Since the age old days when a web page on the Internet contained just static text and a few images if possible, the world has changed drastically. Now you can watch not only videos, but a lot dynamic and versatile content has been uploaded to make the browsing experience unique. Talking about the videos, the recent Beijing 2008 Olympic Games were telecasted on Internet using Microsoft’s new Silverlight technology.
So how does Silverlight work? What does it do? To answer all the questions we are here. Actually Silverlight is just an application similar to Adobe Flash, used to view videos and dynamic content. It is developed by Microsoft.
This is how it works:
• Firstly for the Silverlight to work the developer who requires it to create Silverlight applications needs to download its plug-in and player which are very small in size. For the viewer to browse any Silverlight format video, he needs to have a Silverlight plug-in in his browser. Basically Silverlight is a cross browser, which performs on various platforms for implementation of .NET Framework. It is also used to deliver exclusive, versatile and rich interactive applications for the Internet.
• The plug-in required is so small that it is just a fraction of seconds to complete the required download and this technology supports all the browsers namely, Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, Google Chrome, Safari. It is a combination of programming languages and selected tools to provide the developer a single platform for creating content for the web. Silverlight can also tweak with your JavaScript and ASP.NET APAX to easily incorporate into its platform.
• The major competitions that Microsoft is trying to beat using Silverlight is Adobe Flash and Sun Microsystems Java. The features of the Silverlight include a built-in codec support for playing VC-1 and WMV video, and MP3 and WMA audio within the browser. Supports’ live streaming too, while is also enabled to play rich content media on the Internet. Silverlight utilizes the highest quality video codec so get ready to experience Blu-Ray and HD content on live streaming.
• As it can operate on any browser and any operating system, it has spread it wings on the Apple Operating System too. Both Visual Studio and Microsoft.net framework will be allowed to work seamlessly at the same time on this cross platform. So the developers can work on hard core scripting platform while designers can design the content any time. The cost of licensing is also the lowest as one just needs an ISS on Windows Server to operate it seamlessly. One must have observed how simple it easy to download videos via YouTube as they operate in Adobe Flash format, but the same is not possible in Silverlight, as it offers copyrighting to.
The speed is lighting, the resolution is crystal clear, and overall it is a fantastic platform for the dynamic content on the Web. Again the biggest software maker in the world proved it is mettle by releasing Silverlight platform. It’s a young technology which is able to provide rich and energetic content on the web smartly, how soon it overtakes Flash is to be seen.
