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We have Flash Media Server 3 to dish out our streaming videos. Eventually, the company also wants to develop a live streaming video service that lets people watch any event we are covering: conventions, shows, meetings, etc. With the Flash Media Encoder, it takes literally seconds to set up a live streaming video. The main downside to the Encoder is its platform. The convenient little application is only available on Windows XP. And, from what I read in the forums, it doesn’t work on Vista. Since it’s a free application from Adobe, there is no official support for it and they aren’t planning on developing it for other platforms either. Too bad, really, because a Mac version would be nice to have.

It didn’t take long for my boss to ask if we could custom build our own Flash application that could do what the Flash Media Encoder did. I started with the basics, but without all the tools to build what we need, I can only create a wooden wheel. I have Flash and FTP access to post files. For anyone else starting with the rudimentary tools and access like my situation, you might find these articles handy.

How does live streaming video work and where do I need to put my files?
Overview of streaming with Flash Media Server 3

How do I build my own application that works similar to the Flash Media Encoder?
Building a Simple Live Video Broadcaster and Receiver

Other tutorials are offered on Adobe’s site, but these two did the best job of answering all of my questions. The second article builds the application in ActionScript 2 and does a better job of explaining why and how it works.

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