Adobe Systems has announced Adobe Flash Access 2.0, a key component of the Adobe Flash Platform, at the 2009 IBC (International Broadcasting Convention) trade show in Amsterdam. Flash Access 2.0, formerly known as Adobe Flash Media Rights Management Server, is content protection software that lets creators control how, when, and where audio and video can be experienced by users—even after download.
In this new release, Flash Access 2.0 will play back protected content securely on an upcoming new version of Adobe Flash Player software. Scheduled to ship in the first half of 2010, Adobe Flash Access 2.0 will offer protection of audiovisual content and support flexible usage rules for businesses such as electronic sell-through, rental, and video on-demand for streaming or download.
“With Adobe Flash Access 2.0, media publishers can rely on robust protection for premium content to support new, emerging business models for rich interactive online experiences,” said Jim Guerard, vice president and general manager of Dynamic Media at Adobe. For example, Flash Access 2.0 will provide a way for media companies to enforce user constraints, such as limiting viewing to a given rental period.
Businesses and educational institutions can also use Flash Access 2.0 to build customized safeguards, enabling them to distribute audiovisual training materials and corporate communications securely to employees, customers, or partners, Adobe says.
Adobe Flash Access 2.0 comes as a Software Development Kit that facilitates Internet deployment and integration into software and services such as order management, subscription databases, access control, and LDAP-based Active Directories. Flash Access will also be available as a Software as a Service (SaaS) through certain Adobe partners that will offer hosted content protection to multiple clients.
Using industry-standard cryptography, Adobe Flash Access 2.0 will protect content against tampering or unauthorized capture. For example, content can be tied to an individual device or to a domain, which may represent a household. Flash Access 2.0 also supports output protection across platforms, enabling content providers to specify requirements for protecting analog and digital material, providing additional safeguards against unauthorized recording.
Flash Access 2.0 supports distribution of standards-based MPEG 4 (H.264) content as well as the FLV file format through progressive download, streaming, and download for local playback. Protected content can also be played back in rich Internet applications that run outside the browser via Adobe AIR.
Adobe is demonstrating Flash Access 2.0 at IBC from September 11 through 15th.