Lighthouse Move Goes Interactive with Cape Light CD-ROM

Planning, writing and building an interactive CD-ROM is lots of work. It is done with computers and special programming that builds the story of the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse.

Kerrie Hudzinski uses a special software program to build the CD-ROM. The process is similar to writing a play or movie.

"Pictures, sounds, text captions, transitions, anything we would use to make up the CD," she says.

It is like putting together a giant jigsaw puzzle. Hudzinski moves visual and text elements at will and regulates the pace of the presentation.

"We've tried to design it in such a way that you can see any particular day between the preparation of the lighthouse moving and the actual move, for example," says Hudzinski.

Quality should be much better than what is available on the Internet.

"We're able to use bigger images. We're able to use more colors, less compression. Things should look a little bit better than they would on the Web," explains Jason Priebe, WRAL OnLine technical director.

Moving the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse was a major media event. However, the CD-ROM will be unique.

"This contains a lot of material that was generated exclusively for WRAL OnLine by our photographers who were at the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse," says John Conway, director of New Media.

When finished, the CD-ROM will be a rich, multimedia record of a major event.

"Something to commemorate a very momentous occasion in our state's history," says Priebe.

The Cape Light CD-ROM will not be finished until after the lighthouse is re-lighted in September. A few weeks after that, it will be made available to schools and the general public through retail outlets and WRAL OnLine.