One week until Adobe MAX 2011! We have some very exciting news to share during the keynotes and like previous years we also have some very well known guests on stage! There really is no substitute for being live at the keynotes in the Nokia Theater but MAXonline is probably the next best thing.

Mister Ryan Stewart and I will be hosting MAXonline again this year and we promise to give you a behind the scenes look at MAX as well as exclusive interviews you won’t see anywhere else!

Watch on your desktop or Flash-enabled mobile device using Adobe’s video streaming technologies including HTTP Dynamic Streaming with Flash Media Server 4.5 and experience Flash Player’s peer-assisted networking technology for media delivery. Or watch it on your Apple iOS device using HLS powered by Adobe Flash Media Server 4.5!

Just make sure you don’t miss it! Register today!

Can’t make it to MAX? Well… we’ll miss you but… why not get together with some friends and colleagues and watch the keynotes together? No no… Not like that cheesy video you saw on the web… Unless your grandma is also in to everything Adobe ;-) Just hook up your laptop to a projector or big screen. Order some pizza, open up some beers (If you’re in Europe. Ordering pizza and drinking beer in the morning is just weird :D) and sit back to watch what I think are going to be the best MAX keynotes ever!

Register today on http://max.adobe.com/online/!

I wish I could tell you today about the cool new things we plan on showing during the keynotes but I really like my job here at Adobe so I won’t :D

Today we say goodbye to one of the biggest (if not the biggest) pop icons of our time. Some already call this the media event of the century. Over 1.6 million people registered to get a ticket for the event in Los Angeles. Only 8700 people were selected.

This is surely going to be an event that is going to watched by many. If not on TV, then most certainly on the web. I watched that other big event earlier this year (Obama’s inauguration) live on CNN.com with no hiccups whatsoever so I’ll probably watch the memorial there as well. I thought it was a good idea to give a quick overview on where you can watch the event online.

CNN.com (CNN is teaming up with Facebook)
FoxNews
ABCnews
CBSnews (using uStream.tv)
Hulu (Not available outside the US)
USAToday (Using Livestream.com)
NYTimes
MySpace
MSN/MSNBC
E! Online (via Justin.tv)

Coincidentally/As far as I know all of the above are using Flash to stream this event to no doubt hundreds of thousands of viewers. Yes… You are right… This post should not be about promoting the Flash Platform.

(Image by Kristof Saelen)
(Via NewTeeVee.com)

Imagine you are the most powerful man on the planet. You want to organize a town hall meeting online so that anyone anywhere can view the meeting online without having to install anything new. Which technology would you choose? The answer is simple: Flash.

Barack Obama just started an online town hall meeting where he will answer the questions people could submit and vote for online. I’m currently on a hotel network and it’s still streaming in nicely.

They are streaming this using Flash Media Server 3.5 (the latest version of FMS) which does dynamic streaming and even allows you to pause the live broadcast. Check it out on http://www.whitehouse.gov/openforquestions/

Flash on!

I recently came across a couple of serious misconceptions about Flash Video and I thought it was a good idea to set the record straight.

#1 – Flash Video is progressive download only.
While progressive download is an option, streaming live or pre-recorded content is also possible using a Flash media streaming server or service provider. Obviously Adobe has it’s own offering in this space but third party and open source alternatives are also available.

#2 – Streaming Flash Video is expensive.
With an open source alternative available, streaming Flash Video can cost as little as $0 (obviously not counting hardware or bandwidth costs).

#3 – Flash Video quality is terrible. Just look at YouTube.
With Flash Video, you can publish video to any quality ranging from a stamp-size video in a banner to 1080p full HD video. The publisher has complete control over the quality of the video.

#4 – Flash Video streams can’t be protected.
There are a couple of ways of protecting your Flash Video stream. Adobe’s Flash Media Server provides RTMP-based streaming directly into Flash Player, avoiding the browser cache. SSL encryption and additional authentication mechanisms can also be added to more directly target the client player (Whitepaper PDF). With the recently released Flash Media Rights Management Server, publishers can further protect their streams with DRM.

#5 – Flash is a closed format that works with proprietary video codecs.
Both the SWF file format specification and the FLV/F4V specification are available to the public as part of the Open Screen Project. Flash Video can be published with 3 different codecs which are part of the Flash Player (so no additional installs are required). The Sorenson Spark codec and On2′s VP6 codec are the oldest codecs. The industry standard H.264 video codec was added in Flash Player 9 and allows you to publish video to the Flash Player up to 1080p full HD video.

#6 – I can only use Flash Video in a browser.
Adobe AIR (available for Mac, Windows and Linux) allows you to build real desktop applications with web technologies including JavaScript, HTML and Flash. Since the Flash Player is at the heart of the AIR runtime, it is obvious that you can also use all of the Flash Player features including Flash Video. Adobe AIR 1.5 also supports the DRM capabilities provided by the Flash Media Rights Management Server.

#7 – Flash Video is difficult to use.
For developers: Adding Flash Video to a Flash project (made with Flash Professional or Flex and targeted for Flash Player or Adobe AIR) is as easy as adding any other asset to your project. If you can add an image to your project, you can also add Flash Video.
For end-users: The majority of internet users won’t need to install anything extra. 98.3% of all internet connected PCs have Flash Player 8 or higher installed, meaning they can instantly view Flash Video encoded with either the Sorenson Spark or On2 VP6 codec. 89.4% have Flash Player 9.0.115 installed. That version of the Flash Player has H.264 video and HE-AAC audio playback, multi-core support and hardware scaling of HD quality full-screen video. This means that most users can play your HD H.264 video from the instant the page is loaded.

#8 – Only YouTube uses Flash Video.
According to comScore, 80% (up from 72%) of online videos are viewed Worldwide using Adobe Flash technology. This makes Flash Video the #1 video format on the web. Renowned broadcasters like CNN, BBC, NBC, FOX and many others use Flash Video as their main video format.