In the world of online video, specifically flash based video, there are very few choices when it comes to serving. On one hand you have the Adobe Flash Media Server with a pricing model which makes you think "yeah, whatever" , then we have the Wowza Media Server which still relatively new has a better pricing model, but still far too expensive in todays age of free and open source software. Finally you have the Red5 Media Server which is completely free.
Generally I stay away from open source products, only because I usually find them buggy, and there are so many people working on it, its hard to maintain a stable version.. For MeBeam the majority of our network is built on proprietary technology, consisting of several types of servers, working together..
For my friends who know me, I am first an assembler programmer and then C; so I'm very much into pushing the speed limits of what the technology of a given day can do - this is the curse of guys who had their start in development, making games in the day of the commodore 64 - never being satisfied, forever tweaking code, trying to squeeze every last possible cycle from their processors..
I've always considered, Java a toy - a proto-typing language at best - but recently, some people who I have been working with, especially Steven Gong who is one of the guys from the Red5 development team, has really impressed me, with what they are achieving using Java.
Red5 is an open-source alternative to the Flash Media Server, and can do pretty much was FMS can do, but it's completely free.. Recently the guys from Red5, have been working on clustering technology, which is a fancy word for joining several servers together to act as one super server..
If you are a developer, and interested in getting into online video, I give the Red5 boys, two thumbs up;
Is Red5 going to be added into the Mebeam service to replace Adobe's solution? This sounds like a more viable option rather than paying 4 grand for Adobe's product.
Posted by: Alex McQuown | October 27, 2007 at 08:20 AM
Sorry for the belated response;
Only in the last couple of days, was
the reason behind Adobe's crazy
pricing made clear to me.
Once I heard the reason, it
all made perfect sense.
Posted by: Ashod Apakian | November 01, 2007 at 04:19 AM
What was the reason? To make up for all the money they lost in the acquisition of Macromedia? :)
Posted by: Alex MCQuown | November 01, 2007 at 08:57 AM
I sort of recall the information was
confidential , but not 100% sure; once
I get confirmation, and if I can publish
the reason, I'll post it.
Posted by: Ashod Apakian | November 04, 2007 at 04:51 AM