Written by Liz Gannes
Posted Sunday, April 19, 2009 at 9:00 PM PT

 

Flash Charges into the Living Room

Adobe is making a major push to bring its Flash platform to the living room, announcing a version of Flash that’s optimized for televisions, set-top boxes and Blu-ray players at the NAB Show in Las Vegas on Monday.

flash-lite-for-digital-home-screenshotsFlash is already installed on almost every PC, and it’s building a mobile footprint as well (though many handsets are still Flash-less, including iPhones). Making that same platform work in the living room should provide a big boost for web video distribution and web applications on TVs.

Hardware and chip partners for the project include Broadcom, Intel, NXP Semiconductors, Sigma Designs and STMicroelectronics. Others partners are Comcast, Disney Interactive, Netflix, New York Times Co. and Atlantic Records.

adobetvAdobe’s open framework will support applications already built in Flash, which could give it an advantage over earlier efforts from Yahoo and Intel to bring widgets to TVs on a Yahoo-driven platform. The move to TVs could also help Adobe better fend off encroachments from Microsoft Silverlight, which has been looking good on a feature-for-feature basis.

Adobe said it expects the first available products with the new Flash runtime will likely be televisions shipped later this year.

As TVs get more processing power, they may just wind up at the center of the living room of the future. Imagine that!

Other announcements from Adobe at NAB include:

  • Strategic partnership with Brightcove, including joint customer acquisition efforts
  • Unveiling of Adobe’s new open industry media player standard work, code-named Strobe
  • Preview of Adobe Story, a collaborative online screenwriting tool
  • Update to Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 that includes better compatibility with content from RED cameras

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Topic: Hardware, Software

Comments (3)

  • It will take a really long time – like at least a decade – before Flash is supported in STB’s, connected TV’s…now, if they go over the top with a new player outside of the Digital Cable/Satellite/IPTV world…well…it will still take a really long time before there is a significant installed base of say 15mm TV HH’s. It’s taken DIRECTV well over a decade to do that. Not easy going ‘door-to-door’ and swapping out hardware with consumers.

    Harlan Talbot — 6:43 AM on April 20, 2009 Reply

  • Just want to note that having ‘Comcast’ sign on as a partner only guarantees that things will go even slower. They’re famous for ‘partnering’ with technology companies and then slow rolling trials until their ‘partners’ are on their knees. Gives the illusion of progress to their shareholders without all that messy change to their legacy physical plant.

    Harlan Talbot — 6:47 AM on April 20, 2009 Reply

  • This makes it even more likely for my scenario to be possible. Outlined it in my blog, http://digg.com/u11R1U.

    nick b. — 6:21 PM on April 20, 2009 Reply

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