Jan Ozer's Thoughts on Why Adobe Abandoned Flash for Mobile

Streaming Media West was abuzz this past week with Adobe's surprising announcement that it will abandon future development of Flash Player for mobile devices following the next release 11.1, and will be more aggressively contribute to HTML5 innovation with key players, including Google, Apple, Microsoft and RIM. Adobe will continue to support its current Flash development. Over the last few years HTML5 and H.264 video have been gaining momentum as an emerging standard for online and mobile video, spurred on by Apple's exclusion of Flash on its popular iDevices and negative press it received from Steve Jobs' Thoughts on Flash. Adobe had developed Flash Player to run on Google's Android and other non-Apple mobile platforms, but its official statement from its blog post now says,"HTML5 is the best solution for creating and deploying content in the browser across mobile platforms."

While Adobe had a strong presence at Streaming Media West with its Platinum sponsorship of the conference, prominent spot on the exhibit floor and usual pre-conference session with Kevin Towes, the company was tight lipped about why it decided to withdraw Flash from the mobile market. I caught up with Jan Ozer, Video Producer, Writer, Publisher of StreamingLearningCenter.com and author of Video Compression for Flash, Apple Devices and HTML5, to get his perspective on the implications of the announcement for the online video industry, mobile developers and consumers.

Ozer says Adobe made this move for three reasons. Number one, they were fighting against the current at least with Apple, and then with Microsoft's recent announcement about their tablet oriented operating system, they can't fight this. Number two, Ozer says, Adobe wasn't getting then support it needed from Google and other vendors to make Flash work effectively on mobile platforms. The last thing he says is, as computers get more powerful people are building applications that require more power and faster CPUs to run smoothly, and Flash-enabled tablets and phones simply don't have the power to run smoothly and deliver a quality experience.

This doesn't mean that Flash on the desktop is going away anytime soon, and Ozer says that it will actually create a tale of two websites, with a web version that is completely immersive Flash experience, and the other more simple and targeted for mobile devices.

"That's already being done by some vendors like Converse, who, if you visit it with an iPad, sends you to a simple e-commerce site, but if you visit with a computer, sends you to an immersive Flash experience. The other is that many vendors, seeking to minimize development costs, will produce a single site using HTML5 that lacks much of the immersion that Flash can provide." 

While many are saying Adobe's announcement is significant, Ozer points out:

"In terms of video, remember that HTML5 doesn't have many key technologies now being used or implemented by the primary distributers of non-UGC video on the web (networks, studios, etc). These include adaptive streaming, digital rights management (DRM), peer-to-peer delivery, and in the enterprise space, multi-casting. Remember also that at last count (November 9, 2011), the penetration of HTML5 compatible browsers on connected computers was under 60%. Streaming producers are going to need a plug-in based option for several more years, and Flash is the obvious choice. "

He described the implications in greater detail on in this blog post, Adobe to Discontinue Flash for Mobile, and offered this advise to online video publishers.

"If you're a web producer trying to access these mobile devices, your strategy doesn't change much either. You've had to deliver to desktops with one technology and iDevices with another, Android has always been a fractured market. Now you'll likely deliver to all mobiles using a single technology (let's hope) and all desktops with another. Certainly Google's adaption of HTTP Live Streaming in Android 3.0 is a good sign."

Related:

• Flash to Focus on PC Browsing and Mobile Apps; Adobe to More Aggressively Contribute to HTML5 (Adobe Featured Blogs)
• Adobe to Discontinue Flash for Mobile | StreamingLearningCenter.com
• Adobe to Discontinue Flash on Mobile Devices - Streaming Media Magazine
• The Future of Flash a Hot Topic at HTML5 Video Summit, SMW - Streaming Media Magazine
• Flash Into (Not so) Thin AIR - Streaming Media Magazine
• Adobe Abandons Flash For Mobile Devices

Wowza Media Systems, "Any Screen Done Right" - Dave Stubenvoll, CEO and Co-founder, Wowza Media Systems

When Wowza Media Systems first was conceived, Dave Stubenvoll says he and his co-founder, Charlie Good, saw a market need for a better media delivery solution which incumbent media server providers (Adobe, Microsoft and Apple) could not address. When Wowza Media Server 1.0 first came to market in February 2007 it was originally offered as a low-cost alternative to Adobe's Flash Media Server and had great success. But when Wowza Media Server Pro 1.5 was released in May 2008, it expanded its abilities by introducing H.264 video and AAC audio streaming support.

Today, Wowza Media Systems provides a flexible multi-platform media software for streaming of live and on-demand video, audio, and RIAs (rich Internet applications) over public and private IP networks to desktop, laptop, and tablet computers, mobile devices, IPTV set-top boxes, internet-connected TV sets, and other network-connected device, with some 70,000 licensees all shapes and sizes worldwide.

Wowza Media Systems premiered its "any screen done right" delivery at the 2011 NAB Show, intoducing the third generation of its streaming system, Wowza Media Server 3, which will implement Adaptive bit rate (ABR) streaming, time-shifted playback and integrated rights management. The full release will be presented at IBC 2011 in September. (Read more: New streaming systems from Wowza - Broadcast Engineering)

Wowza Media Systems was founded in 2005 by Stubenvoll and Good, both former Adobe employees, and they knew back then their boot strapped startup could be more than just a competitor to the big guns of online video. At that time, Flash and Windows Media video ruled the web as the dominant players in live and on-demand video. But as the video delivery formats changed over time and as AVC/H.264 video workflows began to extend to extend to the web and beyond, Wowza Media Systems re-engineered its product to offer Microsoft Smooth Streaming support aimed at Microsoft Silverlight clients and Windows Phone 7 devices; Apple QuickTime player and iOS platform (iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch); 3GPP mobile devices (Android, BlackBerry OS, Symbian, etc), and IPTV set-top boxes and game consoles.



I caught up with Stubenvoll earlier this year at OTT Con in San Jose, to talk with him about the company's first product release and how the company has grown since then.

"When we started… we had a great position in the market. We architected it from the ground up to be an industrial strength server. We saw the need to have something that was really rock solid, high performance, high reliability, but also super super extensible." 

After finding great success with the first media server release the company embarked on a H.264 strategy, which Stubenvoll says all the pieces fell right into place when Adobe announced that it would support H.264 playback within Flash Player 9. Wowza began to work with every H.264 encoder so it could ingest all the various flavors of H.264, which he says was a lot of work, because things tat normally wouldn't go to Flash could go to Flash and customers loved it. The next logical step beyond taking in all these flavors or H.264, was to deliver all those flavors of live and on-demand H.264, and did that with the December 2009 release of Wowza Media Server 2.

"As a result, Wowza as a company has grown dramatically. We were actually a boot strapped startup, and while I had an office in a venture capitalist firm, we decided not to go with that. But now, we have over 70,000 licenses worldwide; 40% of content delivery networks base their media delivery on Wowza; we just have a fantastic reputation and a fantastic footprint worldwide."

Wowza Media Server is highly regarded within the online video community and has received numerous awards, including multiple Streaming Media Readers' Choice Awards, Streaming Media Editors' Pick and 2010 and most recently, the best AV Over IP Distribution System by AV Technology Magazine

Another important thing to note, says Stubenvoll, is that Wowza is extraordinarily architected and Wowza Media Server itself with all its features and functionalities is 2.5 MB in size.

"So we can literally fit on your phone. But at the other side, with off the shelf hardware, we can get out 10 Gbps and that's a lot of performance."

Stubenvoll says that Wowza Systems is looking to the future beyond the mere media server at what else is required to deliver content in the very robust fashion. With the new features available in Wowza Media Server 3, the company is focusing on value-added components for "any screen done right".

"What else can we do in terms of content transformation to make sure that it's properly adapting to all the relevant bit rates. Other things we can do around enhancing the consumer experience and giving them better features that they can rely on; and the key thing here is, not just having it for the desktop and not just for certain mobile devices, but have it work across. So what you're seeing is that this 'any screen done right' is really what Wowza is about and we're building a very rich platform for a number of services that will allow you to do any screen done right, and that's Wowza Media Server."

About Wowza Media Systems 
Wowza Media Systems® is the premier media server software company delivering an industrial-strength infrastructure for live video, video-on-demand, live recording, and video chat. Wowza® has a singular focus on delivering high-performance media server software to service providers, media properties, enterprises, and other organizations serious about delivering video to any digital screen — computer, mobile phone, or home TV. More than 70,000 global licensees in entertainment, social media, advertising, enterprise, education, government, and Internet commerce have deployed Wowza’s media server software to date. Wowza Media Systems is privately held with headquarters in Evergreen, Colo. More information is available at http://www.wowzamedia.com, or follow Wowza Media Systems (wowzamedia) on Twitter

Related:

• New streaming systems from Wowza
• Wowza to Premiere Media Platform for 'Any Screen Done Right' Delivery at the 2011 NAB Show
• Wowza Media Systems and BuyDRM Partner to Deliver PlayReady-Protected Smooth Streaming
• Hot Companies To Watch: Wowza Media, Influxis, PeerApp, Accordent, Cotendo | StreamingMediaBlog.com
• Adobe Takes Wowza to Court Over Flash Patents — Online Video News
• WOWZA RESPONDS TO LEGAL ACTION BY ADOBE SYSTEMS
• Wowza Case Study: Amazon Web Services

¡Viva La H.264! MPEG LA Liberates H.264/AVC For All Free Video Content Forever... But What Does It All Mean??

The video codec format war heated up last week, with the announcement by the MPEG LA, that it has freed up the license of the H.264 AVC (Advanced Video Coding) codec, and will not charge royalties for any content that is free to consumers. The MPEG LA is the firm that manages the patent pool for AVC, and earlier this year, it announced it would not charge royalties for such video through December 31, 2015 (PDF link). But now and forever, it has made it free for the life of the license and will only charge for AVC encoded video content sold to end users in any form for a fee, on a title or subscription basis.

H.264/AVC video format is the digital video coding  industry standard H.264/MPEG-4 Part 10, or AVC  used widely in set-top boxes, media player and other personal computer software, mobile devices, Blu-ray Disc™ players and recorders, game machines, personal media player devices and still and video cameras. Apple has become most outspoken proponent of AVC, and backs it as the standard video codec used for its HTML-5 video compatible mobile iDevices like the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch, as well as for iTunes videos, and Microsoft also announced support for H.264-encoded HTML5 video in IE9 earlier this year.

Many have speculated that the move by the MPEG LA was spurred on by Google's release of VP8 as an open source royalty free video codec, a new rival to H.264/AVC and potential replacement to the open source Theora. Google announced the release of the VP8 video codec under the WebM Project at the i/O developers conference in May, with broad industry support. Absent from the list of supporters was, of course, Apple.

The tug of war between these two competing video codecs has reached an inflection point according to Streamingmedia.com's Tim Siglin, who says:

"There is little doubt that the most recent announcement by MPEG LA is, in part, a counteraction against the potential inroads that WebM may make in the online video space."

The codec issue is a big dilemma for online video publishers says Jan Ozer. He recently authored a recent survey for StreamingMedia.com, Supporting the iPad and HTML5, and found that less Than 50% of publishers ready to implement HTML5 video,

According to Ozer:

"54% of respondents who were considering HTML5 support rated the lack of single codec either a serious concern, or a very serious concern. Lack of HTML5 browser penetration was rated even more of a concern, but that will resolve in time. The codec issue appears to be a permanent problem which will force producers to encode in as many as four or five different formats in the short term, and at least two in the long term."

Rounding out the analysis from Streaming Media is Dan Rayburn who acknowledged that while the MPEG LA's royalty free license is good news for content owners, it does not address the future market needs for subscription based content services and device manufactures who will continue to pay to license the codec.

Rayburn also agreed that the lack of a codec standard is a major sticking point for the industry:

"The news also does nothing to address what I consider to be a bigger issues which is the need for browsers to give us a single codec we can call use. Companies like Mozilla and Opera are still going to have to pay for a license if they want to support H.264 which means we are not any closer to have much in the way of video standard on the Internet."

As far as browsers go, they are waging their own war. Safari supports H.264, Firefox, Opera and Chrome support WebM, and IE9 will support both as well as its own VC-1. Mozilla has refused to support H.264 as a codec for the HTML5 video tag in Firefox, and it's unlikely it will in the future. Theora plays natively in FireFox 3.5, Chrome as of version 3.0.182.2 and Opera as version 10.50.  All browsers can play H.264 encoded video presented in Adobe's Flash plug-in, but as everyone knows, Flash doesn't play within Apple's iOS on its iDevices. According to current global browser market share and trends of the five major browsers, IE 6.0-8.0 leads with 52.68%, followed by FireFox 3.0+-3.5+ with 31.49% and those numbers are growing steadily as people migrate to the newer versions. Chrome has grown to 9.80%, Safari has about 5.09% and Opera is 1.90%.



Ultimately, it's all not just about patents and licenses, there's a much bigger back story. I like this post by Brightcove CEO Jeremy Allaire, The Future of Web Content – HTML5, Flash & Mobile Apps, which provides a detailed industry analysis on the codec format and browser wars. He says video is a cornerstone issue and the emergence of the mobile device industry has brought the issue to the forefront:

"With massive growth in hand-held web browsing from smartphones, iTouch devices and the pending iPad product, this has raised a deeper issue for media publishers who are eager to have their content be accessible to end-users. In particular, it is the show-down between Apple, Google and Adobe over who can control video formats on these devices that is creating challenges. Again, this is not about “what is the right technical solution”, it is about the political economy of who controls the formats that in turn lead to owning downstream audience and monetization opportunities."

While many big video websites, like YouTube and Vimeo, have rolled out their own HTML5 video players, we are held at bay by the big browser developers that can't agree which video codec to support in HTML5. The MPEG LA's move has brought us closer to a standard - with the two dominant video codec standards AVC and WebM - the tug of war continues and we're caught in the struggle. Until there is broad support for all codecs and containers across the industry, we won't be reaching a web video standard anytime soon.

About MPEG LA, LLC

MPEG LA is the world leader in alternative technology licenses, enabling users to acquire worldwide patent rights necessary for a technology standard or platform from multiple patent owners in a single transaction as an alternative to negotiating individual licenses. MPEG LA’s initial licensing program for MPEG-2 digital video compression helped produce the most widely employed standard in consumer electronics history, and the MPEG LA® Licensing Model has become the template for addressing other technologies. Today MPEG LA manages licensing programs consisting of essential patents in 57 countries. MPEG LA is an independent licensing administrator; it is not related to any standards agency and is not an affiliate of any patent holder. For more information, please refer to http://www.mpegla.com.

Related:

• To Infinity and Beyond: MPEG LA Extends H.264 Internet Video Moratorium Indefinitely - StreamingMedia.com
• MPEG-LA Announces No royalties on Free Internet Videos - Ever
• iPad and HTML5 Adoption - Supporting the iPad and HTML5
• Larry Kless' Weblog: Google Releases VP8 as Open Source Royalty Free Video Codec, Launches WebMproject.org with Broad Support from Online Video Industry
• Analysis: Royalty-free H.264 may clear way for HTML5 video standard | Browsers | iOS Central | Macworld

Related WebM reading:

• What Does the Webmproject Mean for the Future of Video on the Web
• VP8, WebM, and HTML5 video « Zencoder Blog
• Diary Of An x264 Developer » The first in-depth technical analysis of VP8

Video Replay of Encoding Video for the Web - ReelSEO’s Webinar

Thanks again to everyone who joined us a few weeks back on May 5th for the very first Reel SEO webinar event on  titled, “Video Encoding for the Web.” As I previously mentioned, the webinar was very well received with 263 attendees from all over the world. A big thanks to my co-presenter Robert Reinhardt, the @flashfreaker, who shared some fantastic tips on how to compress video using x264, the free library for encoding H264/AVC video streams. An enormous thanks as well to Mark Robertson who not only moderated the session, but did an amazing job working numerous hours with Robert and me to pull together the program. Mark also spent a considerable amount of time editing the video from the webinar to make it available for those who may have missed it or want to review it. An additional thanks to Ian Sneed and the team at vzaar video platform for sponsoring the free webinar. You can see the previous posts with our bios here and the slides here.



Look for more Reel SEO webinar events in the future. Thanks again to everyone for your continued support and interest. We greatly appreciate it!

Encoding Video for the Web - Webinar Slides from ReelSEO.com

Thanks to everyone who attended our webinar yesterday on, Video Encoding for the Web! We had 263 attendees from all over the world who stayed with us for the scheduled hour, and 140 or so stayed on for the additional half hour of Q&A. Many thanks as well to my co-presenter, the amazing Robert Reinhardt AKA @flashfreaker who dropped major video encoding science and our moderator and organizer extraordinaire, Mark Robertson who did a fantastic job pulling it all together and managing the flow of the session and 100+ questions that came in from attendees. Also, a big thanks to Ian Sneed and the folks at vzaar video platform for sponsoring the webinar.

Mark will be posting the video in the next few days, and we encourage anyone who didn't get their questions answered to post a comment on Reel SEO or contact any of us. In the meantime, here are the webinar slides which were featured today on the Slideshare homepage.

Encoding Video for the Web - Webinar from ReelSEO.com

View more presentations from Mark Robertson.

Join us Tomorrow for Free Video Encoding Webinar, May 5th at 11 AM PST

Please join us tomorrow for a free Reel SEO webinar on May 5th at11AM Pacific Time to learn about online video encoding for the web. If you're a producer wondering what you need to know about video compression, then this is the webinar for you. You will have a chance to ask questions about the various video formats, codecs, bit rates, containers, formats and more. You get tips on best encoding practices so your online videos look the best that they can. You'll hear about H.264 and watch how to simply and easily apply high quality H.264 encoding to your video.

Our webinar moderator and host Mark Robertson just posted a similar reminder on Reel SEO and had this to say:

"You’ve likely been reading all the hype about Apple vs. Flash. With that hype, it appears that there is a good deal of confusion out there when it comes to video codecs, video formats, platforms, etc…. And, even though it is my belief that leading blogs shouldn’t write about things they don't understand, I completely understand the confusion (read my post -Video File Container Formats, Compression & Codecs – Oh My!)"

Register for this FREE webinar

Mark is spot on when he says that there is a great deal of confusion about codecs and formats. With all the Steve Jobs Flash bashing and talk of Google open sourcing VP8 for HTML5 video (one of the codecs it acquired from its purchase of video compression company On2) along with Microsoft getting behind H.264 and not open source video codec Theora – it's no wonder that people get all misconstrued. The news has been filled with posturing on all sides of the issue when it comes to a "standard" for web and mobile video. Dan Rayburn has been taking a lot of heat from his blog posts on the subject from rabid Apple fans who have threatened him with bodily harm, but his most recent post, H.264 Is A Codec, Flash Is A Platform: One Can't Kill Off The Other, really cuts through the misconceptions surrounding the area of video encoding.

I hope you'll join us tomorrow for this FREE webinar which will focus on some fundamental knowledge about video encoding, file containers, formats and profiles – and strategies for producing better web videos.


Our topics include:

• What is video compression?
• What is bit rate?
• Video codecs vs. container formats
• Shooting tips for web video
• Tools and resources for encoding
• How to create high quality H.264 encoding settings

Tutorial: Encoded in 15 Minutes

Robert Reinhardt, creator of videoRx.com, will show you how you can use the best H.264 compression tool, x264, to produce high quality web and device-ready video, all without spending money on commercial encoding products. All you need is a tool that leverage x264 and some elbow grease. In this webinar, Robert will demonstrate x264 with the popular cross-platform open-source tool Handbrake and go under the hood with x264Encoder, a free plug-in for the Mac version of QuickTime Player Pro.

About our Presenters

Robert Reinhardt,creator of the online video service videoRx.com and VP of the multimedia consulting company [the MAKERS], is internationally regarded as an expert on multimedia application development and online video deployment,particularly in Adobe Flash and H.264. Selling over 200,000 copies worldwide in over 13 languages, Robert’s books include the first seven editions of the Flash Bible series (Wiley), as well as Video with Adobe Flash CS4 Professional StudioTechniques (Adobe Press). He has developed and delivered multimedia training to higher education and Fortune 100 companies, and is an Adobe Certified Instructor for Flash courses at esynctraining.com and Portland State University. Robert has been a featured speaker at the FlashForward, FITC, Flashbelt,Flash on the Beach, SIGGRAPH, and Adobe MAX conferences. Robert is also an instructor at DesignProVideo.com.


Larry Kless (hey, that's me!) is President and Founder of OnlineVideo Publishing [dot] com a new media resource firm for sharing strategies and best practices for online video publishers. Larry is a 20year veteran of the enterprise video space and award-winning producer of corporate and educational videos. His background is in fine arts and he’s a long-time member of Canyon Cinema, Inc. and Filmmakers’ Coop. He writes a personal blog and is a contributor on ReelSEO, Vator.tv and other online video blogs focusing on streaming media, online video, startups, gadgets, social media, advertising and marketing, videoconferencing and collaboration. Larry is a frequent speaker and moderator at industry events and webinars and was Co-Chair of the recent Online Video Platform Summit. He was named a 2009 Streaming Media All-Star by StreamingMedia.com , an annual team of the most innovative, influential,and important players in the online video arena.


About our Moderator
Mark Robertson is the Founder and Creator of Reelseo.com. Previously, Mark was Director of Search at Freedom Communications and he has had extensive experience in online marketing, particularly in Search Engine Marketing (SEM), Local Search, Video Marketing, and Search Engine Optimization (SEO). You can follow Mark on Twitter @markrrobertson or ReelSEO at @reelseo


About our Sponsor
Special thanks to our sponsor for this event –Vzaar. Vzaar is a professional quality online video hosting platform for business. They serve media companies, marketing agencies, corporate communications, e-commerce, web applications and non-profit organizations. You can learn more about Vzaar and sign up for a free trial here.

Encoding Video For The Web: Free Webinar on May 5th

Please join us for a free Reel SEO webinar on May 5th at 11AM Pacific Time to learn about online video encoding for the web. If you're a producer wondering what you need to know about video compression, then this is the webinar for you. You will have a chance to ask questions about the various video formats, codecs, bit-rates and more. You get tips on best encoding practices so your online videos look the best that they can. You'll hear what the pros have to say about H.264 and watch how to simply and easily apply high quality H.264 encoding to your video.

You can register to attend this free webinar here!

Sponsored by:

Presenters:

Robert Reinhardt

Creator/Engineer

FlashSupport.com

videoRx.com

Larry Kless

Founder

OnlinevideoPublishing.com

Mark Robertson

Founder

ReelSEO.com

Some of the topics we'll cover include:

• What is video compression? 
• What is bit rate? 
• Video codecs vs. container formats?
• Format considerations 
• Shooting tips for web video
• Why H.264?
• How to create high quality H.264 encoding settings

Did I mention that it's free? What are you waiting for? Register now!

The iPad Cometh - The Online Video Industry Gears Up for the Launch

Over the last several months HTML5 and H.264 video have been gaining momentum as an emerging standard for online video, spurred on by the announcement earlier this year of Apple's new iPad. The device will be available to those who pre-ordered early later this week on April 3rd, and new orders will ship in two weeks. It has been touted by Apple as the future model for online publishers, even though like its predecessors the iPod touch and iPhone, it doesn't support Flash. Apple pre-sold 120,000 units on the first day, with 51,000 of them purchased in the first two hours on sale, and analysts predict that 10 million will be sold in 2010.

There has been a great deal of discussion on why Apple chose to exclude Flash, which has been the dominant format for video on the web with Flash Video having approximately 75% market-share for online video. But according to Steve Jobs, Flash is a "CPU Hog" that would drain the iPad's battery and it's "full of security holes". In speaking with the Wall Street Journal he reportedly said, "We don't spend a lot of energy on old technology," and suggested the WSJ to abandon Flash for the H.264 codec.

Jan Ozer though recently disputed the "CPU Hog" comment, and ran a series of tests and found that Flash actually was not a CPU Hog. He noted that Apple blocks Flash from accessing hardware acceleration which helps with efficient video playback. Fair or not, the turf wars wage on with all the big players Apple, Google, Adobe and Microsoft taking sides and looking to expand their market-share. See Tim Siglin's post, Commentary: Working Around the Web, where he provides some great commentary on Apple's "pure HTML" approach vs. Adobe "standards-based" plug-in approach. While Flash is not going away for the foreseeable future, up and down the stack the online video industry is adapting to HTML5 as an emerging standard, and the opportunity that the iPad brings, with a number of announcements made in the last few days.

Brightcove unveiled its new Brightcove Experience for HTML5 -- a framework for publishing and delivering interactive and advertising-supported Web video for HTML5-compatible devices. The platform is available free to Brightcove's more than 1,000 customers and provides support for intelligent device detection, playlist rendering, and transcoding and playback of H.264 video content from Adobe Flash video, analytics tracking, social sharing controls, advertising insertion, and other capabilities. Customers who are using Brightcove's HTML5 solution include Time Inc. and the New York Times (a Brightcove investor).Brightcove says it's platform agnostic and has been supporting HTML5 and H.264 since 2008.

Jeremy Allaire, Brightcove chairman and chief executive officer said:

"The Brightcove Experience for HTML5 fills the gap between the current playback capabilities of the emerging standard and what our customers need to operate successful online video businesses."

A few days prior, Brightcove rival Ooyala announced that it will support full video delivery to iPad when it launches on April 3rd. For over a year, Ooyala has had iPhone support in the form of an intelligent video embed lets the Ooyala player automatically recognize each device and adjust video quality and format for the best possible viewing experience.

According to Bismarck Lepe, President of Product:

"The iPad is more than just another connected device. It's an innovation that will drive new ideas in portability and personalized media."

Kyte announced an iPad SDK and HTML5 support for developing Kyte-powered iPad apps for distribution through the Apple iTunes App Store, as well as web-based support for the iPad through a new, universal embed code that outputs HTML5 video. The new SDK and HTML5 support provides customers with the flexibility and choice to build native iPad applications, or extend compatibility of their new or existing Kyte-powered websites to the iPad.

Gannon Hall, COO, Kyte said:

"Representing the next phase in media delivery and Internet connected devices, the iPad is a platform every video publisher needs to plan for," "Kyte has long been focused on delivering innovative, forward looking functionality that gives video publishers the ability to reach and engage audiences no matter where they are. Our support for HTML5 and our release of an SDK for the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch is the next step in this progression."

Like Ooyala and Kyte, Delve Networks announced that it too will support full video delivery to iPad when the tablet device launches. Customers will be able to content for their iPad readers using the same easy-to-use Delve video platform where they currently manage their website videos.

Encoding.com, one of the companies in particular best suited to cash-in on the need for HTML5 video transcoding services. today announced support for HTTP Live Streaming for Apple's iPhone, iPod touch, and the soon to be released iPad mobile devices. HTTP streaming enables publishers to provide users with a better video experience by continuously adapting the video stream in real-time to match the user's available bandwidth.

Encoding.com President Jeff Malkin told FierceOnlineVideo:

"The Codec format war that's been brewing between apple, Google, and Flash and all of that together has created a perfect storm for a business like ours where we're automating a very complex process and taking it off the plates of our clients. We're making it simple for our customers and, timing-wise, our new service couldn't be better situated

Limelight Networks announced it will support rich media content delivery to the iPad on day one of the product availability. Customers of the Limelight REACH and Limelight ADS services will automatically have their mobile distribution and monetization services updated for the new device, enabling them to present a brilliant and properly formatted media experience to purchasers of the widely anticipated tablet.

"We will be formatting content for the best playback experience on those shiny new Apple toys. And the best part? We’re not reinventing the wheel here or coming up with a new application just for the iPad launch. Our existing technology and infrastructure is specifically designed to adapt content for delivery to any new devices that pop up. Our targeted delivery profiles change, but the process stays the same. Which means we’ve got you covered not only for the Apple iPad, but also for whatever product launch event comes next." - Apple iPad – We’ve Got You Covered, The Limelight blog

Rounding out the announcements is MeFeedia with its HTML5 video pre-roll solution. Currenty, the All Player™ platform powers over 50 million monthly video ads across web and mobile devices (including where flash is not supported) and can show video ads to any browser that supports HTML5 natively.

Look for more announcements in the days to come as well as more on the format wars. In particular, the tensions have also been building between Apple and Google, and Google fired back the other day with the announcement that their Chrome browser will ship with an integrated Flash Player plug-in.

Kaltura and Partners Bringing Video to Wikipedia, Launch New Web Sites to Promote HTML5 Open Video Standard

Amidst the format wars being waged in the press, on the web and mobile devices – open video, and the HTML5 video standard, continue to gain traction in the market. Just this week, Microsoft announced that Internet Explorer 9 will support HTML5 and native playback of H.264 video within the next version of the browser. Both YouTube and Vimeo also recently announced support of HTML5, which enables publishers to serve video directly into compatible browsers without the need of an external plug-in, using the simple "video" tag. While H.264 is emerging as a possible encoding standard for online video, the Open Video Alliance is pushing the free and open video cdec Ogg Theora.

Open source video platform Kaltura, together with the Wikimedia Foundation, the Open Video Alliance and other partners, unveiled new initiatives to promote the HTML5 video standard, including two new websites – Let’s Get Video on Wikipedia  and HTML5video.org. Both sites serve as community and industry resources and have been launched as part of a mass campaign to bring video to Wikipedia. The Wikimedia Foundation believes that two things need to change for video on the web: video needs to break out of the Flash container and it needs to be in a free format without paying licensing fees. Let's Get Video on Wikipedia provides simple instructions on how to convert and upload video to Wikipedia.

Kaltura launched HTML5video.org as an industry resource for all things HTML5 video-related, including news, technology demos and more. In addition, Kaltura has released its HTML5 Media Library – already in use by Wikipedia – that works in all major browsers and includes a full set of HTML5 video tools – video and audio players, uploader and editor.



In this video, Kaltura CEO and Chairman Ron Yekutiel discusses how Kaltura has been working with the Open Video Alliance and the Wikimedia Foundation to bring open video to Wikipedia.

According to Ron:

"One of the biggest or most important releases in our near future, is our project with Wikipedia, with the Foundation. Which would basically turn the largest encyclopedia today available on the web, from a simple text encyclopedia into a rich environment. We, using Kaltura and the Foundation will enable the mass peer-produced creation of rich media, similar to how it's produced today by way of text.

So where people can create today an entry in Wikipedia, each one contributing a sentence, or a comma, or a word – in the future, in the next few months to come, people will together be able to sit back and create video clips, slide shows, each one potentially contributing only a picture. Imagine an event like Hurricane Katrina hitting, with so people running around with Flip cameras being to contribute what they had just found, and somebody with the tutorial skills being able to put it together with all of the back monitoring and filtering processes of Wikipedia to make sure that the best of breed product is at the end. So this is one example and we're very excited about the Open Video Alliance.

And, I think that beyond letting the words of few be out there, it is about grabbing the pictures. You know they say that, a photo is worth a thousand words, and in 30 frames per second, what that means is that a video clip is worth a 30,000 words. So if you democratize one video clip, you've just democratized 30,000 words."

The goal of the open video movement is to democratize video through open standards, open source, and open content. Wikipedia is the biggest site yet to implement fully open video with no dependency on proprietary video codecs or any commercial vendor for video ingestion, transcoding, playback, annotation and editing.

Kaltura’s HTML5 video solution allows publishers to use HTML5 video today without having to worry about specific browser, format and codec support – with a fallback mechanism that serves up videos regardless of their browser, and format of the video. Wikimedia will be using the Kaltura HTML5 media library to enable rich collaborative video on the site. This includes use of the Kaltura video player, sequencer, client side transcoder, uploader and asset location system. Kaltura says that HTML5 video player will soon support all advanced video management capabilities, including analytics and monetization, making it commercially viable on devices like the iPhone and iPad that don't support Flash.

More details on the new initiatives:

Let’s Get Video on Wikipedia is a collaboration of three non-profit organizations – Miro, The Open Video Alliance and Mozilla Drumbeat – devoted to open video and free sharing of knowledge. Wikipedia video is powered by the Kaltura HTML5 media library.

Kaltura HTML5 Video Solution: Kaltura has developed a full HTML5 Video Library, and is in the process of fully integrating it into the Kaltura Open Source Online Video Platform that is already in use by more than 52,000 sites. Kaltura's HTML5 video solution - in use by Wikipedia - works in all major browsers by using a unique 'fallback' mechanism while maintaining a single look & feel. The player is easy to skin and extend with plugins and other add-ons. The media library also includes an audio player, media uploader tool and online video editor. Learn more and download the library: http://www.html5video.org/kaltura-html5/

Html5video.org: A new website dedicated to the topic of HTML5 video. The site includes live demos of HTML5 video players including the Kaltura HTML5 video solution, industry news and resources, an invitation to the community to get involved and more. See more at www.html5video.org.

About Kaltura
Kaltura provides the world's first Open Source Online Video Platform. Over 52,000 web publishers, service providers, and developers use Kaltura’s flexible platform to enhance their websites, web-services, and web-platforms with advanced customized video, photo and audio functionalities, including publishing, management, syndication, monetization and analysis, as well as content uploading and remixing. The free community-supported self-hosted software and source-code is available for download at www.kaltura.org. A commercial version of the software can be obtained at www.kaltura.com along with Kaltura services such as streaming, hosting, transcoding, analytics, ad serving, support and maintenance packages, and professional development. Founded in 2006, New York-based Kaltura is also a founding member of the ‘Open Video Alliance’ (www.openvideoalliance.org), a coalition of organizations dedicated to fostering open standards for online video.

Related:

• CEO Conversations: Ron Yekutiel, Kaltura's Open Video Architect 
• CEO Conversations: Ron Yekutiel, Kaltura - Part 2: Kaltura's Value Proposition is "Truly Disruptive" 
• CEO Conversations: Ron Yekutiel, Kaltura - Part 3, Kaltura and the Open Source Video Movement 
• CEO Conversations: Ron Yekutiel, Kaltura - Part 4, Kaltura's Business Model

Update 3/20/10 3:52 PM PT: Video transcript and Kaltura player added to post 

Google Finally Acquires On2, What's Next for Online Video?

After many long months and several offers increasing their bid, Google has won over the On2 shareholders with an additional $26.5 million on top of their original $106.5 million to purchase On2 for $133 million, in a merger deal that should close the by end of day Friday. The saga of this acquisition dates back to August 2009, when Google announced that they would acquire New York-based video codec maker On2 Technologies f0r $106.5 million, but the search Goliath was met with their own modern-day version of David, in the form of defiant On2 shareholders who refused to agree to the terms of the sale.

An outspoken group of stockholders protested "the attempted theft of the company at $0.60 per share" and believed that On2 was worth more than 60 cents a share. They held out for many months as Google upped the offer several times, with the final offer last month of $133 million, that was approved by a majority of On2 stockholders today. On2 shareholders will receive 1/1000th of a share of Google stock, plus 15 cents per share. Google (GOOG) stocks are currently trading at $538 a share.

With all the recent debate on the future of web video, Flash vs. HTML5 and open video formats, H.264 licensing fee extension, and the coming mobile explosion of 2010 - now that Google has finalized this deal, how disruptive will it to the online video landscape?

In a previous post, I asked that same question:

"There's been a lot of speculation that Google is purchasing On2 to take advantage of the advanced V7 and V8 codecs for either open source the codecs and make them license-free. Such a move would create serious competition to the other major video compression technologies of H.264, Flash and Silverlight all of which are proprietary codecs. Could Google be looking to to avoid the licensing fees for H.264? Will Google open source On2's technology to disrupt HTML5? Is Google looking to bake the high quality video compression technology into YouTube to speed up videos and lower bandwidth costs?

This all sounds like a big deal that's going to give Google the edge to disrupt the fabric of the online video landscape and "win the online video format war" and with the acquisition Google acquires technology that it can embed within its Android and Chrome OS platforms. This may cause companies like Adobe, Microsoft and Apple to take a financial hit and force them to support whatever new video codec that Google brings to market. Also, with the situation regarding browser-based decoding for tag in HTML5 at a stalemate and undefined, Google could help change the tide by open sourcing On2 VP technology."

I also cited a number of sources in that post who shared their theories on the acquisition, such as Dan Rayburn who didn't think it would be a big deal, Om Malik who said to pay attention to what Google does with Android, and Brian Dipert who thought that it could be Google's latest move to wrest control from Adobe, Apple, Microsoft and Mozilla.

For now, we can only speculate what Google will do next with On2's video compression technology, but this could prove to be a major game-changer in online video landscape and the mobile frontier. 2010 is shaping up to be quite an interesting year so far.

Related:

• Google To Acquire On2 Technologies for $106.5M, How Disruptive Is It Really?
• Not So fast Google, On2 Shareholders Protest "Attempted Theft" of Company
• On2 Stockholders Approve Merger with Google - Yahoo! Finance

Brightcove To Power Mobile Video Explosion, Announces Mobile Experience for Flash Player 10.1

Brightcove has upped the ante again, announcing support for the upcoming release of Adobe's Flash Player 10.1 with its Mobile Experience for Flash 10.1, an optimized mobile version of the company’s cloud-based online video platform. Introduced today at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the move helps Brightcove's customers extend the reach of their video content to a range of mobile smartphone platforms that will run the forthcoming Flash Player 10.1, including Google Android, Symbian S60, Palm webOS, Windows Mobile and Research in Motion BlackBerry. Brightcove's implementation brings all the features and services of its platform - analytics, in video advertising, secure multi-bitrate streaming, and the more than 120 plugins available for the Brightcove platform, to these mobile phones for the first time.

The announcement builds on Brightcove's strategic alliance with Adobe, who officially announced Flash Player 10.1 and Adobe AIR for Android at the Mobile World Congress today. Adobe had previously made a beta of Flash Player 10.1 available to content providers and mobile developers worldwide. Flash Player 10.1 makes it possible for mobile platforms to run the standard Brightcove video player with the same features as desktop platforms. Jeff Whatcott, Senior vice president of Marketing, Brightcove said in an Adobe press release:

“We’re excited to extend Brightcove’s leading online video platform with support for Adobe Flash Player 10.1 and the new Brightcove Mobile Experience solution. Brightcove’s global customer base of more than 1,000 media companies and marketers now have a unified platform and turnkey solution for providing a high-quality, consistent online video experience across PCs and mobile devices.”

In this Beet.TV video, Jeff describes the capabilities and features of their new mobile optimized media player.

Brightcove customers already using the beta version of Brightcove's Mobile Experience for Flash 10.1 include AOL, Atlantic Records, La Vanguardia, National Geographic, The New York Times, STV, Sun Media and The Weinstein Company. The solution is available today in an invitation-only beta release and will be generally available later this year and provided free of charge to Brightcove's global customer base.

You can also watch the demo video below to see the solution in action.

The Brightcove solution implements three main features:

1. Mobile player optimized templates - offering interface controls, gestures, and behaviors specifically designed for video viewing on compact, multi-touch smart phone screen. This allows for a seamless viewing experience and navigation on the small screen.
2. Automatic device detection - helps deliver the right template to the right device for optimum playback environment between desktop and mobile player templates, along with video embedding best practices to assist organizations in delivering mobile video-ready websites.
3. Cloud-based transcoding - H.264-encoded mobile ready video from any standard format source file.

According to a Strategy Analytics analysis from January 2010, more than 250 million smartphones are expected to support the full Flash Player by the end 2012. It's no surprise that the iPhone is missing from the list of supported mobile devices, since the iPhone and iPad don't support Flash. Brightcove has an iPhone SDK and with the open API, customers can write code for a HTML5 H.24 video player. Jeff Whattcott said that Brightcove is looking to make this easier for publishers in the future.

To learn more about the Brightcove Mobile Experience solution for Adobe Flash Player 10.1, read the full press release here or visit http://www.brightcove.com/en/video-platform/solutions/mobile-experience/flash-player

Related:

• Brightcove Introduces Mobile Experience for Adobe Flash Player 10.1 | Brightcove Blog
• Beet.TV: Barcelona Bulletin: Flash 10.1 is Coming to Smart Phones and Brightcove Announces its Plan
• Streaming Media - Brightcove Brings Better Flash Video Experience to Mobile
• Brightcove Pushes Mobile Video with Flash 10.1 Support - NewTeeVee
• Spotlight is on Video as Mobile World Congress Begin - VideoNuze

Announcing the "Streaming Production & Flash Delivery” Workshop in NYC, March 23, 2010

Streaming media guru Jan Ozer and Flash expert Lisa Larson-Kelly are teaming up to present a one-day intensive workshop on “Streaming Production & Flash Delivery” to be held on March 23, 2010 in New York City. The workshop will feature two tracks, Streaming Production and Flash Delivery, each comprised of two ½ day courses. The workshop courses detail the complete streaming production and delivery workflow, from set design to Flash Media Server setup, from H.264 encoding to Flash Player creation. Jan Ozer, and Lisa Larson-Kelly are both recognized authors, experienced producers and frequent speakers at industry workshops hosted by organizations like Streamingmedia.com and the Media Communications Association - International.

In his morning workshop "Streaming for Production", Jan will cover the creative techniques and tools to produce high quality video productions from cameras, lighting and audio. His afternoon session will focus on "Encoding H.264 Video for Flash, i-Pod/Phone/iPad and Silverlight" with in-depth review of the leading encoding applications, quality settings and workflow. Lisa will cover the technical end of things with a morning session “Flexible Protocols and Custom Player Development” which gets you up to speed on the various delivery methods now available in Flash (including adaptive streaming via HTTP Streaming, P2P via RTMFP) and custom video player development for both the programmer and the non-programmer using Open Source Media Framework. Then in the afternoon Lisa present a “Flash Media Server Crash Course” which will get you going with FMS on how to set up the server, what it can do, and how to do it.

Sign up now before it sells out… this is a one day training session, and there is limited seating!

DETAILS and REGISTRATION: Streaming Production & Flash Delivery Workshop – Eventbrite

Streaming Production Track

Production for Streaming
You can’t have high quality streaming video without high quality video – compression is only half the story. Video Production for Streaming is a focused ½ day course that details how to optimize set design, lighting, and other production techniques for streaming quality. The course will help beginners achieve competency at these skills, while helping experienced professionals new to streaming understand the unique issues related to streaming production.

The course will combine lecture with on-site demonstrations of all equipment discussed, from lighting and audio to cameras and microphones. This will take students “beyond the PowerPoint” and enable them to immediate apply the lessons. Students will be given checklists and procedures for most common tasks, and will return to their offices with the skills necessary to setup and shoot high quality for streaming delivery.

Encoding H.264 Video for Flash, i-Pod/Phone/iPad and Silverlight

H.264 has become the “it” codec, central to the three-screen strategy, but is confusing to produce, with obscure settings (B-frame pyramid?/CABAC?) and encoding interfaces (and output quality) that varies dramatically by encoding tool, plus a reputation for slow playback on some computers.

This seminar cuts through the confusion by describing the most common H.264 encoding parameters, detailing playback CPU load on a range of computers and delineating encoding requirements for computers and the iPod/iPhone/iPad trilogy. It then compares the output quality produced by tools like the Adobe Media Encoder, Apple Compressor, Sorenson Squeeze and Telestream Episode, and concludes by demonstrating how to encode into H.264 format with these tools.

Overall, students will walk away understanding:

• The performance, quality and compatibility implications of all H.264 encoding parameters,
• How to produce for and deliver to Apple’s iPod/iPhone/iPad,
• How to configure H.264 video for optimum quality/playback smoothness on a range of computers
• Which encoding tools produce the best quality H.264
• How to encode to H.264 format using Apple Compressor, Adobe Media Encoder, Sorenson Squeeze, and Rhozet Carbon Coder.

Flash Delivery Track

Flash Delivery: Flexible Protocols and Custom Player Development

In this intensive half-day workshop, students will gain the information and tools needed to plan and deploy web video applications. First, they will learn how to deliver optimized, high quality content with the Flash Platform’s flexible delivery protocols. The pros and cons of progressive delivery, RTMP streaming, and the new adaptive streaming solution in Flash Player 10.1 will be covered, helping to choose the best delivery method for specific audiences. File format details, content preparation tools and workflows will be discussed.

Once students have a clear understanding of optimum delivery methods, we will outline the options for building custom media players. We’ll focus on the Open Source Media Framework, with an overview of its structure and ActionScript classes, along with hands-on examples to get started with the framework. Students will walk away with a basic custom player and an understanding of how to use the framework to build both simple no-code players and complex interactive players that leverage analytics, advertising, and social media APIs.


Flash Delivery: Flash Media Server Crash Course
Flash Media Server Flash Media Server Flash Media Live Encoder

Over 75% of web video today is delivered on the Flash Platform. Flash Media Server (FMS) is Adobe’s streaming server that is powering this content delivery. The latest version of FMS provides robust, scalable live and on-demand streaming, along with powerful features such as real-time interaction, Dynamic Streaming, DVR functionality, smart buffering and more.

Students in this ½ day course will gain a deeper understanding of how the server works, what it can do, and how to deploy streaming media applications that leverage its features. Students will install the Flash Media Development Server on their laptops, set up their first live broadcast, and even see how easy it is to create a custom 2-person videoconference.

Advanced students will learn how to integrate streaming and interaction into their applications, while beginners will leverage the tools and built-in services that ship with FMS, along with time-saving third-party tools, to learn about the server and how to get started streaming. Students will walk away with real hands-on experience with streaming on the Flash

About the instructors

Jan Ozer has produced and encoded video since the CD-ROM days (1992) and has taught courses in video and streaming production since 1994, most recently for the MCA-I and at Streaming Media Seminars in New York, San Jose and London, and for private organizations like Cisco, Lockheed and Johns Hopkins University.

Jan has written many authoritative articles on streaming technologies for outlets like StreamingMedia.com, Digital Content Producer, and EventDV. In January, 2006, Jan released two white papers through StreamingMedia.com, Choosing and Using the Optimal Video Codec, and Choosing and Using the Optimal Flash Codec. In 2007, he released Critical Skills for Streaming Producers, a mixed media training DVD with a mix of PDF, screencam and streaming video sample files.

Jan has written or co-authored 14 books on digital video related topics, including the Hands-On Guide to Flash Video: Web Video and Flash Media Server, with Stefan Richter. One Amazon reviewer commented “From lighting techniques, to what not to wear, to Flash Media Server, this book has it all. … the chapters on compression and bandwidth are excellent.” Another said “For videographers, this is your bible on how to capture video for Flash. For video editors, this is your bible on how to prepare and compress the files.”

Jan also shoots, edits and produces DVDs and streaming media for concerts, ballets and other events, produces training videos for local artisans, and screencam presentations for multiple organizations, including Roxio, ProDad, EventDV and ViewCast. Jan’s blog is streaminglearningcenter.com.

Lisa Larson-Kelley began her career in print design, but was soon lured to digital media by a little application called Flash 4. In addition to hands-on development projects, she enjoys writing and teaching, with a knack for breaking down complex concepts and making them accessible. She has worked with many video-centric start-ups as well as companies like Adobe, Microsoft and L’Oreal. She has authored whitepapers, tutorials and e-seminars for Adobe, editorials and features for StreamingMedia.com; and co-authored the book Flash Video for Professionals (Wiley/Sybex, 2007). An Adobe Community Professional, Lisa speaks at numerous industry conferences and user groups around the world, and is a founding member of the FlashCodersNY study group.

Lisa is currently consulting, teaching, and blogging about Flash video, web development and life (just outside) the big city on her blog, Flashconnections.com — and along with her husband Tom, is raising a healthy, happy daughter (who has an unnatural affinity for all things digital).