number of data bits required to control the colour of each pixel on the screen
o 1 data bit /pixel = monochrome (black & white)
o Multiple data bits can control multiple colours or shades of grey (different to Black & White)
o 4 data bite (24) = 16 colours (or shades) 8 data bits (28 or 1 Byte) controls 256 colours
o True Colour (224 or 3 bytes per pixel) can control 16,777,216 colours.
This is the highest resolution commonly used.
It represents close to the limit of colours or tones that humans can recognize.
Resolutions above true colour are possible and are used to represent additional information
such as transparency when creating 3D, not additional colours)

Memory Requirements & File Sizes (Pictures & Video)

Calculating memory requirements or File sizes (same calculation) is quite simple but can look complicated.
There are 2 basic pieces of data needed: Resolution and Colour Depth (this will be in data BITS)
In addition, you need to convert your calculation from data bits into a manageable unit
(Resolution X Colour Depth)/(8 x 1024) will give a file or memory size in Kilobytes

An image with a size of 800 x 600 pixels and 246 colours (8 bits colour depth)

(800 x 600 x 8)/8 x 1024

3840000/8192 = 468.75Kb
This would be the average, uncompressed file size of a picture filling about of your screen

To calculate video file size, you perform the same calculation above then multiply by the frame rate (Frames per
second of FPS). You may also need to convert the answer to MEGABYTES by moving the decimal place 2 places
to the left)

Memory Requirements & File Sizes (Audio)

For this you need the sample rate, the bits per sample (Bit depth) and the length of the sound to be recorded
Eg, CD sample rate is typically 44,100 samples per second & 16 bit depth. Therefore 1 second of CD quality
sound would be (44100 x 16)/(8 x 1024) =86.1Kbyte a 4 minute track would be 86.1 x 4 x 60 would be 20664Kb
or 206.64Mb
MP3 lossy compression would compress this by a factor of 12 to 17.2Mb
Compression
In order to efficiently store and transmit (upload & download) files it is necessary to reduce their size, hopefully
without reducing quality too much.
Two compression strategies apply:
o Lossy Compression where the file is reduced using a method that loses some of the original data to
reduce the file to the size necessary.
The higher the compression, the lower the quality (resolution)
Lossy compression is able to rebuild an approximation of the original file as data is
permanently lost
The degree of compression depends on what is an acceptable quality for a particular
application. Eg. A video file (typically VERY large) can be highly compressed (made quite small) id
it is to be shown in a small window on the computer (eg Youtube). If you expand to full screen
you can see the extent of the loss
o Lossless Compression where the file size is reduced but critical data is not lost
Lossless compression is able to rebuild an exact copy of the original data with no data loss.
It is typically used for archiving purposes when an exact reproduction is needed
Examples are .ZIP used to compress documents, GIF which reduces file size by limiting colours,
and .PNG which

Creating Graphics
File Types

Different file types have different data formats but also different purposes and applications
.filetype (.jpg, .gif)actually associates a file with the application that will open it
Different filetypes often have different types of compression algorithm applied
o .bmp is a RAW file type that saves ALL of the data about every pixel in a picture, uncompressed
o .gif & .PNG are lossless compressed picture files, the contain information that will rebuild the exact
image so tend to have a largish file size to load slowly as they have to reassemble the image
o .jpg (or .jpeg) are lossy compressed images which have a smaller file size (depending on the level of
compression) and load more quickly as it is the actual approximate image that is loaded
o .gif was originally designed for data transmission (eg internet) but has been overtaken by JPEG which, in
spite of its loss of data, can have millions of colours as opposed to GIFs 256
One method of giving users access to high quality images on the internet, without having slow loading pages, is
to load pictures as JPEG thumbnails, which when clicked on, open or download a high quality version of the
same image.
o Because thumbnails are small, they can he highly compressed and still look OK due to their smaller
resolution.
JPEG Compression There are very complex explanations of JPEG on the internet talking about Quantization Y Huffman
algorithms, but put very simply, it works like this:

The algorithms converts the entire image into blocks of 8x8 pixels (depending on the degree of compression)
o The size of these blocks determine how far you can enlarge before you start to see them (they are the
pixilation you observe)
The colour of that block is approximated to an average value (colour) and stored. If that colour block occurs
again, only its location need be stored.
The size of the block and the number of times it reoccurs will determine finished file size.
o If you take a picture in from of a green screen, and the same picture outside at the same resolution, the
former (green screen) will be a smaller file size as the green colour only needs to be approximated once,
and repeated where the background outside will have lots of random detail.

Video compression
MPEG (.mpg), AVI (.avi) and Quicktime (.mov) are the three most common movie compression formats. Flash Media
(.flv) is becoming the norm for streaming video.

Each compression method is different, all producing files of around the same size and resolution.
Each file type has a specific application.
o AVI will allow video & audio to be encoded in the same file but cant handle aspect ratio differences. It
cannot efficiently handle wide screen formats.
o MPEG and QT can be enhanced to accommodate high definition
o FLV can encode a multilayered video (like a flash animation)

Audio compression
Wav (Waveform), MP3, AAC and dozens more
Some are lossy (MP3, AAC), some are loss less (Waveform)
Sampling rate and bit depth effect file size and compression (and quality)

MPEG compression
Equally complex as JPEG but at 24 frames per second.
Mpeg creates a single frame image in a way similar to JPEG, it then stores the successive changes to that imaje
from frame to frame. In this way, sections of a movie with the same background, or where not much is
happening will be small where as action scenes will be larger

Vector & Bitmapped Graphics

Check ELF on Multimedia MYCLASSES page

Case Study
Read over EVERYTHING in the case study.
Questions may or may not mention directly mention the cases study. If it doesnt ask you to refer to it, just
think about Lightbox and the way things are done in that business to help answer the question.
Management structure, environmental issues, employment issues and social considerations are all important.
Outsourcing- leaving elements of production, manufacture and distribution to outside specialists