Microsoft unveils Silverlight, its interactive web video and multimedia browser plug-in technology.

Silverlight! Microsoft's Flash challenging interactive plugin

Microsoft have announced a new web based interactive video format called Silverlight.

Aimed at delivering rich interactive applications (RIA) for the web, Silverlight appears to be a part of Microsoft's increasing foray into the graphics market traditionally held by companies like Adobe and Apple. And with the the transfer of Macromedia and their Flash software technology to Adobe, this will only raise the stakes in the battle for the hearts and minds of both web users and interactive graphic designers.

Billed by Microsoft as a cross-platform technology Silverlight, previously known as Windows Presentation Foundation Everywhere (WPF/E), will run on all the major web browsers, including Internet Explorer, Firefox and Apple's Safari.

Silverlight development tools allow designers using Microsoft Expression Studio and developers using Visual Studio to create RIAs for the web utilizing Windows Media Video (WMV) and SMPTE VC-1 video. Microsoft claim that Silverlight will allow support for a wide range of interactive video formats, from full- screen HD all the way to mobile phone and PDA devices.

Although the Microsoft press-release does not mention Flash directly, it seems clear that Silverlight is intended as challenge to Adobe's grip on the online interactive video delivery market. With the ongoing rise in the uptake of broadband, recent versions of Flash have increasingly concentrated on online motion picture delivery methods, as opposed to the vector animation roots of the product. And it is this area that Silverlight is also focusing.

Although it seems unlikely, in the short term, that graphic designers will rush to abandon the Flash program and .SWF file format, the longer term picture is less certain. Large organizations, who use existing Microsoft technology, such as the .NET Framework and Windows IIS web server technology, may find that Silverlight offers the best way forward for rich-media web content broadcasting.

Microsoft will release a beta for Silverlight during the Mix07 conference on April 30 in Las Vegas, where it will feature in the keynote presentation.

Microsoft Silverlight

17 April 2007

Other Microsoft, interactive design and Flash related articles

• How to move layers & frames together in a Flash animation.
• Windows Media Photo graphics format. Microsoft releases a rival to the ubiquitous JPEG file format.
• And the original story about Microsoft entering the graphics, design and publishing industry.

Interactive and Flash discussions in design forums

• A discussion about Microsoft's low-end DTP program MS Publisher.
• An earlier discussion on whether Microsoft will enter the design market. It looks like they already have. But the consequences are still unclear.
• Fixing Flash errors. What does be sure the destination file is not locked or on a locked drive mean?
• What happens when you get a client who wants one of those looping Flash Intros? Some members of the forum discuss the options.
• This designer is asking how best to get experience building interactive Flash web sites and asks how best to put together an online portfolio.
• And a general topic on Windows Vista and graphic design. How will Microsoft's newest operating system affect graphic designers? Will there be bugs or other software issues? And what about the many stories about sound card driver issues?
• Is Flash a waste of time? So asks one designer who doesn't particularly like the format.
• A very apt subject for this topic. What is the best software to make web sites?
• A thread discussing Microsoft vs Adobe. Is there really going to be a serious battle between these two giants? Or will they operate in different markets?