Re:flash limits for audio recording?

[ev]

well flash communication server poses one solution.  u can read more about it at macromedia.com, but pretty a client can record audio and video and then it can be streamed to other clients in real time or stored on the server.  unfortunately, i dont know a great deal about actually using flash comm, though im sure if u know flash actionscript well, flash comm will not be difficult in anyway.
now i know that flash comm stores the data over some files on the server, and u can access them using shared objects.  i dont know how u an store this data on a database and manage it all from there.  however, u could build the whole message board in flash using server side shared objects in place of a database.

ev

[Jorge Solis]

The sound is stored in FLV files in FlashComm. You can use a database without problems. I have build some Karaoke machine for an online game ... currently the FlashCom server is down (we have disconect it) but you can get the idea here: http://www.ex3interaction.com/karaoke/
If you are interested, I can restart the FlashComm server (the app is fine, just the server is offline)
About costs, is not hight until you don't need the server in-house, and can rent a hosting with FlashCom support.

Jorge

[ev]

how do u access the files, dont u need the reference from a shared object?  how can a database be integrated in this?

ev

[Jorge Solis]

Yep, FlashCom easy way is using Shared object. Some simple snippet to get users recordings of some song from a combobox looks like this:

[script]
//Conect to the app
var app = "rtmp:/karaoke/"+myList.getSelectedItem().data
_root.client_nc.connect(app);
// load a remote shared object
_root.rec_so = SharedObject.getRemote("recordings", client_nc.uri, true);
[/script]

Anytime a user records a song, a reference is added to the recordings SO and then is used to retrieve the info.
Database could be integrate trough (at least) two ways: as usual not regarding to the FlashCom server and mixing the data inside the movie, or integrating the database call trough Flash Remoting, so you can use Flash Remoting calls in the ActionScript Serverside, mixing FlashCom and Flash Remoting calls.

Jorge

[ev]

ah ok, but i think it would be easier to admin if all the data for the message board was stored in a shared object...it might not necessarily be as efficient.

ev

[Jorge Solis]

Not efficient and fast as a database, plus some search issues (SO are basically arrays), but you can give a try.

Jorge

[ev]

the problem i see is SO management when the rest of the data is stored on the database (of course if u build a good admin app as well it should be fine), plus site migration.