Interactive Flow: New Vision of the Web

The Internet is the place par excellence, where the most innovative advances in the communications industry are currently happening.

No media so far has achieved the advance that the Internet has gained in the last ten years, nor has any so far been able to integrate as many elements into one as this means of communication has achieved. One of its most recent achievements in that regard has been to get the presentation of easy-to-use video and audio programs within its system. This has been called Streaming Interactive .

Being a medium in constant flow, the Internet has many novelties and the current trend is directed towards the media in flow with new characteristics whose results allow a greater integration of graphic elements, text and moving images. They are also more dynamic and have better integrated instruments. Their wealth makes them leaders in the management of Web resources and their development allows us to glimpse a new generation of applications reflected particularly in the original, agile and versatile design of Web pages.

Particularly, for the image industry the change has been amazing. Until a few years ago the possibilities of using video and audio on the Internet were substantially limited, since the files required to make it possible to see these or hear sounds were large and uncomfortable. However, things have changed, the means of flow have managed to break that limitation to become today the system preferred by users. How have they achieved this? Combining the interactivity of the Web with sophisticated file capture systems.

The consequences of this achievement could not be better; the use of video will cease to be exclusive to a few to become a normal tool for users. The web now provides a more intense way to experience video thanks to the use of characteristics of the medium such as its interactive capacity. The video thus handled becomes a multidimensional platform that allows an infinity of possibilities.

Some of them are:

• Animated graphical interfaces combined with video streams (streaming video)
• Quick access to particular segments of the video.
• Video clips synchronized with animations
• Splitting the screen into interactive data segments allowing the video stream to complement text and image.

Web sites integrated into the interactive streaming have the ability to use video as a central component of their design, thereby expanding the possibilities of participation of the users who use them, since the characteristics of the system allow the inclusion of a much more versatile and useful palette for page designers and producers of media.

Stakeholders can opt for traits such as:

1. Integrate videos into Web pages or programs such as (RealPlayer, Windows Media Player or QuickTime). When clips are used within the aforementioned programs they become their own interactive streaming platform. When they are embedded within the web page you have the option of using or not HTML frames to integrate content that can be displayed in sync with the video.
2. Increase interactivity through touchpoints, built-in links within the clip stream, Flash interfaces, and HTML links. Streaming Interactive lets you integrate forward, pause, and rewind controls with more new options.
3. Create new access to the video through hours of recording that can be saved within a video cassette, but getting to the important points of what we want to see is not very easy. Online video viewers now have the ability to have immediate access to the most important parts of a show with a single click.

This multi-access capability changes the linear narrative perspective that had worked so far by allowing web designers, producers, and filmmakers to play with creativity to give users a new kind of visual experience.

Analysts' projections of market expansion could not be more rosy as the flow media services business is expected to exceed $2 trillion in 2005.

However, the expansion of these media is linked to other trends and could not be possible without them. Noteworthy among others is the increase in the number of websites and web pages that will far exceed 10 million per day by the beginning of next year; the massive use of powerful personal computers with multimedia services; access to connections with good bandwidth and the combination of easy-to-use and very economical video transfer formats that allow high-quality scanning.

The video industry is the big beneficiary and has been at the forefront of its use. Products are already available on the market that allow users to enjoy all these benefits and thanks to this many companies have chosen to use the interactive flow as a usual work tool. In the field of marketing and advertising its expansion has been notorious. Firms find it more effective to send and receive video material from Websites than to wait for the arrival of material brought in by mail. Thus, instant video delivery with interactive interfaces is already a norm.

The same is true of the film industry, for which the flow of video and audio has made it possible to explore a new dimension of Internet commerce. As examples: LucasFilms distributed shorts from "Star Wars. Episode I" thus getting two million viewers and the independent film "The Blair Witch Project" was a success thanks to the commercialization of some segments distributed on the Web.

Streaming Interactive defines the next generation of online communications. Thanks to the growing demand for broadband, the power and speed of the computer, access to cheaper video cameras, DVDs and other less expensive forms of professional-quality image capture, those who come to work within this incredible creative space will be able to find an unlimited world of possibilities only intended for those with more imagination. n.