Amazon Web Services (AWS) has explained – at AWS re:Invent – how its AWS Elemental Media Services assist video providers to create video offerings in the cloud.
AWS, a leading web hosting company, said that its five new cloud services — based on AWS Elemental video solutions – enable video customers to build workflows for both live and on-demand video with the professional features, image quality to deliver premium video experiences to viewers across multiple devices.
Customers with a few clicks in the AWS Management Console can build video applications and pay only for the technology resources they use and avoid upfront capital investment.
Previously, video providers used to purchase expensive broadcast equipment that was inflexible, slow to adapt to new device platforms, hard to scale to meet times of peak demand, and lacked support for the latest video formats, resolutions, and streaming techniques.
If video providers wanted to adopt new revenue-generating business models, such as personalized advertising to a global customer base, they needed to spend considerable time and effort making that work seamlessly across all devices.
AWS Elemental Media Services eliminate the need to procure expensive equipment for video data centers. These services automate labor-intensive processes that manage on-going video operations. AWS Elemental Media Services let video providers avoid wasted infrastructure due to on-going technology obsolescence.
Video providers can incorporate personalized advertisements into streaming video using advanced techniques to generate additional revenues with their video content.
“For the better part of six decades, professional-grade video workflows were limited to a few major industry players who could afford to build and maintain customized infrastructure that would be updated only once or twice each decade,” said Alex Dunlap, General Manager at AWS Elemental.
BT is looking to leverage AWS to power its next-generation video headend infrastructure which delivers video both to Internet-connected devices and traditional broadcast set-top boxes.
“Rationalizing our on-premises converged headend and extending that infrastructure widely across the BT enterprise requires an all-in shift to the cloud,” said Ian Parr, director TV and Broadband Infrastructure for BT.
Pac-12 Networks, one of the top live sports producers in the United States, offers live coverage of 850 sporting events.
“We look forward to launching our TV Everywhere offering of all seven Pac-12 Networks linear channels, as well as the hundreds of live event streams produced by our schools through Pac-12 Plus, on the AWS Elemental MediaStore service in the coming months,” said Mark Kramer, vice president, Engineering & Technology for Pac-12 Networks.
Amazon Prime Video is streaming 11 NFL games this season to customers in more than 200 countries and territories.
The live coverage is available across more than 600 devices, from living room devices like smart TVs and Amazon Fire TVs to Amazon Prime Video mobile apps on iOS and Android, Fire Tablets, and the web.
“We used the AWS Elemental MediaTailor service, which allows us to deliver targeted ads that are seamlessly inserted into the main content, for a great viewer experience,” said BA Winston, global head of Video Playback and Delivery for Amazon Video.
FOX SPORTS Australia is using AWS Elemental Media Services.
“Delivering live sport on this scale to our subscribers requires scale, so we’re looking to adopt the AWS Cloud and to leverage the end-to-end live event and content monetization workflows only available in the cloud through AWS Elemental Media Services,” said Alastair Robertson, chief technology officer for FOX SPORTS Australia.
fuboTV, the live streaming TV service that offers more than 30,000 sports events per year, is using AWS Elemental Media Services to enable its live offering.
“Our growth requires continuous innovation, including launching new channels, user interface functionality, and upgraded apps. AWS Elemental Media Services not only help us with these launches, but let us quickly test new monetization strategies, allowing us to focus our resources on creating the best sports streaming service in the market,” said Sung Ho Choi, co-founder of fuboTV.
Nine, a broadcast and video content business, has trialed the new AWS Elemental Media Services, including AWS Elemental MediaLive and AWS Elemental MediaPackage, to expand its live streaming video offerings through the main 9News website.
“In our preview of the new AWS Elemental Media Services, we have been impressed by the speed of setup of an AWS Elemental MediaLive encoding, AWS Elemental MediaPackage and Amazon CloudFront CDN workflow to rapidly start delivering a live streaming service in minutes,” said Mat Yelavich, Nine’s Chief Information Officer.
Spuul, one of the VOD service providers across the globe, is using AWS Elemental Media Services.
“We are looking to AWS Elemental MediaLive to give us tremendous scale, elasticity, and flexibility within our video processing and delivery infrastructure and AWS Elemental MediaPackage to support functionalities such as channel delay, seven-day catch-up, and start-over,” said S Mohan, Co-founder and CEO of Spuul.
M2A Media, a cloud media services provider, is using AWS Cloud.
“The new AWS Elemental Media Services are a great evolution of the product suite that will enable us to build live workflows for both subscription and ad-supported publishers,” said Marcus Box, chief technology officer of M2A Media.
IMAGICA, a Japanese post-production company for movies, television programs and commercials, is using AWS Elemental MediaConvert.
“AWS Elemental MediaConvert recently transcoded 600 hours of content in only six hours at high video quality. This kind of performance lets us enhance our customers’ production value,” said Takaaki Kudo, manager R&D Group Technology Administration Dept. for IMAGICA.
