Part 2 – Distribution - Online and Offline delivery mediums.

Stuart Matthews
Multimedia Technology
Part 2 – Distribution
Online and Offline delivery mediums.

Online Delivery
Most programs for creating files to be used in multimedia presentations include settings and options to optimize files for publishing. Flash allows the user to choose which files type/types they want the production to use. File types that can be used for publication are .swf which exports the flash movie in a format suitable for uploading to internet, .html allows the user to export the html for the file. Gif, jpeg and png file type can be selected to export the image of the movie. Windows and Macintosh Projector option export the file for use with a projector. QuickTime movie (.qt) is an Apple files also for movies. Settings allow the user to choose which version of flash and action script should be used. Other settings allow the user to set the jpeg quality, add a password and edit sound options. Flash allows the user to create advertising animations, components for web pages, to add video and create web sites making it a popular choice to add interactivity and animation to web pages. Flash works by manipulating vector and raster graphics and supports audio and video streaming. A scripting language called Action Script is used mainly to control vector animations. There are many software applications, devices and systems that support Flash. Adobe Flash Player, available for most browsers is used to playback flash movies and animations. Mobile phones and other devices also support Flash Player to allow the use of games, web applications and movies. Flash files on the internet require a browser with Adobe Flash Player to view.
Before being uploaded to the internet web sites and web pages should be validated. Validation is the process of checking the html files for any spelling or grammar errors in the file. Browsers work by reading html files that tell the browser where and how to display text and other medium. Because browsers will accept and try to display any html file even one with problems any errors in the html language can lead to the browser not displaying the page the same in all browsers. When web pages have been validated they are ready to be uploaded to the internet. To upload a file to the internet first you must have a space on the internet to put it. There are thousands of companies offering web space both paid for and for free. Paid for hosts are generally faster, more reliable servers than free sites which can use advertising to pay for the space. Once you have somewhere to upload the web pages to you must then get it there from your computer, this is done with the use of a FTP (file transfer protocol) program. FTPs allow the user to connect to an ftp address which is the address of their space on the internet. The user must have an FTP address, sometimes called Host Name, username and password to connect to their web space. Once connected files can be uploaded by browsing to the containing folder on the computer and either dragging on to the webs pace of clicking upload. As some hosts have trouble reading files with capital letters it is important the all file names are in lower case.

Offline Delivery
Offline delivery methods include CDs, DVDs and Flash drives. CDs and DVDs have become the standard medium for delivering large amounts of data as they are cheap and reliable. Some DVDs (DVD RW) allow the user to use the disk like a drive adding and removing files as required. Flash Drives are portable drives that use flash memory to store data and allow the user to add and remove files as needed. Flash memory is used is many devices today including mobile phones, digital cameras, mp3 players and video consoles.