The H.264 Convergence: Will Video Standards Finally Take Hold?

At the Streaming Media East show on Tuesday May 20th, we have a session entitled "The H.264 Convergence" that will detail how over the past year, more and more streaming media players are utilizing H.264 and providing support for the technology.

Adobe's recent support for H.264 in their Flash player has sparked industry discussions amongst major broadcasters and online video producers about the role H.264 will play. This session will explain why H.264 is getting so much exposure, what recent announcements have put it into the spotlight, and whether it can really be the one codec that the entire industry can converge on. Attendees will also see real-world examples of sites and services that are utilizing H.264 today.

Confirmed speakers include:

• Moderator: Eric Manchester, Manager Digital Media Distribution, Time Warner Cable
• Kevin Towes, Product Manager, Flash Media Server, Adobe
• Matt Smith, Video Architect, Yahoo!
• Tim Napoleon, Chief Strategist, Media and Entertainment, Akamai
• Greg Smith, CTO, Move Networks

Have a topic or question for any of the speakers you want to see addressed? Submit it in the comments section and we'll add it to the Q&A portion of the session.

Registration is still open and you can see all the various pricing packages, including a one-day ticket on our website. Six years since we took over the StreamingMedia.com business and we've still managed to keep the conference very affordable for everyone to attend. A full two-day conference ticket is only $895.

Learn How To Use Adobe Media Server To Deliver Live And On-Demand Video

One of the four different 3-hour workshops taking place at Streaming Media East on Monday May 19th, is entitled "Learn How To Use Adobe Media Server To Deliver Live And On-Demand Video". This workshop, produced by Adobe, will show how Adobe's Flash Media Server offers a unique combination of powerful streaming and a flexible environment for creating and delivering engaging multidirectional social media experiences to the broadest possible audience.

Attendees will learn about HD-quality video, integrated live video streams, delivery to mobile devices, and deeper interactivity through an extensible plug-in architecture. This session will also cover new features that include enhanced content protection with encrypted streaming, increased performance, and new logging/measurement tools to maximize the return on content investment.

We've kept the workshops very affordable with a morning AND afternoon workshop ticket costing only $225. You can see details on all of the workshops on the website and register online.

Get Hands-On Training With Microsoft Silverlight

One of the four different 3-hour workshops taking place at Streaming Media East on Monday May 9th, is entitled "Deploying On-Demand and Live Media Experiences with Microsoft Silverlight". This workshop, produced by Microsoft, will cover the entire process of creating, managing, and developing rich media experiences with Microsoft Silverlight.

Learn how to encode video and other rich media with Expression Encoder and see how to create media players in Expression Blend. The workshop will also demonstrate the media capabilities of Silverlight 2.0 and will explore, in-depth, how to deploy Windows Server 2008 for both streaming (Windows Media Services 2008) and progressive download (IIS 7 Media Pack) scenarios. Attendees will also have the chance to win copies of Expression Encoder.

We've kept the workshops very affordable with a morning AND afternoon workshop ticket costing only $225. You can see details on all of the workshops on the website and register online.

Adobe Releases Flash Player For Downloadable Video

Today, Adobe announced the immediate availability of version 1.0 of their new Adobe Media Player specifically for content owners looking to make Flash video content playable offline. For Adobe, this is a major move to finally take the Flash video platform offline to allow viewers to consume downloadable Flash based content. As usual with an announcement like this, Adobe also announced a bunch of broadcasters and major content publishers including CBS, MTV Networks, PBS, CondeNet, and Scripps Networks amongst others.

One of the biggest things that Adobe is promoting about the new player is the ability for you to be able search within the player for free content you can to subscribe to and the new features for monetization and branding options. Content owners now have the ability to take downloadable Flash content and include offline advertising, customize the look of the player and collect measurement data of offline content consumption.

I just downloaded the player and have begun to check out some of the content available and so far, the player works as advertised. The one thing I have noticed however is that the quality of the videos are not what I expected. Many of them seem to be encoded at low a low bitrate with a small window size. Since they are not encoded with the same specs it makes the experience very inconsistent in terms of the quality. Not sure if this is the case just because it launched or not but I would think Adobe would want to set some quality standards that content owners would be forced to follow.

Adobe also announced the launch of a new portal called Adobe TV that provides instructional videos for many of the Adobe line of products and contains over 200 videos.

Apple's Latest Safari Browser First To Support New Video And Audio Tags In HTML 5

I'm not a designer or someone who deals with code, but since Apple released version 3.1 of their Safari browser, some are asking me if Safari's support for HTML 5 audio and video tags will change video experiences on the web. The new HTML 5 standard, which was released in January, is said to allow for built-in support of media without proprietary technology.

I honestly don't know enough about it to be able to say one way or another the impact that the HTML 5 standard may or may not have so I am interested to hear from others in the comments section who know more about this than I do.

Join LinkedIn Groups For CDN, Webcasting, P2P and Adobe FMS

I've been asked to spread the word about groups on LinkedIn for professionals in the content delivery industry, webcasting sales professionals and Flash Media Server developers. While the focus of each group is a bit different, all of them are using LinkedIn with the purpose of exchanging knowledge, experience and contacts.

I have not joined any of the groups myself as of yet, but will be doing so shortly. To sign up for any of these groups, follow these links: CDN Industry Group, Flash Media Server Developers Group, Webcasting Sales Professionals.

Added Group: Legitimate P2P

If you know of other LinkedIn groups that are relevant to the online video industry, please post them in the comments section and I will add them to the list.

Adobe CEO Says Flash Player For iPhone In The Works

Last night, The Wall Street Journal was the first to report that Adobe's CEO Shantanu Narayen said on a conference call with investors that Adobe is working on a Flash player for the iPhone and hopes to have it ready around June. Shantanu said that Adobe has been working on the new media player since the release of the iPhone SDK by Apple last month. While this is good to hear from Adobe, I think there still are a lot of unanswered questions about how Flash video may work on the iPhone and what if anything Apple may do to prevent this if they have their own agenda.

Microsoft Licenses Adobe Flash Lite For Mobile Windows Devices

This morning, Adobe announced that Microsoft had licensed Adobe's Flash Lite software so that Flash based content will be able to be viewed within Internet Explorer on future versions of Microsoft Windows mobile phones. While Flash Lite itself does not play back video, rather the device plays the video and Flash Lite acts as the container, this is still a step forward in the right direction. With Adobe saying that half a billion mobile devices shipped with Flash Lite and Microsoft willing to license Flash Lite from Adobe to make the content experience better, the bottom line is that the consumer is the winner in this deal.

Now if only Apple and Adobe would come to some kind of arrangement and made Flash video work on the iPhone consumers would really win. My hope, Microsoft and Apple come to a deal to allow Silverlight to work on the iPhone. But after Steve Ballmer's comments earlier in the month from the MIX 08 conference, it does not appear this will be happening anytime soon.

Microsoft Releases New Features In Expression Encoder 2

A little over a week ago, Microsoft released Expression Encoder 2 beta and the new version has quite a few of the features that webcasters in particular have been asking for. One of the biggest changes is that Expression Encoder 2 is now a product in its own right rather than a feature of Expression Media. It’s part of Expression Studio 2 and also available standalone. You can read all details on the Microsoft blog. Highlights of the new version include:

Better Encoding: VC-1 advanced authoring SDK integration, New profiles, and CODECS, Improved MPEG source support, Better multi-core performance, Improved aspect ratio handling, Pre-processing enhancements

Better Silverlight Interactive experiences: New templates, Template Parameters, Gallery Templates, Template preview, Edit in Expression Blend, Partial rebuild, ASP.NET Development Server, Hooks for Silverlight 2 templates

Enhanced Content Creation tools: Brand new imaging pipeline, Burn-in of moving overlays, Cuts editing, Smart re-compression, New Timeline UI

In addition Microsoft says, "there are some really exciting new features that you've asked us for that we are not ready to announce just yet. Stay tuned for more details." In addition to the new features, what else do you want to see? I'm particularly interested in hearing what functionality webcasters are looking for.

Microsoft Releases Windows Media Services 2008

Yesterday, Microsoft officially announced the launch of Windows Media Services 2008. While I expect we will see a lot more announcements and news around this and other products at next week's MIX event, here are just some of the highlights from Microsoft of the new Windows Media Services:

• Reliability: Improves on the 99.999% reliability of Windows Server 2003

• Native 64-bit OS Support: 2x the industry-leading scalability of WMS 9.0 thanks to native 64-bit operating system support

• Scalable Live Streaming: deliver large-scale live events to a global audience

• Fast Streaming: Fast Start and the newer Advanced Fast Start for WMS significantly reduce streaming buffering times to deliver near-television-like experiences when playing back content or switching between sources. For on-demand content, Advanced Fast Start also enables quick seeking within a WMS stream, allowing users to "seek" forward or backward instantly.

• New Cache/Proxy Server plug-in: this plug-in allows a Windows Media server in a branch office or other remote location to easily split a single broadcast stream from the home office into multiple streams for local end users, reducing WAN traffic.

There are a bunch of other features as well that simplify management, cut costs and enable monetization, which you can read about here.

In addition, many features of Windows Media Services that were previously available only on Windows Server Enterprise and Datacenter are now available on Windows Server Standard, and all Standard features are now also available on Windows Web Server 2008. This makes Windows Media Services 2008 available to a broader set of users at a lower cost. 

With the launch of Windows Server 2008, Windows Media Services 2008 is now available for the Windows Web Server 2008, which has a suggested retail price of $469.

Free Product Giveaway: Microsoft Expression Studio

Thanks to the generous folks over at Microsoft, they have provided me with nine copies of Expression Studio that I can give away on the blog. The Expression Studio bundle includes Expression Web, Expression Blend, Expression Media and Expression Design and retails for $599. Expression Studio also includes a license for Expression Encoder and anyone can currently download a 180 day trail of the encoder here.

Three have already been given away in a drawing last month and I'll be giving the last six away in the next two weeks. I would like to give them away to those who will really use them as part of their daily job. To qualify to win a copy you must leave one comment in this post with a suggestion for Microsoft on how they can improve any aspect of Expression, Silverlight or Windows Media. Have you seen a feature you'd like included? Is there something missing that you think should be in the next version? Leave a comment with a working e-mail address. I will pick three users a week from today using a random number picker website and ship them out to the winners at no cost. Anyone is welcome to enter, but only your first comment will be counted.

If any company is interested in getting exposure for their video related product on my blog and is willing to give away the product, contact me. I will post pictures of the product, link to the company website and potentially write a product review or link to other reviews on the web. It's great exposure for your product.

DivX Finally Shuts Down Stage6 Portal

Today, DivX announced that it would be shutting down the Stage6 video portal effective this Thursday. DivX originally planned to spin off Stage6 as a separate company late last year but then announced in December that it was looking for strategic alternatives instead.

I'm never pleased to see any service or video portal have to close but this is the best thing DivX could be doing. Operating a portal was not their core business and the last thing we need right now as an industry, or as consumers, is more video portals. Stage6 never got any real traction in the industry, was not a service I heard others discussing and had very little in the way of usage by content owners.

From the get go the service was destined to fail as DivX was using the site to showcase their own technology. The problem being that if the only way you can try to showcase adoption of your technology by content owners is by running your own website, it won't work. The shut down notice on the Stage6 website says the service was started "with the mission of empowering content creators and viewers to discover a new kind of video experience." I'm not sure what that "new kind of video experience" was they are referencing but I think too many companies in the industry think that just because they encode video at high bitrates or large window sizes, they will be successful. You have to do more today than just deliver video that looks good, you have to have a business model behind it and their needs to be a demand for the service.

A high-quality, high-bitrate, large window sized video content offering does_not equal success by itself.

Microsoft Gives First Look At Silverlight 2 Functionality

Last Friday, Scott Guthrie from Microsoft gave out details on his blog about the next version of Silverlight. Scott says that Microsoft will soon release the first public beta of Silverlight 2, which will be a major update from the initial release of Silverlight nearly 7 months ago. Scott says he'll be doing a bunch of blog posts over the coming weeks talking about Silverlight 2 in more detail. Head over to his blog for the details.

Take A Survey On Encoding/Editing Systems: Win A PlayStation 3

StreamingMedia.com is conducting a survey on editing systems, encoding software and content workflow. Also of interest are streaming formats and delivery methods. The survey should take no more than two minutes to complete and all respondents will be entered into a drawing for a free PlayStation 3. The winner will be notified on March 15, 2008.

Adobe Gives Details On FMS 3 Benchmarks, Live Streaming and DRM

At StreamingMedia.com, we operate seven different e-mail based discussion lists based on various topics with over 5,000 members. Our lists are free to join and it's a great place to get answers to your questions from others in the community. One of our most active lists is the "advanced" list where more of the technical discussions take place.

Last week Adobe gave some public info on the benchmarks for the new Flash Media Server 3 and also
addressed the topic of live Flash and DRM. Here are some excerpts on the info they gave out.

Flash Media Server 3 Benchmarks

"The benchmarks for Flash Media Server will be out shortly. I can leak that the numbers will show a staggering difference from the version 2 of the product. We are seeing 200% on Windows 2003 (SP1; Standard) increase in both VOD and Live capacity given the same hardware. In Linux, the numbers are over 300%. The key factor for streaming servers is the threshold of how much CPU usage someone will run. Similar to how high you rev the engine to get your speed. We’re seeing a 1Gbps network card saturated with just 20% CPU on Linux. Given this is our lab, which we use as a baseline for testing.  RTMPE (the new real-time Encryption protocol) only adds an addition 10% to the CPU usage."

Flash Player Adoption

"We all know that Flash Player is ubiquitous across both the consumer and enterprise markets. This is the core runtime required to render a video, and connect via RTMP or encrypted RTMPE protocol to FMS. We just published the December 2007 census and Flash Player 9 now enjoys a 97% penetration in mature markets."

Flash Live Quality

"Live video in Flash can be done in 3 ways."
1) Using the Flash player’s live capture feature (SPARK/Nellymoser Codecs); (webcam quality)
2) Using Flash Media Encoder (On2/MP3 Codecs); (good quality at higher bitrates)
3) Using 3rd party partners such as ViewCast, Kulabyte, Digital Rapids and many of the ones that support Ben’s initiatives.   You can see a list of them on the Adobe website.

"Adobe will also be releasing an update to the Flash Media Encoder to support H.264 live streaming in a couple months. This should put aside many of the “quality” concerns you may have. H.264 is higher quality video at much less bitrate."

Addressing Digital Rights Management (DRM) With Flash

"You will be hearing a lot more about this from Adobe over the next few months, but from a streaming point of view, DRM is built on top of 2 key requirements; Encryption of content and Access Control. When you break it down, to protect content from mis-use, you need to protect the bits as they leave the server and before you get the bits, you need to protect the access (i.e. creating a policy)."

"Streaming to Flash resolves both of these requirements WITHOUT a DRM server and WITHOUT any disruption in the playback to download a key. To set the stage, RTMPE and RTMPS (SSL version) encrypts the video bits in real time as they leave the server, and render on the player. There is no client cache (as there would be with a HTTP delivery) so you don’t need to worry about people stealing the bits after they have arrived. There is also a very advanced set of APIs that let you build out your own policy rules for accessing the content. Out of the box, you can protect access to the server using SWF Verification or Domain white listing or even restrict by version of the player. You can build time-out tokens, or anything else you need to protect the delivery channel, and the playback. Because your user is always connected to the server, you have full control over policies for content access."

Experience Does Matter

"Flash / Flex are just one part of the experience process. It’s not just the adoption of the run time that makes Flash Player / AIR the best choice to deliver these experiences. Often times we all focus so much on the adoption rate of Flash player. There is a reason why the proliferation of Flash is so ubiquitous, and there is a reason why Adobe is seeing the fastest adoption of new players then ever before in its history. The reason is from planning to playback – from the person shooting video, or designing the video player experience to the person consuming the video."

"By understanding the workflow of the creative designers and developers and ensuring that their workflow are made as easy as possible using the tools they use every day (Photoshop/Illustrator/Premiere/AfterEffects/Soundbooth….) When you make life easy for people making content, more content will be produced on the platform – it’s really that simple. All the other pieces are in place to ensure content protection, quality and reach so all that effort can be monetized and protected."

Sounds like we will be hearing a lot more news from Adobe about these topics very soon.

Apple iPhone's To Support Flash Video Very Shortly

Some folks who work closely with the iPhone product line are telling me that iPhones will support Flash video playback very shortly. While I know there has been a lot of speculation about Flash video on the iPhone not being possible due to battery constraints and other technical rumors, the only real thing stopping it from working is an agreement between Apple and Adobe.

While I don't personally have an iPhone, getting Flash video adoption on the handset will go a long way in helping to make video a lot more portable for handsets. Yes, many phones already do video, but iPhone users amongst all others are always very adamant about showing what the phone can do and the moment it does Flash video, you'll see a lot of iPhone users showcasing that to anyone who wants to watch.

UPDATE: I am already getting a lot of questions about what "very shortly" means and it's a valid question. The answer is I don't know for sure, but based upon who told me the info to begin with, I took it to mean this quarter.

Free Product Giveaway: Microsoft Expression Studio

Thanks to the generous folks over at Microsoft, they have provided me with nine copies of Expression Studio that I can give away on the blog. The Expression Studio bundle includes Expression Web, Expression Blend, Expression Media and Expression Design and retails for $599. Expression Studio also includes a license for Expression Encoder and anyone can currently download a 180 day trail of the encoder here.

This drawing is now over. Dustin Reyes, Brett Stime and Jeff Parr won the drawing.

I will be giving these away in batches of three at a time and would like to give them away to those who will really use them as part of their daily job. To qualify to win a copy you must leave one comment in this post with a suggestion for Microsoft on how they can improve any aspect of Expression, Silverlight or Windows Media. Have you seen a feature you'd like included? Is there something missing that you think should be in the next version? Leave a comment with a working e-mail address. I will pick three users a week from today using a random number picker website and ship them out to the winners at no cost.

If any company is interested in getting exposure for their video related product on my blog and is willing to give away the product, contact me. I will post pictures of the product, link to the company website and potentially write a product review or link to other reviews on the web. It's great exposure on a blog that does over 300,000 page views a month.

Conference Session Preview: Streaming Media East Show Agenda

I've been a little slow in blogging as of late as I'm hard at work on finalizing the advance program for the Streaming Media East show taking place in May. We will have 36 sessions at the show and the first third are now confirmed with moderators.

This year I have decided to use the blog to post the conference agenda before the advance program is even printed so everyone can see the kinds of topics and subjects that are going to be discussed and the kind of demos that will be shown. Please keep in mind, this is just the first 1/3 of the program, there is a lot more to come.

If you see a session in particular you are interested in possibly speaking on you can send in a speaking request, but since the deadline passed more than two weeks ago, those who sent in speaking requests on time get first priority.

Effective Business Models For Short-form Video Marketing
Some advertisers see user-generated video sites as a free way to distribute their message, however this has rapidly evolved into a significant paid business, where sites charge based on video placement and search keywords. Learn the relative ROI of going to a major site (i.e. YouTube) vs. a smaller site (i.e. Metacafe) vs. a plethora of tiny sites. Learn what methods are successful for getting viewers and the importance of content vs. placement. This panel will discuss and show video examples of effective business models for both advertisers and publishers.

LifeCasting: How Fast and How Real Can We Get?
How did lifecasting videos get so hot? In the early days of television, live was the second choice, because of potential pitfalls, cost of production and a host of other problems. And yet, in the world of Internet video, lifecasting - using Internet video to share moments of our lives or to broadcast events and happenings - is the new hot thing. With platforms like Kyte.tv, Zannel, Mogulus, Stickcam and many others now available on the market, lots of new options and opportunities exist. Come see some of the hot and upcoming mobile lifecasting options in action and discuss is lifecasting will be become just a fad or the next big thing.

Best Practices in Enterprise Streaming for Communications and Learning
Use of online video in the enterprise has evolved well beyond the special occasion of rudimentary talking head videos that characterized early adoption. Today, innovative organizations take a holistic view of all their online communications, seeking to extract as much value as possible from any infrastructure that involves video. Whether webcasting executive briefings across the globe, or capturing and archiving rich media presentations for training, marketing, sales, and compliance, a growing number of organizations are capitalizing on the ability of Web 2.0 technologies. This session will show firsthand examples from Fortune 500 organizations of best practices in integrated online video for communications and learning.

CDN Pricing: The Going Rate For Video Delivery
With more CDN players in the market than ever before, trying to figure out what you should pay for delivering video can still be quite complex. This presentation will offer real pricing numbers from large, globally focused content delivery networks and show you the average going rate when you outsource delivery to a third party. The session will also cover some of the variables that determine the final price, how you should accurately compare the delivery services of one CDN to another and gives you a list of providers in the market today.

Monetizing And Aggregating Niche Video Content
This panel will discuss the new ways content owners and site developers are aggregating content and distributing it on the 2.0 web. We will give examples of ways to develop niche vertical sites without having to hire tons of new personnel and discuss how to reach audiences on social networking sites like Facebook. Learn about some of the new emerging platforms for niche video distribution and learn best practices of ways to increase your changes of making money with your content.

Focus Group: Young People's Attitudes Towards Online Video
This special session, a panel of high school and college students will discuss their online video consumption habits. Learn what types of online video content they like, what sites they get their content from, the devices they are playing it back on and how they interact with video advertising. Find out what their perspective is on pay media, portable content and what they think the future holds for the next generation of viewers on the web. Bring your own questions for a lively Q&A session with the students at the end of the session.

Live Broadcasting Over Mobile And WiFi Networks
While big media tests the waters of mobile broadcasting, many web video producers are already out there doing it live from the street, with a cell phone. Others are joining in and experimenting with two-way broadcasts via streaming video over cellphone networks and via WiFi, wherever they are. Viewers can chat while the broadcast is going on and affect and sometimes even direct the coverage of the content being produced. Come to this session to hear Steve Garfield talk with other pioneers in the live broadcasting space about their experiences on the forefront of this new technology for sharing their stories over the web.

The H.264 Convergence
Over the past year, more and more streaming media players are utilizing H.264 and providing support for the technology. Adobe's recent support for H.264 in their Flash player has sparked industry discussions amongst major broadcasters and online video producers about the role H.264 will play. This session will explain why H.264 is getting so much exposure, what recent announcements have put it into the spotlight and whether it can really be the one codec that the industry can all converge on. Attendees will also see real-world examples of sites and services that are utilizing H.264 today.

User-Generated Video in Education
The online video revolution has been embraced by students, teachers, instructors and researchers, many of whom are producing video for class assignments, teaching purposes and other uses. Learn what kind of content is being produced, where is it being posted and how user-generated content fits into the overall strategy of educational institutions. This panel of experienced educational media professionals will discuss the many ways your school, college or university can maximize the value of your user-generated video, and how you can assist faculty and students in making it better.

How Old Media Is Embracing Online Video and New Media
Led by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, this session will discuss how converging media technologies are redefining traditional distribution methods; how interactive and on-demand services are changing and how entertainment and news video is being consumed. Come hear from some of the leading publishers, broadcasters and advertisers about the impact that video and new media is having upon their business models.

Codec Comparison: VP6, H.264 and Windows Media
Choosing the right codec involves lots of factors, including quality, player install base, costs, and server related features. This session will compare the video quality of the big three codecs; VP6, H.264 and Windows Media. It will also include a comparison of the primary H.264 codecs including Apple, Sorenson, Main Concept and Dicas. The session will present attendees with the latest published penetration figures for the H.264 compatible Flash 9 player and Microsoft's Silverlight player and provide usage statistics among major broadcasters and corporations. Attendees will also learn how to compare relevant server and player related features, and costs associated with adapting and using each platform.

Delivering Media For Microsoft Silverlight With Windows Server 2008
This session will cover how to take advantage of the new Silverlight media serving features in Windows Server 2008. Attendees will learn about the new capabilities of IIS7 Media Pack including bit-rate throttling and playlist options for progressive download content. The session will also demonstrate the enhanced capabilities in Windows Media Services 2008, including scalability doubling and appliance-like cache/proxy deployment for edge networks specific to streaming.

H.264 Makes It's Move: Moderate This Session At Streaming Media East

I've got another moderator spot open for someone who wants to organize a session at Streaming Media East around H.264 and talk to the major announcements that took place in the past year and what will become of H.264 next year. This session is probably more geared towards a technical discussion but should also cover content trends and usage adoption taking place in the market. H.264 is a hot topic and is only going to get hotter next year.

Ideally, the moderator is not from a vendor company or someone who is selling a product or service involved with H.264 of any kind or can convince me you don't have a conflict of interest. Again, bloggers and others who write and cover this topic for the industry are ideal. Send me an e-mail if interested.

Limelight Networks and Microsoft Team Up To Deliver Paramount's Movie For Blockbuster

As many sites have been talking about over the past week, the new Jackass 2.5 movie by Paramount Pictures will be distributed exclusively on Blockbuster.com starting next week. The content will be using Microsoft's Silverlight platform and will be delivered by Limelight Networks.

I was going to wait to post about this until later this afternoon when I have a call with the companies involved, but a Microsoft blog posted about it last night. I will post most about the project later this afternoon.

Adobe Launches New Websites Showcasing HD Video Content

Yesterday, Adobe quietly launched two new HD websites that showcases content in HD quality using the Flash platform. The launch of the sites also coincided with the launch of a new product section at the top of the main Adobe.com website. Different images and products are highlighted each time you load the page and one of them promotes "The fusion of TV and the Internet" and links to a site I had not seen until now at adobe.com/flashon. The flashon site contains movie trailers from some of the major studios as well as some other content. It's been a busy week for Adobe and they have really increased the volume of HD quality content for demonstration on their websites.

The bad news, if you want to see anything at 720p or higher, you need a really, really, fast machine. Adobe very clearly states the hardware requirements but most won't really have the power to watch the high-res content at 720p or 1080p. I'm on a year old MacBook and my 1.8GHz processor is the minimum requirement for 720p content but I can barely get it and it keeps stuttering.  No doubt Adobe is using this showcase to promote Flash and does not expect everyone the web to be able to see the stuff, but as of now, only those with very new computers can see the content at the best quality possible.

I have not had time to really watch much content and give the sites a thorough review but will do so over the weekend and post more about them next week.

Adobe's New Flash Server Pricing Improves CDNs P&L, Lowers License Fee For Customers

While Adobe has gotten a lot of traction in the market with their Flash video platform, many content companies have not adopted Flash streaming due to the server license costs or the license fee that CDNs are required to charge for Flash streaming. With today's announcement by Adobe of Flash Media Server 3 and the new Flash Media Interactive Server, those licensing costs have now been drastically reduced.

As was expected, Adobe cut the cost of the Flash Media Streaming Server which is now priced at $995 for an unlimited connection license. And the newly announced Flash Media Interactive Server, which is geared towards customizable streaming solutions, multi-way social applications, content protection and allows for more server side customization is priced at $4,500. (For technical details about the functions of each server read Stefan and Ryan's blogs)

For some time now, Adobe has known that price has been the biggest hurdle for many customers to overcome in the adoption of the Flash platform. With the new pricing, Adobe has essentially removed the number one barrier to entry and while not discussed in the press release, has also reduced the cost that CDNs need to charge customers for Flash streaming delivery.

By reducing the costs that CDNs need to charge customers for Flash streaming, Adobe is making it a lot easier for customers to use CDNs  and enabling the content delivery networks to increase their margins. While the Adobe streaming license fee that most CDNs have been charging averages around $0.05 per GB delivered, the new Adobe streaming pricing is somewhere between $0.01 - $0.025 cents per GB depending on the CDN and the volume of Flash streaming they are pushing. Some CDNs have a better rate based on the volume they push and some CDNs include the price into their overall cost and reduce the price even further. The bottom line is that the average price per GB Flash streaming fee that the CDNs are now charging is at least 50% cheaper than what it was a few weeks ago. Within the past 2-3 weeks, quotes from many of the major CDNs have already shown lower license fees.

This is good news for the industry as a whole and for Adobe as the best way we can all truly benefit in the market is by having more widespread adoption, with a lower barrier to entry.

Video Search: Finding Content In A Thousand-Channel Universe

With the arrival of "video everywhere" and increasing online video viewership, what role does search need to play to make it easier for consumers to find what they want to watch?

That's what we are looking to discuss next week at the Streaming Media West show with a session entitled "Video Search: Finding Content In A Thousand-Channel Universe". The confirmed speakers include:

• Larry Bouthillier, Educational & Multimedia Technology Architect, Harvard University (moderator)
• Dmitry Shapiro, CEO, Veoh Networks
• Tim Tuttle, VP, AOL Video
• Rose Karpel, Director, Video Products, Reuters
• Suranga Chandratillake, CEO, blinkx

It's not too late to register. While the early registration discount period has now passed, you can use PROMO CODE: DRF1 to get in with a discount.

Workshop: Using Adobe Flash Media solutions to Encode, Deliver, Protect and Monetize Video

On Monday Nov. 5th, before the start of the Streaming Media West show, Adobe will be teaching a 3 hour afternoon workshop entitled "Using Adobe Flash Media solutions to Encode, Deliver, Protect and Monetize Video". If you want to learn more about the Flash platform directly from Adobe, this is the workshop to be at.

The workshop will cover the latest advances in the Adobe Flash Media family for creating and delivering innovation interactive media applications. Topics will include how to deploy the highest quality on-demand and live video to a browser, device, and desktop experience; protecting and managing content; and developing an enhanced video streaming experience in Flash.

This workshop will also talk to the new Adobe Media Player that will be used to deliver downloaded content to the desktop with new ways to monetize and protect video.

While the early registration discount has expired, anyone who is interested can use PROMO CODE: DRF1 which lets you go to the morning AND afternoon workshops for only $195. We've kept it very affordable so everyone can attend and get 6 hours of hands-on training across two workshops.

Microsoft Workshop: Learn How To Publish Media for Microsoft’s Silverlight Platform

The day before the start of Streaming Media West, we have a full day of pre-conference workshops. On Monday Nov. 5th, Microsoft will be teaching a 3 hour afternoon workshop entitled "Publishing Media for Microsoft’s Silverlight Platform".

The Microsoft workshop will teach attendees how to use Expression Media Encoder to publish live and on-demand content to Microsoft Silverlight. You’ll also learn techniques for getting the most out of the VC-1 codec over the Web and get expert advice on how to update your existing Windows Media site to a Silverlight experience.

While the early registration discount has expired, anyone who is interested can contact me to get a discount code that lets you go to the morning AND afternoon workshops for only $195. We've kept it very affordable so everyone can attend and get 6 hours of hands-on training.

Adobe Invite: Meet The Adobe Flash Team and Partners At Adobe's HQ on Nov. 6th

At the end of the first day of the Streaming Media West show, Adobe is having an Adobe Partner Showcase event at their headquarters in San Jose on Tuesday Nov. 6th. Their will be hands-on demos and some of Adobe's partners including Maven, Brightcove, blip.tv, Limelight Networks and Akamai will be in attendence.

RSVP is required. I don't know how many RSVPs they have left open so I suggest you register right away if you are interested. Just before the Adobe event, we have the Streaming Media West show reception as well. Come to the exhibit hall at 5pm for some drinks and networking and then head over with us to the Adobe event afterwards. All you need to do is register for a free exhibit halls pass. While the early registration period is over, you can still register here for free by using promo code HALL.

Microsoft Makes Major Company Reorg Changes

Today, Microsoft made some major company changes in multiple divisions of their business. Some long time execs including Amir Majidimehr and others are affected and multiple divisions have been reorged. Lots of changes that will affect multiple product lines. I expect we'll see the changes announced shortly, if not tomorrow.   

Adobe Releases New Software For Mobile Flash Video and AMP Beta

This morning Adobe announced that they launched its Flash Lite 3 software, used for playing back Flash video on cell phones and Flash enabled web sites. Adobe says that Nokia and NTT DoCoMo are planning to support Flash Lite 3 with their upcoming handsets, but didn't say for how many models. Nokia, said it would launch a new development community today to help Flash developers and designers with mobile software development.

Adobe also announced today that major television broadcasters and leading content publishers would collaborate with Adobe to distribute video content via the new Adobe Media Player. Today also marks the first time that the Adobe Media Player is available to the public as a beta download, with the final version being ready in the first half of 2008.

Chris Hock Leaves Adobe, Takes On Role At BlackArrow

Chris Hock, who was the Group Product Manager for Flash at Adobe, has left the company and taken a new job. While I have an e-mail in Chris to get more details, I do know that he has taken on a role as the VP of Product Management for BlackArrow, a yet to be launched "multi-platform video ad-management solution".

For many of us in the industry, Chris has always been the face of Flash, leading the charge for the adoption of the Flash platform back before Adobe acquired Macromedia. While there are a lot of smart people over at Adobe who will continue to carry on the platform, I'm sure he'll be missed by Adobe. Anyone who was trying to contact Chris can now contact Kevin Towes, Product Manager, Flash Media Server who will be taking over some of what Chris was working on.

As soon as I hear back from Chris and get permission, I will post his new details here for anyone who wants to contact him. Chris says you can contact him at chock@blackarrow.tv

Note To Adobe: As of Friday, when you call into Chris' old number, the call does not get transferred anywhere. And when you call into the Adobe receptionist, they say they have never heard of anyone with his name. There needs to be a better procedure in place to transfer his calls to someone who can take them.

Adobe Expected To Lower The Cost Of Flash Media Server

Over the past few months, Adobe has been starting to see more competition in the market thanks to Microsoft's Silverlight platform and products like the Wowza Media Server. While they are not in jeopardy of losing the tight grip they have on the market with Flash video anytime soon, it does mean that they have to work harder than they had to last year, when they didn't have as many threats. With their recent H.264 announcement and the work being done on the new Adobe Media Player, they are not sitting idle by any means.

But put that aside and Adobe still has a major problem when it comes to the cost of licensing the Flash Media Server. While Adobe points out the functionality the Flash Media Server provides and what they feel that is worth for content owners, many still find it too expensive and it stops them from adopting the platform. Every single week I hear from customers who want to use Flash video, but have not done so once they find out how expensive it is. With prices for licensing starting at $45,000 for any website that wants to host its own content and reach more than 1,000 simultaneous users, it's not cheap. And for those who instead use a content delivery network to distribute their content, customers typically have to pay the CDN 2x what it costs to stream content in the Windows Media format, since CDNs have to charge customers a Flash platform license fee.

CDNs are required to have to share revenue with Adobe based on Flash streaming delivery over their network. It's a very similar deal that RealNetworks use to have in place with the CDNs many years ago, and one that didn't work out well for RealNetworks in the long run. How is a CDN suppose to know what it's fixed cost of doing business is each month when each quarter the revenue share number changes? And why is the license fee so high? Would customers mind paying a small premium if they see the value? Not at all. But when it is 2x the cost of other platforms, that's not a small premium, especially since the fee is based on the volume of transfer a customer does. As the customer grows and does more delivery, overall the license fee they pay goes up each month because of the growth. In the long run, it's a bad licensing model for Adobe, the CDNs and content owners.

CDNs would much rather pay a one time cost for the license and then pay 10% of that cost each year for upgrades and support. Now Adobe probably feels it's better for them from a business model to share in revenue and make more money that way, but as I hear from customers all the time, that business model of Adobe's is stopping a lot of customers from adopting Flash. And while the Flash Media Server has it's strengths, like all platforms, it also has it's weaknesses, especially in the areas of live, digital rights management and scalability, when compared to other solutions in the industry.

When it comes to the buying trends in the market, we know that many customers buy on more than price alone. But price is always a factor in their decision. It's my belief that before too long, Adobe is going to have no choice but to reduce the license cost for the Flash Media Server. While there has been a lot of talk in the industry about Adobe's strength in the market, pricing is one factor that can easily affect any company very quickly. And as Silverlight continues to provide more functionality in its platform, over time customers will have more options in the market and Adobe won't be the only game in town. Adobe is smart and knows this and it is my belief that they want to make the pricing issue less of a problem over time so that customers don't have any strong reasons not to use Flash streaming. Before too long, I think Adobe will reduce pricing of the Flash Media Server and head this off at the pass before it becomes an issue that starts to really have an impact of their market share.

Note: I asked Adobe if they wanted to discuss their current or future licensing plans for the Flash Media Server but they declined comment.

Last Week's Overlooked News Items

Last week was a busy one for news. By now, everyone has already read many articles about the Microsoft and Adobe announcements along with many other mainstream news from IBC. In addition to the major announcements, there were some news stories and articles less mainstream that I found of interest.

• From Rich Miller over at DataCenterKnowledge.com, which is a great blog about the data center industry, Rich has a post from last week entitled "Dueling Data on Volume of P2P Traffic" which talks to some new data released in the market that about what percentage of traffic on the Net comes from P2P. Lots of competing data, lots of different results.

• From the last100.com website, a post from last week entitled "11 video download stores compared" gives a good detailed overview of the services lack of innovation and technology choices on how they are implementing DRM.

• Scott Kirsner, who runs the CinemaTech blog is putting on a class entitled "Digital Distribution and Marketing" at The Film Arts Foundation in San Francisco. The class will be featuring a lot of case studies and Scott's asking for help in spreading the word. I am always up for helping to promote anyone who is trying to educate the industry. Don't know if Scott is still looking for good case studies, you can contact him at his website.

• There was plenty of talk last week about how the Justice Department said Internet service providers should be allowed to charge a fee for priority Web traffic. Some sites already covered the news, but if you have not read about, do so now. It's important.

• Chris Albrecht over at NewTeeVee.com had a great post last week entitled "What Constitutes an Online Hit?" where he addresses the problem with the way video sites measure traffic. Chris addresses a great question and one that I have been complaining about forever when it comes to online video metrics. This industry lacks any and all standards.

The History Of Flash Video

Troy Dreier over at WebVideoUniverse.com published an except from the "Hands-On Guide to Flash Video" book, by Stefan Richter and Jan Ozer, which looks at the history of Flash video and how it started life as an animation package called SmartSketch, to it's current incarnation at Adobe (ADBE) today.

Makes for some interesting reading if you want to learn how Flash started and the steps it took to evolve into the platform it is today. You can read more details about the book and it's table of contents on Amazon.

YouTube's Problem Is Not Advertising, Its Getting The Videos To Play

For all the talk of YouTube's new advertising model and the number of eyeballs they have, the biggest problem facing YouTube is the fact that half the time, their videos don't even play back properly. Why can't YouTube get poor quality, short-form videos to play back without all of the wait, buffering, and starts and stops that users are experiencing? I first wrote about this back in February with a post entitled "Is Google Having Problems Delivering YouTube Videos?" and since then it has gotten far worse.

Last week, I saw that my February post about the poor YouTube playback experience had quickly become the number one post on my blog that people were finding via Google. TypePad shows me the phrases that people are putting into Google and it's phrases like, "you tube video wont load", "slow youtube videos", "youtube video loading" and "can't load you tube" amongst others.

What is the problem here? This is not an infrastructure problem. Google is not lacking in technical expertise, capital, or the resources to make these videos work. If smaller companies can get high-quality, long-from content to work without these playback problems, then what is Google's excuse? They have no business model today for YouTube, have been working on their "advertising plan" forever yet they can't even get the basics to work.

When it comes to YouTube's advertising strategy, they have a major flaw. In order for their advertising strategy to work, it requires users to actually be able to view the videos. YouTube is the most overrated, over hyped company ever in this industry.

On2's CEO Gives His Take On The Adobe Flash Video H.264 Announcement

As you know by now, on Tuesday Adobe announced their support for H.264 for the latest version of their Flash player. While I saw many blogs and news sites that covered the announcement, most didn't really provide any insight or analysis into what this announcement by Adobe means for the market. The best posting I saw was on a blog from one of the engineers at Adobe who works on the Flash player. If you really want to know the technical details, it's the one post to read.

In the spirit of not just re-hashing a press release on my blog like so many other sites do, and since a few bloggers already gave the same analysis I would have, I decided to ask Bill Joll, On2's CEO, for his take on the announcement and what it means for content creators as well as his company, which has a big stake in the Adobe Flash platform.

While Bill thinks the announcement is a step in the right direction for Flash video, he correctly points out that many times one technology does not replace another. In some scenarios, H.264 make work out to be the best solution, but at other times, On2's solution would trump H.264.

Bill says that while there are certain markets for which standards-based codecs are important, there will always be an opportunity for On2's state-of-the-art proprietary technology as well. H.264 can be very expensive if you want to distribute millions of encoders for applications like video chat or user-generated video publishing. In addition to licenses and fees to acquire an H.264 software development kit (SDK), a second intellectual property (IP) license is also required from MPEG-LA. And the same is true for the new AAC+ audio standard in Flash, which requires a separate IP license from Via Licensing in addition to a SDK license. Additionally H.264 is a fairly complex codec that requires significant CPU cycles for encoding and playback, especially for HD content. For these reasons, Bill says there will continue to be a strong market for VP6-based Flash video in the coming years.

That being said, On2 understands that there are certain market segments for which broadcast-industry standards are and will always be a requirement. The video industry is moving towards higher definition video and longer form content that requires lower power and higher performance along with the consumption of video anywhere. This translates into a requirement for any video on any device, but it also means that video coding blocks are moving more and more into hardwired implementations. For On2, they see the value in being able to support their own technology as well as standards in the market.

The news that Adobe is adding support for H.264 and AAC+ to Flash is something that Bill says On2 is well prepared to support. He points out that in May of this year On2 announced that they were planning to acquire Hantro, a Finland-based company with some of the best hardware implementations of audio and video codecs anywhere, including H.264. The Hantro acquisition, which is still pending, does two things for On2:  first, it provides a vehicle for hardware-specific versions of their industry-leading TrueMotion video technology, including VP6, VP7, and future codecs currently in development; and, as important, it propels On2 into the market of providing industry-leading implementations of standards-based codecs such as H.264, VC-1 and MPEG-4. In that regard, Adobe’s and On2’s announcements both echo the same base message: both companies are expanding their available market through support of standards-based technology.

Bill says that On2 is committed to two business tracks going forward: continuing to invest in their industry-leading proprietary video compression technology; and embracing standards in a way that will allow On2 to become the leading provider of codecs – any codecs – for any and all applications. On2 is fully committed to supporting the new H.264 and AAC+ Flash formats in their entire family of Flix encoding tools and SDKs which they announced this week. Bill points out that in some cases, these are free upgrades that will protect their customers’ investment in their products and he says On2 will give their current and future customers the option of supporting any and all technologies, whatever their needs may warrant.

When it comes to the ecosystem for online video, no one solution works best for every type of content customer. This holds true for compression, hosting, delivery, content management and many of the other technical pieces that make up online video. One format, codec or bitrate is not going to replace another and we'll always have multiple choices in the market based on the fact that customers all have different needs in different industries and verticals. While Adobe's announcement of support for H.264 is a step in the right direction for the industry and for content creators, in my eyes, it does not have a negative impact on On2 or their business as many may speculate.

Added 8/28: Check out ScribeMedia.org's interview with On2's Mike Savello.

Note: As I have said in the past, I am open to any vendor using this blog to give their take on a market trend in the industry or major announcement that takes place. If something happens in the market that you agree or disagree with, or if you feel you have a different insight into a topic, in most cases I will let you use this blog as an outlet. You can always contact me directly if you want to give back to the market and educate your peers, analysts and customers with your thoughts on what you think is important to this industry. As long as it is not a sales pitch for your company, this blog is a free platform for those who want to use it correctly.

Amazon Not Providing Content Delivery For Streaming

Last week, there was a lot of speculation about whether or not Amazon has built out a portion of their content delivery network specifically to deliver video via streaming media protocols. Based on a post two weeks ago on the Amazon blog, which spoke to a Justin.TV webcast, many believed Amazon may now be delivering streaming media services to content owners.

While Amazon did work on the Justin.TV webcast, it was Akamai that delivered the streams. Content owners who want to deliver Flash streaming can use Amazon’s Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) and Simple Storage Service (S3) along with a CDN to deliver streaming media based content. Another way technical savvy customers are utilizing Amazon's EC2 and S3 service is with a product like the Wowza Media Server Pro.

Combining the Amazon services with Wowza Media Server Pro and you have a cost-effective and elastic hosting environment for Flash streaming applications. For those not familiar with Wowza, every Wowza Pro edition server has four key features that make it especially well suited for deployment on Amazon's EC2/S3 for live and on-demand streaming:

• Live Stream Repeater: For live streaming, you can configure one server as the “origin” server to which you will send your live stream. The origin server then sends streams to each edge server in EC2, and the edge servers send the streams to viewers. Adding capacity is easily done by adding more edge servers.

• Load-Based Load Balancing: For live or video on demand, load balancing is a key factor. You don’t want to have one server overwhelmed while other are mostly idle. Wowza Pro has very effective capability that enables you to ping a server over http to determine its load. This capability enables you to set up the system so that the latest viewer always attaches to the least used server in your cluster of EC2 servers.
  

• Efficient Code: Wowza Pro is a very efficient server application that is well suited to the low power CPU of an EC2 instance.

• Simultaneous Recording: Live events can be streamed and recorded on S3 at the same time.

Combining these features with Wowza Pro’s high reliability and performance makes the combination with Amazon EC2/S3 a potentially very attractive solution for Flash streaming. The ability to dynamically add or reduce capacity on Amazon EC2 matches well with the audience fluctuations and the need to dynamically provision for time-limited live broadcast events and when an on-demand video becomes viral.

Amazon's EC2 is a reasonable and a cost-effective way to go if you know what you’re doing and have a technical and operational experience. As with any webcast, not just for EC2, the quality of live video is very much dependent upon the quality of the link from the video encoding source to the streaming server. Companies have seen some great results with EC2/S3, but your mileage may vary depending upon your connection.

So far, Amazon shows no signs of getting into the CDN business themselves for streaming media delivery. That's not to say they couldn't if they wanted to, but to date, they have been happy to work directly with the CDNs and other solutions on the market like Wowza that tie well into EC2/S3. All in all, it’s great to have a broader range of options, and given the economics of both Amazon EC2 and Wowza, this one warrants a serious consideration for tech-savvy content owners who want to delivery their content themselves.

Microsoft's Internet TV Strategy

Last100.com has a detailed two-part story that outlines Microsoft's current and future strategy for Internet TV posted by Mack Male who also runs the WindowsMediaBlog.com site. It's a good read that gives insight into Microsoft's history in the space and covers many of the products and platforms that have had over the years including WebTV, UltimateTV, Windows Media Center, Microsoft TV Foundation Edition, MSN TV2, Xbox Live Video Marketplace and Microsoft Mediaroom.

Speaking of Internet TV, I'd be interested to hear readers feedback on whether or not the phrases Internet TV and IPTV are interchangeable in your eyes and mean the same thing?