Two Presentations on Peer-to-Peer in Flash
I've noticed two separate presentations having been posted by separate authors, both covering the Peer-to-Peer features in Flash Player 10 in combination with Stratus.
The first, shorter video tutorial was authored by Tom Krcha of Adobe and guides you through building a simple P2P application leveraging Stratus. Watch it here.
The second presentation is an hour long session by Danny Patterson and goes into more depth than the previous tutorial. I haven't watched it in full but the part that I have seen looked very interesting and I definitely recommend you check it out.
It should be noted that Stratus is still in beta and detecting failed P2P connections can be a quite tricky. I would not recommend the P2P features for production use yet, instead you may want to rely on AFCS to handle the RTMP fallover for you.
The first, shorter video tutorial was authored by Tom Krcha of Adobe and guides you through building a simple P2P application leveraging Stratus. Watch it here.
The second presentation is an hour long session by Danny Patterson and goes into more depth than the previous tutorial. I haven't watched it in full but the part that I have seen looked very interesting and I definitely recommend you check it out.
It should be noted that Stratus is still in beta and detecting failed P2P connections can be a quite tricky. I would not recommend the P2P features for production use yet, instead you may want to rely on AFCS to handle the RTMP fallover for you.
Vendor Lock Out: Screen Sharing via the Flash Player and FMS
The following post has been sitting in my drafts folder for a while and I wasn't sure whether to publish or not. Today I decided I would, and it was after reading a very interesting article by Mike Slinn on InsideRIA. It talks about Adobe's lack of focus on its developer community, and how a shift in startegy may mean winning the RIA market for Adobe.
I'm always hesitant posting an article such as the one that follows as it will most likely be perceived as mainly negative by Adobe and its employees, many of which I know personally and rate very highly. I realise that there are people behind the software that this corporate behemoth churns out and it is for that reason that I'd like to say upfront that everything posted here has Adobe best interests in mind. I desperately want Adobe to succeed in the RIA market (and commonly they are doing a good job - but could do better...) and it is frustrating to see them making decisions that I think are not in their best long term interest.
RTMP Specs Spark Debate on the FlashMedia List
The release of the RTMP specs by Adobe yesterday has thrown up some questions on the nologies. And free Adobe tech support too - I suggest you FlashMedia List, and several people are asking themselves if it is a good idea to actually read them as doing so (or even simply downloading the specs) will mean that you agree to be bound to the RTMP license. In particular, the license includes a section about prohibited uses:
"Prohibited Uses
The rights and licenses granted by Adobe in the RTMP Specification, including those granted in the Patent License, are conditioned upon Your agreement to use the RTMP Specification for only streaming video, audio and/or data content and not to make, have made, use, sell, offer to sell, import or distribute: (i) any technology that intercepts streaming video, audio and/or data content for storage in any device or medium; or (ii) any technology that circumvents technological measures for the protection of audio, video and/or data content, including any of Adobe's secure RTMP measures. No right or license to any Adobe intellectual property is granted for such prohibited uses."
A long thread started on the list, and it was great to see not only community members participating but also several Adobe employees, including FMS engineers and even the product manager himself. Regardless of what you think of the RTMP license (I personally think it's a huge step in the right direction and underlines Adobe's commitment to removing barriers in this field) I think this level of engagement is rarely (ever?) seen by a multi-billion dollar company. Not only did Adobe engage, but they posted a wealth of information around the intricacies of RTMP/E/S security - many thanks to Kevin, Matthew, Asa, Jody and Brad (hope I didn't miss anyone) for regularly participating.
Further proof then (as if I didn't know) that the FlashMedia List is the place to be for the latest info on FMS, Flash video and its related technologies. And free Adobe tech support too - I suggest you subscribe right now :)
Once subscribed you can access the list archives here.
Making Sense of Stratus, LCCS and FMS
There has been a bit of confusion around which one of Adobe's collaborative platforms offers or will offer certain features. In particular many people have asked if a developer always needs to rely on a hosted service such as Stratus or Lifecycle Collaboration Service (aka AFCS aka Cocomo) when wanting to use the new RTMFP protocol which will deliver (partly is delivering already) new and exciting features to the Flash Player.
To clear thing up, Kevin Towes, FMS Product Manager at Adobe, just posted the following information to the FlashMedia List:
STRATUS - this will always be ahead of the curve, providing a way to help us roll out new features that are in Flash player, before we can have a server offering. The service is and will remain as a free non-commercial service from Adobe. This service is not FMS, and has no ability for Server side scripting, or customization.
AFCS/LIVECYCLE COLLABORATION SERVICE - this will be a commercial option for customers interested in building a business that includes RTMFP. We introduced a pricing model, and it has support for the features found inside Stratus 1.0 (supporting Flash player 10.0). Key advantage with this service is the framework, which is an option for developers to get started, and leverage RTMFP to RTMP failover technology. You still will not have access to server side scripting, but there are lots of APIs in the framework to get you going. The goal for this service is to provide developers an option to bring this technology into your solution.
FLASH MEDIA SERVER - we have not announced any new version of FMS yet that will support RTMFP. We did hint yesterday that we'll be updating FMS3.5 to version 3.5.3 later this year to support the new FP 10.1 features - and in a future version after that release - FMS may be one of your options to host a local service to build your own P2P applications - including introductions, and supporting server side programming.
Live Uefa Euro 2008 via FMS
If you are in the UK and near a computer (but not near a TV) wanting to watch live football (or soccer if you prefer) action then head over to the BBC One Euro 2008 pages and watch it there - streamed live in Flash via FMS.
The quality is nothing to write home about, which is likely due to a low bitrate used. My guess would be sub-300 kbit 
(see screengrab). Still, even in fullscreen and way better than the stamp sized experiences we used to see only a few years ago. How times have changed - here we have one of the biggest sporting events in the world streamed live, for free, over the net. I wish Sky would take some ideas from that.
But bitrates aside (they could be adjusted if wanted by the broadcaster), this is a huge event for live Flash video. After the Masters a few months ago I doubt that anyone still has any doubts about Flash as a viable and credible live streaming platform.
Flash Platform News from Flash on the Beach
As you may know I am spending the main part of this week at Flash on the Beach in Brighton. If you don't know what Flash on the Beach is, it's the biggest Flash (and Flex, AIR etc) conference in the UK, if not Europe. It's also the best conference of the whole year in my calendar. I presented my session on monday right after the keynote so I am now free to enjoy the conference fully. While attending some of the sessions I gathered a few interesting bits of information, some of which may not have been public knowledge before.
First of all I remember hearing that AIR is coming to mobile devices, which is cool, especially considering that AIR is ActionScript 3 only (outside HTML and JS and so on) so this is definitely one to watch. Another interesting note was that ActionScript 3 support will come to server side FMS, and while it was not mentioned when exactly this may be it was stated by the Flash Player Team that it was 'being worked on'. Nice, and FINALLY! The Red5 team is also working on this feature, and I am sure they'll have it added way earlier too. Lastly, it sounds as if the ball will soon be firmly be in Apple's court as far as Flash on the iPhone is concerned. The Flash Player Team 'is working on Flash support for the iPhone, and are doing the best job they can'. In the end however, the iPhone is a closed platform and it is up to Apple to decide if they want to 'allow' it or not. A lack of Flash on the device is definitely not down to Adobe not trying hard, and there don't seem to be any technical problems hindering it either, but rather it sounds like a question of politics on Apple's part. This is how read it. Adobe will also concentrate on other devices of course, and the iPhone is only one piece of the puzzle. The bottom line to be seems to be: the Flash Player for iPhone will be available sooner rather than later, but it's still down to Apple to ok it.
Anyway, that's it from me for now - the pace of this conference is relentless, in a good way.
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