Curriculum Portal

neurologyYou need to know

• Online distribution through apps and websites can reach large audiences quickly, support updates and interactivity, and reduce physical production costs, but it depends on compatible hardware, software and network access.
• A multimedia product combines media such as text, images, audio, video and animation, often with interactive controls or navigation.
• Computers usually provide substantial processing power, storage, large displays and varied input methods, whereas mobile devices prioritise portability, touch control and wireless connectivity but have smaller screens and more limited battery life.
• Interactive televisions are suited to large-screen audiovisual content and remote-control input, while kiosks provide controlled public access through fixed hardware but are expensive to install, maintain and update.
• CDs and DVDs are inexpensive physical media that work offline but have limited capacity, require compatible drives and can be damaged; memory sticks are portable, rewritable and higher-capacity but can be lost, damaged or carry malware.
• Paper-based distribution needs no digital device or electricity and is easy to annotate, but it cannot include audio, video or interactivity and is costly to update, reproduce and transport.
• A platform’s operating system, screen size, processing power, storage, input methods, connectivity and supported software determine which file formats and media products it can use effectively.
• A pixel is the smallest individual colour element in a raster image, and pixel dimensions state the image’s width and height in pixels; more pixels generally allow greater detail but create larger files.
• PPI means pixels per inch and describes pixel density in a digital image or display, while DPI means dots per inch and describes the density of dots produced in printing; higher values generally produce finer detail when the source contains enough information.
• Raster or bitmap images are grids of pixels and are suitable for photographs and complex colour detail, but they become pixelated when enlarged beyond their original pixel dimensions; examples include JPEG, PNG, GIF, BMP and TIFF.
• Vector images are constructed from mathematically defined paths and shapes, so they can be resized without pixelation and are suitable for logos, icons and diagrams, but they are less suitable for detailed photographs; examples include SVG, AI and EPS.
• JPEG uses lossy compression to create relatively small photographic image files but can introduce compression artefacts and does not normally support transparency; PNG uses lossless compression and supports transparency but often produces larger photographic files.
• Digital audio represents sound using samples; sample rate is the number of samples recorded each second, measured in hertz, and bit depth is the number of bits used to record each sample’s amplitude.
• A higher audio sample rate can capture higher frequencies, while a greater bit depth provides a wider dynamic range and reduces quantisation noise; both normally increase file size and required bandwidth.
• WAV commonly stores high-quality uncompressed audio and creates large files, MP3 and AAC use lossy compression for smaller distribution files, and FLAC uses lossless compression to reduce size while preserving all original audio data.
• Frame rate is the number of individual frames displayed each second, measured in frames per second; a higher frame rate can make motion appear smoother but increases the amount of data that must be stored or transmitted.
• In UK digital video, SD commonly uses 720 by 576 pixels, HD commonly includes 1,280 by 720 pixels, Full HD uses 1,920 by 1,080 pixels, UHD or consumer 4K uses 3,840 by 2,160 pixels, and 8K UHD uses 7,680 by 4,320 pixels.
• Higher moving-image resolution provides more visible detail on suitable displays but requires greater storage capacity, processing power and bandwidth; low-resolution video can appear blurred or pixelated when enlarged.
• Common video formats or containers include MP4, MOV, AVI and WMV, while animation formats include animated GIF and animated SVG; compatibility, quality, transparency, interactivity and file size vary between formats.
• Uncompressed files preserve original data but are large, lossless compression reduces file size and can reconstruct the original exactly, and lossy compression permanently removes selected data to produce much smaller files at the possible cost of visible or audible artefacts.

• Compare online and physical distribution methods by judging audience reach, accessibility, cost, portability, compatibility, updateability and dependence on internet access.
• Select a distribution platform for a given audience and product, justifying the choice using its screen, controls, processing power, storage, connectivity and software compatibility.
• Choose an image format for a stated purpose, using raster formats for suitable pixel-based content and vector formats when lossless scaling is required.
• Calculate whether an image has sufficient pixel dimensions for its intended display or print size, taking account of the required PPI or DPI and the risk of pixelation.
• Select an audio format and settings for a scenario by balancing sound quality, sample rate, bit depth, file size, bandwidth and device compatibility.
• Select a moving-image format, resolution and frame rate that meet the product’s quality requirements without exceeding the target platform’s storage, processing or bandwidth limits.
• Distinguish lossy, lossless and uncompressed files by examining whether data is permanently discarded, fully recoverable or stored without compression.
• Evaluate file-format choices in a given scenario by comparing quality, file size, compression, transparency, scalability, editing needs and compatibility.
• Export media in an appropriate final format and verify that it opens, plays or displays correctly on the intended platform without unacceptable loss of quality.