VeriSign, Adobe to Enhance Online Video Delivery

LAS VEGAS—VeriSign and Adobe Systems will collaborate on integrating Adobe Flash technologies with VeriSign’s recently introduced peer-assisted content distribution technology, setting a new standard in the delivery of high-quality video content, officials of both companies said.

At the Consumer Electronics Show here, the companies shared plans to integrate existing products and services and jointly develop new technologies that help media and entertainment companies bring content online. The first phase of the expected collaboration consists of VeriSign incorporating Adobe Flash Media Server 2 into its new globally deployed Intelligent CDN (Content Delivery Network), enabling publishers to deliver high-fidelity video on-demand and MP3 audio streaming services across a CDN.

Meanwhile, future versions of media technologies leveraging VeriSign’s Kontiki peer-to-peer technology and Adobe’s Flash Video software will allow companies to deliver customized interactive Flash video experiences, including movies, TV shows, broadcast media, and user interface technologies, the companies said.

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Adobe’s Flash Player is installed on more than 700 million PCs and devices worldwide. With the combination of Flash and VeriSign’s CDN, developers will be able to lower their development, quality assurance and customer support costs because the combined service reduces the problems of deploying video on-demand applications across multiple platforms and browsers, said Todd Johnson, senior vice president of global marketing at VeriSign and former chief executive of Kontiki (which VeriSign acquired for $62 million in March 2006).

“VeriSign’s global reach and leadership in intelligent infrastructure services will give content providers the ability to deliver truly innovative and more secure Flash video experiences to the widest possible audience worldwide,” said Bruce Chizen, CEO at Adobe, in a statement. “The ubiquity and power of Adobe Flash combined with advanced streaming and media technologies from VeriSign fundamentally changes how rich media content is deployed to consumers.”

Also at CES, VeriSign announced that its CDN will enable Open Media Network, of Palo Alto, Calif., to enable consumers to watch DVD- or HDTV-quality programming downloaded from omn.org directly on their television set. The companies said OMN’s download-to-own content comes from producers such as PBS, National Geographic, podcasts from National Public Radio affiliates and independent producers.

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