Thanks to everyone who chose to attend my FMS talk at FlashBelt this year instead of sneaking next door to see Grant Skinner!

I hope you all got something useful from the session, and really did walk away feeling empowered to take the dive into FMS development.

As promised, here are the slides and files from the presentation. Please let me know if you have any questions I didn’t answer.

SLIDES (PDF, sorry about the large file size)

DEMO FILES

Special thanks to the fantastic Influxis team for their great blog posts and examples on both DVR and Dynamic Streaming. (If you need FMS hosting, you’ll want to call these guys. Seriously.)

And kudos also to David Hassoun for his comprehensive articles and sample code (most of which I relied on heavily in my presentation).

Thanks again, and see you next year, Minneapolis!

Just wrapped up a three-hour workshop at Streaming Media East here in NYC on building video players for Flash. Thanks to everyone who attended for staying alert for the full three hours — what a marathon! As promised, here are the resources for the talk; some links, and the example source code:

Presentation file

Dreamweaver example

Prebuilt player examples

Flash examples

Dynamic Streaming examples

Adobe.com: Flash Media tools

Strobe media framework

Adobe Developer Connection: Dynamic Streaming overview

Adobe Developer Connection: Dynamic Streaming ActionScript guide

Flash Media Live Encoder

Video Validator utility

Web Video Bitrate Starter

Me, on Twitter

If you have any outstanding questions or comments, feel free to comment and I’ll get back with you as soon as I can.

Back when I first started learning web technologies (ages ago!) I found VTC videos. I’m a visual learner, so they really helped me get a handle on new concepts.

Well, they are still around and going strong, with lots of new titles covering current software and technologies — including, of course, Flash Video!

Michael Hurwicz has put together 8+ hours of video training walking you through the basics (and more) of deploying video using Flash CS4. He gives you self-paced tutorials on encoding, deployment options, using SWFObject embedding, cuepoints, metadata, preview images, buffering captioning, video effects and more — in both AS2 and AS3. New CS4 features such as text-to-speech and pixel-bender effects are even covered. It starts out with the very basics so you can understand concepts such as progressive vs. streaming, and takes you all the way through more advanced player creation tasks such as instantiating components.

It’s a bit more expensive than a book, but much less expensive than a training course. At $99 I think its a great value, especially if you are a visual learner like me. The first three chapters are free, so check it out:

http://www.computer-training-software.com/flash-cs4-video.htm

I resisted valiantly, but I’ve finally given in. The FMS engineering team signing up was the last straw.

I’m now on Twitter.

http://www.twitter.com/lisamarienyc

I’ll be tweeting on miscellaneous Flash news, tips, tricks, etc. as well as day-to-day updates. But I won’t be telling you what I had for breakfast, I promise.

It’s that time of year again; my annual pilgrimage back to Michigan for the March for Babies walk. My family walks every year in memory of my niece Jessica, who left us too early at age 2, nearly 11 years ago.

So, if I’ve helped you sort out a video problem or pointed you in the right direction, consider giving a couple of bucks to Team Jessica. Just click on the widget in the sidebar to the right!

Thanks

FOTB is going punk, as you can see from this year’s banners (just there, down and to your right)… so get ready! This year is going to be as jam-packed as ever with great speakers, inspiring content, and, of course plenty of beer and chips.

Soooper-dooper early bird tickets go on sale May 18, and be sure to sign up for the newsletter for reminders and updates:
http://Flashonthebeach.com

It’s a bit earlier this year, Sept. 20-23rd, so the weather in Brighton should be great. Since I missed it last year, I’m really looking forward to it. It’s one of the few conferences I’ll be speaking at this year, since I now have a little one in tow. Hope to see you there!

In their ongoing effort to encourage more women to get involved in the Flash community (an initiative near and dear to my heart) the organizers of Flash in the Can are sponsoring a contest to send 100 women to FitC Toronto.

FITC Toronto 2009 (website)
The Design & Technology Festival
April 25-28, 2009 // Hilton Toronto. Canada

So, if you are one of those talented, underrepresented women, tell them so in a video post or Flash animation WHY you want to go to FitC Toronto!

To Enter, just complete the form and send them the link to your video. The first 100 entries they get will receive a free festival ticket to FITC Toronto 2009! It’s that easy!

Don’t miss out; FitC Toronto is a world-class event. I’m regrettably missing it this year, but you, GO! REPRESENT!

I just wrapped up a live breeze session with the Adobe Flash Media Server online user group. It was a lively session with lots of questions and a great turnout. The recording and sample files are posted. Here are some links:

http://groups.adobe.com/posts/7d8b9e44f8

Also, you can join the online FMS user group here:

http://www.tinyurl.com/adobefmsug/

People are doing some great things with my Flash411 and Adobe Developer Connection tutorials. Here’s one project by Tom Cipriano, a playlist of videos from the 93rd Annual Pennsylvania Farm Show. Enjoy!

http://www.thirdfloorsolutions.com/fs/videoplaylist.html

A fake Flash Player upgrade is being used to cloak a nasty piece of malware.

Be on the lookout for email that looks like a news item linking you to a video. The page then prompts you to download an ‘updated’ version of the Flash Player.

Bastards!

Information here: http://www.snopes.com/computer/virus/obamaspeech.asp