The SMIL 2.0 Timing and Synchronization Model: Using Time in Documents

Time is at the heart of multimedia, media centric documents and animated presentations. A powerful, flexible model is needed to unify scheduling, interaction, advanced control for animation, and runtime synchronization management. SMIL 2.0 defines a language and semantic model that addresses these needs. Its declarative language for timing and synchronization provides significant advantages over a purely programmed or scripting model. The new model has also been structured to facilitate integration of the XML syntax for timing and synchronization into other XML applications. The powerful model, declarative syntax and ease of integration make SMIL 2 timing and synchronization a good choice for document applications that include timing, scheduling and/or interaction. This paper introduces the syntax and the underlying semantic model. It discusses the advantages of a declarative approach, and the approaches for integration in other XML languages.