Re: Flash in the pan

From: Heather Carroll <heather_at_enginehousemedia.com>
Date: Tue 25 Apr 2000 12:12:09 -0500

PATRICIA PHILIPS WROTE:
> I would be interested in knowing of all the people in
> this group and their clients, who has a flash intro on
> their site and how often is it just skipped over? I
> think flash is visually interesting, but it doesn't
> seem to be useful in communicating to an audience who
> uses a modem. Why even bother?

We find flash to be the best tool when trying to convey
a message. Elements such as MP3 compression, Vector
Graphics Imagery, and Streaming capabilities can be
harnessed using flash. These elements are impossible
with HTML period. Arguably the most beneficial is it's
streaming capabilities. A flash "movie" is based on a
timeline consisting of frames. Lets say the entire
flash file is 400k and 600 frames. Pretty big huh, well
not when it streams. As the end user all you have to
wait for is the first 4 frames to download which is
usually only a few K. Then once the first 4 download
the show begins ... while your watching it, the rest of
the movies is downloading thus you do not have to wait
for the entire file to download before viewing it.
There are limitations though and these limitations are
the reason developers sometimes use a preloader @ the
beginning of the movie. Flash files also go into your
cache. So once you see it once, you will never have to
wait the initial few seconds again. There are many many
more benefits and more are found on a daily basis. It's
no wonder companies such as Nike, Sony, GM Motors,
Toshiba, Compaq, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, MTV, Mattel, Sears,
H. Packard, Dell, Gateway, Audi, Volkswagen, Vtech, and
a ton more all use this technology.

Heather Carroll
Enginehouse Media
www.enginehousemedia.com
heather_at_enginehousemedia.com
Enginehouse Media introduces adOctane
"The formula for high-performance media campaigns."
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Received on Tue Apr 25 2000 - 12:12:09 CDT