Were there any announcements made for Flash Media Server 2 at MAX? Some sneak-peek maybe? A BoF session with the engineers? I count 3 sessions that have a bit of FMS but that's all. Stefan got the scoop a few weeks back that the new Flash Media Server can now be used commercially in projects ( same kinda deal as FDS ) but that got little coverage at all. Why is that?
The success and attention the opensource project Red5 gets with it's upcoming 1.0 release ( i expect it somewhere Q2 or maybe Q3 2007 ) cleary shows there is an interest in true streaming video on the web. Red5 doesn't offer the clustering features of FMS 2 and it's still much a work in progress, both in technology as in APIs, but when it launches everyone will be able to use video and realtime collaboration features, the latter depending on RED5's Scripting API that is defined at the moment. I think scripting support is essential for rapid prototyping of Red5 applications as otherwise you'd be recompiling everytime you add new code.
So where does that lead FMS2? Should Adobe make the technology more accessible to lower-budget clients and projects? Should it position FMS as an application platform, instead of a streaming video server?
From a developers pov i think it should upgrade it's serverside scripting support to align it more with the clientside scripting languages. As Flashmagzine point out, it is not uncommon to tackle three different languages in a FMS project. Actionscript version 1 for the serverside api, Actionscript 2/3 for Flash and Flex applications. Adobe could use the same trick as was used for Actionscript 2 ( compiling the class based syntax down to prototype based syntax ) or it could update the actual engine ( Rhino was used ) to a newer version that supports ECMA-262. A release-candidate of Rhino that supports ECMA-262 is already available. I can come up with a zillion other things that would be a great add for FMS2 but for now the silence on Adobe's side is odd..someone there to chime in?
With the explosion of Flash video all over the web, I've been surprised how little support and training material can be found for FMS. There are very few books, and only a handful of places that offer the Adobe 3-day curriculum. New Toronto Group is one. We just installed FMS at work and love it, but finding some training was kind of a bear.
Posted by: Steve | Saturday, October 28, 2006 at 06:49
Owen,
There was a BoF. And as always a very good one.
How, you ask, could there have been an FMS2 BoF and you not have known? Answer: The BoF schedule info never went up on the MAX website (btw, Adobe *MUST* fix this for MAX '07)
The only public information about the BoF that I saw was on the day of the BoF (Tuesday) when attendees received a newsletter that morning that included the BoF schedule for that evening.
fyi ... the session was titled:
Meet the Team: FlashVideo/Flash Media Server
Several topics that were discussed were news to me too.
There is now an Adobe Media Platform group (I think that is the name), headed by Jim Guerard with either direct or cross reporting over FMS, Flash Video, After Effects, Serious Magic, Soundbooth, etc.
Maybe Steve Wolkoff (or somebody from Adobe) could blog about what was covered.
They had a Breeze room open so that the FMS engineers back in San Francisco could join in. If anyone at Adobe is listening, next year please publish a "Connect" url for the Flash Video/FMS BoF so that non-attendees can, at minimum, listen in. Please? :-)
Sorry I missed you at MAX. I hope that we will have an opportunity to meet in person before too long.
g
Posted by: greg h | Sunday, October 29, 2006 at 04:04