Speedera Networks, a content delivery provider connecting more than 1,000 carrier backbones in the US, Europe and Asia-Pacific region has partnered with Macromedia to deliver video clips in Flash format.
Speedera manage the delivery of file downloads and media for companies that have no wish to host content themselves. Customers include Fox Broadcasting, AMD and NASA. No doubt Speedera were very busy this morning with everyone hitting the NASA site to see the transit of Venus.
Flash has come along way since the mid-90s when cropped-trousered Hoxtonites first used its sprite and vector-based tools to create annoying banner ads and awful games. Flash has matured to be an excellent development environment and has produced some truly great internet content. By incorporating a video engine based on Sorenson Media’s software, Macromedia are now pushing Flash in a direction that was never dreamed of when it first appeared. As en example, video conferencing application can be created in seconds by dragging objects to your work area, and can be highly customised with brand identity and further functionality.
Since there’s a Flash player on an estimated 90% of PCs out there, most users already have all that’s required to enjoy video embedded in a Flash object, as no further client software is required.
However, the reason that Flash video is not as prevalent as formats such as Windows Media is that Flash development tools are expensive, whilst Microsoft’s are free.
Speedera
Macromedia Flash
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Fraser Lovatt
Fraser Lovatt has spent the last fifteen years working in publishing, TV and the Internet in various capacities, and believes that they will be seperate platforms for at least a while yet. His main interests at the moment are exploring where Linux is taking home entertainment and how technology is conferring technical skills on more and more people.
Fraser Lovatt was born in the same year that 2001: A Space Odyssey was delighting and confusing people in the cinemas, and developed a lifelong love of technology as soon as he realised that things could be taken apart, sometimes put back together again, but mostly left in bits or made into something the original designer hadn't quite planned upon.
At school he was definitely in the ZX Spectrum/Magpie/BMX camp, rather than the BBC Micro/Blue Peter/well-behaved group. This is all deeply ironic as he later went on to spend nine years working at the BBC.
After a few years of working as a bookseller in Scotland, ("Back when it was actually a skilled profession" he'll tell anyone still listening), he moved to England for reasons he can't quite explain adequately to himself. After a couple of publishing jobs punctuated by sporadic bursts of travelling and photography came the aforementioned nine years at the BBC where he specialised in internet technologies and video.
These days his primary interests are Java, Linux, videogames and pies - and if they're not candidates for convergence, then what is?
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