Pacifica is High-Quality VoIP for Flash

Today, Adobe announced a new project, codenamed 'Pacifica'. In the keynote here at MAX Chicago, I got a chance to demo a sample application using our high-quality voice codec. In fact, the voice quality was so good that folks couldn't believe it was VoIP! We had to take special measures to demonstrate that I was at my computer, piped into the public address system via my USB headset and the Pacifica hosted service.

Here are some quick facts about Pacifica:

• Pacifica is built on top of the open standard SIP protocol.
  
• Our first mission is to maintain the highest quality voice experience possible, pushing the boundaries of the Flash Platform.
  
• Right now, Pacifica enables point-to-point (P2P) transmission of the media channel once the connection is established via our servers.
• We are dedicated to a complete P2P solution going forward, to eliminate the complex server back end and configuration needed with most VoIP technologies.

My job as Lead Quality Engineer is to ensure that our ActionScript SDK, bootstrap servers, and Flex components are ready for our developer-only Private Beta coming soon. Meanwhile, we'll be developing more sample applications like the Adobe Premiere Express integration that we showed at MAX today.

Going forward, we have the following agenda, in no particular order:

• Enable Video over IP
• Enable support for AIR applications
• Enable connections to traditional phone networks (aka PSTN termination)
• Provide support for text messaging
• Improve our model for Presence and availability
• Bake in some advanced firewall and NAT traversal techniques

Our team at Adobe would love for you to get involved. If you're a Flash, Flex, or AJAX developer, you can apply to our Private Beta by completing our brief survey.

Also, we're hiring! If you're an outstanding engineer with experience in SIP, ActionScript, and/or hosted services, you can use the survey above to apply to work with us at Adobe as a developer, designer, or a quality engineer.

I'm really excited to finally be able to blog about our project (whew)! Stay tuned for more details as they become available:

• Subscribe to this blog feed (also available via email), or
  
• Follow "pacifica" on Twitter for updates from the trenches, and/or
  
• Follow "dom" on Twitter for these and other adventures.

Thanks!

Now Hiring: Quality Engineer

Position Summary

We are looking for a candidate to inspire a high level of confidence in the quality of Adobe’s real-time communications and VoIP products and services. The ideal candidate will have some hands-on web development experience coupled with a passion for test driven development and producing high quality software.

You will need to hit the ground running and specify, write and implement an exemplary automated testing framework for system, performance, and functional tests of real-time communications and VoIP related products and services.

Responsibilities

• Create and maintain an automated test framework for Java, C++, and ActionScript builds.
• Create comprehensive automated tests, and help developers to write their own.
• Execute test cases, with a meticulous attention to detail, for all areas of the product.
• Analyze results and write detailed reports that accurately isolate defects.
• Generate, evaluate, and filter product development ideas based on quantitative analysis of Use Cases
• Promote an entrepreneurial work ethic and sense of agency and ownership.
• Recommend efficient means to test VoIP Quality of Service, ActionScript code, and APIs.
• Refine Quality Assurance metrics and process; work with engineers to ensure implementation.
• Demonstrate outstanding intellect, drive, and interpersonal skills; a passion for building things.
• Detect gaps or oversights in implementation decisions.
• Work with Quality Engineers on other teams when necessary to ensure prompt resolution of issues.
• Demonstrate extremely clear and effective written and verbal communication skills.
• Bring proven track record of success in a dynamic environment.
• Bring proven ability to maintain distinction between sensitive and public information.
• Report to Engineering Manager and maintain a peer relationship with Computer Scientists.

Knowledge & Skills

• Required: 5-7 years experience in a production Web software environment.
• Required: Strong understanding of software development and web services ecosystem.
• Required: Familiarity with ActionScript (AS3 preferred), and proven ability to develop using Web technologies (CSS, XHTML, Flash).
• Required: Strong scripting / coding background in one or more of the following: C++, Perl, PHP, Ruby, Java.
• Preferred: BA/BS Degree.
• Preferred: Experience with VoIP (SIP, RTP) and other real-time communications tools.

This job is Full Time / Contract-to-hire in San Francisco. Please fill out our brief survey if interested, or use the Adobe Jobs site to Apply Now (just search for "voip").