Ryan makes some very interesting points, including:
* The majority of online video for the Olympics was delivered in Flash.
* For Beijing the BBC streamed nearly 40 million videos with up to 5.5 million Olympic videos watched each day at an average of around 3
million. In total there were 6.5 million hours of video delivered using Flash by the BBC.
* In the first 10 days CCTV's website streamed Olympic coverage to 100 million people...So in China we'll have 2,900 hours of Olympic content backed up and ready to watch with Flash Video.

You can find more information about the CCTV solution from the Adobe press release, but if you would like further information, please contact me.

First up, the Olympics (what else!). Adobe has teamed up with CCTV International Networks Co., Ltd (the company that owns the mainland China and Macau online video media rights to the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games) to deliver over 5000 hours of video content (3,800 hours of Olympic game video and 1,200 self-made video) from the games.  You can read the press release here, but essentially the 5000 hours of Flash video content will be delivered to millions of sports fans in mainland China and Macau through the "Olympic Network TV Station", CCTV.com’s next-generation online experience based on Adobe Flash and Flex technology.

Still on the subject of Flash video, back at the beginning of July, Adobe announced that we are working with Google and Yahoo! to enhance search engine indexing of the SWF format.  The press release is here, but essentially this announcement will provide more relevant automatic search rankings of the millions of RIAs and other dynamic content that run in Adobe Flash Player. Moving forward, RIA developers and rich Web content producers won’t need to amend existing and future content to make it searchable — they can now be confident it can be found by users around the globe.

Just in case you haven't had enough video news, one more piece to wrap up.  In mid June (I know, I've been absent from blogging for some time!) Adobe provided an update on the uptake of the Adobe Media Player.  The press release is available here and the player is available here - unfortunately it is only available in the USA at the moment, but I know the team is working hard to change this!

On a more enterprisey note, in mid-June Adobe announced the a significant update to the LiveCycle Enterprise Suite (ES). Major additions to the suite include LiveCycle Content Services ES - based on the Alfresco Open Source CMS - and LiveCycle PDF Generator 3D ES. You can read the press release here.

Finally, MAX time is approaching fast. MAX USA is in San Francisco (Nov 16 - 19), and MAX EMEA is in Milan (Dec 1 - 4). Press release is here and MAX info is here.

First up, we announced today the forthcoming introduction of Acrobat 9.  You can read the press release here, but a few highlights include:

• Deep support for Adobe Flash technology within PDFs - enabling the inclusion of Flash video and .swf files in PDF documents
• Tighter real-time collaboration capabilities
• PDF Portfolios, the ability to assemble multiple media types, such as documents, video, audio, and even 3D objects, into one, compressed PDF file.
  

Next up, The Acrobat team at Adobe have also announced the public beta of Acrobat.com. Acrobat.com is a "a suite of hosted services available as free public beta that puts communication, productivity, and collaboration tools close at hand within a Web browse."

You can read the press release here, but again a few highlights include:

• Adobe Buzzword, a Web-based word processor that makes it easy to co-author and share documents for comment and review, creating high-quality print results
• Adobe ConnectNow, a personal Web conferencing service that includes desktop sharing, video and voice conferencing and integrated chat
• Centralized online file sharing with access controls and online PDF conversion
• Developer APIs for real-time collaboration, file sharing and conversion

However, like all these things, it's much better to use it than read it - so go to acrobat.com, sign-up and check it out.

My new roles is looking after Analyst Relations around the LiveCycle products and solutions, but I'll still be using ARena to keep you informed on all areas of Adobe's business.

More soon

Flash news:

First up some news about developments in the Flash world. At the beginning of December we announced Flash Media Server 3 which "offers streaming media and real-time communication capabilities to the broadest possible audience. With industry standard H.264 video capabilities and High Efficiency AAC (HE-AAC) audio support, Adobe Flash Media Server 3 provides content owners with increased protection for streaming high quality video and allows for the delivery of interactive media applications that work consistently across multiple browsers and operating systems." Read the details here.

To tie in with this announcement, Adobe also announced that the latest version of Flash Player 9 (available to download here) now includes H.264 standard video support. Essentially that means that your PC can be a HiDef media player. As Kevin says: "The inclusion of industry standard H.264 support in Adobe Flash Player, Adobe AIR, the Adobe Creative Suite® product line and Adobe Flash Media Server 3 brings new HD capabilities to millions of Flash developers and a new generation of viewers who are turning to the Web as the place to find their favorite shows and video content." Read the full release here.

RIA news:

NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) has announced that they plan to adopt Flex and LiveCycle Data Services for its new Mission Support System.  Read the release here. According to NATO: "Adobe Flex is accepted worldwide and provides us with a new opportunity to automate the flight preparation process and save valuable time. It goes without saying that it is crucial for the NATO crew to have access to relevant information. The visual electronic maps present all the information in an intuitive manner which makes the MSS very user-friendly."

Still on the RIA theme, Adobe has also announced plans to open source elements of LiveCycle Data Services. Essentially we have released the source code for remoting and messaging technologies under a new open source product named BlazeDS. Read the release here, or access the code here. For more information on Adobe's approach to Open Source, go here.

Corporate news:

Adobe announced Q4 (and FY07) financial results on December 17th - for the first time breaking the $3b per annum revenue milestone.  Read the release here.  For completeness, we also announced the Adobe Board of Directors has approved a 30 million share increase to the stock repurchase program announced in April 2007. Read about that here.

First up, New Year Resolution time - I will (try really hard) to keep ARena up-dated a lot more regularly in 2008 that I did during the second half of 2007!

Now the Happy Birthday bit - as you might know Adobe celebrated its 25th anniversary at the very end of 2007 and I thought you’d be interested in seeing how Adobe is celebrating. The Adobe 25th Anniversary Newsletter (newsletter doesn't actually do it justice, really it's an incredibly cool ebook) commemorates Adobe’s history of innovation and the complete Adobe story, including past, present and a look toward the future. You can find it here - http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/history/

The newsletter is produced in Flash (what else!) and contains some amazing video and a digital timeline.

I wish you a very successful 2008 and look forward to providing you with more and more compelling and engaging stories on ARena over the new 12 months.

Before we get into that, I wanted to share the most recent news from Adobe that the company has named Shantanu Narayen as President and Chief Executive Officer, with Bruce Chizen stepping down from this role. Bruce will serve the remainder of his term on Adobe’s Board of Directors through the Spring of 2008 and continue in a strategic advisory capacity through the end of fiscal year 2008.

From the press release: "“Bruce Chizen’s vision has helped transform Adobe from a company that was known mainly for its popular design products into one of the largest and most diversified software companies in the world,” said Chuck Geschke and John Warnock, Adobe’s chairmen of the Board of Directors. “We thank him for his outstanding leadership and contributions to Adobe’s success during his entire 14 years at Adobe and the past seven as CEO.”

For more info, you can read the press release here.

Good luck to Bruce and Shantanu.

Arizona State University - With so many things to do and see in today's 24x7 world, grabbing students’ attention and keeping it can be a formidable challenge. At Arizona State University (ASU), more than 500 graduate students around the world enrolled in Online MBA and Executive Education programs in the W. P. Carey School of Business enjoy appealing, interactive, online course work developed and delivered using a full complement of Adobe software, including ColdFusion.  ASU is using the rich application services of ColdFusion to deliver content housed on ASU’s server to students, as well as tapping ColdFusion components for building functions for different student interfaces and platforms. "ColdFusion enables us to leverage existing development resources to publish anywhere—a vital capability in reliably reaching 500 far-flung students. With ColdFusion, students can load content far faster than if we were delivering flat XML files," says Michael Ritchie. "And we can combine ColdFusion with Flash to have a more fluid interface and a simple, elegant cross-platform solution."

Children’s Hospital Boston - Children’s Hospital Boston is the nation’s leading pediatric medical center and the primary pediatric teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School. In addition to its 347 inpatient beds and comprehensive outpatient programs, Children’s Hospital houses the world’s largest research enterprise at a pediatric medical center. All hospital workers require ongoing training to ensure compliance with requirements from the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) and professional accrediting agencies. This is no small undertaking at Children’s Hospital, where nearly 3,000 doctors and nurses work alongside 4,600 employees and approximately 1,000 volunteers. The IT staff at Children’s Hospital Boston uses ColdFusion to integrate front-end processes with critical back-end systems. Children’s Hospital also uses a range of other Adobe software including Photoshop, After Effects and Premiere Pro, Acrobat and Acrobat Connect.

Here are a few other companies using ColdFusion in creative and innovative ways:

192.com - Case study

Aspen Skiing Company - Case study

County of San Diego, Department of Child Support Services - Case study

Crayola - Case study

eBags - Case study - this site also use Scene7 (an Adobe company)technology to render the images.

FAO Schwarz - Case study

International Speedway Corporation - Case study

MySwitzerland.com - Case study

Simon & Schuster - Case study

Adobe Ships ColdFusion 8 - Press release can be found here. For those who aren't familiar with ColdFusion, it's "a powerful development tool for building dynamic Web sites and Internet applications, increases developer productivity, integrates with complex enterprise environments, and delivers rich and engaging experiences for users". Cool!

The public beta of ColdFusion 8 has been running since May 2007, with more than 14,000 developers participating, praising the new capabilities and providing Adobe with invaluable feedback.

Cranfield University School of Management -Cranfield University’s School of Management offers high-tech, customised executive development through its Centre for Customised Executive Development (CCED). To offer customers a flexible, easily adaptable solution for eLearning, CCED adopted Adobe Acrobat Connect Professional, allowing Cranfield to develop and deliver courses in flexible ways, saving time and money for both Cranfield and its executive students.

Florida Center for Instructional Technology - How do rural schools and teachers keep up with more urban, possibly better funded, schools? In Florida, as public schools stretch training budgets to integrate technology into classrooms, the Florida Center for Instructional Technology (FCIT) has been working with educators to integrate technology into their curricula, and utilising a combination of face-to-face meetings and Adobe Acrobat Connect Professional to train teachers and educators throughout Florida. Once certified as a "Master Digital Educator (MDE)" these trained teachers use Acrobat Connect Professional to train other educators on how best to provide the technology skills necessary to launch Florida’s students into the digital age.

Mensheds Australia Ltd -Mensheds is a unique not-for-profit organisation specialising in the health and well-being of men. Mensheds Australia was established to quickly and efficiently assist in starting, running, and growing individual men’s "sheds" across Australia. Each men’s shed is an individual local organisation that offers opportunities for regular learning new skills—especially about health, well-being, and helping the community. Individual men’s sheds are geographically scattered across Australia, and are managed by local governments, community groups, and motivated individuals. Mensheds Australia needed to provide quick and easy access to products, services, and information while retaining the support of the health industry and communities. Adobe Acrobat Connect Professional allows Mensheds Australia to use multimedia to deliver support to even the most remote communities. Members of men’s sheds can use their PCs to connect via the Internet to their local groups and individual members without being overwhelmed by the technology.

Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) - the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), an operating unit of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), plans to adopt Adobe Acrobat Connect Professional software to enable deployed troops, support personnel, and military leaders to collaborate more efficiently across locations worldwide. This is a recent announcement - see the press release here - highlighting how the US Department of Defense is implementing Adobe Connect in "hostile" environments. From the press release: “Acrobat Connect Professional will help simplify collaboration in the DoD’s complex, diverse environments. In many operations, the real-time engagement enabled by Acrobat Connect may literally help save lives, as soldiers and military leaders share intelligence and plan strategies in response to changing conditions.”

You can read the press releases here (Adobe Integrated Runtime) and here (Flex 3)

The Adobe Integrated Runtime allows developers to use HTML/CSS, any Ajax framework, Flash and Flex to extend RIAs to the desktop. New features in the Adobe Integrated Runtime beta include an embedded local database (SQLlite), PDF support, enhanced capabilities for JavaScript developers, and deeper integration with Adobe Flex. The free beta versions of Adobe AIR and the Adobe AIR SDK are available for downloaded from www.adobe.com/go/air.  You can also get a preview of some of the early applications being developed on the Adobe Integrated Runtime from Adobe Labs.

The Flex 3 beta is a major functional release that adds rich new UI capabilities, enhanced developer productivity, desktop deployment and enterprise testing and performance tools.  The Flex 3 public beta also marks the first significant deliverable for the open source Flex project, beginning with the availability of nightly builds, and a public bug database, which will be posted at www.labs.adobe.com/technologies/flex/opensource. The free Flex SDK also makes it easy for Flex and Flash developers to get started with Adobe AIR. Additionally, web developers can use the Eclipse-based Flex Builder, an advanced IDE for creating both desktop and browser-based RIA’s.

Ryan posts here with some deeper analysis.

Business Loan Express (BLX) - BLX specializes in long-term loans for commercial purposes, including small businesses looking to acquire or refinance real estate, as well as to finance their operations with financing needs in the range of $25,000 to $5,000,000. Almost 85% of BLX business comes from referral and repeat clients, so there is tremendous loyalty if customers are treated well. BLX use Adobe LiveCycle solutions to automate processes and better engage with customers to provide more responsive, personalized services. By implementing a LiveCycle based solution, BLX has seen accelerate loan processing; improve margins on loan; expanded it customer base; and strengthen relationships with brokers and borrowers.

Cedacri - Based in Parma, Italy, Cedacri is a leading IT provider for financial institutions. With a turnover of €150 million in 2005, 550 employees, and a clientele of more than 60 banks, Cedacri is a market leader in IT services in Italy. One of Cedacri’s services is designing, customizing, and managing forms as well as the ultimate printing of bank statements. Cedacri wanted to move to a solution that easily generated visually appealing bank contracts, statements, and other forms for its clients. By implementing a LiveCycle based solution, Cedacri was able to eliminate formatting errors; improve design and customization of forms; generate dynamic documents; and eliminate distribution costs and time.

Penn State University - Penn State serves more than 80,000 students at its main and satellite campuses, awarding over 16,000 degrees annually. As a large university, Penn State received more than 120,000 requests for transcripts and documentation from existing and past students. Historically, requests come in by mail, by fax, or through a web portal submission system, with approximately 25% of the requests being urgent. One issue of critical concern to Penn State officials was the proliferation of fake diplomas and falsified transcripts—annual sales of which total more than $100 million worldwide!! Penn State implemented a LiveCycle based solution, using Adobe Certified Document Services with Adobe LiveCycle Document Security software and digital IDs from GeoTrust to provide the requisite capabilities. The solution has lead to multiple benefits, including accelerated production and delivery of transcripts by more than 99%; reallocated administrative time to other student services; improved integrity and authenticity of transcripts. In addition, Penn State anticipated full ROI within one year of deployment.

US Green Building Council -watch the video

Snap-on Credit -Personally, the extent of automobile maintenance I do runs to putting petrol (gas) in the fuel tank, so I've never really had a need for an arsenal of tool. However if you are a professional automotive or aircraft technician then the Snap-on brand is synonymous with quality. The financial services arm of Snap-on Inc - Snap-on Credit - works with the company's US network of 3,500 franchisees to provide customers with financing solutions. Traditionally, franchisees input data into a stand-alone system, printed and signed the resulting forms by hand. The paper contracts were then submitted to a franchisee's regional office, then forwards to Snap-on Credit's main office for processing. Snap-on Credit implemented a LiveCycle based solution that allows franchisees simply enter information into a software application on their computers and export the detail in XML into an Adobe PDF form. Electronic signatures are applied, the form validated and sent electronically to the main processing office. The benefits to Snap-on and the franchisees include: accelerating processing from several days to minutes; reducing errors from 15% to less than 2%; and improving access to special pricing promotions.

You can read the announcement here.

According to the press release: "LiveCycle ES integrates the capabilities of Adobe Flex and PDF technologies, while leveraging the reach of Adobe Flash Player and Adobe Reader to enable a new class of “customer engagement” applications that easily connect people inside and outside organizations to internal information and processes."

I've seen a number of demos of LiveCycle Enterprise Suite and it is pretty cool - showing how you can take a plan/static PDF form off the web and turn it into a fully functional, intelligent, rich web "data collection" application by using Acrobat, LiveCycle Designer and LiveCycle Workbench ES is pretty amazing.