ABSTRACT
In our discussion, we shall apply the term ‘new media’ to a whole range of new possibilities of information transmission, which have become, or are becoming, a reality due to the progress made in microtechnology. Many of the ‘new media’ are not really brand new concepts, but their capabilities have been extended by the addition of microprocessor control. The laser videodisc is an example of a totally new medium, now slowly demonstrating its potential. The multi-screen slide show, however, is not new, but, given microcomputer control over the projectors, allows designers to change slides with such speed and precision, as to allow the creation of totally new visual effects, impossible to achieve in other media. Thus the addition of the microcomputer to even the humble slide projector or audiotape recorder may produce, in effect, a new medium of communication with its own special characteristics. And the addition of the microcomputer to the new and revolutionary laser videodisc has created yet another new medium – the interactive videodisc, which will figure as the principal subject of this chapter. But before we proceed with that topic, let us review some of the other promising new media developments which have appeared as ‘spin-offs’ from the micro revolution.
Multi-screen audiovisuals
