hates the internet

Speak is an online communication environment which offers multiple concurrent isolated rooms, all of which are capable of real time two way audio, video and text chat. The system also supports pre-recorded audio or video content which can be made available to users in multiple rooms and has an in-depth logging and reporting system.

The Speak system was created using a number of cutting-edge rich media and Web 2.0 technologies. The primary design goal is to allow access to anyone anywhere using nothing more than a high speed internet connection and the Adobe Flash player.

Below is a quick list of some of Speak's major components and will grow as I add to the system:

The Red5 Server

Red5 is an open source alternative to the Flash Media Server based on the Spring application and Apache MINA NIO frameworks. A custom Red5 webapp is the backbone of the Speak system.

ActionScript 3

The client side of Speak was written using Adobe's ActionScript 3 scipting language available in Flash Player 9 or newer.

GUI Library

Interaction with the Speak system occurs through a light-weight, custom ActionScript 3 GUI library which I wrote from the ground up focusing on simplicity and skinability, the look and feel of the interface itself can be customized by modifying a few small graphical assets and text can be changed using CSS style sheets.

PHP/SQL Backend

User administration for the Speak system is handled via an easy-to-use standards (XHTML/CSS) compliant web front end following accepted layout and design principles. Like the GUI, the web front end can support any number of skins.

DWT Engine

The PHP front end to the site is designed to make direct use of Adobe DreamWeaver template files and content is rendered into specially named TemplateEditableInstances.

Dynamic Reporting

The Speak system is capable of delivering up-to-the-minute reports on pretty much every aspect of the system. Client administrators can get reports on usage across all or specific to one room. The reporting system uses dynamically generated graphs and a caching system to speed delivery of already generated reports.

What did you do?

From stem to stern, Speak is entirely my baby. I am the sole developer and, barring the PHP graphing library and certain parts of the GUI (icons, widget graphics and window chrome), I wrote Speak entirely from scratch.

Can I see it?

Unfortunately, due to bandwidth limitations, self-guided demonstrations of Speak are currently not available, but demonstrations can be arranged for those interested.

Screenshots