Brightcove宣布ipad友好的HTML5视频支持

今天，Brightcove宣布 HTML5的Brightcove体验，将他们目前主要基于flash的平台扩展到HTML5. The free update is designed to meet the short-term demand for an iPad-compatible site, and the press release states that “customers are using the HTML5的Brightcove体验 today to build iPad-ready websites.” The company also presented a roadmap of new features that would provide “full support for customization and branding of the player environment, 广告, 分析, 社交分享, and other capabilities currently found in Brightcove experience solutions for other platforms.”

除了这些基本的新闻稿, 我很好奇这项新服务提供了什么, 它没有什么, and when it would reach full parity with Brightcove’s Flash-based offerings. The company was kind enough to allow me to speak at length with president and COO 大卫遗传学家 at length. What I found interesting was how focused the current demand for HTML5 was among the Brightcove user base (can you say "iPad,男孩和女孩们?), as well as the challenges facing HTML5 as it struggles to displace Flash in the market.

Brightcove总裁兼首席运营官大卫遗传学家

Though Mendels felt that HTML5 and Flash would coexist for a very long time, he also predicts that most of Flash’s critical video-playback related features will become part of HTML5 over time. I should note that Mendels was an executive vice president and general manager at Macromedia, 在那里他直接管理Flash和Flex产品线, 虽然 he assured me that his feelings towards both Flash and HTML5 were more pragmatic than religious.

新服务有什么?
I started by asking why Brightcove introduced the new product—a softball question, 但你必须从某个地方开始. Mendels responded that Apple has been very successful in promoting the iPad, and that creating an iPad-compatible HTML5 site has been a significant “pain point” for many of Brightcove’s media and publishing customers. 他估计除了 纽约时报 (Brightcove的投资者)和 Time, “dozens” of iPad targeted web properties powered by the new service will open in the first quarter after the iPad launch.

If it was such a significant pain point, I mused out loud, why not charge for the new service? Mendels responded that Brightcove’s core value proposition was to provide their customers with a complete platform for publishing video, and that they didn’t want to charge more to deliver to a different set of customers. He felt that the demand created by the iPad was a real opportunity for Brightcove to make video delivery transparent so that “every media company doesn’t have to become a software company.然后我问为什么公司选择不支持Ogg Theora, 这在开源竞争对手创作的软件中很明显 HTML5提供. Mendels responded that “there wasn’t a market need to support Ogg Theora in the short term. 这当然是我们会长期考虑的事情.他很快指出, 然而, that Firefox visitors to their customer’s sites wouldn’t go away unhappy; they’d simply fall back to playing the file via the Flash Player.

当你想要的时候?
We next focused on features of Brightcove’s Flash-based product that weren’t in the initial HTML5 product offering. 例如, 在发射, the initial product will offer single-bitrate HTTP streaming via progressive download, 支持苹果的HTTP直播, 包括自适应比特率支持, 三个月内. Some 分析 and 广告 network integration were also on the roadmap for the first three months, with complete 分析 and more comprehensive ad network support and engagement features available within nine months. Mendels pointed out that one of the benefits of working in a closed system like the iPad was that Brightcove could start by supporting a single browser and video specification and still present a complete solution. 随着时间的推移, they can also address other browsers and codecs like Ogg Theora and Firefox, 但目前iPad上唯一支持的浏览器是Mobile Safari.

根据孟德尔, more general solutions for HTML5-based adaptive streaming would take much longer. He noted that Brightcove was tracking both Akamai’s and Adobe’s HTTP-based adaptive streaming technologies, but that Brightcove’s implementation would depend upon how the HTML5 standards group, 以及支持的浏览器, 决定处理自适应流.

数字版权管理(DRM)也是如此。. Mendels said that he couldn’t offer a road map for DRM because the “ecosystem around this doesn’t yet exist.” He identified DRM as one area in particular where Flash will be difficult to replace in the short term, 但我确信，一些可行的解决方案最终会凝聚在一起.

根据孟德尔, another solution that won’t be available in the short term is complete integration with existing 广告 networks, 因为这需要多方参与, 包括浏览器供应商和广告网络, 齐心协力. Mendels also pointed out that there were security concerns anytime you pulled data from a third-party server, 包括广告网络. 他表示:“Flash生态系统已经锁定了这一点,而HTML5还没有一个完整的解决方案.

期待, 随着时间的推移，孟德尔预言了这一点, online video platforms like Brightcove will duplicate most of Flash’s video playback-related functionality, 尽管这不是一件小事，需要花费数年时间.“同时, 虽然, 他觉得Flash也会不断发展, 还有很多flash相关的功能, 就像游戏, HTML5可能永远不会取代Flash.

他确定了Flash 10.作为一个非常重要的发布, 通过GPU加速, greatly reduced the CPU horsepower required to playback Flash video on Windows computers and many compatible devices, 包括兼容Android的手机. Mendels concluded by stating that Brighcove would continue to make “video playback great on both standards.”