WGBH Boston
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WGBH provides a diverse menu of educational services in the public interest. Some of these services are broadcast over the airwaves; others take the form of books or CD-ROMs, online services or multimedia classroom tools.
Challenge
To deliver a truly accessible interactive user experience, reaching users through sound, animation, games and educational simulations.
Benefits
WGBH creates accessible web content with Macromedia Flash MX, and in the process, saves developer time and costs, increases developer productivity, and improves user experience across different platforms, regardless of connection speed.
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Project Details
Although its origins are as a radio and television broadcaster, WGBH today provides a diverse menu of educational services in the public interest. Some of these services are broadcast over the airwaves; others take the form of books or CD-ROMs, online services or multimedia classroom tools.
The wide range of broadcast and non-broadcast activities that go on under the umbrella of the WGBH Educational Foundation are united by a commitment to excellence that has earned WGBH the applause of viewers and listeners, educators, parents, and media critics. It also has won the station hundreds of the communications world's most prestigious honors.
Challenge
WGBH often turns to Macromedia Flash when it wants to deliver a truly interactive user experience, reaching users through sound, animation, games and educational simulations.
With the introduction of XML and HTML support in Macromedia Flash 5, WGBH began building large Macromedia Flash applications with more text than was previously possible. One Flash timeline, developed for the Evolution website covers 4.5 billion years evolutionary history, including 128 text entries and over 300 graphics.
Recently, an update of an American Experience piece on "Zoot Suit Culture," presented the opportunity for WGBH developers to provide visitors with accessible multimedia experiences. To accomplish their goals, they turned to Macromedia Flash MX, Macromedia's most powerful solution for developing accessible interactive Internet content.
Benefits
Since WGBH is a not-for-profit organization, budgets are limited, and it is important that web development funds are well spent.
Improvements in Macromedia Flash MX enable WGBH developers to work more rapidly and efficiently than in Flash 5, allowing them to add more interactivity and complexity to their site, all while staying within budget.
Benefits for End Users
· Accessible content. Macromedia Flash MX makes it easier for WGBH developers to extend the reach of their Internet content in a way that's transparent to users
· Developing content for use with assistive technologies, WGBH is able to provide more access for the 45 million viewers who would usually have little or no access to media sights and sounds.
· Because of speed improvements in the parser in Macromedia Flash MX, information from external XML files is delivered significantly faster than with previous versions of Macromedia Flash. This allows WGBH to reuse existing caption files in XML to make Flash streaming video accessible to hearing-impaired users, and provide second language captions for non-English speakers.
Benefits for Developers
· Improved accessibility features have the potential to cut development time in half. As screen-reader support for Flash MX increases, developers will no longer have to create HTML alternatives for all Macromedia Flash content.
· With dynamic loading of external assets including JPEG and MP3, developers save production time by not having to re-package images and sounds into Flash content.
· Since images and sounds could be batch-processed, developer time was reduced by 50%.
· Dynamic loading of external assets including JPEGs MP3s allows users to download media on demand. Using 3rd party compression tools reduced file size (and download time) by 10%.
· Flash MX adds new video support for the import and streaming playback of video, providing designers with creative ways to integrate multimedia content into sites for maximum impact.
· Backward compatibility allows WGBH developers to save movie files in Flash 5 format, work in a mixed environment, experiment with the latest Macromedia Flash version; and choose versions that work best for targeted audiences on different devices, including handheld devices and set-top boxes.
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