On2 Platform to Put Flash Files on Mobile Handsets

On2 has developed the Flix Engine 3GPP transcoder, which will allow users to view Flash content on 3GPP mobile handsets.

On2 Technologies announced Feb. 12 that it has developed the Flix Engine 3GPP transcoder, a platform that allows Flash 8 video to be played on cell phones and other mobile devices.

With the Flix Engine 3GPP transcoder, set to come out this spring, On2 Technologies hopes to provide businesses, Web site operators and consumers with a platform that can encode and publish a large number of video clips using Adobe Flash Video to make their content available on mobile phones.

"By easily making this content available on mobile devices, businesses can expand their reach and create new and exciting initiatives focused on the mobile user," Mike Savello, senior vice president of Flash Business at the Clifton Park, N.Y.-based On2 Technologies, told eWEEK.

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The new compression platform from On2Technologies extends from its Flix Engine encoding platform, which is a server-side transcoding engine that can take video in any format and convert it to video compatible with Flash Player 8/9, a graphic animation technology that allows users to design their own custom animations and other images.

In the business world, there has been a growing need for this content to be able to be distributed to mobile devices as Savello said that companies have previously used "Flash Video as a marketing and training tool and for building community within their customer base."

Read more here about Macromedia taking Flash mobile.

"There is a huge demand for mobile device manufacturers and carriers to offer this content on their phones and for many UGC [user-generated content] sites, this will be an easy upgrade to their existing Flix Engine infrastructure," Savello said.

The Flix Engine 3GPP transcoder is also expected to benefit Web site operators because sites that already have a large volume of Flash Video content can use the platform to convert Flash Video files into 3GPP format so that they can be viewed on mobile devices.

"Sites including YouTube, Google, MySpace and AOL can take videos from their users in any format and transcode them to Flash Video on a server or farm or servers," Savello said.

The Flix Engine 3GPP will run on Windows or Linux-based servers and produce the video files that would be compatible with mobile handsets from companies such as Motorola, LG, Samsung and Nokia.

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