Audio Visual

The term Audio-Visual (AV, or A/V) may refer to works with both a sound and a visual component, the production or use of such works, or the equipment used to create and present such works. Slide tape presentation, films and television program are examples of audio-visual presentations.

Once audio-visual media came into existence, it became a part of people's everyday lives within a few decades.

Business presentations are also usually audio-visual. In a typical presentation, the presenter provides the audio by speaking, and supplements it with a series of images projected onto a screen, either from a slide projector, or from a computer connected to a projector using a presentation program (software).

In the developed world, there has been a huge uptake of computer-based audio-visual equipment’in the education sector, with many schools and higher educational establishments installing projection equipment and often using interactive whiteboard technology.

Audiovisual Education

Audiovisual education or multimedia-based education is instruction where particular attention is paid to the audio and visual presentation of the material with the goal of improving comprehension and retention.

After the use of training films and other visual aids during World War 2, audiovisual technology gradually developed’in sophistication and its use became more widespread’in educational establishments such as schools, colleges, universities, museums and galleries, as well as at tourist destinations, such as the purpose-built circular cinema, Arromanches 360, at Arromanches-les-Bains, which shows a 360° film presentation of the Normandy landings

Audiovisual education, educational instruction by means of materials that use the senses of sight and hearing to stimulate and enrich learning experiences. The successful use of motion pictures and other visual aids’in the U.S. armed forces during World War 2 demonstrated the effectiveness of this medium as a tool of instruction. The use of audiovisual materials—formerly confined to maps, graphs, textbook illustrations, and museum and field trips—now includes all the developments of the photographic and film industries as well as radio, sound and videotape recordings, computers, and television.

The field of programmed instruction employs computers and other types of audiovisual teaching machines. Many local school systems’in the United States have their own film and videocassette libraries that are often supplemented by films and other media rented from universities and government offices. Business, industry, and government also use audiovisual materials for training and informational purposes.

The growth of educational television and multimedia computer programs has greatly expanded the concept of audiovisual education. In 1952 the Federal Communications Commission reserved the first channels for public educational purposes. The Public Broadcasting Act set up the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, an independent agency responsible for the distribution and support of educational television programs. With the development of closed-circuit and cable television systems, students were able to receive more specialized programming. The advent of multimedia computer programs made learning even more individualized, as students gained the ability to participate’in the creation of their own materials and learning programs.