News that Adobe is close to completing development on a Flash App for the iPhone has generated plenty of discussion, but there seems to be a growing consensus that there isn’t sufficient incentive for Apple to publish it.

The iPhone’s closed platform gives Apple tremendous power which would only be weakened by offering developers another platform to create rich applications on. In terms of video it is less than critical; users already watch H.264 encoded YouTube clips via a separate app and can watch Quicktime encoded DailyMotion videos through the Safari browser. The range of video that can be watched without the Flash player will continue to increase as more video sites support industry standard codecs.

Access to the iPhone would be great for Adobe, the more platforms Flash can be used on the better, but Flash apps are typically processor heavy, they wouldn’t necessarily provide revenue for Apple and the iPhone already has a large, loyal user base. Until Flash can add substantial value, and right now it can’t there are few advantages in supporting it for Apple.

London based The JD Project recently launched WeDigTV, an online video portal aimed at forging what they call TV2, a “whole new genre in visual entertainment.” And near-HD interactive video is nothing to sneeze at.

The JD Project started as an agency called Jaildog, which won a BIMA award for its Who Wants to Be a Millionaire site for AOL back in 2004.

Above: WeDigTV Program Guide

Since rebranding, the company has focused its efforts on becoming a new kind of entertainment company, partnering with content producers including Freemantle and Endemol to create a more engaging video experience for viewers with an understanding of how valuable that can be to advertisers.

The WeDigTV lineup includes 8 channels so far, offering users a chance to compete in games like Who Wants to Be a Millionaire and The Price is Right for free ad-supported or for cash prizes by purchasing credits.

Above: Who Wants to be a Millionaire Fullscreen

Because of the engagement this drives, the company has been able to offer what it calls long-play interactive video ads, 40-second mid-roll spots with an interactive component, an example of which can be found here.

The browser based player is very smooth, another in the line of video portals distributed across BitGravity’s CDN. It is very similar in appearance to Joost.

While I’m personally not a big game show fan, the high quality, ease of use and interactivity of WeDigTV did suck me in and it shows the potential of these kinds of applications.

While there is endless buzz surrounding new video formats and content delivery methods for digital media, user experience and the visual interface, a critical component of online video is rarely discussed in context.

At the IP Media Expo in New York last week I had the opportunity to sit down with executives from Schematic, the interactive agency responsible for the most innovative experiences on the web. Schematic designed the player for ABC and more recently the full episode portal for FOX.

With so much new content being published on so many screens, Schematic’s Chief Strategy Officer Kurt Kratchman told me they are facing an “insatiable demand.”

Schematic, which was acquired last month by WPP, has in a matter of years transformed itself into a major force in digital media by making by online video accessible. They have done so by starting with relationships and mapping the way that people use technology in all of its forms.

We use that lens of 1ft 2ft 1oft and beyond. It used to be linear but now it’s interactive and you’re moving content on so many different screens, what’s the right medium, the right paradigm? That’s where Dale, he’s an expert of understanding dimensional navigation and spatial navigation and he’s invented a lot of paradigms for that.

Dale Herigstad is Schematic’s Chief Creative Officer who, in his more than two decades in the industry has spanned the life of CGI and motion graphics. Most recently he worked on interfaces for the XBox 360 and Microsoft Surface in addition to designing FOX and ABC’s online video portals. Remember that scene in Minority Report where users move objects on a screen by gesture? He had a role in that too.

Schematic is a company that operates in the now; most of their projects are in a time frame of 12-18 months, and Herigstad said that he sees greater interaction and advanced television interfaces coming very quickly both to broadband and to cable set top boxes.

“I really have high standards, I think the audience wants really rich looking things. I’ve done so much work in the last ten years, just painfully around enhanced television and programming…and that’s been such a slow thing because of the technology, I really think a lot of what we were doing then is actually happening in broadband right now.”

For online video, fragmented by technology and format limitations, Schematic works with content distributors to determine the best solution for user experience and monetization. “Our job is to pick the best of breed, and to work with who those best of breed are” said Kratchman.

The web is becoming a richer, non-linear platform for interaction, the interface for which is a screen. Every piece of content will soon be available for interaction on every other type of digital device. Pulling in dynamic online content for use in HD-DVD for instance, or mapping relationships between people using mobile devices in such a way that users can be delivered relevant information they may not have known existed.

Schematic and other design companies sit between the content distributor and the end-user improving the way entertainment and information are consumed while creating a richer more valuable experience for both consumers and broadcast networks.

Linear web interaction will give way to world of information made more valuable in context with all other data. Schematic is leading the charge to design the user experience that will make this next generation of digital interaction accessible to everyone.

Wednesday I will be at the IP Media Expo, co-located with Satcon and the HD Media Expo. It should be interesting to see some of the broadcast quality video over IP content delivery solutions hitting the market.

I will also be speaking with Dale Herigstad, co-founder and Chief Creative officer at Schematic who has worked on the interfaces for XBox 360, Microsoft Surface and is a thought leader on development of GUIs for EPGs.

I’m hoping to get his ideas on the future of TV and content discovery and whether the english language will sooner or later consist entirely of acronyms.

Check out the interview with him above (thanks Kempton) and If you have questions you think I should ask leave a comment.

Well sort of. In yesterday’s post we mentioned that Silverlight would need to begin showing off what it could do, and today with the intro of Tafiti, Microsoft showed the potential of Silverlight in the context of everyday use with search.

Following the addition of H.264 to Flash, Silverlight can no longer compete on quality of video codec alone. Rich internet applications built on top of these codecs can do very unique things and the ability to develop these will likely be a primary determinant of success.

The increase in interactivity and engagement that will come as a result of these technologies will change the way people participate in media and will alter the way we interact with the web. Check out a demo of Tahiti via on10 here.

Adobe today announced a new release of Flash dubbed Moviestar which includes H.264 support, strengthening Adobe’s already entrenched position in online video.

Since NAB back in April when Microsoft first introduced Silverlight to the public, there has been increasing debate over whether Microsoft can convert more users by gaining professional acceptance of Silverlight and its VC-1 codec as a more powerful rich media technology.

Microsoft is starting from the top, Signing on the MLBs of the world, pushing the high quality endgame and hoping users will follow the content. Adobe is working from the ground up to make Flash the most effective solution for the greatest number of people and developers.

While adding H.264, a strong and widely used codec, makes Flash a more useful product there is a strong argument to be made that VC-1 is a better high-bitrate solution, and may be more effective as an IPTV solution.

Microsoft with their existing corporate partnerships has been able to sign on some large partners for Silverlight. At the same time, Adobe is moving quickly and their recent introduction of live flash is beginning to pick up steam.

Online video is moving so fast that in addition to straining infrastructure it is putting stress on decision makers. Silverlight is looming and as Adobe’s Tinic Uro writes:

What was unexpected was how impatient a lot of our customers are :- ) It seems many are trying to make choices when it comes to video technologies right now.

Silverlight has been slow to roll out working solutions and Microsoft will need to prove its advantages soon. We are emerging from the low-quality era of the first half of this decade and there is a great deal of money being spent transitioning to the next generation of online video delivery.

The TED Conference continues to roll out new videos of their talks. Blaise Aguera y Arcas’ demo of the work Microsoft Live Labs is doing with PhotoSynth and SeaDragon has been circulating in the tech community. Check it out below.

Essentially they’re hyperlinking millions of images based on the information in them and using that massive database of visual info to create a rich 3D model. The next generation of Rich Internet Applications may look something like this.