[From the Breeze team]

Announcing the Sync SWF SDK contest for our developer community! With the Breeze Meeting Sync SWF SDK, Adobe has enabled developers to create custom collaborative applications, using a set of easy-to-use ActionScript APIs. As adoption of Breeze rises, more and more customers are asking for specialized content and applications that fit within the real-time collaboration framework Breeze already offers.

The SDK allows Flash developers to extend the functionality of Breeze Meeting by synchronizing Flash-based multi-user applications and content so that meeting attendees can collaborate on them in real-time. Developers can leverage this SDK to create interactive learning simulations, product demonstrations, sales ROI calculators, financial modeling, or interactive ice-breakers, to name a few examples, for use by general meeting organizers.

We want to get you, our development community, involved with this technology — it’s the biggest innovation in real-time collaboration since screen-sharing. Using the new Breeze Exchange (http://www.adobe.com/go/breeze_exchange), you can now post their Sync SWF creations for others to try and/or buy.

To celebrate this exciting news, we are running a contest in which four (4) $5,000 USD prizes will be given away. Winners will be announced at Adobe MAX (http://www.adobe.com/events/max) in October, included in Breeze customer communications, and featured on adobe.com. The contest is open to developers in the US, Canada, UK, Australia, Brazil, Netherlands, and Japan. For full contest details, please see http://www.adobe.com/devnet/breeze/articles/sync_swf_contest.html.

Ryan Stewart has posted an interview on blogs.zdnet.com/Stewart with Mike Melanson, the lead engineer for the Linux version of the Flash Player, expected to be released in early 2007. In the interview, Ryan asks Mike about the feedback he gets on his popular blog, Penguin.SWF, picking APIs, and supporting the many Linux distros.

I imagine (or rather hope) there is a large base of Linux users patiently following the blog, understanding that this development takes time, and that it’s fortunate that Adobe is treating Linux as a first-class operating system in supporting the Flash platform.

Check out the interview here.

Andy Riley and Adam Helfet-Hilliker from Euro RSCG 4D have written an article on the Adobe Developer Center that explains how to use the Flash authoring tool to create interactive comps for your design.

Using the Adobe Flash authoring tool for comping purposes makes a lot of sense. It all depends on the type of project you are working on and the amount of time you have to do it. In many cases, Flash is well suited for comping any project that includes a high level of interactivity, or any project where you create the final product using Flash—for example, websites, rich media applications, banner ads, forms, demos, character animations, and the like.

Check out the full tutorial here.

Shauna Rempel of the Toronto Star has written an article about how Flash has democratized animation on the web.

Animutation can justifiably be considered the kooky uncle with dementia at the Flash family reunion, although Flash itself has long been considered a poor relation in the animation family.

But it’s a black sheep no longer, says coldhardflash.com founder Aaron Simpson. The software, owned by Adobe Systems, turned 10 this month and it’s all growed up.

“Flash has come into its own,” he said.

Continue reading the article here.

Adobe’s Scott Fegette has posted a 1:20 min pre-recorded Breeze seminar on producing video for the Web. In it, Scott discusses the video production workflow, including topics like removing green screen from video in After Effects and encoding video to FLV.

In the following recorded presentation, I talk about workflows and best practices for producing online-delivered video using Adobe After Effects 7 and Macromedia Flash Professional 8 (see Figure 1). I step through video optimization tips across all phases of a production schedule: preproduction, principal photography, editing, postproduction, compression, and both progressive and streaming online delivery. I hope this presentation helps you visualize—and efficiently produce—rich, interactive, compelling video experiences for use in your Flash applications and projects.

Check out the presentation here.

Bill Sanders, talented Flash developer and good friend of the Flash team, has written an impressive article for the Adobe Developer Center. In his article, Bill explains how to use design patterns to build an ActionScript 3.0-based Flash video player. This will be useful for those of you experimenting with the Flash Professional 9 ActionScript 3.0 Preview available now on Adobe Labs.

This article begins with a simple two-state application that plays and stops playing an FLV file. It requires only Flash Player 9 and ActionScript 3.0, which you can download from the links below. The initial application introduces the basics of a state machine and the state design pattern.

The application is then expanded into a more robust one using the same state structure and incorporating Flash Media Server 2. This illustrates both the expandibility of an application using a design pattern and the process of incorporating Flash Media Server 2 into that design using ActionScript 3.0.

Read the full article here.

"We're trying to focus on telling the story of how some of these things came to be, celebrate where we've been, and focus on the future," says Mike Downey, senior product manager for Adobe Flash.

Do you ever read one of your own quotes and think to yourself, "man, I thought I was a lot more eloquent than that…"

Never-the-less, Geoff Daily of StreamingMedia.com has written a nice article about Flash’s 10-year anniversary. I had the chance to chat with Geoff over the phone a few weeks ago and was impressed by how much he knew about Flash video.

Amidst all this activity, Flash Video continues to hold a seat near the head of the table. "At the highest levels of Adobe’s corporate agenda is the Flash Video platform,” says Downey. "It was officially called out by our CEO that it was one of the main reasons Adobe wanted to acquire Macromedia."

"We have many projects going on internally that will leverage the strength we have with the Flash video platform," says Downey. "I hate to create this anticipation without giving more specific details, but within the next two years it's going to be huge. I’ve been here a long time and never been as excited as I am about what we’re working on right now."

Read the full article here.

On2, vendor of the VP6 codec added in Flash Player 8 and maker of the popular Flash video encoding tool Flix Pro, has released a Live encoding SDK that will allow software developers to create solutions for live encoding of high-quality VP6 video content. This will also enable usage of high-end hardware encoding solutions.

[Press Release]

On2 Flix Live makes broadcast-quality video webcasting on the Flash Platform available to enterprises and content delivery networks. It is the first application on the market that is capable of encoding live feeds in On2 VP6, the advanced video technology in Macromedia Flash Player 8 from Adobe.

The application is powered by the On2 Live SDK for Flash, which delivers live Flash video at the highest image quality while also maintaining low streaming latency. Working closely with Adobe, On2 designed the On2 Live SDK for Flash to deliver live streaming video directly to Adobe’s Flash Media Server 2.0 using Adobe’s RTMP (Real Time Messaging Protocol).

Features of the On2 Flix Live application:

* Predefined encoding profiles to accommodate speeds from dial-up to

high-speed broadband, at frame sizes from QCIF to D1;

* Captures live video from webcams, DV cameras, and a variety of

professional capture cards and devices;

* Allows for simultaneous file write out for archiving purposes;

* Includes pre-build Flash players and HTML code for ease of web

deployment;

* Supports NellyMoser audio output.

The Macromedia Flash Player is distributed more widely than any other software on the Internet, reaching over 98% of personal computers connected to the web. On2 Flix Live provides this massive audience with live video that is superior in quality and reliability to competing formats that require large media player downloads and complicated user configuration. Macromedia, now Adobe, selected On2 VP6 in 2004 as the advanced compression technology for its Macromedia Flash 8 family of products.

Commercial licensing for On2 Flix Live will be priced at $999/year. Discounted volume pricing will be available for qualified content delivery networks (CDNs). Interested parties should contact sales@on2.com.

The Y Design Awards are part of the London Design Festival. Festival organizers will be accepting submissions until September 6. I plan to attend the awards ceremony and I believe I will be presenting something.

In honour of the technology’s 10th anniversary, this year’s award scheme will centre on Macromedia Flash by Adobe, the design industry’s most advanced authoring environment for creating interactive websites, digital experiences & mobile content.

The aim of this year’s scheme is to capture the most innovative uses of Flash technology across 10 distinct categories:

* Best game design

* Best interactive site

* Best application

* Best online campaign by an agency with less than 5 employees

* Best online campaign by an agency with more than 5 employees

* Best not-for-profit campaign

* Best viral campaign

* Best video

* Best technical achievement

* People’s Choice for best use of Flash®

The Y Design Awards 2006 invites submissions in all categories up until 6th September 2006, after which time a panel of five expert judges will select the successful finalists, four per category. The winners of each category will then be revealed at an exclusive awards party in London on 25th September 2006.

Enter the competition here.

[via David Utter @ WebProNews.com]

I had the good fortune to be a guest on the ComputerTalk with Dave Mason live radio show this morning. “Dr. Dave” and “Evil Steve” asked me questions about how Flash got started, what key milestones throughout the last ten years contributed to it’s success, and where Adobe plans to take the technology in the future.

You can listen to our discussion by clicking the links below.

ComputerTalk with Dave Mason, 08/12/2006

Segment #3 (MP3)

Segment #4(MP3)

Congratulations to Dr. Dave for his 15-year anniversary. I guess it’s a popular week for anniversaries.