Live Production for Mobile Viewing

Why is Compatibility Key?

Without getting too much into the HTML5/Flash debate-my opinions can be found in a variety of magazine and online articles over the past three years-the bigger issue at hand for the fragmented Android handset and tablet markets is a consistency of experience. This is one of the key selling points of the iOS devices.

While it's true that handset manufacturers build handsets to the customized specifications of distinct wireless service providers-to the extent that the four buttons on a classic Android device have been moved around, eliminated and even expanded upon-it's not necessarily a given that all versions of the same dot release Android operating system behave the same way. Google has recently moved to rein in over-forking of Android OS that has been occurring, while at the same time attempting to balance the issue of service-provider and end-user freedom of expression.

Fragmentation of handset, operating system and service provider services begs for a consistency of media delivery experience across all platforms. This is an area that Adobe can potentially offer solutions, assuming that content is accurately delivered the same way across a variety of devices.

Flash Player provided a very consistent user experience. RTMP content played in-browser took advantage of GPU and hardware acceleration, with limited battery impact.

What about the devices? We found two winners, both from Motorola, when it comes to video playback.

On the handset side, the Motorola Atrix phone rocks-and burns-as it was by far the smoothest when it came to video playback, animation rendering and game play. The outcome is a result of the combined dual-core CPU and a robust GPU-plus years of Motorola handset engineering. Battery life on the Atrix was also quite good. The device's only downside was the heat it generated: Atrix became hot to the touch within 20 minutes of starting animations and video playback, and too hot to hold after 30 minutes of gaming.

Motorola's Xoom was our first foray into tablet devices, and we had mixed results. While the initial Android OS 3.0.1/Flash Player 10.2 didn't impress us, the update to Android OS 3.1/Flash Player 10.3 turned in impressive results.

This point can't be emphasized enough: For content creators that are pushing out live streaming content, education of the end viewer on their choice of plug-in, native application, and even firmware/operating system versions is critical. We saw 20% differences in performance and battery life between the combinations of Flash Player and Android OS on the Motorola Xoom, an all-too-common stumbling block that could spell the difference between a successful live stream to mobile devices versus one that's just so-so.