Microsoft Announces Windows Presentation Foundation Everywhere and Expression Studio

Expression Media
Expression Media, based on the iView Media Pro product that Microsoft acquired earlier in 2006, is a digital asset management tool that is compatible with more than 100 media formats and provides offline access to visual catalogs, meaning users can search their assets without having to be logged into the server on which the media is stored. Perhaps more significant is that Expression Media includes Expression Media Encoder, a batch encoding solution for all Windows Media codecs, with future versions expected to support various flavors of MPEG-4 and other formats as well. A CTP of Expression Media will be available in early 2007.

Expression Media Encoder is actually a separate, but fully integrated, application that allows encoding to be done in the background or on parallel workstations. "In a previous lifetime I was a professional video editor and visual effects artist, so I speak from personal pain/experience when I tell you that this is a much-neededcomponent to any serious video authoring workflow," Key says, "and we think we're going to have a market- and feature-leading solution when we ship Expression Media, along with the rest of the Expression Studio, in the second quarter of 2007."

Expression Studio
The Expression Studio suite also includes Expression Web, a tool for standards-based website design is shipping now for $299 retail or $99 for an upgrade from FrontPage, and Expression Blend (formerly Interactive Designer) and Expression Design (formerly Graphic Designer), which will ship in 2Q 2007 for $499. Expression Media will retail for $299, with the entire suite selling for $599. Customers who purchase Expression Web and other qualifying Microsoft products will be able to purchase Expression Studio for $349.

Aside from the fact that all four products are integrated with one another, the individual tools are unified by the fact that they were created "with the designer's mindset in mind," Key says. "Some enterprises say 'we don't do design,' but what that really means is that they do bad design," Key says. "We recognized that a long time ago and made an investment in building a solution that is a four-product family that gives designers a look into the developer world in an interface that is designer-friendly."