Finally it’s a reality – professional cloud video editing in JavaScript

Posted: 29/11/2018

The sheer audacity of it!

Who – apart from Forbidden Technologies, the makers of Blackbird – could even envisage a professional-level cloud video editor in JavaScript?

When we originally voiced this idea, it was met with incredulity. Yes, it would allow the ultimate cloud experience for the booming video market. Yes, it would allow anyone with a computer to make professional video content through a web browser – whether for broadcast TV, or live sports highlights.

It would also massively increase the addressable market for Blackbird by enabling scale distribution through OEMs.

But, people said, the browser infrastructure would not allow it. What didn’t occur to them was that separate from the HTML5 video standard, which is broadly limited to download and playback, is a chink of brilliance. The new video standard.

This is, quite simply, JavaScript. Designed originally for automating drop down menus and other simple tasks, a three-way technology combination has led to our remarkable new products: Blackbird Forte and Blackbird Ascent.

The first of these – and this should be no surprise – is driven by computer gaming. Web Assembly allows high performance applications to run in browsers.

The second of these is the inspirational compiler, CheerpJ, developed by our technology partner, Leaning Technologies.

And the last of the three is Blackbird’s extraordinary real time cloud video software, based around its internet-ready Blackbird 9 video codec.

So now we’ve actually done it. Blackbird Forte and Blackbird Ascent in JavaScript are now being used by paying clients all over the world to rapidly log, clip, edit, publish and distribute live and non-live video content – all from their browser without the need for any additional configuration or installation of plugins or applications. Quite simply this represents an enormous step forward for the video production industry.

This completes the second of the new Blackbird trio of simple, powerful and accessible applications. The first is our MacOS Edge software that simplifies moving video content into the cloud, and JavaScript Forte and Ascent significantly simplifies editing it once there.

The third, our incredible new Blackbird Player, will be the topic of a further blog post.

Stephen Streater
Founder and Director of R&D
Blackbird