In a dramatic and welcome move, Adobe has announced that the next generation of its popular Flash Media Server will be available this month in two affordable packages that the company hopes will appeal to a much broader audience. Unlike the previous version, the Adobe Flash Streaming Server 3, priced at $995, will let you stream high-quality encrypted video, up to the capacity of your hardware, without any restrictions on bandwidth or total connections. That means you can saturate a 1 GB network card without taxing your CPU. The Adobe Flash Interactive Server 3, which in the previous version suite was out of reach to many at $45,000, will let you stream unlimited video and text-based interactive chat and scale to support any size of interactive social media services. Most of the $45,000 features in the previous Flash Media Server 2 Professional. Edge and Origin editions are rolled into this new single-product version, including advanced security options. A new plug-in architecture also gives you integration with rights management software for real-time access control. Both versions support H.264 video and HE-AAC audio. Flash Player 9 Update 3, which also now supports H.264, was available for free download at the time of the announcement in December.
www.adobe.com