New Flash server from Macromedia

Macromedia today announced Flash Media Server 2 (formerly Flash Communication Server) designed to more efficiently serve Flash 8 video content. The new release is designed for more robust content delivery networks (be they corporate or service provider) with both Edge and Origin server capability. Origin servers keep track of all the content, while edge servers push the the content closer to the end user, freeing up WAN bandwidth in the enterprise scenario. As part of its quality-of-service capabilities, the new Flash Media Server 2 can detect both player bandwidth and version, meaning Flash 7 and older players get content formatted in for them, while newer Flash 8 players get video in encoded with the latest compression standard. (Content creators will have to create two different files for this to work.) One interesting note, the server can also be used to stream MP3 files, which helps keep the file from being stored locally, for those worried about piracy. (Of course, there are ways to capture the stream too…) The new server is expected to ship in October and be available for both Linux and Windows. It starts at $4,500 for the Professional Edition.