Explaining the rationale for the launch, AWS believes that as streaming video viewership grows, and live content creates new monetisation opportunities, the work of producing, processing, and managing live video continues to shift from rigid ground infrastructures towards flexible cloud-based services. The new solution is said to be an alternative for broadcasters, content owners, rights holders, content aggregators and event venues which have to date typically relied on satellite networks or telecom fibre connections to send their high-value content into the cloud or transmit it for distribution.

These approaches, said AWS, are costly to lease and manage, require customers to commit to long-term contracts, and frequently take months to set up. It adds they also lack the flexibility to adapt to changing requirements or new business opportunities.

By contrast, AWS insists that by using Elemental MediaConnect, customers can build mission-critical live video transport workflows in a fraction of the time and cost of satellite or fibre and get broadcast-grade monitoring and management.

The fully-managed AWS service is claimed to combine the reliability, security, and operational visibility of satellite and fibre with the flexibility, agility, and economics of IP-based networks. Within AWS, customers can use AWS Elemental MediaConnect to ingest live video from a remote event site, such as a stadium; share video with a partner, like a cable TV distributor; or replicate a live video stream for processing, such as an over-the-top video service. Transport workflows built with AWS Elemental MediaConnect can be reconfigured on-demand and integrated into other AWS services for monitoring and distribution.

“Broadcasters and other content providers told us they wanted a way to ingest and transmit their live video streams that was reliable, secure, flexible, and fast-to-deploy,” said Alex Dunlap, Amazon Web Services, general manager for AWS Elemental. “With AWS Elemental MediaConnect, customers can quickly and easily build video transport solutions that allow them to process and prepare high-value content, share live events globally, create and protect revenue streams, and take advantage of the agility, reliability, and cost-efficiency of the AWS Cloud.”

Already, AWS Elemental MediaConnect is seeing use with a number of key infrastructure providers for sending high-value content over IP networks to deliver live video services. These companies include Arqiva, Discovery, ITV, and Pac-12 Networks.