27 March 2012, 14:45

Adobe announces Open Source Media Framework 2.0

Adobe has announced the launch of version 2.0 of its Open Source Media Framework (OSMF), an open software framework for building media players and applications, based on the company's closed source Flash platform. Kelash Kumar, Adobe Video Solutions Group Product Manager, says that the new version of OSMF includes a number of improvements aimed at helping developers "create even more engaging experiences" and notes that the developers have "reworked the inner workings of OSMF".

OSMF 2.0 includes changes to the Adaptive Bit Rate (ABR) algorithm and APIs that improve overall performance, and updates the default Switch Manager, which determines when a bit rate change should be made and to what quality. Doneness support in version 2.0 means that the framework can now distinguish between HTTP Dynamic Streaming (HDS) content streams shutting down due to server-side problems and shutting down because an event stream has completed.

OSMF has a three-tiered architecture: UI, monetisation workflows and media delivery
Source: osmf.org Support for Best-Effort Fetch adds client-side robustness, addressing "liveness" and "dropout" server-side problems by attempting to fetch fragments that have yet to be advertised. Doneness requires the server-side Control Plane module in Flash Media Server 4.5.2, while Best-Effort Fetch requires the HTTP Streaming failover feature. The developers also note that Strobe Media Playback, an OSMF-based media player, is now included with the sources – online demos of the media player are provided.

Further information about the release can be found in the announcement blog post and on the project's wiki. Source code and release notes, which contain a full list of fixes and known issues, are available from SourceForge. OSMF 2.0 requires Adobe Flash Player 10.2 or higher, and documentation is provided. Source code for OSMF is licensed under version 1.1 of the Mozilla Public Licence.

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