After the creation of the single media assets, their integration and the programming of interactive functions, the last step of a multimedia production is the finalization and preparation for the distribution. The proceeding is again different for offline media and for online-media.

Offline media:

Most authoring systems offer the possibility to create a stand-alone executable application (runtime file) for the target playback platform. During this process a runtime environment is generated, that allows to utilize the
files created with the authoring system without the authoring system itself having to be present.

In this way it becomes possible to copy the runtime environment along with the media files created by the authoring system onto a storage medium, like CD-ROM or DVD-ROM and distribute it.
According to the authoring system used, it is necessary for the user to perform an installation process in order to establish the runtime environment on his local system before he can use the multimedia application. For example Toolbook places a huge number of files into different directories, while applications created with Director are often executable directly from the data medium without any installation process. On MS Windows systems, however, Apple’s QuickTime must often be installed first.

Macromedia Director allows to integrate all needed files and the runtime environment into one big file that is labeled as ‘projector’. In the ideal case only this file must be distributed and executed in order to be able to use an entire interactive multimedia application. Nevertheless this often makes no sense.

More recommendable is a separation of the application into smaller program segments as separate single files, which call themselves mutually at runtime.

Tips:

- Single program segments should not be bigger than 5 to 8 MByte each
- This improves the overview during the production
- It also allows for an explicit positioning of the files on the surface of the storage medium (disc mapping) and therefore can help to prevent long loading times during runtime

Appropriate storage media for the distribution of offline-media are:

• CD-ROM(most widespread)                                    650-700 MByte
• CD-R (for small series)                                           650-700 MByte
• DVD (video)                                                           5-18 GByte
• DVD-ROM (for PC, etc...)                                       5-9 GByte

Typical storage media for backup (not for distribution) are:

• DVD-RAM (rather seldom) up to                             5 GByte
• CD-RW (rewritable)                                               650-700 MByte
• MOD (magneto-optical disc)                                  200 MByte to 6 GByte

Typical formats for CD-ROM are for example:

• ISO 9660                             Standard format, platform independent, only short filenames supported (8.3-Format)
• Joliet                                   Expansion to ISO 9660 for MS Windows, long filenames possible
• CD-ROM-XA                        multitrack format, multisession format
• HFS                                    pure Mac format, based on ISO 9660
• Mac/ISO                             hybrid mixed data for Mac and PC
• CD-DA                                ordinary Audio CD, no CD-ROM
• CD-DA                                Enhanced Audio CD with additional CD-ROM section (known also as CD+)
• Video-CD                            Special format for MPEG 1 (with minimum interaction)
• UDF                                    new universal disc format for CD-ROM and DVD (-ROM)

The most important CD-ROM formats for distribution are:

ISO 9660, Joliet, HFS, Mac/ISO hybrid and UDF

Online-media:

- No runtime environment necessary Unlike with offline-media, no special runtime environment is necessary. In fact
this is provided by the web browser on the user’s system.
- Distribution by FTP

In the case of online media, the finalized project is mostly a collection of files and assets that refer to each other, organized in a specific directory structure. The distribution is done by transferring this collection of files to a web server.
This is mostly done with the aid of a FTP client by means of the FTP protocol. The web server has to offer a FTP access for this purpose. On the web server the files must be organized in the identical directory structure.
The start page should always be called "index.html" and should be located at the highest directory level, because the web server expects it there.

- Site management

Up-to-date WYSIWYG editors like Macromedia Dreamweaver today also offer site-management, besides visual production of Web-Content by drag and drop. Site management allows to synchronize the local directory structure of a web site including all files on the development system with the directory structure of this web site on the server upon request by FTP. Site management is very helpful in case of frequent updating and modifications. All links on a web site can be checked and updated by the site management automatically, for example.

- Plug-Ins

The only installation processes necessary for the end user, are the ones for additional plug-ins to support special multimedia assets (for example .pdf., .svg...). These plug-ins have to be downloaded and installed before the user can
display the corresponding assets with his browser. Since installation of plug-ins is not always reasonable or possible, it is recommended to always offer the end user an alternative version of the web site in plain HTML, that works without any additional plug-ins, Java script or Java, etc....

-Cross-browser and cross-platform incompatibilities

Non-uniform performance and a diverging representation of contents between developer system and end user system are also a problem in the case of online media. The different models and versions of web browsers (MS Internet Explorer, Netscape, Opera, etc..) often display the same WWW content quite differently, so that it is strongly recommended to test the web content on diverse releases of the typical browsers and platforms (PC, Mac, Linux) continuously during production.

from : Prof. Dr. Roland Riempp