what really blows me away about video using flash is the massive power coming from the backend. The flash platform makes it really easy for publishers to run a very sophisticated video platform using the tools and technologies Adobe offers. Like the Flash Media Server and all the little tools to get your video straight to your customers (Live video, or just the way to automate the publishing workflow).

Flash can stream video to the client and even change the bandwidth on the fly to manage network hickups…

There is more than just what users are seeing in the browser. It’s the way Adobe supports the entire publishing workflow that makes the Flash platform a really awesome eco-system to work with. In the end, it’s not only the user who decides what technology survives. It’s also the developers/publishers that have to deal with all the technological hurdles that Adobes products just make it so easy to overcome.

Indeed the interactive video space is starting to grow. I have a Google alert on interactive video results and this seems to suggest that interact video, in general is most profilic in the games arena and indeed one would have to say the video conferencing areana may be second in volume. However you are indeed correct, there is an undercurrent of big brands getting into the space and wanting more. This is especially true in the context of interactive video advertising. This is the area we at Coull are involved in, we have seen a significant increase in the uptake of this in the last 7 months. Indeed a significant increase in the number of campaigns we are running and the impressions we serve.

Maybe like social networking, brands are slowly starting to feel their way around this relatively new space. Although we have been involved in interactive video for many years, Flash has made our own interactive video model easy to distribute. There is indeed no other product on the market today that can do what Flash can.

Big brands are waking up to the potential of interactive video, it must be said that actually in this arena they are trendsetting. Others are as well, but brands are part of frontrunners of the interactive video movement. This is one instance where they may be ahead of the crowd. They are implementing it before others and it is the BIG brands. Our client list shows that Nike, UniLever, myspace, Adidas, etc. These are our customers, we are not seeing a groundswell movement here we are seeing the reverse. This is great for the overall concept of interactive video as well, as the more exposure the community has to it, the quicker it will develop. A bit of a plug if you are interested in the type of stuff we are doing in the space – http://coull.com/showcase/adidas/houseparty/

I remember Elf yourself and jib-jab as well, these were novel, fun and successful implementations of the possibilities that surround the interactive video space. I feel we are moving into a new era of video, were videos become entry points themselves, to use an old word, portals. True internet objects with data “inside” them. It has to be said that Flash is a very big proponent in this process. Its penetration in the market has let lots of different companies introduce new ideas and indeed innovation to video that can be taken up instantly in the market (as everyone has Flash installed).

It could be said that most (if not all) of the relatively, recent disruptive vectors in Internet video have been based on Flash. Perhaps we do not given Flash the credit it deserves. Flash is pretty much the visual medium of the Internet, from ads to video, for images and apps. Flash has changed the Internet, perhaps we do not realise that enough. It is an amazing technology. Thanks for making me think about it a bit differently.

Flash on indeed!