Internet commentary
Art thou not, fatal vision, sensibleTo feeling as to sight?(William Shakespeare, Macbeth (1606) act 2, sc. 1, I. 33)
Keywords: Internet, Printed circuit boards
Regular readers of this column will know that I have frequently recommended that graphics, speech files and video files should be reduced to the smallest sizes possible, making them sensible to feeling, as the Immortal Bard had it nearly four centuries ago. As a general rule, small graphics files, as displayed on Web sites, will be in either the JPG or the GIF format. One question that is frequently asked is which of these should be used for a given application. There is no hard and fast rule but the JPG format is most frequently used where there are more than 256 colours. This makes it eminently suitable for use with photographs or very complex art work. The GIF format is more suitable for line drawings, sketches and, above all, monochrome work. I do not recommend its use for photographs, unless they are black and white.
One way of making your viewers happy, is to make your graphics file size, as displayed on your Web site, as small as possible. But, and this is not commonly realised, it is no use taking a larger picture and dragging it down to a smaller size and leaving it at that. The file size will remain exactly the same. The ideal method of working is to take your graphics into an editing programme, such as Corel Photo- Paint, and resize it to exactly the size which you wish to display on the Web site. Save it at this size and then import it into your Web site generating programme. However, there are a few programmes which, on request, will resize the file after the picture has been reduced. This is even simpler if your generator has this feature.
If you have a graphics file, or several of them on a single page, which, at the required size, exceeds an aggregate of about 30 kilobytes, then it is worthwhile to use the thumbnail technique. Some generators will do this automatically whereas others require manual manipulation. This is not difficult:all you need to do is to make a copy of your picture, reduce it in size to about the dimensions of a postage stamp, save it and put this file on your Web page. You then hyperlink this image to the full size picture. This allows your page to download very rapidly and anybody wishing to see the picture in its full detail will be able to do so simply by clicking onto the thumbnail copy.
For technical Web sites, it would be very unusual to require the use of a sound file. If one is not careful these can be disastrously long. The secret of making a WAV file as small as possible is to record it at the lowest quality compatible with the requirements. This means that a quality equivalent to a stereo CD is out of the question. It would make very little difference, for example, if recording speech, to record in stereo or mono at high-quality or low-quality in terms of the audible timbre. On the other hand, the resultant file may be 16 times smaller if it is recorded in mono at a relatively low quality such as with a 22 kilobytes per second (or lower) sampling rate. My advice is never to use music or even a fanfare when opening the Home Page. This is totally unnecessary and is more likely to cause irritation than to attract new customers.
For the main part of this preamble, I wish to talk about video on the Internet. Of course, this should be used with discretion and only where it is necessary. However, there are cases where video can provide a distinct advantage, but it should be done properly.
The input device for any video is obviously the camera. Although all Internet video is of relatively low definition, the better the camera the better the results. The best cameras are undoubtedly, in the low-cost range, the digital Mini DV types. If the budget can run to it, I strongly recommend the models with 3 CCDs. Over the past two years, Sony have also introduced another type of digital camera, the Digital 8. These are slightly cheaper than the Mini DV types, but the quality is not brilliant. However they are probably adequate for this purpose. The older analogue type of camera, such as VHS-Cor Hi-8, are also usable, but with distinctly poorer video quality.
The next piece of hardware that is required will be a suitable computer. The minimum recommendation is a PC with a Pentium II or III, running at a minimum of 450 megahertz, with a RAM of at least 128 megabytes and two fast hard disks. This should have a capture card installed, the type dependent on the camera. For digital cameras with Firewire output, an IEEE-1394 card would be the most suitable. For digital cameras without the Firewire output and for all other types of input, an analogue card will be required, such as the Matrox Marvel G-400. The best operating system for this is currently Windows 98 SE. A capture and editing software is required and for this I recommend Ulead Media Studio Pro, version 6, which has ousted Adobe Premiere from the leading position in the "prosumer" market. This will work fine with both digital and analogue inputs.
You will need to shoot your scene, under the best lighting conditions, import it into your computer and then edit it down to the shortest possible length,consistent with the message that you wish to convey. With the editor, you will be able to add titles and transitions between shots. For Internet purposes, do not use complex transitions because these will not reproduce as you intend. It is much better to use simple fade-in and fade-out techniques. During the editing phase, you can also add a commentary and, if required, a short musical introduction and finish, although this may not be needed. Once you have your clip as you wish it to be seen, you will need to render it into an AVI file. You can still do this at the maximum resolution in order to preserve the best quality for the Internet version.
The final phase of this work is to convert this AVI file into something that can be used on the Internet and to upload it to your Web site. There are many ways of doing this. Before discussing this, please let me digress into a small dissertation on what happens when somebody wishes to view your video file over the Internet. In order to get the best quality, he must have an excellent connection between the server on which the video is stored right through to his own computer. There are two ways of ensuring this. If your usual ISP can ensure a good connection at all times, well and good. If this is not the case, then it would be recommended to place the video file on a specialised server for which you will be required to pay extra. As a general rule, low-cost ISPs will not be able to provide you with sufficient bandwidth for streaming video. This is because, being low cost, they are popular and therefore their bandwidth is much consumed by their many customers. The more professional ISPs, who may charge slightly over the odds, may be able to provide a better service. The minimum required sustained transmission speeds for a reasonable quality is about 500 kilobytes per minute, although half this is still acceptable in many cases.
As part of this aside, I should also like to explain a little bit about streaming. This means that the video file being viewed is partially loaded into a buffer on your computer and viewing starts before the total file is loaded. The viewing programme handles this automatically, dedicates a certain length of buffer, according to the connection conditions, the required quality and the frame configuration, and then displays, usually within a few seconds, the start of the clip.
There are two techniques used for streaming. The first to come on the market was developed by a company at http://www.real.com. This is still the most evolved system and can be viewed on any platform. The other system, developed by Microsoft, is less universal and more complex. It cannot be viewed by persons running a computer under anything other than MS Windows or possibly Mac. For these reasons, I do not recommend this system at the present stage of development. I shall therefore confine my remarks to the Real system.
You will require a software called realproducer. This is available in various versions from a free download to something costing tens of thousands of dollars. If you are doing a single video requiring no special effects and a simple configuration, the free download may suffice. On the other hand, the version costing about $150 may offer you greater flexibility. There are three phases in using the software. The first one is to convert your AVI file into a streaming file. You may choose amongst many options with the software. These will allow you to select the best compromise between smoothness of running and the quality of the image according to requirements, the image size and also what you estimate your viewers will use in the way of Internet connections. The second phase is to generate your html page and a configuration file which will link your video into your Web site. The third stage will be to upload your video, the configuration file and your html page into your Web site. If your video is to be uploaded to a separate server, this must be specified.
Typically, to view a ten minute video will require a little more than ten minutes, overall, during which time five megabytes or more of downloading may be achieved. It is therefore simple courtesy to warn visitors to the page that the video does last the required number of minutes with a good connection but it could take longer if the Internet is busy (if this happens, the video pauses in the middle). Also, if you wish to view a streaming video, choose a moment when you know that the path between the video server and your own computer is not likely to be overloaded – I find early morning (local time) is the best time to look at videos at their best quality. The advantage of streaming is that you should not need to wait an interminable moment for a page to download, you can start viewing within seconds.
The viewer must, of course, have a compatible viewing software with the necessary plug-in on the computer housing his browser. If the software is not available, it can be downloaded, free-of-charge, from the manufacturer. A link to do this will often be provided on the html page offering the video. Installation is automatic.
Of course, these are just the bare outlines of the process. For anyone with no experience of video technology on a computer, there is a long learning curve fraught with difficulties. Just to get a computer to work with video often requires days of experimental configuration. It is therefore simply not worth it if the only thing you wish to do is to create a single video and stream it on your Internet site. It would be far cheaper to allow a professional to do it for you. On the other hand, if you intend publishing a lot of videos, either on or off the Internet, then the investment is worthwhile.
I have been doing some video streaming work for some time, using an ordinary ISP, and have now reached a stage of confidence that I can produce something reasonable for professional Internet use. Any reader who wishes to see what Internet video for technical applications can do, using an ordinary ISP, is welcome to e-mail me at the address at the foot of this article and I will send him a reply directing him to a sample video (I am not publishing the URL here because the current tests are on a non-public sub-Web and they will change before this article is printed – in any case, the present trials contain material which may be construed as advertising).
For my site reviews, I propose looking at the top names of the list of printed circuit manufacturers given in Table I on page 18 of Circuit World,Vol. 26 No. 3, March 2000. These are apparently the biggest printed circuit manufacturers in the world. It produces some rather surprising results!
In the number one position there is the CMK Corporation of Japan. Incredible as it may seem, this company does not even seem to have a Web site of its own. However, its American subsidiary Nippon CMK of San Jose does have a site –and what a site! It is unbelievable that a company with a turnover of over $1 billion should have such an amateurish site which looks as if it was designed by a 12 year-old school kid. The Home Page is large, with two frames, no meta descriptions or keywords, poor legibility and with a menu on the left-hand frame with three items: profile, product and news. In reality, only the profile and product items link into other pages – perhaps the company has no news!Looking into the profile, there are three other links which do not work and relatively little information on the remainder which do. Under product, the link into product range does not work and the others, which do, do not really give any intelligible information for prospective customers. In fact, the following quotation will indicate the quality of the total site – for me it is totally incomprehensible, "A build up printed circuits 'CLLAVIS' that is manufactured by CMK Corporation. 'CLLAVIS' stands for CMK lamination multi-laser via hole system. CLLAVIS possesses buried via holes, blind via holes and copper plated through holes. The buried via holes are formed into an Inner core. A single layered insultation [sic!] layer is formed on to its double-sides,then BVH are produced. CLLAVIS does not have any BVH on buried via holes itself,but on the sub-land of buried via holes." Reading between the lines, I presume that this means that they manufacture HDIS circuits! Can a company housed in the USA not produce something better than this?
The Viasystems Web site, although with a much better visual design (see Figure 1), has a Home page of about the same size as the last one, 70 kilobytes,somewhat on the large side. Again, very surprisingly, there are no meta keywords or description on the Home Page. Why, in this day and age, do the professionals,who pretend to create Web sites, not understand that these meta keywords and descriptions are essential? It should be mentioned that this company does more than manufacture printed circuits. One of their larger sources of income is the manufacture of cable harnesses and they apparently do assembly, as well. Navigation through the site is easy and reliable. One of the most interesting sections is entitled technical service. This gives a detailed analysis of the data which is required to manufacture printed circuit boards and how to transmit the data to the manufacturing site. In addition, a few tips on PCB design are included, principally to help the client reduce the manufacturing costs. This company has many factories in different parts of the world and is obviously capable of meeting most requirements. My general impression, from the Web site,is that it is professional – not meaning, of course, that improvements could not be made to it.
The third manufacturer in the list is the Ibiden group. The Web site URL is effectively the English Home Page of a group manufacturing everything from electricity through graphite and building materials, acetylene, operating tourist agencies to printed circuit boards. It is not certain that this company should even have been listed because it is probable that the turnover mentioned is that of the consolidated group and not of the printed circuit department,which would appear to be a relatively small part of the total activities. Going back to the true Home Page, it should be mentioned that this site does have meta descriptions and keywords, although these appear to be in Japanese. The English Home Page is divided into three frames with a fairly modest aggregate, making it load very rapidly. My main criticism of this and the other pages is that the typeface used is such that, if viewed on a large screen, with certain types of browsers, then it becomes almost illegible. If we follow the line to what they term as the electronics substrate operation, we can see a very brief description of some of the company's specialities. Unfortunately, there are no technical details or any information which would help a prospective purchaser to select the company as a potential supplier. It is even difficult to find their address. As such, the whole site is rather disappointing. Again, one must ask the question why these big corporations pay only lip service to the Internet, yet probably spend millions on other forms of publicity. Is it that the corporate management do not believe that people use the Internet extensively for business purposes?
Fourth on the list, the Hadco Corporation offers the most sophisticated site which is reviewed here. This does not necessarily mean that it is the best one. The Home Page seems to take an hour and a day to download mainly because of the graphics in the top border which, alone, consumes about two-thirds of the near 180 kilobytes which it is necessary to load. This is simply bad design. However,this is not the end of it: at least, this site does have meta description and keywords but the list of the latter is so short that one wonders whether it serves much useful purpose. Although the Home Page is big, it offers no clue whatsoever as to what the company products are: the words "printed circuit"or "printed wiring" simply do not appear! In fact, the Home Page is really just one enormous menu. In order to navigate reasonably, I suggest that the viewer clicks the button labelled "Contents" – also a menu page but much more logically set out. This is a large and important site. To describe it in detail would take more space than is allotted to me. However, there are two downloads available from the site which are advocated. The first of these is called the Hadco DFM Guide and is strongly recommended as compulsory reading for all designers of printed circuits. The other is called the Microvia Design Guide– it is perhaps slightly more specific to Hadco but it is notwithstanding very valuable for anyone concerned with high-density interconnect structures. In addition, there are a number of other pages providing technical information of general interest. From this point of view, the site is worth visiting provided that one has a little time to spare.
The Nippon Mektron site, number five on the list, is not much better than any of the others. Again, it would appear that the printed circuit division of this company may only represent a small part of the total turnover, which I think is the figure used in determining the position on the list. The company has two other major divisions totally unrelated to the electronics industry. Neither the Japanese nor the English Home Pages have meta descriptions or keywords. The Japanese Home Page is a horror, but the English Home Page is simplicity itself which, despite the use of frames, is extremely rapid to download. However, like most of the other sites reviewed here, the company co-ordinates are not given on the Home Page: one must navigate within the site to be able to contact anybody about anything. Forward navigation is easy but the Back button is necessary to be able to move upwards through a chain of pages. The only information available on the site is a set of photographs of typical products. The rest is up to the viewer's imagination. In my opinion, this is simply not good enough to attract anybody to the company.
Figure 1 Home page of the Viasystems Group. This shows the clean layout, but the hefty graphics used as the background (left) and for pizazz (right)
This survey of what were purported to be the five largest PCB manufacturers in the world reminds me of the catchphrase in a BBC sitcom, "I don't believe it!" ! I don't believe that large companies can ignore Internet to the extent that these five have. I am not exaggerating when I say there are thousands of SMEs, some of them with only a handful of employees, which have far better sites. It is impossible for me to analyse why Internet publicity should be the Cinderella of these companies, but I strongly suspect that, in some cases, it may be that the publicity department has been instructed to generate a Web site without having a clue how to go about it – and possibly not being given an adequate budget, into the bargain. More and more, the Internet has become a grown-up means of publicity, largely consulted by purchasers and any company, large or small, would be well-advised to take a very critical look at their offerings. At this stage, it is unlikely that WAP will be much used in our industry, but it has one great merit which Web site designers may care to think about: unlike HTTP, it requires much more discipline to design a site. If this discipline could be translated into HTTP designs, then the Internet may become a little bit more standardised with less flights of fancy by individual Webmasters– this being in terms of the pure protocol and not the actual creation.
Brian EllisCyprusmailto;b_ellis@protonique.com
