Orca Interactive, a global market leader in developing middleware and applications for IPTV, introduced a SUI SDK for Macromedia® Flash® as part of its RiGHTv^TM IPTV middleware. Orca SUI SDK for Flash incorporates Macromedia Flash technology for third-party development of IPTV applications, enabling service providers and system integrators to build branded, feature-packed TV interfaces that provide an optimized user experience.

A full demonstration of Orca's SUI SDK for Flash, running on Espial® Escape® browser with Macromedia Flash 6.0 plug-in, will take place at booth # 2.230 at IBC2005, September 9-13 at the Amsterdam RAI.

The advanced user interface, made possible by the use of Flash, enables a more streamlined look and feel, with high quality visual effects and animations delivered at optimum performance levels. Flash development is fast and simple, thus reducing costs and speeding time-to-market of IPTV services. With more than one million developers experienced in Flash, the SUI SDK for Flash opens up the development of interactive TV interfaces to this wide-spread community, resulting in service control and development cost reduction, and making available a huge resource of rich interactive content, games and applications.

"Our mission is to enable great digital experiences on the Internet, on fixed media, on wireless, and on digital devices, including TV," said Gary Kovacs, VP Product Management and Marketing, Mobile and Devices, Macromedia. "Orca's SUI SDK for Flash represents a revolution in Flash-based TV interfaces to provide enhanced capabilities on IP STBs, allowing for unmatched portability, customization and service availability."

"With fierce competition to provide profitable, addictive TV services, IPTV operators are challenged to offer a differentiated, extraordinary TV experience," said Yosi Glick, VP Marketing and Business Development, Orca Interactive. "Our SUI SDK with Macromedia Flash provides a powerful combination that enables service providers to offer a large variety of TV-grade interactive services with an exciting user experience."

Orca's SUI SDK for Flash turns the current version of Flash into a full-featured SUI development environment; the entire SUI development process is done without leaving Flash. With its WYSIWYG visual authoring approach with OOP (Object Oriented Programming), Macromedia Flash is ideal for SUI development. Developers can use SUI SDK TV components, extend Orca's ActionScript 2.0 SUI classes, write new classes, load their work to the STB and instantly watch the results on the TV.

Orca SUI SDK for Flash provides developers with:

• A set of out-of-the-box SUI components, such as EPG grid, info bar, movie list and video preview, used by the developers to create exciting Macromedia Flash SUI applications.
• The SUI presentation layer is built using the WYSIWYG capabilities of Flash.
• A set of ActionScript 2.0 classes supports the connectivity of the Flash SUI to Orca's IPTV middleware, and an additional set is available for connectivity with any Flash-enabled IPTV STB.
• The same SUI may be developed for STBs of different capabilities automatically using their class information. Developers require no specific STB development expertise.
• Documentation of Orca's components and classes, as well as code samples, is available in the Flash help files.