AVChat Software Product Blog

We get a lot of questions regarding support for peer 2 peer in our applications. This post will answer most of them!

The Stratus service

Right now the only way to add p2p capability to a Flash video chat application is to use the Adobe Stratus service which is in beta.

According to the Stratus Terms of Service you are not allowed to host an application using Stratus, the service might be terminated at any time, your use of the Stratus service can be revoked, etc… .

What does this mean?

It means that right now the Stratus service is offered to test p2p capabilities in Flash Player, not for use in commercial/production apps.

But isn’t chatroulette using Stratus/p2p?

Yes it is and it was a great way for Adobe to test their Stratus servers and technology.

When will we be able to use/buy apps using p2p in a commercial/real-life/production environment?

When the next version o FMIS comes out, according to Adobe the next version of FMIS will include the Stratus service!

Will Red5 or Wowza support p2p?

Most probably yes, but it will take some time after the official inclusion in FMIS, maybe 3 months  to 1 year? Check out the blue 5 project for a future open source alternative to Stratus.

Will AVChat 3 and AVConference support p2p?

Certainly! When Stratus will be available in the next version of FMIS we will nail out the details. We can run everything trough p2p (text, audio & video) or just the audio and video.

What is the main advantage of Stratus/p2p ?

The fact that the huge ammount of audio and video data does not go trough a media server thus resulting in lower latncy video and huge reductions in bandwidth usage on the media server!

What is the main concern now with p2p in Flash Player?

The fact that data trough p2p goes trough UDP which is blocked by the more restrictive corporate firewalls! Computers behind a NAT might also have issues! People who could connect to a media server (FMIS,Red5,Wowza) might not be able to use p2p in its current from in Flash Player. Hopefully Adobe will provide solutions to these issues or easy fallbacks to non p2p cmmunication via FMIS!

Have we done any work with p2p/Stratus so far?

Yes, we’ve built a dummy instant messenger which you can test on http://avchat.im .

Adobe released last week FMS 3.5 and FMLE 3.0 which you can now download and/or purchase. There are several interesting new features which you can read about here:

• New features in Flash Media Live Encoder 3.0
• New features in FMSS 3.5 and FMIS 3.5

Prices remain unchanged with $4500 for FMIS and $995 for FMSS. Because this is not a new major version upgrade prices are rather cheap with $349 for the FMIS 3.0 to 3.5 upgrade and $249 ofr the FMSS 3.0 to 3.5 upgrade. These prices are available in the US store.

The FMLE continues to be free.

Adobe announced yesterday Flash Media Server 3.5, the next version of FMS. Just a few major changes this time:

• Apache is built in and can be used for delivering media files including jpeg, swf and video files.
• Dynamic Streaming : out of the box switching between streams of different bit rates.
• DVR : rewind on live streams.

Kevin Towes, Product Manager for Flash Media Server, has a long blog post detailing the above 3 features and some useful links you might want to check out, including this demo website with some great example of HD flash video: http://www.streamflashhd.com/

FMS 3.5 is just announced, it is not yet available for download but hopefully it will be released soon!

Flash Media Encoding Server is a server side solution for transcoding video files to formats supported by the Flash Platform  (.flv, .mp4, etc. ).

Altough I did not see this coming I think it was just a matter of time before Adobe would complete their video delivery platform with a server side transcoding solution.

According to the Adobe website FMES will be available in Fall 2008 . Unfortunately at launch it will only be available for Windows servers.

No price info has been released at this time.

More info:

• Press release on adobe.com
• FMES announcement on Adobe Developer Connection
• Datasheet pdf on adobe.com
• Product page on adobe.com

Here is a list of current software from Adobe strongly related to (live) Flash Video:

Flash Media Streaming Server 3 : streaming server for live and prerecorded flash video, $995 in US.

Flash Media Interactive Server 3 : FMSS3 + interactivity, scalability, data exchange, shared objects, video recording, plug-ins, amf3, etc. see comparison here, $4500 in US.

Flash Media Development Server 3 : free FMIS3 but limited at 10 simultaneous connections, download here (registration needed).

Flash Media Live Encoder 2.5 : free desktop tool that helps you capture, encode and stream live video and audio to Flash Player applications using Flash Media Server or a Flash Video Streaming Service, free.

Flash Video Streaming Service : a list of Content Delivery Networks that support live & pre recorded flash video delivery.

Adobe Media Player - iTunes for flash video, free for viewers.

Flash Media Rights Management Server - DRM solution for flash video, price not specified but probably very expensive :).

Update September 11 2008:

Flash Media Encoding Server -server side solution for transcoding video files to video formats supported by the Flash platform.

Adobe has released yesterday Flash Media Encoder 2.5.

FME 2.5 adds support for pushing high quality h.264 video streams to the Flash Media Server (or to CDN’s).

You can also push AAC audio streams if you purchase this AAC Encoding plugin for FME from MainConcept.

FME 2.5 also adds a few neat features like command-line control, auto-restart after system restarts and a auto-adjust feature that enables you to maintain a high-quality video stream in uncertain network conditions.

FME 2.5 can be downloaded for free from the Adobe website but it is currently only available for Windows.

Also I want to remind you that AVConference can display a video/audio stream coming from FME via FMS. Users will see the video stream coming from FME just as another user in the users list. You can read more details about this feature here.

Using FMS3 and FME 2.5 you will now be able to push high quality video streams to your users logged into AVConference. Some of our customers are using a similar setup to push video feeds from classrooms, training sessions and studio interviews.

More links:
FME product page on the Adobe website

Adobe has released today Flash Media Server 3.

FMS 3 is available in 3 editions:

1. Flash Media Streaming Server ($995)
2. Flash Media Interactive Server ($4500)
3. Flash Media Development Server (free, 10 simultaneous connections limit)

You can find a side by side comparison of the 3 editions here but the most important new features from my opinion are:

1. Limitations on bandwidth and connections limit have been lifted
2. More secure content delivery (rtmpe, swf hashing)
3. H.264 video and HE-AAC audio
4. Audio/Video stream delivery to Flash Lite 3
5. Major improvements in performance
6. AMF3 support and new plugin arhitecture

AVChat and AVConference should work without any issues with FMS3 as a media server should you choose to use it.

More links:
Flash Media Server 3 Product Page on the Adobe website
Flash Media Development Server download page (you need an Adobe account)
FMS3 Developer Center on the Adobe website