I just noticed on RTI's site that the flash firmware upgrades for the K4, T4, and RK3 are now available.

Guess I have a project for this eve...

About time.....

When will they add it to the editor... hmmmm thats the question.

could someone give some specific examples of how you will use this feature?

right now, the flash is only for the web viewing, which is a nice upgrade from basic HTML, i can't see RTI using Flash as an "interface" option for their systems, well not yet at least....

This does open the portal for better streaming information from the net, I know that I will be doing some flash web programming of some picture slideshows, games and stuff like that from my site to use on the "flash" babies.....

I will tell you this, as a Flash programmer, this opens many doors for better Internet experiences with the RTI systems. I am siked!!!!

Not knowing Flash programming, I would like to know how you plan to use this also. Should I get a "Flash for Dummies" book? :)

edit: Joey answered my question

Will this allow us to control an escient piece via web interface?

Well I was thinking that I could be able to control the netstreams. When I get to the office i will check.

Esceints uses a straight HTML interface. Request uses flash.. will check that too...

OK...

I did the firmware update.

I called in and got the super secret authorization code for my K4.

Entered my Super Secret code.

I was informed that my K4 is now Flash ready.

I reset the K4 (as instructed).

Nothing looks any different.

I checked a few typical sites (Comcast, ESPN), they are all still saying that I need to download Flash 9.


Am I missing something simple?

Flash's usefulness is limited, but it does open up lots of potential for the RTI keypads. You have to remember that these panels are still running small low powered processors (K4 @ 400 mhz), so your not going to be able to use youtube or ESPN to stream flash video to your panels. This does, however open up the floodgates for all sorts of addon modules that can pull information from other networked devices and internet services.

Some examples of the flash interfaces you could create:
-weather
-tv guide (EPG data)
-control of ip thermostats, security systems, media centers, and other ip devices
-2 Way control of IP devices
-RSS\Headline Reader
-Other pages that display relevant information to the user pulled from the internet

All of this will make heavy use of Flash's sendAndLoad() function. You should definitely read up on that functionality to get the most out of flash on the RTI panels. I will gather together some info and sample code to get you guys started with flash and pulling data and post it on CLIQKLABS sometime soon.

What you can't do:
-Send IR commands from within flash
-Run anything compiled for Flash 8 or Flash 9 (RTI is using the old flash 7 for WinCE)
-Have your flash movies playback any kind of video or parse large amounts of information

I tested some of my existing flash movies and the Flash plugin chokes when trying to pull in data from 100 MP3 tracks. It takes too long to load the XML data and flash displays a warning message saying 'The flash script is taking too long to respond, do you want to continue waiting?'. As far as I know there is no way to disable this warning message, and in reality if the user has to wait from than 15 seconds to see a page load, it's probably not worth having on there.

I will experiment some more with some scaled down flash interfaces to see what is possible. Check this forum and http://cliqklabs.com for my progress and results.

-CLIQKLABS

Right Now I have the Digilinx controls coming up on a T4. I would like to plug in my K4 but I left it at home. Anyways... Digilinx with the ability to actually control other stuff.

The other thing I am playing with is the AudioRequest web interface. Its quick to actually change tracks and pause but it takes the T4 a few seconds to update.

I am having issues here and there but its still on the bench and at the office. NEVER IN FRONT OF CUSTOMERS!!!

Cliqk Labs -

I just read the RK3 thread on your forum. That tiny browser object trick is a GREAT idea. That was a great post and had a ton of info.

Thanks.

Digilinx, and Aurora Multimedia are two possible apps.

With the Aurora (ie Waci NX) you could make your OWN frash interfaces, and actually control devices via IR and/or RS232. You could have 2 way feedback on RTI touchpanels. I once had a Waci NX at home and created a very basic interface that I used to control the volume on a Denon receiver. I even had a fancy little volume "fader" that tracked the volume of the receiver.

Still pretty limited without a device like this.. and this just adds extra complexity that is probably not warranted.... unless your geek gene has taken control of your senses.

If the XP 8 had a way of "server" flash based web pages, and built in control structures within the flash file for actual control of devices this would be cool.

Basically, what we'd need is a way for buttons in the flash interface to "send" commands to the RTI software, which could then process the commands/macros.

Not sure if RTI has any plans for this type of functionality.

I suppose you could serve the files from a NAS and (hopefully) there will be a form of IP control of the XP-8. That way you could send Http request strings from the flash interface to the XP-8 to use as trigger commands instead of the IR trigger commands.