Problems with multimedia and its solution

Multimedia can be an exciting addition to business communication. Its glitziness and fun hold great temptation for the business. Moreover, organizations, institutes, and business houses can earn real and potential benefits. Even then, the adoption of multimedia by businesses has been very low. There are many reasons for the unwillingness. Multimedia is everything that we hear or see.

Example:

• Text in books
• Sounds in music
• Graphics in pictures
• Animations in videos, etc.

Components of Multimedia:

There are many components of multimedia which are depicted in the following figure:

Digital Texts: The most common and flexible form of presenting information on the screen and conveying ideas in multimedia application in text.

Digital Graphics: Digital graphics include still pictures, images, and photographs without dynamic movements like animations.

Digital Audio: Digital Audio files and streams play a major role in some multimedia systems. These files play an important role in making the applications interactive.

Digital Video: Digital Video is the technology of capturing, recording, processing, and transmitting moving pictures.

Digital Animation: Combining moving images, graphics and text are one of computer technology's most powerful aspects. Animated components are common within both web and desktop multimedia applications.

Problems with Multimedia:

Following are the problems that are associated with multimedia:

• Cost
• Equipment Failure
• Technical Barriers
• Social and Psychological Barriers
• Legal Problems

Problem 1 - Cost:

Although the cost of technology is falling, the cost of development is increasing daily. The cost reflects the technology's complexity and the need to acquire the rights to use a large volume of material, followed by others. Production of multimedia is more expensive than others because it is made up of more than one medium. It requires an electronic device, which may be relatively expensive. It also requires electricity to run, which adds to the cost of its use.

Solution - Cost estimation

Whenever we make a multimedia project, we have to make a proper cost estimation so that the final cost may not exceed.

Problem 2 - Equipment Failure:

Multimedia often requires more equipment to deliver a message than more traditional mediums. Whenever equipment is invoked, there is always the chance of equipment failure.

Solution - Continuous updates and expert maintenance

To tackle equipment failure, there is a need for continuous updates and expert maintenance of multimedia technology.

Problem 3 -Technical Barriers:

Organizations using multimedia applications must be aware of the up-gradation of the hardware and software tools. This up-gradation is required to provide the latest multimedia features like:

Personal computers or workstations that can support multimedia data.

Latest file servers that can handle the volumes of data.

Upgraded software tools that can control the quality of different forms of information.

Local and wide area networks for the transmission of multimedia information.

In business houses, sometimes it is required to transmit the voluminous amount of multimedia data in the form of continuous streams over the local and wide area networks. Sometimes the lack of standards becomes the reason for the incompatibility between the user's equipment and that of the information sender.

Solution - The solution to this problem is to use captioning, alternate text, and transcription for audio content.

Problem 4 - Social and Psychological Barriers:

Due to the invention of multimedia technologies, teleworking has been increasing daily. As a result, loneliness, isolation, lack of emotions, and lack of contact with clients and other professionals arise.

The typical environment of the office does not support multimedia interaction due to the background noise. Sometimes during videoconferencing, the participants get distracted by the movements in the background, which is responsible for the low quality of the picture.

Solution - These types of barriers can be tackled by interactions between the clients and professionals once every month, thus improving their social and psychological barriers.

Problem 5 - Legal Problems:

One of the biggest problems regarding the growth of multimedia applications is "ownership of content". It will be legal if someone reproduces some copyright work without the copyright owner's permission. In such a case, the copyright owner can sue for damages.

Copyright is the exclusive and assignable legal right given to the originator for a fixed number of years to print, publish, perform, film, or record literary, artistic, or musical material. There may be problems related to intellectual property rights in applications where networks are used to support joint work. Security and control of access to information are required to ensure data integrity.

Solution - In this case, educators will play a major role by thinking about an issue from an ethical point of view by informing and discussing it.