Is Flash Player 10.1 a game-changer?

Last week's Adobe Max 2009 conference announced some tantalizing news for those interested in the future of digital signage.

First a little history

The Achilles Heel of Flash (which is otherwise an excellent platform for media rich digital signage applications) has been that it beats the stuffing out of CPUs. Up until now Flash Player hasn't been able to take advantage of local graphics hardware (a.k.a. the GPU); all the heavy lifting is handed over to the CPU. The result has been that lightweight processors like the Intel Atom have been under-powered when used with Flash. Video played at normal resolutions is often choppy and unimpressive.

This is unfortunate, since the Atom and its competition are most often found powering small-form-factor PCs and "NetTops" (e.g. the Asus Eee). Members of this class of PC are easily mounted to the backs of monitors, making them seem perfect for use with digital signage. But what good is a conveniently mounted media player that makes content look second rate?

For most venue operators the questionable performance is a dealbreaker. Signage applications that take advantage of Flash have gone the middle road and made due with beefier (read: more expensive and harder to mount) media players to meet the minimum Flash Player requirements .

The latest update

Now check out minute 6:12+ on this Adobe Max 2009 video...

On 05/10/09 on its website, Adobe announced that the next update to Flash Player, version 10.1, would contain 'Graphics hardware acceleration' and 'Video hardware decoding'.

Graphics hardware acceleration
A GPU-based vector renderer replaces the software renderer on smartphones and other mobile devices, resulting in faster rendering performance for more expressive user experiences while consuming less power. Supports hardware acceleration of 3D effects, vector graphics, color transforms, alpha, device and embedded text, Saffron and surfaces.

Video hardware decoding
Flash Player 10.1 introduces hardware-based H.264 video decoding to deliver smooth, high quality video with minimal overhead across mobile devices and PCs. Using available hardware to decode video offloads tasks from the CPU to improve video playback performance, reduce system resource utilization and preserve battery life.

Translation?

In today's digital signage market this could translate into hardware savings of anywhere from $100 to $400 for each screen running a Flash-powered digital display.

Summary

Up until now, the CPU power needed to run Flash based digital displays has kept most small-form-factor PCs just out of reach. Will this disadvantage be erased with Flash Player 10.1? We'll know for sure once it's released (Adobe says "later this year"), but at this point it looks like the answer is yes. If this turns out to be as it seems, it means a lot more media player options and MUCH lower hardware costs for digital signage customers.

Why is this a game changer? Large flat screen display devices have gotten very cheap in the last few years, and now powerful media players are seeing a similar drop in cost. When you marry that to potent software content platforms like ScreenScape's, the combo is a heady brew. There's a whole world of small and medium sized businesses out there that will be taking advantage of this convergence, one way or another. The market is about to get much much larger, very quickly.

Exactly how this could play out is another great topic for discussion - and the subject of another blog.

Reliable Flash media players in the under $500 category - potentially a game changing event.

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