As GStreamer has developed into a strong technology, Barcelona-based Fluendo has become synonymous with
GStreamer. Besides employing and contracting several of the core GStreamer
developers--including both Hervey and Bultje--Fluendo sponsors core GStreamer
development and provides a range of commercial services and software products.
In addition to their Flumotion streaming server product, Fluendo have also
worked alongside Nokia to integrate GStreamer technology into the up and coming
Nokia 770
Internet Tablet.
Fluendo sponsors PiTiVi development, and Hervey spends each day at Fluendo
working on his application. Fluendo obviously see some commercial viability in
funding the development: "PiTiVi is a new way of using the GStreamer framework,"
says Hervey. "[Unlike] other GStreamer-based applications such as players
(Rhythmbox, Totem, etc.) or the Flumotion streaming server, a non-linear editor
is very demanding; you must be able to seek quickly in any part of the
timeline, be able to do very complex combinations of filters and effects, allow
the import and export of different media formats, and so forth."
It is evident that PiTiVi is an application that can test the viability of
GStreamer for such demanding requirements. "PiTiVi is very interesting for
GStreamer development, in the sense that it allows us to stress-test the
framework, hence improving it and all the other applications based on it," says
Hervey. "[This] results in Fluendo having an even better framework for the
services and products it is developing. Also, having such a demanding
application allows Fluendo to sell more of the plugins it will shortly be
marketing for Real and Window Media codecs."
Hervey is referring to the work going on inside Fluendo to sell the
critically important and proprietary codecs that are the backbone of video
production. These patent-encumbered and legally restricted codecs have been a
challenge in open source adoption, as distributors cannot legally distribute
many of the codecs with their software. Fluendo will provide MPEG2, MPEG4,
H.264, MP3, AC3, Windows Media, and Real codecs available for use with
GStreamer, and as a result, available for all GStreamer-compatible applications
such as PiTiVi.
A Bright Future
It is evident that GStreamer is proving to be a solid option for supporting
multimedia in Linux and other systems. Although the combination of focused
development, funding, and applications such as PiTiVi are clear benefits, the
real challenge comes in persuading the greater open source community to take up
the technology. One of the criticisms that often levelled towards open source
developers is that they often solve a problem by simply developing another
framework that will ultimately die from lack of adoption. There have indeed
been similar projects, such as the KDE-related aRts project, but Bultje is confident
that GStreamer offers a superior option. "[Seriously], you can't compare those.
We're technologically way more advanced. The most important difference? We have the
community support."
Community support, or more specifically, developer support, really is key to
the success of GStreamer. Although the GStreamer offering has not yet reached
version 1.0, it is clear that GStreamer offers possibly the most compelling
solution, with support both from a commercial entity and in the community. It
is promising to see that support is flowing in from a range of developers. This
has naturally included the GNOME developers behind Totem, Rhythmbox, Jamboree,
Muine, Sound Juicer etc., but there has also been support with KDE with Amarok,
JuK, KISS, and commercial support with Flumotion and the Nokia 770.
The result of this increasing GStreamer adoption is that media creation is
becoming a reality on open source systems. With such attention to detail going
on within the GStreamer community, the process of building solid applications
for creating and consuming media is a case of developing the application and
not having to worry about the mechanics of dealing with media at such a low
level. This will result in more expansive applications created more quickly and
efficiently--GStreamer manages the heavy lifting and applications can simply
use it.
It is an exciting time for multimedia on Linux, and it will be interesting to
see how the story unfolds. We could be tentatively close to breaking the lock
that Windows and Mac machines have held on the media creation market.
Jono Bacon
has been working as a full-time writer
and technology consultant/developer since 2000 and has
worked for a variety of publishers and companies.
