Adobe’s Visual Communicator 3 Integrates with Flash Media Server

"For tomorrow’s broadcast professionals, Visual Communicator delivers a fast-track to the quality of results seen every night on television news reports," said Mark Randall, chief strategist, dynamic media at Adobe.

During a preview of Visual Communicator 3 with Michelle Gallina, who was part of the original Serious Magic team and now fills the role of product marketing manager for Adobe’s versions of Ultra and Visual Communicator, the new version’s set-up wizards, drag-and-drop animated templates, and an interactive "Coach" tutorial are helpful in creating a newscast.

"One of our focus areas is education," said Gallina, "and we’ve found many young students are interested in broadcast as a possible career. Schools weren’t able to afford expensive broadcast studios, but had become big fans of previous versions of Visual Communicator. With the new Coach feature, instructors can help students learn the system at a pace the students are comfortable with."

One thing that Visual Communicator 3 doesn’t have is the actual, physical green screen that was part of previous packages.

"Adobe wants to focus exclusively on the software side," said Gallina, "so they removed the physical green screen from the package. On our website, though, we recommend particular green screens, as well as ways to make your own. And, with the use of Ultra’s keying features in Visual Communicator 3, the user is afforded the flexibility of doing blue screens, green screens, pink screens, or any color."

In addition to the green screen capability, Visual Communicator 3 users can also set their video to music and enhance it with an entire library of newscast-style graphics, effects, and titles. The product officially goes on sale this fall, but beta versions are available starting today at labs.adobe.com.