Flash Video Demystified
by Eyal Menin

Introduction
Many of my customers, developers I work with, and people that are new to Flash Video contact me with questions about Flash Video technology. Learning to master a new technology is a process. The first steps are always the most difficult. I remember back in 1997, when streaming media technology just emerged, no one knew how to encode video files, how to embed media players in html pages, or how to stream a live webcast. Few books and articles were published, and many online tutorials like this one educated the public to use streaming media technology. Today, few years later, students in high school learn how to stream video the same way they learn how to design web pages or create Excel spreadsheets.

To understand better how Flash Video technology works lets begin by breaking the myth about Flash Video. There is no need to be a Flash programmer or an experience developer to stream Flash Video. Moreover, you can stream Flash Video files without using a Flash Video Service provider. How you ask? Simple: Flash Video files can be streamed from any Flash Communication Server. Then why companies host their media with a growing number of Flash Video Service providers? The answer is redundancy. Here are the most important reasons:

(1) Flash Video Service providers host your videos on multiple servers. In the event that one server is not working properly your flash video file will be streamed from another server. Flash Video Service providers offer a redundant network of computers connected all together and acting as one.

(2) Hosting your flash video file on multiple servers gives you the flexibility to stream to a larger audience. If you place your Flash Video file on 1 server and a large audience will access it you are limited in capacity to either the license of your Flash Communication Server (Flash Communication Server Pro base license accommodates 2500 connections and 10 MBps peak bandwidth), or to the 100 MBps capacity of your network card. A large audience may demand more then 10 MBps or 100 MBps simultaneous throughput. Purchasing additional licenses and building your own redundant servers can become very expensive.

Like other streaming formats, Flash Video requires a connection between a desktop (you, the user) and a server (the Flash Communication Server). This connection is handled by the Flash Player. The connection is established in a simple way. First, you visit a web page. The web page is hosted on a web server and it has am embedded HTML tag that points to a Flash Movie. Next, you click on a Flash movie file. This file has the necessary information to connect to the Flash Communication Server, locate the proper Flash Video file, and stream it back to your Flash Player that is embedded in your browser. All of this is done in milliseconds time. If for some reason one of the steps I described is missing or links are broken - the relationship between the player and a server will not be established and the video will not play. Very often you will find yourself in this stage, when everything you did seems right but the video will not play. My advice: pause for a minute, take a deep breath, and start all over. As you go through the process again you will find and correct the mistake.