It seems Adobe is jumping on the High-Definition bandwagon with their announcement of support for High Definition video via Flash over the Internet.

The new update to Flash Player 9 provides support for the H.264 codec for high-definition video content, as well as improved audio support.

So what does this mean for video over the web? The logical answer here is full-screen streaming video content of unprecedented quality, high-quality movie trailers and rich-media interactive experiences combined with IPTV. As developers this means we’ll have more powerful tools for reaching new markets and wider audiences.

Sadly for many of us in the UK I feel this won’t be the case just yet, whether you're a developer or a consumer. I’m a bit of an AV-obsessive so hate to be cynical, but I can’t see any of the above happening unless UK ISPs change their position on bandwidth and how heavily their customers use the internet.

The internet holds great promise as a delivery platform for television content. Satellite giant Sky have been making inroads towards video-on-demand services over broadband, and the BBC, Tiscali and BT have launched their own IPTV services in the form of BBC iPlayer, Tiscali TV and BT-Vision. With increasing convergence between the web and traditional broadcasting new opportunities exist for interactivity such as that offered by the Flash platform. The success of sites such as YouTube shows that the problem isn't one of demand.

Unfortunately, the majority of ISPs still seem hopelessly unrealistic about how much bandwidth their customers need. Speed-throttling and usage limits abound with most ISPs under the PR-friendly guise of ‘Traffic-Shaping’ or ‘Fair-Use’ policies. Limits notwithstanding, non-cable customers using ADSL are at the mercy of aging infrastructure that reduces potential speeds. 

Technology blog Gizmodo has been one of many to chronicle the huge disparity between the speeds ISPs advertise as possible and those their customers can actually get, following a report by Which? Online.

Clearly, as with most good things in life, bandwidth is not infinite. The logistical and financial burden falls on the ISPs to administrate the network and ensure everyone gets their share. However this flipside of the coin is notoriously absent in the advertising of so-called ‘unlimited’ and ‘high-speed’ broadband services.

The BBC’s launch of its iPlayer IPTV offering, recently fell foul of ISPs due to customers using increasing amounts of bandwidth to use the service. Hardly suprisingly news given that many ISPs are positioning themselves as providers of IPTV themselves.

Sadly then, without higher prices for customers and ISPs investing more heavily in their infrastructure we’re unlikely to see the kind of broadband speeds enjoyed by America, Korea and Japan; though more realistic advertising from ISPs would be a nice start.

So where does this leave our streaming, high-def, all-singing all-dancing web video experience in the UK? Sadly, as with many quintessentially British experiences, most likely at the back of the queue waiting in line for its turn.

Nick Welch