We use multimedia applications in our everyday lives. It is multimedia that we deal with while watching a movie or listening to a song or playing a video game. Multimedia applications are used in a broad spectrum of fields. Multimedia has a crucial role to play in the advertising and entertainment industry. One of the most common usages is to add audio and video effects to a movie. Educational software packages such as a flight or a drive simulator use multimedia to teach various topics in an interactive way.

So what really is multimedia? In general, any application that makes use of different sources of digital media is termed as a digital multimedia. A video, for instance, is a combination of different sources or contents. The contents can be an audio track, a video track, and a subtitle track. When such video is played, all these media sources are presented together to accomplish the desired effect.

A multichannel audio can have a background music track and a lyrics track. It may even include various audio effects. An animation can be created by using a bunch of digital images that are displayed quickly one after the other. These are different examples of multimedia.

In the case of computer or video games, another dimension is added to the application, the user interaction. It is often termed as an interactive type of multimedia. Here, the users determine the way the multimedia contents are presented. With the help of devices such as keyboard, mouse, trackball, joystick, and so on, the users can interactively control the game.