Platforms for video in interactive media

There are many different platforms that we are able to see interactive media on, one of them being the World Wide Web. The internet is our most dependant source of interaction, being easy to access with internet connection, we are able to use it in our daily routine to: shop online, download music from well known sites such as youtube or flash animation, catch up on the latest television shows and films or watch a preview of the upcoming episode, read interactive books and research global affairs.

There are a few different internet browsers available for download or which work specifically against a certain operating system, and they have different attributes when it comes to browsing. Firefox for example is the web browser for Linux operating systems, but can be downloaded for use on Microsoft PC’s; this favours a faster browsing speed than Microsoft internet explorer. I use Firefox because it is safe and quick when web browsing and downloading certain media such as; games, images and software.

Email attachments provide use of video allowing data such as; spreadsheets, audio and video files, images and e-cards to be transferred quickly and easily from person to person.

DVDs and CDs are different ways of saving data. DVDs have a higher capacity and are known for the use of films, documentaries or moving images and have the additional features such as: director's commentary, how the film was made, deleted scenes, interviews with the cast and crew. Whereas CD ROMs have a lower data capacity and are primarily used for burning audio and video onto the disk. They are also used for educational purposes such as; accessing presentations and briefs. However these days there has been a rise in mp3 downloads because it is easy, cheaper and faster, resulting in CD's becoming more redundant.

A more recent platform of video in interactive media are Kiosk's. These are interactive stations located in places such as: bus stations, shopping centres and tourist hot spots. This type of platform contains tourist and local information, for example; a kiosk found at a bus station would provide information stating bus timetables, cost of a bus fair and how to plan your journey. Whereas a kiosk located in a tourist destination such as London; Imperial War Museum will provide architectural and historical facts of this attraction. Kiosk's are free to use and are updated regularly maintaining reliable information.

Similarly to interactive Kiosk's is the use of the "Red" Button. The "Red" Button is used through the television it gives the viewer variety on what to watch and global affairs. For example, If you missed Eastenders you are able to click the "Red" Button and view the episode you missed. If you would like to know what the weather prediction is for the next day you can easily view the forecast. It is also accessible for gaming, allowing you to watch your chosen programme whilst playing the game of your choice.

Presentations are used to pitch an idea across to an audience. The most common programme to use is Microsoft Powerpoint. A presentation can consist of entirely one typecast, such as entirely text, or entirely video. It is more effective to use more than one to add variety to try and not bore the subject matter. A Powerpoint presentation about how to perform your best in tennis for example, could not only consist of facts and instructions but short clips of the movement you pursue when in the game. You are able to embed short clips from youtube or flash player into the presentation.
This is a very effective way to explain the subject to an audience without a vast amount of paper work and big paragraphs of writing. The audience can easily keep interested because the visuals help explain the topic.

The uses of video in the interactive media
Advertising is the biggest most widespread use of interactive media technology. You find advertising everywhere, on TV, in magazines and newspapers, in emails and on websites. Advertising is a very important part of making any interactive media successful it is one of the cheapest and easiest ways of promoting a product, it is very simple to show a trailer of Spielberg's newest film or a preview of Lady Gaga's latest single because it instantly attracts the target audience and word of the mouth is passed on.

Majority of the adverts on the internet consist of downloads or links to other sites such as gaming websites like Miniclip are most likely to advertise other games and previews for other gaming sites, showing links. And similarly to music websites, this is an effective way to advertise because it is designed for the target audience to feel tempted into trying out new games and listening to new music.

Adverts on Television are most likely to be promoting products you are able to find locally in store for example, food, toys or electronics. The audience are able to identify which products they would like to purchase because the advertisement uses someone within their target audience to promote the product having fun, showing how it should be used which will influence them to purchase the product.

There is two types of advertising, first one being promotional advertising, where the audience are attracted by free trials and downloads hooking them onto the game or programme. For example, Photoshop promotes a 30 day free trial offer for their programme, after the trial has expired if the user would like to carry on using the software they will have to pay a price. This is a good way of promoting a companies product because the audience will want to carry on using it.

The second type of marketing is called viral marketing. This way of promoting a product or a programme is sneaky yet very clever. We as a vulnerable audience are uncertain whether the advert is used to promote the product or is just a piece of user-generated content. Viral videos are put on sites for user-generated content sites, such as YouTube. The video of the "hot girl playing wii fit" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eW9jxPAGl-s turned out to be a viral advert collaborating with the production company; a very clever way to advertise for free to a vulnerable audience, the message portrayed within this advert was effective to young girls of her target audience. If they were to purchase a wii fit they can become slim, sexy and confident.

Virtual reality tours are a very interesting form of interactive media. This type of media is primarily used on property selling managements and estate agents. With these you can go through a virtual tour of the house or property your thinking of buying from the comfort of your own seat. This can be extremely attractive to the buyer as if they live a busy lifestyle they can pick the houses they wish to view more carefully than from just a few select images. Also this is a clever thought by the realtor, as they can make the expensive houses look even better to persuade people to buy, as the buyer will be viewing all aspects of the home.

I've used a VR when going on holiday, the realtor website showed a 360 degree view of the property and the surroundings. I as the audience was very overwhelmed with the picture and size and as I noticed when arriving at my villa it was different to the VR but with no disappointment.

E- Learning is a way to be taught via the internet by yourself. Sites such as the BBC have programs that can be used for self learning, if you wanted to learn about the Dinosaurs there are news articles, and even specific slideshows on the subject. There are also pages on the subject to learn about specific types of dinosaur, if you are looking to do research or just have an interest. There are also educational games that can be accessed on subjects. These let you play through certain scenarios as if you lived in the time or if you were a dinosaur yourself, with facts about what would happen along the way, so as you were playing you were learning as well. There are also other sites such as Sam learning, which is a revision site for GCSE’s and SAT’s. These contain question and answer slideshows to help revise for your chosen subject, it also has educational videos to watch while learning about your subjects. This is a very good way of learning as it is entirely self taught, therefore it shows you wish to learn and are going to concentrate, rather than being sat in front of someone talking to you.

Games are a form of entertainment and are accessible to anyone with internet access on a computer, or who own a games console. These are more popular with the younger audience as they offer a distraction to doing work. There are many kinds of gaming platforms to cater to everybody; there are games for little children all the way up to adults, depending on your preference. For example the game ‘Viva Piñata: Party Animals’ is a very colourful game and very easy to play, this would appeal to the younger audience as it involves a lot of paper talking animals competing against each other. Whereas the game ‘Borderlands’ is dank but cartoony in appearance with a lot of violence about it, this would appeal more to the teenage-young adult audience as it is a harder game and offers more of a challenge. Games are extremely good as most people like to go for them for a bit of entertainment, and can even be played with multiple people to offer a group playing experience.

Codec’s are used to compress all kinds of file, from video, to game. There are specific Codec’s for each kind of file, and to use them you need the same codec on both ends of the file compression transfer. A codec is needed to compress files to send over the internet, seeing as the average download speed is about 2MB/s and a full length film is around 800MB it would take a long time to download, so codec’s are used to compress these files down to make it easier for download. However to decompress these files you need the same codec on your side of the transfer, for example MPEG-4 is one of the most commonly used codec’s on windows computers, and are preinstalled on things like windows media player so when you download files there are automatically decompressed for you.
If you are downloading a game file however you would need a different kind of codec to work off. WinRar is one of these; it can open and decompress files to full size to be able to transfer onto disk. These are good ways of transferring data as it helps downloading take less time, but is only good if you have the right codec to work with.

Streaming video is what is done on sites like YouTube or Newgrounds, and is majorly user-generated content. This means you can put anything you want on the internet to share with anyone; these videos are only viewable on the internet and don’t involve any downloading.
You can embed certain videos off YouTube onto a blog or any other website you may own. This is useful if you are writing up about these things or just want to show off a good video. Embedding involves taking the specific HTML format and copying it onto a different site to show the video as it is in its own little player. You can choose the sizes of these as well if you wanted a larger video than normal.
Videos can also be tagged with certain keywords associated with the content in the video, making the video searchable on Google, or Bing for example, this can help you get your video onto the web quicker and found by people searching for your keywords. This works on streamed videos as well as downloaded videos so you can choose to get the video either way.