RealAudio

RealAudio is a means by which you can provide digitized audio over the Internet to your students. Students can then access the audio via a web page in Netscape or Explorer. RealAudio technology allows large audio files to be transmitted in very compact files, with little degradation of audio quality. Some examples of academic applications which RealAudio can support are:

• foreign language recordings
• music listening assignments
• speeches, lectures, & dramatic readings
• studies in acoustics
• field-identification wildlife sounds

The procedures for requesting RealAudio files (RA) are:

1. Obtain Copyright Clearance

If the material to be digitized is under copyright, the person requesting the job is responsible for obtaining and providing proof of copyright clearance. The copyright holder should understand that the copies will be in digital format and will be provided via the Internet. We do have the capability to restrict access to materials, should the copyright holder require it.

2. Make Job Request

RealAudio job requests will be handled by Media Services (x3378, Quad 443). Clients should allow sufficient lead-time for the digitizing process to be completed, especially in cases where a large number of files are to be created.

3. Post RealAudio Files on a Web Page

Completed RA files will be copied to the campus' RA web server. You will receive the location and name of file and will need to create a web page which points users to the RA file. If you need assistance in creating web pages, please contact the Information Technology Services Help Desk, or consult the Training Room schedule.

Note: If the RealAudio files are being accessed from off-campus, the user must have a RealAudio player plug-in installed for their web browser. Plug-ins are available from RealAudio's website at http://www.real.com. Note also that copyright restrictions may prohibit access to materials by off-campus users.

Creating Links to RealAudio Files in Your Web Pages

When you receive notification of the location and names of your finished RealAudio (.ra) files, they will be of the form:

pnm://ra.csbsju.edu / directory path / ra-filename.ra,

• directory path is the name(s) of the RealAudio server directory where the file is located
• ra-filename.ra is the name of the RealAudio file

For security purposes, you cannot link directly to this file, but must create an alias. The alias is a text file with extension ".ram" located is your web (UNIX or FrontPage) account. The .ram file consists of the location and name of the .ra file as shown above.

Your web page will link to the alias. The alias links to the actual RealAudio file.

EXAMPLE:

Assume that you've been informed that your file is named spanish101-1a.ra and is stored in the academic/mcl directory path on the RealAudio server (ra.csbsju.edu).

You first create the text file alias, which you choose to name intro-spanish-1a.ram. This file must be saved in your web account. You can create this file using any text editor, such as Windows Notepad or Macintosh Simpletext. This file contains one line (a URL) of the form

data type:// server-name /directory path / real audio filename
pnm://ra.csbsju.edu/academic/mcl/spanish101-1a.ra

In your web page, you create a http link to the alias, intro-spanish-1a.ram:

<A HREF http://my_server/my_account/intro-spanish-1a.ram> Tape 1, Side 1</A>

substituting your server and account name for my_server/my_account, for example:

When someone clicks on the link in your webpage, the web browser will launch the RealAudio player and open the RealAudio file. An overview of the RealAudio Player is here.