A Quick and Simple Way to Stream Live Video using Amazon Interactive Video Service

Introduction

Amazon Interactive Video Service is a managed service solution for live streaming, which is easy to set up and builds an experience quickly. We can use any streaming software to send our live stream to Amazon IVS. We can focus on building up your experience using the Amazon IVS player SDK, timed metadata APIs, and stream chat APIs, allowing you to build a more valuable relationship with your viewers on your websites and applications.

Top Benefits of Amazon IVS

1. Simple to use
2. Low latency
3. Optimized for live streaming
4. Easy integration with mobile apps and websites
5. Build an engaging audience experience

Amazon IVS Workflow

Source: AWS

Create engaging live streaming applications by sending a video stream to the ingest endpoint of Amazon IVS and using the player SDK for web, iOS, and Android.

Key Features

1. Set up the stream in minutes.

We can send live stream content from any encoding software or an encoder to the ingest point. We can use the playback URL with the player SDK and view the live content on the website and mobile applications.

2. Optimized for live streaming

To improve the quality of sending video, Amazon IVS detects the best network paths from the streamer’s location and intelligently routes the best endpoint to receive the input video stream. Live streams are delivered to end-users in seconds via a content pipeline designed for end-to-end live video.

3. Timed Metadata API with Low-Latency Live Video

Using simple REST API to inject metadata into a video stream and an event-based interface within the Amazon IVS player SDK to retrieve the metadata for clients to build graphics, polls, and other synchronized components like live sports scores and e-commerce functionality. Live video streams have a latency of fewer than three seconds from ingest to playback, making applications like polling your audience and voting engaging and interactive.

4. Record Live Streams for Use as Video-On-Demand

We can configure the Amazon IVS to record live stream content to an Amazon S3 bucket. Video streams are ingested as video files and can be used to create VOD content with AWS Elemental MediaConvert or streamed directly as VOD.

5. Playback on Different Devices and Networks

Amazon IVS converts the live stream to a range of video resolutions and bitrates. This adaptive bitrate (ABR) stream provides an improved quality of experience and quality of service across different devices at different network conditions.

6. Playback on Different Devices and Networks

Amazon IVS channels take seconds to start streaming, and the service scales to deliver streams to millions of concurrent viewers.

7. Cost-Effective

Amazon IVS provides a pay-as-you-go pricing model on hours of video sent to the input, and hours of video delivered to your output.

8. Multi-Platform Player SDK

Provides an IVS player SDK, which provides a low latency experience for web, iOS & Android. The player is customized for Amazon IVS live video streams and includes support for chunked streaming and an adaptive bitrate switching algorithm.

Use Cases

• Social chat rooms are great for building communities – In addition to its built-in moderation options, Amazon IVS Chat will allow live streaming video to be chatted about with a scalable stream chat feature. Participants can ask questions and participate in discussions during stream chat to build community relationships.
• Allow eCommerce to be integrated with video monetization – To encourage viewers to donate to or purchase items from the live stream, sync companion promotional elements with the content at the same time.
• You can gauge the opinions of your audience by using polls – Polls and voting applications that utilize timed metadata to allow viewers to express their opinions instantly.
• Provide real-time Question-Answers – Feature a chat room where viewers can ask questions and receive real-time answers.

Conclusion

From multiple services offered by Amazon, streaming live video is managed through Amazon Interactive Video Service (Amazon IVS). It is ideal for creating interactive video experiences because Amazon Interactive Video Service is an easy and quick way to stream live video. Hope this blog was informative for you and helpful in understanding the scope of Amazon Interactive Video Service and its use cases in the industry.

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