Adobe is bending to Apple’s will by launching a new format known as HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) supported in Flash Media Server that was demonstrated at this week’s National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) conference. Flash Media Live Encoder gives broadcasters the ability to “capture a live broadcast stream and publish out to multiple devices including Android, Apple iOS and Samsung TVs.” It will push the appropriate video stream out to devices whether Flash is installed or not. If Flash is not installed, such as in Mobile Safari, the user will receive the HLS stream in HTML5. If Flash is installed, the user will just receive the stream via HTTP to Flash.
This is great news for iOS users who have been in the dark for live news and events. Presumably, this will work on the OS X version of Safari as well if the resource-intensive Flash is absent. Adobe’s small admission of defeat is an epiphany that they had to innovate in order to serve the massive iOS and burgeoning connected media devices markets.
