By Christopher Smith

Once you see what NBC has planned for their on-line Olympic coverage, you may never want to watch sports on your TV again. NBC will be streaming their video using Silverlight®, a new platform from Microsoft® for delivering interactive and video content to Mac®, PC, and mobile computers. Viewers will be able to choose screen angles, get real-time information about events, and choose their own picture-in-picture settings to view several events concurrently — or the same event from different angles.

For many years there has been one dominant format for delivering cross-platform video and interactive content. Media companies publishing content online were confident that they could create a consistent user experience on Mac and PC systems if they used the Flash® platform — whether they were publishing interactive content or, more recently, video. While Flash had some limitations, it was the best choice in an imperfect world for delivering streaming video and interactive content to a wide audience.

Ready to learn how to use Silverlight? Click here.

While many publishers migrated their content to Flash from formats such as Windows® Media and QuickTime®, it was often a reluctant switch. They liked the prospect of reaching a larger audience, but they gave up control of their content, as Flash had virtually no digital-rights management. Content publishers also had to accept an incredibly high cost for implementing Flash interactivity — the kind that lets you chat and share video content interactively. This high cost was associated with the complex array of servers and software that Adobe® required to implement interactive Flash video. Some publishers expressed concern about Adobe's lack of experience in the enterprise server market. Yet many companies, such as online-dating services, had little choice but to pay the Flash tax as their business model relied upon streaming interactive content and video.

Many other companies have been holding out, waiting for an enterprise-class solution that includes digital-rights management, lower-cost servers, and a history of scalability. While these companies may have missed the first wave of interactive streaming video, it may have been worth the wait.

Microsoft has been quietly working on ways to enable customers to securely distribute high-quality interactive content to audiences on different platforms, devices, and browsers. The result is Microsoft's Silverlight platform. The Silverlight Plug-in lets Mac, Windows, and soon Unix users access high-quality content online. With more than 1.5 million downloads of the Plug-in each day — a rate that is quickly growing, Silverlight is rapidly emerging as a viable option for deploying video and interactive content. Here's why media companies are likely to forget about Flash video and move to Silverlight:

• Price: If you deploy a Microsoft server, you don't need to buy additional software like you would with Flash. The cost to buy a Microsoft server solution to deploy Silverlight is significantly lower than the cost to deploy a Flash Media Server with similar capabilities.
• Scalability and Stability: Streaming interactive Flash content requires a complex array of servers and licenses based upon the number of users. With little experience in the server market, media companies have been reluctant to trust their entire infrastructure to Adobe. Microsoft has a much longer history in delivering scalable server solutions.
• Higher quality experience: Side-by-side comparisons show Silverlight to deliver noticeably higher quality content. And with adaptive streaming, Silverlight dynamically adjusts the video quality based upon the connection speed, rather than stopping playback. As connection speeds slow, Silverlight video quality is designed to be reduced so that the connection doesn't drop or pause like it does with other technologies. As speeds improve, the quality does too.
• Better interactivity: It's clear why NBC elected to use Silverlight for the 2,200 hours of online video they plan to stream and offer on-demand from Beijing, as it is years ahead of any competitive platform. Another great showcase of what's possible with Silverlight is at Hard Rock's on-line memorabilia collection where you can get up-close views of some famous items from rock and roll history.
• Better monetization: Media companies aren't putting their content online as a philanthropic venture. They want to capture advertising revenue, and Silverlight makes it possible. The tools for preparing content for online delivery using Silverlight are well ahead of the competition in ease of use and in the forethought that was given to inserting advertising and interactivity into streaming and on-demand video.
• Digital Rights Management (DRM): While consumers don't always like DRM, it's important for media publishers to know that their content can be protected if they choose. While Silverlight leverages a long history of DRM, there is still no professional DRM option for using Flash. Within the past month Adobe released their first attempt at DRM, but it requires media companies to build their own player using AIR or use Adobe's Media Player — an unreleased product that is still in testing.
• Open format: Silverlight content is deployed as XAML, an XML-based language. This provides opportunities for content to be delivered from a variety of sources — whether created in designer tools for building animations and interfaces, or server-based tools. Some contend that XAML also provides search engine advantages over the Flash SWF format, but this is a hotly contested point, as there are a number of methods for making SWF content more accessible to search engines.
• Programming language: Flash uses a language called ActionScript to create interactivity, but there is a significant shortage of ActionScript programmers. Silverlight makes use of tools and languages that are commonplace among developers, including C#, .net, and Visual Studio. Just as Adobe is well-entrenched in the creative community, Microsoft has strong roots in providing tools and platforms for developers. This pedigree will serve Microsoft well, as the abundance of developers familiar with their tools and platforms will help drive the adoption of Silverlight.

The emergence of a new platform for interactive and video content is good for designers, developers, media companies, and especially consumers. Flash video was in the right place at the right time with the emergence of interactive video. The next wave in online interactive content will be led by many of the innovations that Silverlight has made possible. Don't expect Flash to disappear, but Adobe will need to be more innovative and nimble to keep up with this new competitor.

More information: Christopher Smith is president at Aquent Graphics Training. If you would like more information about Silverlight, or are interested in Silverlight training, contact Aquent by clicking here. Click here for information on Expression web training.

Editor's Note:

Quark's emerging technology group publishes
Silverlight XTensions module

QuarkViewer is an XTensions module for QuarkXPress 7.3.X that enables users to export QuarkXPress layout pages for viewing in the Microsoft Silverlight player. I've seen demo of a product catalogue that had page-turning capabilities — and not one bit of Flash content. QuarkViewer can be run as a pure desktop application or a web application and is available for both Mac and Windows — completely free — from Quark labs.

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