Rich media may soon be coming to a service provider near you. Cisco Systems Inc. and Adobe Systems Inc. have announced that the Cisco Content Delivery System (CDS) will now natively support Adobe Flash streaming, creating a platform tailored to deliver rich media within three- and four-screen service strategies.
“The CDS has been in the portfolio for a while, but there are three problems we needed to solve,” said Paul Bosco, vice president of video and broadband initiatives for Cisco. First, there is a carrier requirement for fixed-mobile convergence, an integrated platform for delivery of any content to any device, he said. And service providers are asking for a common user interface, “for the look, feel and experience,” he said. “We need to provide one intuitive experience across the devices, across wired, wireless and mobile, and for consumers but also enterprises.”
Thirdly, Bosco added, “we’re out to address is the explosive growth of Flash and Flash streaming content.”
Bosco said the announcement is indicative of Cisco’s overall positioning. “To start with, we are moving the network towards an all-IP infrastructure,” he said. “We have collapsed towards this convergent IP layer with a lot of service providers. But here we address one layer above that. Once you have a digital packet network, can begin to unify content distribution and delivery.”
There are, however, two issues that arise. “There is an enormous amount of growth on the PC-targeted Web portal side driven by Flash, so we must improve responsiveness and content security,” said Bosco. “And there is a strong desire to bring things together, so eventually users can access pieces of info consistently in the long-term across devices — linear, interactive, SD, SH, user-generated, pushed, etc. in a [hybrid content environment].”
Service providers and businesses using the Cisco CDS will be able to deliver Adobe Flash Player-compatible video to PCs and mobile handsets using Adobe Flash streaming capabilities; the platform integrates the new release of Adobe Flash Media Server 3 software. It is going toward the vision of delivering “any stream to any screen,” the vendor said.
Eventually, the platform will enable Flash media to come through a Scientific Atlanta set-top box as well. “The focus out of the chute is to support that screen,” says Bosco. “But the biggest demand we have at the moment is for Flash streaming to drive toward PC and handset devices. But Adobe’s release supports formats that we now bring to SA boxes.”
The new version of Adobe’s Flash Media Server incorporates the new Movie Star version of the player, which supports the H.264 video codec and AEC+ for audio, so it enables HD video and audio. It also supports the mixing and matching of codecs at various rates and capabilities for delivery of the right content in the right format to the right device.
The CDS supports streaming intensive Web services, video on demand, time-shifted television and video ad insertion, and will have the additional benefits for the hosting and distribution of Flash Player compatible video content and services including content and service routing, dynamic hierarchical caching, load balancing, failover protection, IP multicast extensions, unified management tools and end-to-end QoS support.
“Rich media is at the top of list of our priorities we want to deliver,” said Jim Guerard, vice president of dynamic media for Adobe. “This integration will allow service providers and enterprises to set up one content platform rather than setting up multiple for different areas. And so it can also handle syndication, ads, tracking and reporting, in one system and platform.”
Cisco Systems Inc. www.cisco.com
Adobe Systems Inc. www.adobe.com
