Microsoft Silverlight announced

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Microsoft Silverlight

We have a number of things coming around WPF/e in the next few weeks, but here is the first.  WPF/e is now called Microsoft Silverlight.

Key points to take away:

  • Supports IE, Firefox, Safari (cross browser and cross platform)
  • Enables WMV/WMA playback cross platform
  • Integrates with Windows Media technologies
  • Enables mobile through to HD media scenarios
  • Is DRM capable built on Microsoft PlayReady

The other juicy bit of the announcement was this bit:

Based on the Microsoft .NET Framework, Silverlight enables developers and designers to easily use existing skills and tools to deliver media experiences and RIAs for the Web with role-specific tools: for designers, Microsoft Expression® Studio, and for developers, Visual Studio®. New tool and server investments for media professionals include the following:

• Expression Media Encoder. Microsoft Expression Media Encoder, which will be a feature of Microsoft Expression Media, enables rapid import, compression and Web publishing of digital video imported from a variety of popular formats, including AVI and QuickTime, into WMV. Capable of running on the desktop or Windows Server®, Expression Media Encoder is a template-driven system that integrates seamlessly into existing Web publishing workflows for both live and on-demand content delivery. Expression Media Encoder will be a free download for customers of Expression Media when it is shipped later this year.

• Hardware-accelerated video publishing. When paired with a Tarari Encoder Accelerator, Expression Media Encoder reduces encode times by up to 15 times over software alone, a significant capabilities and cost advantage for publishing Web video today.

• Even greater scalability with Windows Server, code-named “Longhorn.” Building on the industry-leading streaming and Web server platform, Windows Server “Longhorn” will enable customers to experience up to twice the scalability on the same hardware when compared with Windows Server 2003. Also being announced today is the Internet Information Services 7 (IIS7) Media Pack, which adds new cost-saving features such as bit-rate throttling and other advanced features designed to help further reduce the cost of media distribution. The IIS7 Media Pack will be a free download for customers of Windows Server “Longhorn” when it ships.

In other words Microsoft is investing in server and tool investments.  These represent the beginnings of that.   More coming in the next few weeks... stay tuned

There is loads more information on this presspass website.  You'll also want to take a look at Tim Sneaths blog article on the announcement :-)