Major Performance Gains and Innovative Features Anchor Upcoming Release…
“Adobe Systems on Thursday unveiled features planned for the upcoming Adobe Flash Media Server 3 releases.”
“Adobe is making a whole bunch of announcements at IBC, including a partnership with Cisco to embed Flash Media Server 3 in the Cisco content delivery system, as well as support for the upcoming Adobe Media Player.”
The company previewed the server on Thursday in Amsterdam at the IBC 2007 conference for online media.
Flash Media Server 3, which streams multimedia content, such as videos, will be faster and make it harder to copy streaming media.
Due in the first quarter of 2008, this major new release will offer the unique combination of traditional streaming media capabilities and a flexible environment for creating and delivering interactive social media applications to the broadest possible audience.
Customers can expect nearly double the previous performance, as well as new live event support, and industry-standard H.264 video codec backing is included along with AAC+ audio codec support.
Integrated Content Protection:
“A new encrypted protocol will protect streamed content.”
The new Adobe Flash Media Server 3 will offer a new encrypted protocol to help protect streamed content and provide support for the upcoming Adobe Media Player.
Adobe Flash Media Server 3 will also support live and recorded streaming to Adobe Flash Lite 3, Adobe’s award-winning Flash Player runtime specifically designed for mobile phones. Adobe expects the first Flash Lite 3 enabled devices to be available by the end of the year.
Adobe Flash Lite 3 will bring the Adobe Flash Player video format from the desktop to mobile handsets and devices, enabling operators, handset manufacturers and developers alike to deliver more engaging experiences to mobile users.
“As video on the Web accelerates, audiences around the world expect more reliable, high-quality experiences that live up to and surpass television,” said Jim Guerard, vice president of Dynamic Media at Adobe. “By utilizing the performance gains, increased content protection and a better out-of-the box experience in Flash Media Server 3, publishers can quickly and more securely integrate video into their Web sites and applications with more control over playback, interactivity, and branding.”
“On Tuesday, Microsoft launched Silverlight 1.0, its challenger to Adobe’s Flash Player, and said that a number of high-volume Web sites are using Silverlight.”
Adobe on Thursday also announced:
The Cisco Content Delivery System will be the first system to support Adobe Flash streaming capabilities. Cisco’s service will be able to deliver Adobe Flash Player capabilities to PCs and TVs via Adobe Flash streaming.
Adobe is squaring up against Microsoft – which released supposed Flash killer Silverlight on Wednesday.
“They share our vision of any stream to any screen,” Guerard, Adobe’s vice president of dynamic media, said of Cisco. “Create this content once for the 10-foot experience, the 3-foot experience, and the 1-foot experience.” Starting in the fourth quarter of this year, customers of the Cisco CDS will be able to use it to bring Flash video to the PCs, TVs, and other digital devices they sell to consumers.
With Adobe Flash Media Server 3, customers can develop and deploy a wide variety of social media applications, including video, audio/video messaging and blogging, live audio/video chat, text chats, data-casting, and multi-user gaming.
The new release introduces enhanced live event support with the upcoming release of Adobe Flash Media Encoder 2, crucial for news and event providers, as well as social media sites in order to deliver their content in real-time.
Adobe Flash Media Server 3 is expected to be available as a service through select partners in the fourth quarter of 2007 and for sale worldwide in the first quarter of 2008.
For more information about Adobe Flash Media Server, please visit www.adobe.com/go/fms3_faq.