Installation guide

Customerswithhigh-volumestreamingneeds,popularcontent,orcriticaluptimerequirements
who don’t want to build their own infrastructure can get the benets of streaming video in the
AdobeFlashPlayerbyutilizingaFlashVideoStreamingService.eseAdobepartnersoer
load-balanced, redundant deployment of Flash Media Server over a reliable content delivery
network.FormoreinformationaboutFlashVideoStreamingService(FVSS)partners,visit
www.adobe.com/go/fvss.
When to choose streaming
You can use streaming with the Flash Media Server in situations where you need to:
• Deliverlongles(greaterthan30seconds)orhigh-bitrateles(greaterthan100Kbps)
• Performbandwidthdetection,allowingyoutodeliverthebestqualityvideoforthe
available hardware
• Quality-of-servicemonitoring
• Real-timetracking
• Providereal-timedatasharingandinteractivitytoyourvideoexperiences
• Streamlivevideoand/oraudio
• Recordvideoand/oraudio
• Servemorestreamswithlessbandwidth
Ifyourwebsiteorblogreliesheavilyonvideo,audio,orreal-timedatasharing,youcangiveyour
user the best experience by using the features in Flash Media Server.
Delivery comparison
e following table provides a comparison of the three video delivery techniques in Flash
Media Server.
Embedded video Progressive download Streaming delivery
Encoding Video and audio is encoded
on import into Flash using
a Sorenson Spark or VP6-E
codec. Alternately, FLV les
(encoded elsewhere) can be
imported and placed on the
Flash Timeline (re-encoding
is not necessary).
Video les are encoded in
either the built-in or stand-
alone version of Adobe Flash
Video Encoder, through
Flash Video Exporter and a
third-party nonlinear edit-
ing or encoding product, or
using a standalone video
encoding application such
as Sorenson Squeeze or
On2 Flix.
Same as progressive delivery.
In addition, you can capture
and record live video feeds
from client-side webcams or
DV cameras, or using Flash
Media Encoder, and control
live encoding variables such
as bitrate, frames per second,
and video playback size
programmatically.
File size SWF les contain both the
video and audio streams
as well as the Flash interface,
resulting in a single,
substantially larger le size.
SWF and video les are
stored separately, resulting
in a smaller SWF le size.
Same as progressive delivery.
Start time Large SWF les often
require users to wait before
the video starts playing,
resulting in a negative user
experience.
Starts relatively quickly,
after enough of the video
has downloaded to begin
playback.
Immediate. The fastest way
to go from initial load to
actually playing the video.
Timeline access When embedded in the
Flash Timeline, video
appears on individual frames
and can be treated like any
other object on the Stage.
Video is played back only at
runtime. Individual frames
are not visible on the Stage.
Timeline events can be
triggered at selected times
during video playback using
ActionScript.
Same as progressive delivery.
Publishing Each time a Flash movie
is published or tested, the
entire video le is repub-
lished. Changes to video les
require manually
re-importing the les into
the Timeline.
Video les are only refer-
enced at runtime. Publish-
ing to SWF format is much
faster than embedded video.
Video les can be updated
or modied without recom-
piling the SWF le.
Same as progressive video.
You can dynamically pull
video les from virtual loca-
tions, such as your storage
area network (SAN) or a FVSS
or other content delivery
network (CDN).
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