Version 0.9 of the Open Source Media Framework has just been released. For those who haven't heard about OSMF (formerly codenamed Strobe) yet, it is an ActionScript based framework to help facilitate the easy development of media players running on the Flash Platform. The framework is open source and supports not only video and audio playback but also other asset types such as images, SWFs and the like. It could develop into a de-facto standard for Flash based media player development.

With the 0.9 Sprint release the team have effectively locked the APIs in order to prepare for version 1.0.

Some of the new features in 0.9 include support for HTTP streaming (a sign of things to come), a SMIL plug-in and an OSMF Sample Player. There's also a comprehensive Developer's Guide in PDF format.

If you have plans to take a closer look at OSMF then now would be a good time as the 1.0 release is getting closer.

A picture says more than a thousand words (although these are very wise words).

Amongst all the noise that is currently being emitted after the jesusiPad announcement there are a also some high quality gems of content emerging, and Mike Melanson's piece on the different problems which the Flash Player solves when it comes to video delivery is one of them.

In particular Mike explains how a desktop video player and Flash Player differ. One obvious difference which surprisingly often gets overlooked, is that Flash Player is not just a video delivery medium but so much more than that. If you think back a few years there was barely any support for video in the Flash Player, and the only reason we hear so many complaints about its performance is due to the fact that so many people are using it these days. Flash has had an unprecedented growth curve when it comes to video delivery on the web, but it was a popular plugin way before then.
The issue Mike explains well in his article is that of users comparing apples to oranges a lot of the time: they compare a browser plugin to a desktop tool. In Mike's words, "a desktop player usually plays a linear media file from start to finish. Flash Player solves a different problem: It plays linear media files from start to finish while combining the video with a wide array of graphical and interactive elements (buttons, bitmaps, vector graphics, filters), as well as providing network, webcam, and microphone facilities, all programmable via a full-featured scripting language, and all easily accessible via a web browser using a plugin that most of the browsing population already has installed."

Mike's article in full can be found here. Please bookmark it and send to everyone who asks you next time: "Can you explain why a video player like VLC can play the same flv file with less CPU usage than the Flash Player?".

And the main takeaway: "The Flash Player works to solve the problem of making video accessible via the web browsing environment. In contrast, a desktop media player plays a file using a dedicated, single-purpose application."

Adobe have just announced the immediate availability of the version 2 of Stratus, an update to the existing Peer 2 Peer rendezvous service that was launched in 2008.

In Adobe's words: "Adobe Stratus 2 enables peer assisted networking using the Real Time Media Flow Protocol (RTMFP) within the Adobe Flash Platform. The most important features of RTMFP include low latency, end-to-end peering capability, security and scalability. These properties make RTMFP especially well suited for developing real-time collaboration applications by not only providing superior user experience but also reducing cost for operators."

While this sounds like the same capabilities that the previous version of Stratus offered it contains some significant updates, the main one being support for RTMFP Groups.

I've just received an interesting email from Jaromir Sivic, a czech developer who sent me news about a project of his called 'Radical Flash Chat'.
While I haven't tried myself yet, Jaromir describes it as a framework that enables PHP and ASP.NET developers to build and manage their own Video Chats, Flash Chats and other multimedia videconferencing applications easily in a very short amount of time. The configuration screen certainly looks quite promising, listing both Wowza and Red5 as a Media server option. There's also an online demo that you can try (that's if it is online, which seems to be fairly intermittent).

I encourage you to try Jaromir's product and share your feedback with him, or indeed below in the comments.

I'm happy to post any news about similar projects or other news items, just drop me an email.

I'm very late with this piece of news, I know, but in case you haven't heard both Adobe and Wowza have released updates to their respective Media Server technologies. I must admit that one of these updates appears more significant than the other as Wowza have pushed out a major new version with Wowza Media Server 2.0.

Before I outline the details of that though let me first point you to the newest updater for FMS, bringing it to version 3.5.3. As always you can grab the file right here.
This version of FMS is essentially a service pack which includes bug fixes and performance improvements for DVR, Dynamic Streaming and playback. It even includes security fixes to correct some critical vulnerabilities.
The FLVCheck tool also saw an update, and Flash Media Server 3.5.3 now has full support for the smart buffer management controls introduced in Adobe Flash Player 10.1. These controls include support for seeking within the buffer, stepping through a video, slow and fast playback in the buffer as well as re-establishing a connection without interrupting the stream. You can find more details about the buffer enhancements in the Flash Player 10.1 ActionScript 3 API documentation that's now available on Labs.

The team at Wowza has been very busy too and released a massive update to their Wowza Media Server, updating the platform to what they describe as a Unified Media server. Unified because Wowza can now stream not only to Flash clients but also supports iPhone, Silverlight and even IPTV clients. Not too shabby!
In terms of transport mechanisms this means Wowza now supports Adobe's RTMP based protocols, Apple's HTTP Streaming, Microsoft's Smooth Streaming, RTSP/RTP delivery for Apple QuickTime, mobile and other clients as well as MPEG-TS for IPTV set-top delivery. The full press release is here.

I think it is awesome to have this kind of competition in the market and the work that the relatively small team at Wowza is churning out will certainly give Adobe some food for thought, especially when it comes to interoperability with other runtimes and platforms. I think if I was in Adobe's shoes I'd reach into my pocket and make them an offer they can't refuse - before somebody else does.