Multimedia in web presentations: W3C publishes SMIL 3.0

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has published version 3.0 of the Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL). SMIL, pronounced "smile", is an XML-based markup language that allows web authors to control both the timeline and the spatial layout of multimedia presentations. Text and graphics as well as audio and video streams can also be integrated into the presentations. Versions of SMIL are the basis of MMS messages and the interactive menus of HD-DVDs.

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Version 3.0 makes it possible to add multimedia presentations to other XML applications including XHTML and SVG. The lightweight variety of SMIL, "SMIL Tiny", is designed to make the development of multimedia applications easier on mobile and other embedded platforms.

Via smilText, the new version allows timed captions and labels to be integrated directly into presentations. SMIL's "media pan-zoom" control is an easy way to create "Ken Burns"-style animations using photos and other visual content. Authors can now also embed timed metadata in presentations.

In addition, the new features enable users to enhance video and image sites with captions, subtitles and other annotations, even if the video or images were created by somebody else.

(lghp)