What is Silverlight?

What is Silverlight?

Microsoft Silverlight is a cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in for delivering the next generation of .NET-based media experiences and rich interactive applications for the Web. Silverlight offers a flexible and consistent programming model that supports AJAX, Python, Ruby, and .NET languages such as Visual Basic and C#, and integrates with existing Web applications. Silverlight media capabilities include fast, cost-effective delivery of high-quality audio and video to all major browsers including Firefox, Safari, and Internet Explorer running on Mac or Windows. By using Expression Studio and Visual Studio, designers and developers can collaborate more effectively using the skills they have today to light up the Web of tomorrow.

Compelling Cross-Platform User Experiences

• Deliver media experiences and rich interactive applications (RIA) for the Web that incorporate video, animation, interactivity, and stunning user interfaces.
• Seamless, fast installation for end users thanks to a Small, on-demand, easy to install plug-in that is under 2MB in size and works with all leading browsers.
• Consistent experiences on Mac and Windows without any additional installation requirements.
• Create richer, more compelling Web experiences that take greater advantage of the client for increased performance.
• Stunning vector-based graphics, media, text, animation and overlays allow seamless integration of graphics and effects into any existing Web application.
• Enhance existing standards/AJAX-based applications with richer graphics and media, and improve their performance and capabilities using Silverlight.

Flexible programming model with collaborative tools

• Based on the .NET Framework, Silverlight enables developers and designers to easily use existing skills and tools to deliver media experiences and RIAs for the Web.
• Simple integration with existing Web technologies and assets means Silverlight works with any back-end Web platform or technology. No “rip and replace” required – Silverlight integrates with your existing infrastructure and applications, including Apache, PHP, as well as Javascript and XHTML on the client. 
• Choice of development languages including JavaScript, Ruby, Python, C#, Visual Basic.NET, and more.
• Role specific tools for both designers and developers that leverage Web standards and the breadth of the Microsoft .NET application platform features.
  • Expression Studio (designers) for creating interactive user interfaces and media-rich experiences, preparing media for encoding and distribution, and creating W3C standards-compliant sites using modern XHTML, XML, XSLT, CSS, and ASP.NET.
  • Visual Studio (developers) for development of client and server code with full IntelliSense, powerful cross-platform debugging, rich language support, and more.
• Consistent presentation model using XAML, the declarative presentation language used in Windows Vista applications.  Controls, visual designs, media, and other elements can be presented with full design fidelity in both Silverlight and Windows applications.

• Extensible control model makes it easy to add rich content and behaviors while enabling efficient code-reuse and sharing.

• Dramatically improved performance for AJAX-enabled Web sites with the power, performance, and flexibility of Silverlight and the .NET environment.

Efficient, lower-cost delivery, and more capable media solution

• Unified media format scales from HD to mobile with Windows Media Video (WMV), the Microsoft implementation of the SMPTE VC-1 video standard, as well as support for WMA and MP3 audio.
• Add vector-based graphics and overlays to mediawith support for integration of graphics that scale to any size, and broadcast-style overlays for tickers and closed captioning.
• Flexible ad-insertion solutions with video & animationincluding the ability to deliver fluid, broadcast-style video or animated advertisements without loss of visual fidelity or motion quality.
• Lower-cost media streaming with Emmy®-award winning Windows Media Technologies that can provide up to 46% lower cost of streaming delivery, and the flexibility to work with existing Windows Media streaming deployments. Even further cost reductions are possible with the upcoming IIS Media Pack for Windows Server (code-name “Longhorn”).
• Broad ecosystem of media tools, servers and solutionscompatible with the Windows Media Technologies platform.
• Microsoft® PlayReady™ content access technology delivers a single solution for digital rights management support on both Windows and Mac for content providers (available later in 2007).
• Powerful encoding tools for live and on-demand publishing of media experiences with Expression Media Encoder, including hardware-accelerated encoding of WMV and VC-1 at up to 15x software-only performance when paired with a Tarari Accelerator board.

Connected to Web, servers, and services

• Easily mash-up and incorporate services and data from anywhere on the Web by leveraging Silverlight support for LINQ and LINQ-to-XML while accessing that data with common protocols like JSON, RSS, POX, and REST
• Increase discoverability of RIA content that can be indexed and searched thanks to the text-based XAML format which describes interface and content in a Silverlight application.
• Rapidly scale applications with the Silverlight Streaming by Windows Live to host and integrate software services and media content.