FSW: The Sorenson Spark video codec is getting slowly older. What is the importance of Flash video for the Macromedia product line and will we see improved video capabilities in the future?

Chris Hock: Short answer: Yes. You'll definitely see improved video capabilities introduced in future versions of Flash Player. In fact, we'll continue to improve our video capabilities across the entire Flash platform - in the Flash authoring tool, in Flash Player, and in Flash Communication Server - and as we announced at the Macromedia MAX conference in early November, video quality is one of the things we are working on.

You can get a glimpse of what we discussed here:
http://www.macromedia.com/macromedia/events/max/video/2004/


FSW: Is Flash video considered to be a replacement for standard video technologies like Windows Media? Are you targeting the same audience?

Chris Hock: If you are a developer or publisher of video content destined for the web, you have to be asking yourself "how can I reach the widest audience possible and give them the best user experience - without headaches and problems."

In the past, this typically meant that publishers needed to encode in multiple formats. In addition to the increased time and resources needed to do multiple encodings, this also raised a lot of other issues and questions such as, "how do I standardize on a single UI when I have different players with different capabilities," or "how can I ensure the same experience across different platforms,'" or "how do I customize my player so it fits in seamlessly with my brand and my UI?"

The Flash video platform is aimed at solving these problems while providing a consistent, common, customizable experience across different platforms and browsers. In that manner, it could possibly replace existing legacy media platforms on the web.


FSW: Currently, there are two categories of Flash video hosting companies. Flash Video Streaming Services (FVSS) and Flashcom providers. What is the difference and why is it divided?

Chris Hock: There is actually only one category of hosting partner that Macromedia authorizes for Flash Communication Server and that is our Macromedia Alliance Partner ISPs.

These companies are authorized to offer Flash Communication Server on either dedicated or shared servers for customers. Customers have full access to all Flash Communication Server capabilities including the ability to make applications and set up and administer the server. This is a great solution for customers who want to create Flash Communication Server applications themselves and have full control over setting up and maintaining the servers that those applications run on.

While typical Flash Communication Server ISPs were a great resource for developers, we found that there were a significant number of content providers who didn't want to set up servers or create applications. They did, however, want the benefits of streaming Flash video with Flash Communication Server. To address this need, Macromedia partnered with leading content delivery network (CDN) providers such as VitalStream and Speedera and developed the Flash Video Streaming Service.

Flash Video Streaming Service is a jointly-marketed, hosted service for video on demand and live video streaming applications across a reliable, load-balanced network. Customers upload their Flash video (FLV) files to the network and then, with the assistance of authoring tools that we provide, they create the client UI. Ultimately, these Flash applications pull the video streams from the appropriate edge servers. The service offers full reporting and analytics as well as a UI to manage assets on the content delivery network.

In this manner, the Flash Video Streaming Service is probably more similar to Macromedia Breeze Live than it is to the typical Flash Communication Server ISP dedicated server or shared server offerings, in that both of them are hosted applications built on typical Flash Communication Server.