This article appeared in the July/August 1989 issue of Quick Connect, the Newsletter for Apple User Groups. It may be reproduced in other User Group publications not sold for profit. We require only that credit be given to the Apple Computer User Group Connection and that we receive a copy of any publication in which reprinted articles appear. The Apple User Group Connection, Apple Computer, Inc., 20525 Mariani Avenue, MS: 36/AA, Cupertino, CA 95014.
Making the Most of Multimedia
By Tyler Peppel
Tyler Peppel is Multimedia Product Manager at Apple Computer.
This article originally appeared in the May 1989 issue of Apple Direct.
“Multimedia will radically redefine how we interact with computers.”
In November 1988, Apple started a dialogue with developers about multimedia at its first Interactive Multimedia Developer’s Conference. More than 300 representatives from 200 companies converged to discuss multimedia technology and marketing issues. Since then, Apple and third parties have been working together to define directions in multimedia.
What is multimedia? Here’s our definition: Multimedia is the integration of high-quality sound, live-action video, and animation into the computing environment. Apple has identified multimedia as a crucial strategy for its future success, and as a breakthrough technology with both immediate and future benefits for our users.
Extending Our Architecture. We’re all hungry for information. We need to access it to develop our own thoughts and ideas, which we can then contribute back to the world of information around us.
The current Macintosh(R) architecture gives users power over familiar data types, such as numbers, text, and graphics. Customers can originate their own ideas and information, using products such as word processors and drawing programs, and then create high-quality output on paper or as data files. They can also gain access to information through such conduits as E-mail, on-line services, and host connectivity. Delivering the power to create and access information has been a thriving business for Apple and its developers. But it’s just the beginning.
Almost all the current capabilities Apple and our developers offer are limited to those tried-and-true data types: text, numbers, and graphics. Apple has embarked on a formal effort to extend the Macintosh architecture to include new data types, such as sound, external video, and other time-based events, such as animation. Because these new data types will potentially affect every application, it’s important to start thinking now about how products can be enhanced by them.
New Opportunities. This effort will give Apple users much more than incremental capabilities. It has the potential to tremendously broaden their fundamental abilities to learn and communicate and will also radically redefine how we interact with computers.
Here’s a look at where we stand with our support of these new data types.
• Sound. We already have basic support for sound in the Macintosh environment. Hardware support exists in the form of the Apple(R) sound chip (which ships with all of our modular Macintosh computers and most recently the Macintosh SE/30), and software support in the form of the sound manager which “orchestrates” the sound activity within the CPUs. We now have to finish the job, by making it easier for developers and end users alike to integrate, manipulate, and output sound. For example, we recently announced MIDI management tools for the Macintosh. This exciting development allows seamless integration of MIDI data into the Macintosh operating system. We will follow up with other sound enhancements over the next two years.
• External video. Video in all its forms—prerecorded tapes, broadcast, cable, and consumer-made tapes—makes up the most accessible, broad-based, and affordable body of electronic information. We want our customers to be able to tap that information and utilize it to fulfill their business, educational, and personal needs. Toward that end, we’re working to extend our architecture to allow external video I/O, so that sequences of video can become data in the Macintosh environment.
• Time-based events. Both sound and video introduce the dimension of timed events as a consideration for Apple, our developers, and our customers. Time-based events also include animation and external control of VCRs, videodisc players, video switchers, and MIDI devices. We want Apple users to have the same (or more) flexibility in handling events in time as they do in handling static graphics and text.
Fundamental Design Principles. We follow three important principles in our plans to extend the Macintosh architecture and encourage developers to keep these same principles in mind when developing multimedia products.
• Empowering the user as information creator. We strive to maintain a symmetry between accessing and creating information. Much of our current access to information is limited to one-way communication. In today’s media environment the forms of television, radio, and magazines assume us to be passive recipients of information. We lack accessible, easy-to-use tools that allow our users to participate as full creators of information as well. Our extensions to the Macintosh architecture are designed as a platform for tools that allow users to access information and also create and distribute their original work.
• Delivering quantity and quality. We aim to make it possible to deliver large quantities of information as well as have the highest-quality interface to that information. Information becomes a burden without good tools for accessing and manipulating it. As we provide the means to bring new data types into the Mac(R) environment, opportunities will occur for our developers to create new tools such as database applications for video and sound information, video and sound editing and organizing tools, and applications to help users navigate though environments that include sound and moving images.
• Making it mainstream. Last but not least, we keep the average, mainstream customer foremost in mind. We believe that these new capabilities should not belong to a specialized few but should permeate all of our products and third-party applications, providing the same advantages to all our customers. We want to take a broad, cross-market approach to multimedia functionality, rather than limit it to a particular industry or vertical market. Today, sophisticated applications of video, sound, and animation are associated with the entertainment and media industries. An important challenge will be to bring these high-end capabilities out of the realm of specialists and into the hands of average users—just as we’ve done with desktop publishing.
Current and Future Applications. Every application that exists today can take advantage of sound, video, and animation and provide more power for customers. As we implement our extensions, we will make them available to developers in advance, so that the new capabilities can be incorporated into existing applications. For example, even a mainstream application such as word processing could be greatly enriched with interactive animated help sequences, voice annotation of documents, and speech synthesis that gives the proper pronunciation of selected words.
Although we expect the broadest impact to come through changes to existing applications, we also expect to see new applications specifically designed to work with these new data types. New types of applications might include: video-image processing, video editing, still-image sequencing with sound, animation applications, sound synthesis and editing, speech recognition and synthesis, and voicemail.
Information Products. As we build a better and better platform for sound, video, and animation, we expect to see Macintosh-compatible “electronic information products” take their place beside the traditional applications we use today. These new products will provide a wealth of information such as news, current affairs, and documentary video; “how-to” and reference data; music; and sound tracks from speeches and events. This information will be viewed and heard selectively and interactively, incorporated into original work, personally annotated and indexed, and utilized within traditional applications, such as spreadsheet and presentation programs.
Most importantly, because of our focus on creating as well as accessing information, users will need the tools to create their own “electronic information products,” whether they be for personal or business use or commercial distri bution. Our customers with special skills, knowledge, and original ideas will need more powerful tools to transfer their insights to others. To make this happen, we will work actively to bring information providers together with the Apple developer community and with the growing number of User Groups and professional associations focusing on multimedia applications. Look for more information in future User Group mailings on Apple and multimedia, or share your thoughts on the AppleLink(R) User Group Bulletin Board.
(c) 1989 Apple Computer, Inc. Apple, AppleLink, Mac, and Macintosh are registered trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc. The User Group Connection and Quick Connect are trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc.
