As the lead developer of BitGravity’s Flash player I am very proud to introduce what we have been working on for the past eight months!

We have launched our newest Flash Player which has a lot of great features and a very easy wizard that helps anyone configure and embed video. We decided to build this player from the ground up, instead of modifying our Player 5. We did this so that we could create a really solid, modular, extensible foundation. This is going to open the door for a lot of customer suggestions to be implemented in a really quick way. So we’re going to be adding playlists in the near future, and we’re geared up to support third party advertising networks.

Some exciting new features that we’ve already added for the 6.0 release are pre-rolls, post-rolls, theming, RTMP streaming, some new multi-bitrate options and improved support for H.264 advanced seeking. We’ve also done a complete overhaul on the configuration wizard, so you can access all these new features very easily.

Best of all we’re giving it out for free! There are a lot of great players out there, and we often get asked by our customers for Flash player assistance, so we figured it might be nice to provide a general player, that we will know inside out, for anyone to use.

Here is a quick general overview of a few of the features to be found in BitGravity Player 6:

Player Configuration Wizard
The new and improved BitGravity Player Configuration Wizard has been extended to include the player’s new features, and provide quick and intuitive setup and skinning controls. A “Simple Mode” has been included to get your video playing in seconds, and a preview of your partial configuration is visible throughout the setup.

Theming
There are four elements available to customize the look of the new BitGravity Player to fit right in to your website.

• Custom logo
• Logo position
• Color scheme (made up of four colors, and each is adjustable)
• Video background

Multi-bitrate
While high definition video is very desirable, reaching a wider audience often requires a lower bitrate video. With Multi-bitrate, you no longer need to have just one or the other. With the BitGravity Player, offering your video in 2 to 5 different bitrates will allow your viewers to switch bitrates to match their connection speed from within the player. For video hosted on BitGravity CDN, users can switch bitrates mid-stream! There is even the option to have the quality selection automated based on the user’s connection speed.

Improved support for H.264
On the server side we’ve been putting a lot of resources into supporting as many types of video encoding as we can with our AdvancedProgressive seeking - so you can seek to a point in the video ahead of the loading bar. A much wider range of H.264 and FLV encoded videos are now supported for full BitGravity AdvancedProgressive seeking and mid-stream bitrate adjustments on BitGravity CDN.

Advertising
Monetize your videos by playing pre-roll advertisements before your video or less-intrusive post-rolls.

Speed and Stability
A modularization of video playback modes allows for fast player initialization and is kind to your users’ CPUs, getting your video started even faster.

Get Set Up with BitGravity Player 6!

When Perry Wu and I started BitGravity we had high hopes and dreams to build technology that may someday change the Internet.  The thought of someday creating technology that pushes the limits of the Internet gave me the drive to build our first server farms in my garage, design a new traffic distribution system, and eventually take our baby and scale it across the entire planet.

As the company grew from my garage and a Starbucks “office”, our views began to culminate.  I began to view software as art and not merely a means to an end. I also began to view our team of technologists as wizards that could create and accomplish anything. To this day, if I were to ask one of our principle engineers Edward Crump if something were possible he would undoubtedly respond with his token mantra:

The view that Internet service engineering is an art with endless possibilities has become a philosophical pillar here at BitGravity.  We view the designs on the network, servers, drivers, kernels, and everything up the stack should be done as an art, not strictly a science that results in a bottom line.

It is our view that new technology is only possible because passionate people dream of new concepts and harness their passion to drive it to completion.  It’s those same people who are not afraid to answer a question that appears to be impossible to solve.

As we continue to develop our network something unexpected is happening:  Our customers’ creativity is exploding and we are in awe of their accomplishments.  Every day we see our customers use our technology to do something new, unique, and innovative, which further motivates us to work harder and stretch the limits of the Internet.

As the Chief Technologist here at BitGravity, I am pleased to introduce our Sandbox.  We will be releasing free technology, views and opinions of our developers, and generally using this area as a playful outlet for technology and philanthropy that should give back to the general community that has helped us become successful.