Written by nosselrahc the 3 Mar 08 at 10:24.
Category: Multimedia.
Related project:
Nothing/Others.
Status: New
Rationale
Hello,
Create and add an 'Ambulant' package in Ubuntu. Ambulant is a SMIL player.
The SMIL standard is defined by the W3C. It's a XLM format allowing to make presentations, slideshows, to mix image, video, audio, text, it is encapsulable in the html or xhtml (for example, it's used for the MMS).
SMIL is a very promising alternative to (closed source, proprietary) flash. Having the Ambulant player and Ambulant Firefox plug-in included in Ubuntu would improve its use and visibility.
Okay I can't post actual SMIL code, as the previous comment shows. This is the code without angle brackets and usually
the elements are nested to make it easier to read.
Schools can use SMIL and Xiph multimedia to teach and make it fun.
This is an example of Lincoln's Gettysburg address. The instructor can
have students record the audio, make an image that goes along with the text. At the end of the project the students will end up remembering a famous speech.
Plus the students become use to expressing their ideas with text, images, audio... this is the new ink and paper.
From small screens MMS to large digital signage, SMIL is making inroads.
On the Internet it hasn't, now with smilText and xiph media it's time.
But in the other profiles Mobile and Daisy SMIL files are in containers MMS has mime-multipart and Daisy uses IDPF's ePub format.
With the disparate speeds in Internet connections, all of the separate SMIL files may not download in time, making the SMIL presentation ineffective. If Ubuntu adds Ambulant and supports it, the next step would be to standardize a container, such as the Daisy profile.
A zip file that Ambulant would open automatically and then SMIL content could be offered online or an ePub zip or maybe a combination of both. That's the next step in taking over the Web :)
IDPF's Digital Book Standards FAQs:
idpf.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=22
Great idea!
I hope it's going to be implemented soon...despite the few votes so far ;-)
I really look forward to a flash alternative.
Also, I'd like to find a player capable of playing easily SMIL files. I often have trouble with Helix and RealPlayer..
But I have to say that sometimes the SMIL code was not well written and that's the reason why the player can't load it.
Sometimes it seems to be a problem of connection speed, but I can't really understand it..
I'm a newbie in this technology, but I'm curious to learn and see it have success.