Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL ()) is a

World Wide Web Consortium The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is the main international standards organization for the World Wide Web. Founded in 1994 by Tim Berners-Lee, the consortium is made up of member organizations that maintain full-time staff working together in ...

recommended

Extensible Markup Language Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a markup language and file format for storing, transmitting, and reconstructing data. It defines a set of rules for encoding documents in a format that is both human-readable and machine-readable. The Wor ...

(XML)

markup language A markup language is a Encoding, text-encoding system which specifies the structure and formatting of a document and potentially the relationships among its parts. Markup can control the display of a document or enrich its content to facilitate au ...

to describe

multimedia Multimedia is a form of communication that uses a combination of different content forms, such as Text (literary theory), writing, Sound, audio, images, animations, or video, into a single presentation. T ...

presentations. It defines markup for timing, layout, animations, visual transitions, and media embedding, among other things. SMIL allows presenting media items such as text, images, video, audio, links to other SMIL presentations, and files from multiple web servers. SMIL markup is written in XML, and has similarities to

HTML Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) is the standard markup language for documents designed to be displayed in a web browser. It defines the content and structure of web content. It is often assisted by technologies such as Cascading Style Sheets ( ...

. Members of the

(also known as the "W3C") created SMIL for

streaming media Streaming media refers to multimedia delivered through a Computer network, network for playback using a Media player (disambiguation), media player. Media is transferred in a ''stream'' of Network packet, packets from a Server (computing), ...

presentations, and published SMIL 1.0 in June 1998. Many of these W3C members helped author several versions of SMIL specifications between 1996 (when the first multimedia workshops were hosted by the W3C) and 2008 (when SMIL 3.0 was published). SMIL is an XML-based application, and is a part of many

Multimedia Messaging Service Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) is a standard way to send messages that include multimedia content to and from a mobile phone over a cellular network. Users and providers may refer to such a message as a PXT, a picture message, or a multimedia ...

(MMS) applications. SMIL can be combined with other XML-based specifications such as with SVG (as has been done with SVG animation) and with XHTML (as done with HTML+TIME).

Version history

, the

W3C Recommendation The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is the main international standards organization for the World Wide Web. Founded in 1994 by Tim Berners-Lee, the consortium is made up of member organizations that maintain full-time staff working together in ...

for SMIL is ''SMIL 3.0''.

SMIL 1.0

SMIL 1.0 became a W3C Recommendation on 15 June 1998.

SMIL 2.0

''SMIL 2.0'' became a W3C Recommendation on 9 August 2001. SMIL 2.0 introduced a modular language structure that facilitated integration of SMIL semantics into other XML-based languages. Basic animation and timing modules were integrated into Scalable Vector Graphics ( SVG) and the SMIL modules formed a basis for Timed-Text. The modular structure made it possible to define the standard SMIL language profile and the XHTML+SMIL language profile with common syntax and standard semantics.

SMIL 2.1

''SMIL 2.1'' became a W3C Recommendation on 13 December 2005. SMIL 2.1 includes a small number of extensions based on practical experience gathered using SMIL in the

Multimedia Messaging System Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) is a standard way to send messages that include multimedia content to and from a mobile phone over a cellular network. Users and providers may refer to such a message as a PXT, a picture message, or a multimedia ...

on mobile phones.

SMIL 3.0

''SMIL 3.0'' became a W3C Recommendation in December 2008. It was first submitted as a W3C Working draft on December 21, 2006. The last draft revision was released on October 6, 2008.

Authoring tools

Authoring and rendering tools for smilText and SMIL 3.0 PanZoom functionality: *Fluition by Confluent Technologies *Ezer by SMIL Media *Grins by Oratrix * GoLive 6 by Adobe, discontinued in April 2008 *Hi-Caption, a captioning tool by Hisoftware * HomeSite by Allaire, discontinued in September 2003 *JM-Mobile Editor for mobiles using SMIL and J2ME technologies *Kino: a non-linear DV editor for

Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...

. It features integration with IEEE-1394 for capture. *LimSee2 is an open source SMIL authoring tool, with support for SMIL 1.0 and SMIL 2.0. *MAGpie, a captioning tool by WGBH *MovieBoard, for e-learning (Japanese only) *MMS Simulators list *Perly SMIL, a SMIL 1.0 Perl module *ppt2smil tool is a PowerPoint macro that convert a PowerPoint presentation to a streaming SMIL presentation with audio and/or video. *RealSlideshow Basic by RealNetworks *SMIL Composer SuperToolz by HotSausage *Smibase, a server-installed software suite *SMIL Editor V2.0 by DoCoMo *SMILGen by RealNetworks, a SMIL (and XML) authoring tool designed to ease the process of XML. *SMIL Scenario Creator by KDDI *SMIRK presentation authoring tool for the production of accessible slide shows outputting to SMIL 2.0, SMIL 1.0, XHTML + SMIL, HTML 4.01. *SMOX Pad and SMOX Editor, for advanced SMIL and HTML+Time development. *SMG for a PDA, a BREW, a Phone and a PC by Smilmedia *TAG Editor 2.0 - G2 release by Digital Renaissance ??? *Tagfree 2000 SMIL Editor *Toolkit for MPEG-4 from IBM, creates MPEG-4 binary from content created in XMT-O (based on the SMIL 2.0 syntax and semantics). *TransTool - open source transcription tool *VeonStudio by Veon *Validator: SMIL 1.0, SMIL 2.0, SMIL 2.0 Basic and XHTML+SMIL by CWI. *3TMAN allows to easily author the complex multimedia projects and then can export the multimedia projects to the Html+time and/or SMIL formats Demos *SMIL 2.0 Feature-by-feature demos by RealNetworks *Torino and New York demos by Telecom Italia Lab *SMIL1.0, SMIL 2.0 demos available from Oratrix. *Synchronized Multimedia Summer School at INRIA *The Webnews demo, by CWI. (needs an HTML renderer) *Demos available from RealNetworks *SMIL 1.0 tutorial written in SMIL *SMIL1.0 demo of the Canyonlands *XHTML+SMIL demos, by Microsoft (works In > IE5.5 only) *XHTML+SMIL demos, by Patrick Schmitz (works In > IE5.5 only) *Demos of SMIL Animation used in combination with SVG at Burning Pixel and KevLinDev *Karaoke demo; SMIL version, you can directly test a Html+time version for IE6. An enhanced Karaoke demo.

SMIL documents

A SMIL document is similar in structure to an

document in that they are typically divided between an optional section and a required

section. The section contains layout and metadata information. The section contains the timing information, and is generally composed of combinations of three main tags—sequential ("", simple playlists), parallel ("", multi-zone/multi-layer playback) and exclusive ("", event-triggered interrupts). SMIL refers to media objects by URLs, allowing them to be shared between presentations and stored on different servers for load balancing. The language can also associate different media objects with different bandwidth requirements. For playback scheduling, SMIL supports ISO-8601 wallclock() date/time specification to define begin/end events for playlists. SMIL files take either a .smi or .smil file extension. However,

SAMI Acronyms * SAMI, ''Synchronized Accessible Media Interchange'', a closed-captioning format developed by Microsoft * Saudi Arabian Military Industries, a government-owned defence company * South African Malaria Initiative, a virtual expertise ne ...

files and Macintosh self mounting images also use .smi, which creates some ambiguity at first glance. As a result, SMIL files commonly use the .smil file extension to avoid confusion.

Combination with other XML-based standards

SMIL was created during a time when structured data using XML was very popular and during a time when

Internet Explorer Internet Explorer (formerly Microsoft Internet Explorer and Windows Internet Explorer, commonly abbreviated as IE or MSIE) is a deprecation, retired series of graphical user interface, graphical web browsers developed by Microsoft that were u ...

was very popular. Thus "combining" SMIL with other markup languages was considered one of the best current practices of the day.

SMIL+SVG

SMIL is one of three means by which SVG animation can be achieved (the others being

JavaScript JavaScript (), often abbreviated as JS, is a programming language and core technology of the World Wide Web, alongside HTML and CSS. Ninety-nine percent of websites use JavaScript on the client side for webpage behavior. Web browsers have ...

and CSS animations).

SMIL+RSS or other web syndication methods

While RSS and

Atom Atoms are the basic particles of the chemical elements. An atom consists of a atomic nucleus, nucleus of protons and generally neutrons, surrounded by an electromagnetically bound swarm of electrons. The chemical elements are distinguished fr ...

are

web syndication Web syndication is making Content (media), content available from one website to other sites. Most commonly, websites are made available to provide either summaries or full renditions of a website's recently added content. The term may also describ ...

methods, with the former being more popular as a syndication method for

podcast A podcast is a Radio program, program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. Typically, a podcast is an Episode, episodic series of digital audio Computer file, files that users can download to a personal device or str ...

s, SMIL is potentially useful as a script or

playlist A playlist is a list of video or audio files that can be played back on a media player, either sequentially or in a shuffled order. In its most general form, an audio playlist is simply a list of songs that can be played once or in a loop. ...

that can tie sequential pieces of multimedia together and can then be syndicated through RSS or Atom. In addition, the combination of multimedia-laden .smil files with RSS or Atom syndication would be useful for accessibility to audio-enabled podcasts by the deaf through Timed Text closed captions, and can also turn multimedia into hypermedia that can be hyperlinked to other linkable audio and video multimedia.

SMIL+VoiceXML and SMIL+MusicXML

VoiceXML VoiceXML (VXML) is a digital document standard for specifying interactive media and voice dialogs between humans and computers. It is used for developing audio and voice response applications, such as banking systems and automated customer service ...

can be combined with SMIL to provide a sequential reading of several pre-provided pages or slides in a

voice browser {{Short description, Interactive voice user interface A voice browser is a Application software, software application that presents an interactive voice user interface to the user in a manner analogous to the functioning of a web browser interpretin ...

, while combining SMIL with MusicXML would allow for the creation of infinitely-recombinable sequences of music sheets. Combining SMIL+VoiceXML or SMIL+MusicXML with RSS or Atom could be useful in the creation of an audible pseudo-podcast with embedded hyperlinks, while combining SMIL+SVG with VoiceXML and/or MusicXML would be useful in the creation of an automatically audio-enabled

vector graphics Vector graphics are a form of computer graphics in which visual images are created directly from geometric shapes defined on a Cartesian plane, such as points, lines, curves and polygons. The associated mechanisms may include vector displ ...

animation Animation is a filmmaking technique whereby still images are manipulated to create moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Animati ...

with embedded hyperlinks.

SMIL+TEI

SMIL is anticipated for use within

Text Encoding Initiative The Text Encoding Initiative (TEI) is a text-centric community of practice in the academic field of digital humanities, operating continuously since the 1980s. The community currently runs a mailing list, meetings and conference series, and ma ...

(TEI) documents.

Status of SMIL

SMIL is being implemented on handheld and mobile devices and has also spawned the

(MMS) which is a video and picture equivalent of

Short Message Service Short Message Service, commonly abbreviated as SMS, is a text messaging service component of most telephone, Internet and mobile device systems. It uses standardized communication protocols that let mobile phones exchange short text messages, ...

(SMS). SMIL is also one of the underlying technologies used for " Advanced Content" in the (discontinued) HD DVD format for adding interactive content (menus etc.). The field of

Digital Signage Digital signage is a segment of electronic signage that uses Electronic visual display, digital display technologies to present multimedia content in both public and private environments. Content may include video, images, text, or interactive me ...

is embracing SMIL as a means of controlling dynamic advertising in public areas.

SMIL players

Software

Most commonly used web browsers have native support for SMIL, but it has not been implemented in Microsoft browsers. It was to be deprecated in Google Chrome, but it has now been decided to suspend that intent until alternatives are sufficiently developed. Other software that implement SMIL playback include: * Adobe Media Player * Amarok * Garlic Player * Helix Player * QuickTime Player *

RealPlayer RealPlayer, formerly RealAudio Player, RealOne Player and RealPlayer G2, is a cross-platform media player (software), media player app, developed by RealNetworks. The media player is compatible with numerous container file formats of the multimed ...

Totem A totem (from or ''doodem'') is a spirit being, sacred object, or symbol that serves as an emblem of a group of people, such as a family, clan, lineage (anthropology), lineage, or tribe, such as in the Anishinaabe clan system. While the word ...

Windows Media Player Windows Media Player (WMP, officially referred to as Windows Media Player Legacy to retronym, distinguish it from Windows Media Player (2022), the new Windows Media Player introduced with Windows 11) is the first media player (application soft ...

(Playlist Files) * Zune (Playlist Files)

Hardware

* IAdea XMP-300 media player * IAdea XMP-7300 media player (with limitations) * Planar MP70 media player (with limitations) * SpinetiX HMP400 / HMP350 / HMP300 Hyper Media Player (SMIL 3.0 support) * Thomson/Grass Valley MediaEdge-3 player * ViewSonic NMP-550 media player * ViewSonic EP1020r wireless display+player (supporting a subset of SMIL) * Innes DMC200 media player * Innes DME204 media player with HD H264 encoder embedded Media player boxes based on dedicated 1080p decoder chips such as the Sigma Designs 8634 processor are getting SMIL players embedded in them.

Embedding SMIL files into XHTML web pages

A SMIL file must be embedded, then opened using a plug-in such as Apple's QuickTime or Microsoft's Windows Media Player, to be viewed by a browser that doesn't support SMIL.

Sources

References

External links

W3C's SMIL Web Site

SMIL 3.0 (W3C Recommendation)
{{Authority control Markup languages World Wide Web Consortium standards XML-based standards Subtitle file formats Computer file formats Declarative markup languages Playlist markup languages XML-based programming languages Declarative programming languages Open formats Internet properties established in 1999