Tip 1.

When initiating a connection to the Camera it's best to do this through the Microphone class. Sounds odd I know! The reason for this is when this code is called :

var camera:Camera = Camera.getCamera();
ns.attachCamera(camera);


there's a hang just after the allow button is selected on the security dialog panel. This is rationalled in the Adobe Flash help as 'Scanning the hardware for cameras takes time'. So it's best to trigger the security panel via

var microphone:Microphone = Microphone.getMicrophone();
ns.attachAudio(microphone);

then listen for the Status Event of UnMuted or later in your application call

var camera:Camera = Camera.getCamera();
ns.attachCamera(camera);


There will always be a delay on this code ns.attachCamera(camera); but at least via activating the Microphone first you won't get a bug like delay of the security panel not disappearing immediately after the allow button is pressed.

Tip 2.

When recording to a Flash Media Server make sure the camera has activity via the Activity Status Event before publishing the stream. Otherwise you may get a static or black frame at the beginning of the recorded stream.

Tip 3.

To disable/turn off the Camera after a recording is complete do so via :

ns.attachCamera(null);

Though this is actually documented for AS3 it wasn't in AS2. Once this has been done the Camera will need to be reconnected for a new recording and users will experience this delay again as the Camera starts as mentioned above.

Tip 4.

When embedding your Flash do not change the wmode from default. Otherwise you will get problems on specific browser configurations i.e. Firefox PC . These problems include that the allow button on the security dialog box will not hide on click.

Tip 5.

When detecting wether the user has a web camera you can't rely on Camera.names.length(). This is because there are scenarios whereby devices will appear in the list which may not be webcameras but devices like TV capture cards and can not be used as a camera. The solution for this is when the camera is attached via

var camera:Camera = Camera.getCamera();
ns.attachCamera(camera);


Then add a time out catch which can be cleared via the camera's activity event, so that if camera activity occurs within the time out of say 5 seconds then clear the timeout. Otherwise if the timeout happens handle the error scenario.

Tip 6.

Further to the above it's good at the point of displaying the error message to give the user an option to fix this problem. This is because it may simply be a matter of the user changing the default camera selected. This can be done via adding a button and firing the Camera devices security dialog by the following :

Security.showSettings(SecurityPanel.CAMERA);


It's interesting to know that when the user is selecting options from the Camera devices list it's possible to detect wether the option selected is actually a Camera. Once again this is done via camera.activityLevel>0 on the Camera's activity event. Sadly there is not yet a reliable way to detect when the dialog panel close event occurs. So with this in mind when the user has picked a camera, you should make a noticible visual change somewhere behind the dialog box (and overlay screen) so the user will proceed to the close button - happy days.

There are also 6 mini games which can be embedded in webpages here.

Check out the site

On a technical note the site uses Flash Media Server 2 to record the clips. This is our first experiment in using this particular revision of Flash technology last time for me was Flash Communication Server way back when.

For me I find this type of site interesting to monitor the ratio's of people using this site as it hinges completely on having a web camera so I'll be keeping an eye over the stats for the next few weeks as the movie is out in cinemas in the US yesterday and Australia June the 21st.

Visit the site - Flame On!

Play the game here

Please excuse the the cheesy 'next generation' site name - X-Series. Three did originally want '3X', the rationalle being the sites about there new 3G services and 3xX = XXX, sooo it didn't stick. I just wished with the name conclusion (X-Series) the branding steered clear of the OSX look! If only to be original. But hey, Macs are sposed to cool and like all youth targetted campaigns and there brand - Three thinks they are also, so merrily down this road they travelled.

This site was a huge effort by many of my work colleagues: Brad, Christian, Jon, Matt and I did the Flash. Most was done from scratch, while the rest was provided from the client and was localised. Though the Flash work done is nothing out of the ordinary. Though one thing I think is important pointing out is that this site is hybrid (not some full flash monster), so this site works exactly the same using alternative content ( except the product demos ;) ) - which I think is important.

Huge credit goes to John - Mr Freaksauce for coming in mid project, managing all the content changes, CSS and adding in some thickbox loving for the contact forms, which results in a better user experience in the transaction/enquiry process.

Have a look at the site here

Magazine Cover
Josh Goot Article
Suite 302 Article
The Long Afternoon Article

You can read issue 3 here

Anyway check it out there is soon to be even cooler stuff added in Phase 2 will keep you posted.

Ash and I did the original Flash build which was pretty involving but I think the coolest thing is to see it extended and added to and knowing it has that capacity as alot of the content was XML driven. Again Bradman and the Ronchy Ron came to aid with the design.

I think the only thing this site's missing is a VR BBQ

On another note we also got pulled up in Adnews for ripping the game concept from Amnesia's car racing game from 2 years ago. Funny thing was that they said it has a similar track design and score engine. Well I ask you how many ways can u peel a bannana ??

Credits also go out to the multi-talented client whore Christian

Play the game here

The data communication is all done by SOAP (and not Soap where I work :) ) and 1 down side was the requirement to send all the data by HTTPS which means the data is bloated due to encryption. In any case they (Oakton) did a good job at these dynamic XML queries coming back as fast as they do. For later releases I hope we can take advantage of at least Gzip to bring down the size of these XML packets that will be phase 1.1 as they say. As well hopefully some cool shit like video previews .... Anyway there has been alot of positive PR which is good.

Try it out