Adobe's Flash Platform Coming To TVs, STBs
Adobe seems to be having a tough time getting its nearly-ubiquitous Flash onto Apple's iPhone, but evidently the same struggle won't be faced when looking at the television marketplace. Today at the NAB Show in Las Vegas, Nevada, Adobe Systems announced the extension of the Flash platform to connected digital home devices with an optimized implementation of Flash technology that delivers high definition (HD) video and rich applications to Internet-connected televisions, set-top boxes, Blu-ray players and other devices in the digital living room.
A whole slew of firms -- including System on Chips (SoC) vendors, OEMs, cable operators and content providers including Atlantic Records, Broadcom, Comcast, Disney Interactive Media Group, Intel, Netflix, STMicroelectronics, The New York Times Company, NXP Semiconductors and Sigma Designs (we could go on, but we suspect you get the point) -- have banded together at the expo to voice their support. In theory, at least, this collaboration will enable Flash videos to be more easily accessed and viewed on TVs.
The Adobe Flash Platform for the Digital Home is available immediately to OEMs and the first devices and SoC platforms with support for the optimized Flash technology are expected to ship in the second half of 2009. Specifically, the Adobe Flash Platform for the Digital Home (boy, what a mouthful!) will enable the deliver of HD web videos to home devices via the Flash Video (FLV) file format. The real kicker? Flash technology-based applications will allow users to quickly switch between television programming and Web content outside the Web browser.
A whole slew of firms -- including System on Chips (SoC) vendors, OEMs, cable operators and content providers including Atlantic Records, Broadcom, Comcast, Disney Interactive Media Group, Intel, Netflix, STMicroelectronics, The New York Times Company, NXP Semiconductors and Sigma Designs (we could go on, but we suspect you get the point) -- have banded together at the expo to voice their support. In theory, at least, this collaboration will enable Flash videos to be more easily accessed and viewed on TVs. The Adobe Flash Platform for the Digital Home is available immediately to OEMs and the first devices and SoC platforms with support for the optimized Flash technology are expected to ship in the second half of 2009. Specifically, the Adobe Flash Platform for the Digital Home (boy, what a mouthful!) will enable the deliver of HD web videos to home devices via the Flash Video (FLV) file format. The real kicker? Flash technology-based applications will allow users to quickly switch between television programming and Web content outside the Web browser.
