Computer-based audiovisual production

Abstract

The following paper reports on a project sponsored by the Stanford Center for Information Processing (SCIP) User Services group to explore the feasibility of using audio-digital recordings as audiovisual instructional products to teach interactive computing languages to users of SCIP's facilities. Because audio-digital recording is heavily linked to computer systems, it made sense to try to utilize computer programs to help alleviate some of the difficulties of creating high-quality audio-digital instructional products. The result was an audiovisual authorship system named CAP (for Computer-based Audiovisual Production).Although the CAP software is oriented specifically toward the production of audio-digital cassettes, it can presently be used equally well to produce either audio-only tutorials or audiovisual products such as no-camera videotapes (i.e., videotapes created solely on a computer terminal, without the aid of a video camera, and played back using a videotape-recorder and a television set). However, in situations in which computer terminals are already available for other purposes, audio-digital cassette playback is considerably cheaper than most alternative audiovisual playback media. So although it is feasible %o use the CAP system to produce other media, the following discussion assumes that audio-digital cassettes are the end product of an author's efforts. The CAP system described below was developed explicitly to facilitate development of audio-digital instructional products for use with relatively high-speed (120-480 cps) CRT display terminals.