Silverlight - The next generation web experiences

Today at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) conference, Microsoft is again demonstrating how we are enabling our customers to have richer experiences on the web by announcing Microsoft Silverlight - a new, cross-platform, cross-browser plug-in for building the next generation of Media Experiences and Rich Interactive Applications. Formerly known as “WPF/E,” at NAB we are announcing our new brand identity along with the incredible support from our partner ecosystem. This is just the beginning and sets the foundation for MIX where we will unveil the end to end platform/tools vision for developers and designers.

Microsoft Silverlight will enable content providers to deliver media experiences and rich interactive applications that incorporate media, graphics, animation, and much, much more with full application functionality on both Windows and Mac platforms and inside IE, Firefox and Safari. Silverlight users will also enjoy compatibility with the broad ecosystem of Windows Media (VC-1) enabled tools and solutions, including existing and upcoming IIS and Windows Streaming Media server technologies.

As part of our big day, here are some additional things that we are announcing:

  • Expression Media Encoder – a feature of Microsoft Expression Media, which enables rapid compression and Web publishing of digital video from a variety of popular formats including AVI and QuickTime.
  • IIS7 Media Pack for Windows Server –the Media Pack is for customers wishing to enable cost-effective delivery of downloaded media through bit-rate throttling and other advanced features such as cache-proxy support.
  • Broad support from leading media companies and solution providers for Microsoft Silverlight and Microsoft’s approach to media experiences and rich interactive application development.

You can learn more about these releases at the Silverlight Virtual Press Room which was also launched today.

As I mentioned, this Silverlight announcement at NAB is only part of the story, the rest will be unveiled at MIX including details about how Silverlight is a core component of Microsoft’s broader .NET platform. Keep your eyes on Mix07 as part of Ray Ozzie’s and Scott Guthrie’s keynote – be sure to check it out.

       

Namaste!