Infrared5, Red5, red5server.com

Back in November, I left Brightcove and started working for Infrared5. This was a really awesome move for me and I am really enjoying the space, the people, and the work. Not that there was anything bad about Brightcove, but this is just a much better match.

The reason for this post is to clear up what Infrared5 is, as I get a lot of people asking me how it’s going at Red5, or thinking that I am a Red5 expert now.

Red5 is an Open Source Flash Server written in Java that supports:

• Streaming Audio/Video (FLV and MP3)
• Recording Client Streams (FLV only)
• Shared Objects
• Live Stream Publishing
• Remoting (AMF)

It is an open source, free (as in speech and beer), not-for-profit project created and supported by volunteers in the community.

Infrared5 is a consulting company started by Chris and Rebecca Allen and Dominick Accattato. Chris and Dominick are key players in the inception and ongoing development of the Red5 project. John Grden is another key player in Red5 and also an employee of Infrared5. Other than that, there is no official connection between Red5 and Infrared5. Basically, the company was started because Chris and Dominick were getting so many requests for in depth help and consultations for Red5 work, they decided they might as well quit their day jobs and do this consulting full time. So Infrared5 (or IR5 as we call it in the shop) does consulting work for pay. People pay for us to build Red5 applications and client-side RIAs and the integration between the two. In fact, it’s not just Red5 work. We do pretty much any type of cutting edge Rich Internet Application. It happens that most of our projects do tie in with Red5 one way or the other, but that is not at all a prerequisite for jobs we do. As for the work I do there, it’s all straight AS3 stuff. Again, it often ties in with Red5, but I don’t do much on that end of it other than making the calls and getting the results, or whatever other integration is needed. I may do more direct Red5 stuff in the future, but that’s it for now.

red5server.com is a new company launched recently, now in public beta. This, again, is a for-profit business. It offers hosted Red5 service and support. Rather than set up Red5 on your own server and have to maintain it, you pay for an account. You develop and upload your apps, they take care of the server and maintenance. A lot of the same people from the Red5 community are involved in this company as well, as they are the experts of course. But again, this is entirely separate from the open source and free Red5 project. I don’t have any connection with red5server.com other than knowing most of the people involved in it. [Edit: OK, I guess its ok to say that red5server.com is owned by Infrared5 and Influxis. So I do have a bit of a connection with it, but don’t own any part of it personally, or actually work for it. Clear as mud now?]

This post represents my own understanding of things. If I got anything hugely wrong, I’m sure Chris will correct me just prior to firing me.