Short term requirements (7-12 months)

If the response from initial exposure to newer technologies are positive during the first 6 months, some of the foreseeable additions proposed are described below.

I. Classroom presentation equipment :

1. Presentation monitor

Usage: Since there will be more than one classroom need to be refurbished. The possibility of getting a "presentation monitor" for one of them instead of a LCD panel should be considered. The two advantages of monitor over LCD are: 1) the light does not need to be turned off during presentation. 2) No need to use overhead projector. These are especially advantages for the class size less than 15 students and in tutorial setting instead of lecture. The cost is slightly higher than a good LCD panel.

Mitsubishi Diamond Scan 29, $ 4,700 - Diamond Scan 37, $ 7,000

NEC MultiSync XM29, XM37 ($ 7,995)

Another alternative is CRT projection units
Proxima LitePro 760, $ 8,000
nView nFINITY P115 $ 7,300
NEC 6/9/10 PG, MultiSync Multimedia Theatre, ~$10,000

2. Remote pointing device

Usage: A cordless, remote mouse may be necessary. It depends on the classroom layout. An alternative is to use voice recognition software to control the computer with a wireless microphone. This method is particularly useful during lecture demonstration, e.g. the faculty may need to use both hands to handle glassware or chemicals.

Logitech MouseMan Cordless/Trackman Live, $200
SoundBlaster VoiceAssist $100

II. Multimedia presentation production :

2D illustration

add ons

Usage: Depends on the sophiscation of the illustration, sometimes additional tools are required to supplement the illustration program Adobe Illustrator.

Adobe's Streamline 3.1, ~$150 academic price, converted scanned bitmaps into curves (QuickDraw) for smoother editing.

Adobe's Dimensions 2.0, ~$150 academic price, allows the creating of 2D illustration of 3D objects.

Page layout programs like PageMaker 5.0, $300 academic.

2D animation

Usage: to create 2D animation for explaining complex concepts.

Autodesk's Animation Studio for Windows 1.0, estimate will be about $300 academic price (based on it predecessor Animator Pro's pricing). List price is ~$800.

Color printer

Usage : Although low cost ink-jet color printers are sufficient for general uses, for works that need to be sent out, e.g. press releases, publications, or presentations at conferences that may not have projection device, a higher quality model, ($3000-6000) using thermal wax or dye-sublimation technology would be recommendated.

Tetronix Phaser 240 600x300 dpi thermal wax printer, ~$ 6,000.

Options :

additional 8M RAM (total 13M) for 600x300 dpi printing
EtherTalk and TCP/IP Ethernet options
Phaser Print Software for DEC Alpha, HP, SGI, IBM RS/6000 and Sun supports.
Laser Paper Start-Up Kit
RealSUPPORT On-site Service

Tetronix Phaser 440 dye sublimation printer, $ 8,000

Live video production :

VCR

Usage : In the initial phase of getting familiar with the hardware, the volume of video tape produced is usually small. The use of camcorder as VCR for video playback is acceptable. It has the disadvantage of requiring the re-connection of the video/audio ports. It also put an excess load on the tape drive mechanism of the camcorder. A long-term solution is to have a dedicated video deck connected to the computer permanently.

Here are some features that this kind of VCR should offer:

Hi8 or SVHS
S-Video output
computer controlable, support VISCA , LANC, and Control-S protocol

Some VCR systems that meet the above requirements are:

Hi-8 format:

SONY CVD-1000 Hi-8 Vdeck, $ 1,400
SONY CI-1000 Vbox interface, $ 249

SONY EVO-9720 Hi-8 Desktop Editing Machine $ 5,700
SONY EVO-9650 Hi-8 Single Frame Record VCR $ 4,800
SONY EVBK-66 VISCA interface $330

SONY EVO-9500A Hi-8 Player/Recorder $ 2,200
SONY RM-S52A remote control unit $300

S-VHS format:

SONY SLV-R1000 S-VHS Hi-Fi Editing VCR ~$ 1,500

SONY SVO-9600 S-VHS Hi-Fi Player/Recorder $ 2,400
SONY SVBK-100 remote control interface $ 300
SONY SVBK-120 RS-232 interface $ 400
SONY SVBK-140 RS-422 interface $ 630
SONY SVBK-160 Time Code interface $ 400

SONY SVP-9000 S-VHS Hi-Fi Player $ 2,000

SONY RM-V200 remote control $120

Advance video capture card

Usage : As discussed in the 1-6 month plan, the quality of the video that can be captured depends on the video capture card. Radius VideoVision Studio 2.0 is the prefered choice for the digital video capture though the price of $ 3,700 is steep. It is capable of capturing 640x480 full screen video at 30fps with no dropped frame.

Drive array

Usage : The recommendation of using "AV-tuned" hard drive for video capture is based mostly on initial cost. Video capture is preferably done with disk arrays.

Some example sytems that is suitable for AV works are:
APS's ARRAID 4G Level 0 (stripped) RAID or Joule RAID ~$ 2,500

SPIN's 4G RAID 0,1 Whirlwind $ 4,000

FWB SledgeHammer 4100FMF 4G wide+JackHammer accelerator, $4,700

Micropolis' Gandiva 4.2G RAID $ 7,400

an accelerator SCSI controllerif not bundled is ~500.
RAID software if it is not bundled, like FWB RAID ToolKit or Remus is ~$500.

The examples shown above are based on NuBus Macintosh. The second generation Mac (9500, 8500s) will require newer controllers.

VideoVision Studio 2.0, a 4G Fast and Wide Studio Array, and a Fast and Wide controller can be purchased as ProPak bundle for $8,700.

The AV drive purchased in the 1-6 month plan can then be used for the CD-ROM production.

MPEG

Usage : Digital video production using the newer MPEG formats (the old MPEG-1 movies can be created using software) has been gaining propularity rapidly lately. The following is an example of a system for creating newer MPEG format video.

Sigma Designs' REALMagic Producer $ 4,000
includes PCI video capture card, Adobe's Premiere video editing software, and Caligari trueSpace 1.0 3D graphics software. Available for Windows platform only.

Audio - MIDI

Usage : One may need to use background music for their multimedia projects. To avoid copyright issue, one may want to compose their own music or use non-copyrighted sheet music. MIDI tools provide capability to create and edit digital music. An MIDI translator kit and MIDI software will be required to connect keyboards, drum machines, or synthesizers to the computer.

Creative Lab's MIDI kit for SoundBlaster or
MIDIsoft MIDI Kit for SoundBlaster card or
Opcode Systems' MIDI Translator II all costs about $50

MIDI sequencing software like Encore 4.0, Finale 3.2, ranges from $ 200 to $ 500. Also, serious audio producers usually require multi-track audio editing sofware like Deck II ($400) for audio editing.

IV. Courseware development

Electronic document

Usage : For electronic distribution of complex documents , WWW has its deficiency and may not be the best solution. Adobe's Acrobat electronic document distribution is the most popular choice. It has hypertext capability and keyword searching. Works is also being done In the next revision of Netscape to incorporate Acrobat technology. The viewers for Acrobat documents (PDF files) are free.

Adobe Acrobat for Workgroups 2.0.1 includes 10 license of Acrobat. $399 academic price.

CD-ROM production

Usage : Professors usually want to publish their multimedia courseware or classnote on CD-ROM. Using CD-ROM as storage medium is becoming a very attractive alternative to tape because it is the least expensive medium per MB of storage space. Following is the typical cost:

SONY, Kodak, Philips, Yamaha 2x writer, $ < 2,000
Yamaha 4x writer, $ 3,500
JVR ROMMaker 4x write, $ 5,000

CD-R software such as QuickTOPix, Toast CD-ROM Pro, Gear MM goes from $ 300-$ 1,000

Ching-Wan Yip, Department of Chemistry, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC 27109-7486, U.S.A.
yipcw@wfu.edu