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Adobe To Publish RTMP Specs

Posted At : January 20, 2009 9:08 PM | Posted By : Stefan Richter | Related Categories: FMS , Press Releases , Flash Player

Great news today amidst the Inauguration celebrations: Adobe is to publish the specifications for its (apparently patented) RTMP protocol. This protocol (the real-time messaging protocol) is designed for high-performance transmission of audio, video, and data between Adobe Flash Platform technologies, including Flash Media Server. Other server platforms such as Wowza and Red5 had in the also added support for RTMP and this announcement should make it somewhat easier for third parties to develop compatible technologies (if there are still any unanswered question about RTMP that is).

According to Adobe's Serge Jespers, the RTMP details will soon be published on Adobe.com. The full press release is here.

"With the RTMP specification, developers and companies will be able to provide users with optimized audio, video and data streaming, no matter what kind of device the user is on or where the content is coming from," said Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch. "Our ongoing commitment to openness is accelerating adoption of the Flash Platform by developers and resulting in a new generation of Web applications, content and video experiences that run reliably across operating systems and devices."

Understandably Adobe will not release details of the secure variants of RTMP such as RTMPE since it forms the backbone of some of the content protection measures in Flash Media Server.

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Adobe Patents RTMP (March 6, 2008)

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Does the release of the specs hint that FMS sales growth is lagging expectations and that Adobe is trying to open its intellectual property to boost sales?

Just a thought...

# Posted By Andy | 1/22/09 1:50 PM

i think everything adobe does is for boosting sales. Thats the nature of companies like this.

# Posted By tong | 1/22/09 6:00 PM

I have to admit, I'm a little unsure of the legal questions surrounding the patent. If the patent is in fact in place and is enforceable, how does the spec being published help anyone?

If there is a patent, it seems safe to assume that one cannot use the published spec to develop another RTMP server, and since the FMS EULA states:

"
2.8.6. Streaming Restriction. Licensee may only use the Software to stream to or from Adobes proprietary or licensed (a) software such as the Adobe Flash Player, Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR), Adobe Media Player, Flash Lite Player or Interactive Servers (and successor products); or (b) software protocols licensed to Licensee that Adobe licenses to Licensee under a separate written agreement solely for use with the Software."

it's pretty clear we can't develop our own client side runtime/program to connect up to FMS.

It would be great if someone from Adobe could clarify all of this for us. We need a talking suit.

# Posted By Jay Charles | 1/26/09 6:24 PM

yes Jay, totally agree

# Posted By Stefan Richter | 1/26/09 6:59 PM

It's so they can muscle out competitors like Wowza. Long live open source! (whatever...)

# Posted By st1nkbutt | 1/28/09 3:07 PM

IMO from what Adobe is saying about OpenScreen it would seem they want to just make sure Flash remains the defacto standard...the patent thought is valid and scary but I think (and hope) they are really trying to spur community innovation to compete with the likes of Move Networks, which is really good competition (for video), especially since FMIS is still priced so flipping high and isn't cross platform etc...

# Posted By jpstrikesback | 1/30/09 5:03 AM

FMS runs on Windows and Linux, isn't that cross platform enough for a server software? I think it is.

# Posted By Stefan Richter | 1/30/09 8:42 AM

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