Rich Media StandardsMatt Haas

Matthew.Haas@Pearson.comv1.3

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Rich Media Standards

•Problem: Pearson publishes a large variety of file formats- Limits the ability to reuse assets - Forces our end-users to have multiple plug-ins/players to view

these assets - Requires Pearson to support multiple technologies

•Solution:- Publish fewer, best-of-breed file formats

•Benefits:- Greater asset reuse- Reduced support costs- Consistent and convenient end user experience

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Challenges

•High quality and low file sizes will always be desired

•Hardware, plug-ins and infrastructure of end users vary greatly across Pearson Markets

- Age of computer hardware - Amount of available bandwidth- Ability to run the latest plug-ins

•A one size fits all approach is not desired or possible

•These issues are most critical in K-12 markets and less of a concern in Higher Ed & Professional

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What’s in the Standard?

Animation, Video, Audio, & Images

•Standards- Best Practices and Industry Standards

•Recommendations- Strong warning but acceptable in some circumstances

•A look at emerging technologies

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Animations

•Standard- File Format: SWF- Must support ActionScript 3- Must support Flash Player v9 r115 or newer

•Recommendation- Avoid creating Shockwave assets

•Tip- Easily upgrade older assets with Curriculum Group’s “Bridge” file.

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Videos/Movies

•Standards for Videos/Movies- File Format: MOV or MP4 (MPEG)- Codec: H.264

•Recommendations for Flash Videos/Movies- If possible, avoid wrapping videos/movies in Flash

• Q: Why? A: Mobile devices- File Format: FLV or F4V- Codec: On2 VP6 or H.264- Must support ActionScript 3- Must support Flash Player v9 r115 or newer

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Videos/Movies

•Miscellaneous Standards- Stop creating Windows Media and Real Player assets

•Recommendation- Source (Master) format: AVI or MOV (High Quality and

uncompressed)• If you are provided a file that is the master, keep the format as-is

•Tip for Streaming- Combine Akamai streaming services with the server side

software: Pearson Media Player (aka: JW Player) to benefit from a low cost, high quality solution.

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Audio

•Standards (stand-alone audio files)- File Format: MP3

• Great quality• Small file size• Most compatible (MP3s will play on all mobile devices)

- Source (Master) format: AIFF or WAV (High Quality and lossless compression)

• If you are provided a file that is the master, keep the format as-is

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Images

•Standards- Use JPG for photographs- Use PNG for images that contain text or were converted from line

art

•Recommendation- Avoid GIF ...use only if customers have IE6

JPG works best PNG works best

Photo Line Art

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Images

•Tip- Images with both photos & line art (pick the best option):

Pros/Cons:

Saved as JPGPRO: Smaller file sizeCON: Lower quality

Saved as PNGPRO: Excellent qualityCON: Larger file size

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A Look Ahead

•The Future of Flash

•Emerging Technologies- HTML 5 - Video Codecs

•DRM with ePub

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The Future of Flash

•What’s the big deal? Why are we here?- Apple and Adobe are fighting

•Recent History- Steve Jobs’ open letter: “Thoughts on Flash”

• Why Flash is banned on the: iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad- http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughts-on-flash/

- Apple changes developer agreement• SDK 3.3.1 (No ports of Flash allowed)

- http://daringfireball.net/2010/04/iphone_agreement_bans_flash_compiler

- US Gov Antitrust efforts against Apple over its new SDK- http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/an_antitrust_app_buvCWcJdjFoLD5vBSkguGO

- Adobe’s response is mild- http://www.adobe.com/choice/

- Adobe stops development for Apple products

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The Future of Flash (cont.)

•What is REALLY going on?- App development

• Apple want the best Apps• App “ports” = lowest common denominator

- Ads• Apple wants to get into the ad business• Revenue from Flash ads won’t go to Apple

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The Future of Flash (cont.)

•Possible outcome 1: Apple’s influence over dropping Flash takes hold

- Ban on Apple devices remains in place- Move away from Flash has started

• Virgin America drops Flash: http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/virgin_america_web_site_drops_flash/• Scribd Drops Flash http://www.informationweek.com/news/windows/opensource/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=224700967• YouTube’s non-flash beta: http://www.youtube.com/html5

•Possible outcome 2: Adobe’s finally rolls out a mobile version of Flash & it’s awesome

- Ban on Apple devices remains in place- Many delays with Flash Player 10.1 for mobile

• Mid 2009, Beginning of 2010, Mid 2010, End of 2010- http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/10/04/18/adobe_slips_mobile_flash_player_10_1_to_second_half_of_2010.html

- Android and other mobile operating systems run Flash• Market shifts away from Apple (Not likely)

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The Future of Flash (cont.)

•First, let’s look at the strong points of Flash- Entire products can depend on a single plug-in- Develop once, publish to many platforms

• Consistent experience- Advertisers love it

• Easy end user data capture (pay per view/click)• Easy overlay of ads

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The Future of Flash (cont.)

•Weak points of Flash- Develop once, publish to many platforms

• Lowest common denominator- Apple claims Adobe is slow to implement changes- Recent security issues with Adobe- Performance

• CPU usage• Stability issues

- Issues on Macs (hardware acceleration)- Users see Flash as an annoyance

• FlashBlock & ClickToFlash plug-ins

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Emerging Technologies

•HTML 5- Latest version of HTML (Obviously)

• Replacement of HTML 4.01- Reduce the need for plug-ins

• No Flash, Silverlight, etc.

•Why should I care?- It will form the underpinning of the entire internet

• http://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-html5-2010-5#and-dont-miss-1

- It will be soon be everywhere• Sites first need to convert Flash assets. Debate continues.

•More info- http://www.youtube.com/html5- http://html5test.com/

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New Video Codecs

•Current Standard: H.264- Owned by a patent consortium- Carries a cost but there’s no out-of-pocket expense to users

• Fees are rolled into the Operating System• Browsers can use it free until 2016, after that: ???

•Theora- Open Source - No licensing fees- Many passionate users but Theora is not widespread

•Future Standard: VP8- Google purchased the creator of VP8 (On2 Technologies)- Google may replace H.264 with VP8 on YouTube- Google has made VP8 Open Sourced (2010 Google I/O Conference)

• http://webmproject.blogspot.com/2010/05/introducing-webm-open-web-media-project.html• http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/google-free-on2-vp8-for-youtube• http://chillingsilence.wordpress.com/2010/05/10/why-vp8-matters/

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DRM with ePub

•What is it? DRM stands for Digital Right Management

•What does it do?- Confirms the content (video/music) is allowed to be played

•How does it work?- Permission to play the file is requested and granted (behind the scenes)- Requires device to connect, via the internet, to a DRM Server

•What can go wrong?- DRM Servers can go down on their own or by attack- Network issues prevent device from talking to DRM Server

•There’s lots of DRM out there- Apple’s Fairplay, Amazon’s Kindle DRM, Sony DRM, etc.

•DRM is usually attached to the player, not the content

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DRM with ePub

•Options- Pearson sells ePub files through iTunes, Amazon, etc.

• DRM of those systems will be an option- iPad iBooks will contain fairplay- Kindle books will contain Amazon’s DRM

• Store owners (iTunes, Amazon) will share revenue- Pearson sells ePub files directly to customers

• DRM solution will be needed. No clear choice.- Adobe has a solution (not ideal)

- http://www.adobe.com/products/contentserver/

• Pearson does not share revenue

Thank You!Matt Haas

Matthew.Haas@Pearson.com