NAB 2018: AWS To Debut Solutions For Smarter, Faster, More Efficient Video

Amazon Web Services (AWS) unveiled its newest solutions and demonstrate new video processing and delivery technologies at NAB 2018. The latest innovations from AWS are designed to give media and entertainment companies, enterprises, start-ups, and government agencies the ability to deliver video faster and more efficiently, build intelligent video applications enhanced by machine learning, and extend the reach of their video content.

“Content providers are looking to video infrastructure to increase agility, reduce costs, and facilitate innovation for their video operations,” says Keith Wymbs, chief marketing officer, AWS Elemental. “As more providers turn to software-driven solutions and cloud services, they gain new tools to make their video workflows smarter, flexible, and more automated, so they can focus on the critical work of building and monetizing their content. We look forward to sharing solutions and insights that help unlock the full potential of video businesses at NAB 2018.”

Improving Cost Efficiency While Increasing Video Quality
AWS will showcase solutions designed to advance the quality of streaming video, while at the same time reducing the network bandwidth and storage capacity required to deliver outstanding viewing experiences. Demonstrations include:

• Quality-Defined Variable Bitrate Control – AWS will debut Quality-Defined Variable Bitrate (QVBR) control at NAB 2018. QVBR is a video compression technique that automatically adjusts to the complexity of source content, maintaining high-quality video while reducing storage and distribution costs. In this demonstration, an AWS Elemental Live encoder will process HD inputs for live streaming while adapting in real time to meet user-specified requirements for video quality;
• CMAF for OTT Distribution – Support for the Common Media Application Format (CMAF) lets customers realize video quality improvements, increase compression efficiency, and benefit from simplification of content creation and storage. Demonstrations incorporate live video processing, on-premises and in the cloud, using AWS Elemental Delta and AWS Elemental MediaPackage to generate CMAF-compatible fMP4 HLS outputs;
• High Dynamic Range – Conversion of any combination of HLG, HDR10, and SDR sources for playout as HDR10 and HLG channels at any resolution enables broadcasters to quickly and cost-effectively bring HDR channels to market with a mix of existing SDR and HDR content. In addition, support for HD HDR content encoding and distribution to tablets and smart TVs enables content providers to simplify delivery of HDR content using existing infrastructure.

Building Intelligent Video Workflows
Machine learning services from AWS help video providers enhance workflows with automated capabilities that improve viewer engagement, increase the efficiency of time-intensive workloads, and unlock additional revenues. Demonstrations include:

• Content-Aware Advertising Insertion – Using image, object, and scene detection, AWS services enable advertising tailored to broadcast content for cost-effective monetization of live or on-demand video. Amazon CloudFront, Amazon Rekognition, AWS Elemental MediaPackage, and AWS Elemental MediaTailor support comprehensive ad supported video workflows;
• Automated Metadata Extraction and Analysis – Cloud-based approaches to unlocking the value of content libraries integrates machine learning and analytics services to automatically extract metadata from live or on-demand video streams with a combination of Amazon Transcribe, AWS Elemental MediaConvert, AWS Elemental MediaLive, AWS Elemental MediaPackage, Amazon Rekognition, and Amazon Kinesis Video Streams;
• Automated Transcription and Translation – Machine learning tools, including Amazon Transcribe, Amazon Translate, AWS Lambda, along with AWS Elemental MediaLive, AWS Elemental MediaPackage, and Amazon CloudFront video services, comprise an intelligent workflow that performs automated speech transcription from video clips and translation of those clips into multiple languages;
• Advanced Sports Graphics Creation – Highlighting the use of Amazon Rekognition and AWS Media Services to enable the automatic creation of on-screen graphics for live sports without user intervention and showcasing the automation of live production services.

Extending Video Processing and Delivery Worldwide
AWS offers a broad range of on-premises solutions and cloud services designed to meet the requirements of video providers throughout the world. Demonstrations include:

• Robust Ingest to the Cloud – An AWS Elemental Live L000 Series small form factor appliance ingests live video to AWS Elemental MediaStore, showcasing simple-to-use, cost-efficient contribution to the cloud for low-power, space-constrained, or remote facilities. Additionally, AWS Elemental Live support for JPEG 2000 over TR-01 input provides a high-quality contribution input to the cloud for live broadcast distribution.
• Low-latency Live Streaming – AWS Elemental Live, AWS Elemental MediaStore and Amazon CloudFront processing, origin, and delivery services provide faster-than-broadcast live streaming video workflows using standard HLS or DASH protocols;
• Over-the-Top Delivery to Popular Platforms – AWS Elemental MediaLive creates RTMP and RTMPS outputs for secure and reliable OTT delivery of live channel content from the cloud to popular social media platforms like YouTube or Facebook;
• Amazon EC2 Spot Instances and Thinkbox Deadline 10 – A rendering administration and compute management toolkit, Thinkbox Deadline helps manage workloads on-premises or in the cloud, resulting in extreme scalability as well as cost-optimization using Amazon EC2 Spot Instances, and includes support for over 80 different content creation applications as well as easy license management for third-party software.