闪电侠是不死族吗?? 怎样才能最终杀死野兽?

在过去的几年里, the emergence of HTML5 and MPEG-DASH has brought a spate of proclamations that “Flash is dead.” But the fact of the matter is that browser vendors have never rallied around true standards with video, 正如我为本文收集的真实世界统计数据所表明的那样. When Adobe announced in November 2011 that it would no longer develop an Android mobile browser plug-in for Flash Player, 网络社区认为Flash的时代已经结束了. 然而,, 现在是2015年, and the vast majority of live streaming and industry-standard DRM VOD streaming to desktop still relies heavily—if not exclusively—on Flash Player. 在手机领域，Flash还不存在，结果就是一团糟. Unless you have the substantial budgets necessary to build native applications for iOS and Android, you will rely on a cluster of shaky technologies to get your video streaming within the confines of a mobile browser.

While some major over-the-top publishers are making the switch to MPEG-DASH for nondesktop playback (see Hulu转向DASH), 从我每天使用在线视频的轶事证据来看, 以及我作为视频解决方案架构师的专业工作, has shown that Flash video playback is still a trusted solution for desktop browsers. 为这篇文章做准备, I reviewed the sites listed in Table 1 to explore how prominent Flash playback is. 我的方法是在Mac OS X 10上禁用Google Chrome 43中的Flash Player.10(约塞米蒂)，并检查结果. Chrome 43 supports 均方误差 (Media Source Extensions) and EME (Encrypted Media Extensions) to enable DRM secured video playback—if a vendor had updated its playback strategies to support DASH playback, 例如, 对于我使用的浏览器来说，Flash播放器是不需要的.

我联系了ABC的技术人员, 亚马逊, 美国国家公共电台, and Adobe in hopes of gaining some insight into web video deployment strategies. 令人惊讶的是, 虽然我的大多数联系人最初都对我的请求做出了回应, 没有人愿意对他们目前的部署计划做出任何改变. 更多的 specifically, they declined to comment on how Flash video playback fit into their strategies. Even my contact for Adobe Primetime— which heavily relies on Flash Player technology for desktop deployment—declined to comment.

像这样, I’m inclined to believe that no one wants to admit to using any technology that isn’t aligned with existing HTML5 video technology, 特别是如果这项技术是Flash. 然而, 如前所述, the current fragmentation of HTML5 technology across browsers—desktop or mobile—doesn’t lend itself to an efficient and cost-effective solution.

当我们探索在今天的视频生态系统中对Flash的需求, 我们必须了解有多少网点控制在线视频观看. The path to online video success for content owners and distributors includes the following routes, whose order of build/deployment and priority depends on your specific business requirements:

桌面浏览器: The ability to play video within any version of any desktop browser is critical for most business requirements. 不像移动/设备生态系统, consumers are more likely to be wary of downloading a desktop application to play videos from a specific vendor. Browser playback is typically the only path for most online video to play on a desktop. If you’re reading this article, chances are you’ve already deployed video to one or more websites.
移动浏览器: 每个Android和iOS设备都有一个移动浏览器. 对于iOS设备，这是Apple Safari Mobile. 为安卓, 这有点复杂, 因为每个设备供应商都有自己的首选本地浏览器, and Google offers its own Chrome for Mobile browser as a separate native application. Android用户也可以选择下载并安装Firefox和Opera. 随着智能手机和平板电脑迅速成为观看视频的普遍工具, most video-rich websites have added mobile compatibility to varying degrees to their offering at this point in time. 许多视频利益相关者, 虽然, are still relying on a better desktop browser experience and offering limited playback options for mobile browsers. 在抽样的站点中，PBS.org was the only site to offer mobile browser playback—largely due to the fact that most, 如果不是全部, PBS的内容.org不使用DRM措施.
原生移动应用: For the most exacting control of the user experience and for the most demanding business requirements, many online video stakeholders opt to build native iOS and Android applications to deploy their video content. It typically costs more to build and deploy native applications than it would to build equivalent features and functionality in a desktop or mobile website. 对于大型供应商, 比如广播网络, budgets and/or internal developments are available to support native app development. 大多数小众在线视频出版商就没有这么幸运了——“代码一次”, Flash(或Silverlight)的咒语不再适用, and limited budgets and resources restrict the ability to pursue native app development.
奥特频道: 这个混合部署部分应用程序, 部分浏览器今年在视频出版商中掀起了更大的浪潮. While the amount of time necessary to build and deploy your content with an OTT platform—such as a conventional “channel” on Roku or Apple TV—can be daunting, newer “casting” technologies promoted by Google with Chromecast provide a much simpler path for conventional desktop browser video providers to get their content on to TV sets.

不足为奇的是, 在这四个部署路径中, Flash唯一的立足点是桌面浏览器流媒体. (Flash applications can still be repurposed as Adobe AIR applications for both iOS and Android, 但Adobe AIR的未来及其路线图仍不明朗.)

One of the largest hurdles with desktop browser technology is forcing users to upgrade or switch the browser they’re using in order to watch videos. 如具体技术如DASH, 均方误差, 和EME只能在最新的浏览器中使用, and a significant portion of your target audience is not using one of those browsers, 通过定义, 您需要有多个部署和回放策略.

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