When I began to write up and research my blog posting titled 'Flash video in a slide' I decided to only create directions and an example of adding Progressive Download Flash Video (FLV) into an Articulate Presenter presentation. I had some thought about also adding an example of how to use Streaming Flash Video from a Flash Communication Server (now known as Flash Media Server) inside a slide, but I guess I figured that not enough people were looking for an example of Streaming Flash Video inside of Articulate Presenter to warrant an example. Well, less than 2 days after posting the original article I was contacted by 2 people asking if it was possible to add Streaming Flash Video in a slide. Well, it is, and in this blog posting I will explain how to add Streaming Flash Video from a Flash Communication Server into an Articulate Presenter slide.
In this blog posting I won't get into the specifics of the advantages of using Streaming Video over Progressive download video because it is covered pretty heavily in the Delivery Options for Flash Video developer center on the Macromedia/Adobe website.
What is needed to add Streaming Flash Video into an Articulate Presenter Slide?
- Articulate Presenter
- Access to a Flash Communication Server, or Streaming Media Service such as VitalStream
- Flash MX 2004 or later
- A basic understanding of Flash
- access to my FLV2apstream.FLA file (click to download)
Like my previous example of adding Progressive Download FLV into Articulate Presenter at the slide level, you will need to create a SWF shell to playback the FLV, which can then be imported into Articulate Presenter for playback. Currently Articulate Presenter only supports direct FLV import into the presenter panel, so in order to get this to work you must first create a SWF shell, that will act as the player for the SWF at the slide level.
To create a SWF that loads an FLV from a streaming server:
- Download FLV2apStream.zip
- Unzip the file
- Open it in Flash MX 2004 or later
- Select the Actions panel
- On line 2 of the ActionScript you will see a line that looks like this:
nc.connect("rtmp://serverurl/project/_definst_"); - Change the 'rtmp://serverurl/project/_definst_' to the location of your FLV on your Flash Media Server .
- On line 7 of the ActionScript you will see a line that looks like this:
ns.play("shining"); - Change the 'shining' value to the instance name of your FLV (it will be the name of your FLV without the FLV extension)
- Save the File
- Preview
Watch a demo of these steps here.
If you have set this up properly the FLV should now stream into your SWF and should look something like this Streaming Flash Video. For more information on how to do this in Flash check the help file for Flash Communication Server and search for NetStream.play().
To insert the SWF into Articulate Presenter for streaming video in a slide:
- Open up PowerPoint
- Select Articulate>Insert Flash Movie
- Select 'Display in slide'
- Click Next
- Browse to and select the SWF created earlier
- Select 'Move to next slide when user clicks next'
- Change the Buffer time to 0
- Click Next
- Click Finish
- Publish your presentation
If everything has been set up properly your FLV should now stream into your Articulate Presenter slide and should look like this Streaming Video Example.
Stay tuned to the blog, eventually this will be a 3 part series on Flash Video. The next installment will be on Streaming LIVE Flash Video into an Articulate Presentation.
AICC
Articulate Presenter SDK (2:03)
Articulate
Great article. Only thing is that when I view slide 3, all I see is a green pause button. I'm running Flash Player 8 and tested in IE and Firefox.
Sorry, I will have to update the presentation again. My hosting company (1planhost.com) did a pretty nasty server upgrade that caused all the issues. I have since dumped 1planhost.com, and gone to another provider. Thanks!
Thanks Dave for the information. I responded to your previous blog and later was successful in running a .flv in the presenter window via your .fla/swf file. I take it the previous blog's instructions would work if you are streaming the .flv from a Flash Media Server? Also, 1. do you have to break up a long video so that you have a separate video for every slide? 2. are thee any length of file size limits if you have a video for every page and all videos are running from a Flash Media Server? thanks.
Hello Brandan,
"I take it the previous blog's instructions would work if you are streaming the .flv from a Flash Media Server?"
Not sure which blog posting you are referring to. Can you give me the link to it, or the blog title?
1. Yes you do. I tried to work out a cool way around this, using cue points and such, but due to the limited support for cue points in Flash Player 6, unforuntately I couldn't find any way around it.
2. Nope. Any size should work.
Hi,
I'm Cristina, the url/projects/streamingvideoexample/player.html is not found on this server.
Why?
Thanks!
I came across this post, and since this is about 2 years old, has there been any updates? With the way that flash has changed for Adobe Flash CS3, do you still have to use a streaming server?
Thanks,
Mindy
Hello Mindy,
I have not updated this in awhile, but I have heard that there are ways that you can stream FLV using PHP. Check out this blog post by another user that explains what can be done:
http://www.flashcomguru.com/index.cfm/2005/11/2/Streaming-flv-video-via-PHP-take-two