Feature: Flash Communication Server is the engine for multimedia change.
Motivation: Read how Flash Comm Server injects multimedia persuasion into systems.

Multimedia is building up a tide of presence across not just IT but daily life. Games and movies on mobile phones, instant images for business and recreation, new video and animation everywhere from Web ads to kiosks in Kansas and conference giveaways. Multimedia attracts attention, focus and commitment to spend - and therefore will become pervasive. And after 10 years and running, the best container for multimedia is still Macromedia's Flash.

And multimedia is proliferating now that computing power is reaching desktop multimedia proficiency, broadband capacity is exploding in WiFi ways, and contenders are starting to push the multimedia envelope: Adobe has quietly added better video, animation, and much improved forms handling to its cross platform, multimedia container PDF. The major database vendors continue to flirt with CLOBs, BLOBs and other compressed and searchable multimedia containers. And even that cross platform reprobate, Microsoft, is quietly arming its multimedia .wmv container with ever better compression, searchability, and programming capability while it shoots under surface and tries to penetrate broader mobile, phone, digital camera and other multimedia markets. So the move to multimedia is on bigtime.

But it won't happen in a uniform way. Security and Compliance (think SOX, Basel II, HIPAA, etc)have CIO's attention and major capital commitments over the next 2-3 years. So multimedia will continue to gain position through consumer usage - and then slip in the business backdoor. But Programming Flash Communication Server shows how multimedia may very well take some front door routes to use in the organizational IT space.

Specifically, Flash Comm is very well suited to address two pressing issues - collaboration and video delivery in a server setting. In fact, the bulk of the book is devoted to these topics. How to do video conferences, added interactive chat applications, use of conference whiteboards, video/animated simulations, polls and other collaborative interactions in a multimedia setting over a network. And although Macromedia has been working on the problem for 3-4 years the tools and methods are still evolving.

So don't dabble and flyfish cast for readable chapters in this book. Even the 40 page preface is crammed with useful information and background material and guidance. The progression through the first four chapters is necessary ground work to understanding the next 3 chapters on audio, video, and data streams - why they are different and how Flash Comm helps you manage them.

The problems with collaborative communication - the bandwidth required rises as the square of the number of participants, securing the processing is non-trivial while making available back channel plus other asynchronous communication "chatter/Q&A/Status checking/background info support and delivery" is just evolving. These are individually non-trivial tasks and collectively can quickly get out of hand. To make things even more challenging Flash application development is in Flux(no, not Macromedia Flex, although that is part of the problem-this Flash data development tool along with Central are not discussed at all in this book. Cold Fusion is).

The simple matter of fact is that from Flash 3 through 7, the scripting of Flash has seen major changes and upheavals as the language moved from a timeline base and graphics design supplement to an OOP and components based multimedia programming language still without a central IDE for development. True Flash Mx2004 Professional caters more to programmers than ever before but is is very far from the development convenience that is Dreamweaver for Web development, Eclipse or Netbeans for Java and Visual Studio for Microsoft development.

Also in the process three ActionScript language variation have arisen with persistent and pesky differences: ActionScript 1 on the client supports all those Flash 6 players, ActionScript 2 on the client with all the advanced OOP features and ActionScript for the Server with its idiosyncrasies.

In typical O'Reilly fashion Brian Lesser and company have addressed these issues with aplomb and thoroughness. There is a well thought out development path through the Flash Video and Actionscript minefield. There are well chosen examples, copious amounts of code(plus a website with code downloads), many tips and admonishments. But most important of all, this is a readable book - taking the time to explain what and why problems exist and what are the options available. And if you are into Flash collaboration or remoting this tome has invaluable insights and exercises.

So if you want to get ahead of the next great programming trend, multimedia delivery and management. Do the following - watch what Microsoft does on its Whidbey/Visual Studio 2005 and multimedia support, see what Adobe does with its Acrobat container and programming when the new Video Collection comes out in 8-16 months, and pay very close attention to Macromedia's update of Flash due in late 2005. Meantime Programming Flash Communication Server will give you a big leg up on what and how to do things pretty darn effectively right now.

(c)JBSurveyer 2005