Mirror Magazine

The world of multimedia has been revolutionised by the computer, and its effects have been rapid and far-reaching. The use of multiple media has been a defining trait in human evolution and communication. From the first cave drawings, the use of unique sounds for communication, which evolved into meaningful words and languages and other signals that were developed for the communication of complex ideas, went hand in hand with the development of the human intellect and the dawn of civilisation.

Evolution of the use of multiple media in human communication – though an ancient tradition – has been slow, and significant developments have been far-apart in the timeline of history. The first cave paintings had to drill through millenniums in its slow progression to produce the masterpieces of Michaelangelo and Picasso. Technology accelerated the progress and advancement of multimedia with the invention of the still camera, gramophone and the moving pictures, but it was only in the last two centuries that those advancements came to light.

The biggest leap in the widespread use of multimedia came with the popularity of moving pictures and recorded sounds, but it was not until the television took those technologies to ordinary homes and enabled real-time broadcasts that the use of multiple media came into the mainstream, not only as an entertainment tool, but one with enormous economic potential.

If the television popularised multimedia and made it an indispensable component of popular culture, then the computer redefined the very fundamentals of its use and applications. Throughout history, multiple types of media elements such as sound and voice and images, were used to communicate thoughts and ideas, but the computer opened the doors of multimedia to the expression and digitisation of the human imagination, which had no practical limits.

As communication networks grew in size, power and reach, especially during the past two decades, computers gained the position of being a primary mode of communication for individuals and businesses. Audio and video, including animated videos, have become popular sources of attracting the attention of the masses, and the storage and distribution of audio and video elements over a limited storage space and bandwidth of the present communication networks have always been a challenge. Ever increasing efforts are being made to optimise the transmission of bandwidth intensive multimedia elements, even in high speed networks, in attempts to increase network productivity and throughput.

It is in such a background that video and audio compression techniques have gained such prominence in this information age. Known as codecs, because of their functions of encoding and decoding video and audio elements, this technology has come a long way, as the demand for heavy multimedia content on the internet is increasing with the growth of bandwidth and the falling prices of technology.

In the following weeks, we will discuss multimedia codecs and briefly compare a few of them. You too can join this discussion by writing into technopage@gmail.lk