This week, Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS), an Amazon.com company (NASDAQ: AMZN), announced the general availability of Amazon Interactive Video Service (Amazon IVS), a new fully managed service that makes it easy to set up live, interactive video streams for a web or mobile application in just a few minutes.
Amazon IVS uses the same technology that powers Twitch, one of the most popular live streaming services in the world with nearly 10 billion hours of video watched in 2019, giving customers live content with latency (the time video takes to go from the camera to the viewer) that can be less than three seconds (significantly lower than the 20-30 second latencies common with online streaming video today).
Martin Hess, GM, Amazon IVS said “Customers have been asking to use Twitch’s video streaming technology on their own platforms for a range of use cases like education, retail, sports, fitness, and more. Now with Amazon IVS, customers can leverage the same innovative technology that has taken Twitch over a decade to build and refine. Any developer can build an interactive live streaming experience into their own application without having to manage the underlying video infrastructure.”
Customers can easily configure and stream live video through their own website or mobile application, with scalable delivery that supports millions of concurrent viewers globally. With the Amazon IVS SDK and APIs, customers can also build interactive features into their live streams like virtual chat spaces, votes and polls, moderated question and answer sessions, and synchronized promotional elements.
There are no additional charges or upfront commitments required to use Amazon IVS, and customers pay only for video input to Amazon IVS and video output delivered to viewers.
Amazon Live, Blackboard, 17Live, DeNa, and ScreenCloud are among customers that you might recognise using Amazon IVS.
- Amazon Live is a page on Amazon.com where shoppers can discover livestream content and browse recorded livestreams. John Katsavrias, Senior Development Manager, Amazon Live said ““With Amazon IVS, handling live video streams is very simple, which means we can devote more time to producing engaging content and features that allow viewers to interact with creators in real-time. Amazon IVS enabled us to move quickly to unlock our creators’ ability to livestream so they can produce awesome content that inspires customers and helps them discover new products.”
- Blackboard’s mission is to advance learning in partnership with the world’s education community. Scott Hurrey, Staff Engineering at Blackboard said “Blackboard serves millions of users in countries in every region around the globe. As instructional techniques evolve and we continue to grow, we’re exploring how we can improve our interactive video experiences for all users, which is where Amazon IVS is changing the game. In one day, we were able to quickly integrate IVS into our teaching and learning workflow. It handles a majority of the work on the back end, freeing up more time for our team focus on creating and building standout experiences.”
- 17Live is an interactive live video app that connects entertainers around the world with their fans. Eric Hsu, VP of Engineering at M17 Group said “Integrating with Amazon IVS allows us to help our entertainers engage larger audiences with more interactive experiences and expand into new geographies. The end-to-end service allows us to address our scaling, quality of service, and expansion challenges.”
- DeNA’s Pococha is a pioneer in Japanese live streaming. Daisuke Mizuta, Producer of Pococha at DeNA said “Amazon IVS provides the leading edge of live video technology transformations and maintains high availability systems, all while reducing the operational burden of managing complex, distributed live video networks. With it, we can focus more on enhancing user-oriented functions and interactivity to ensure we’re providing an irreplaceable experience.”
- ScreenCloud helps businesses communicate better with teams and customers by transforming their spaces with smart, connected digital signage. Luke Hubbard, CTO of ScreenCloud said “The ease of use and simplicity of Amazon IVS allows us to focus on delivering innovation rather than worrying about video infrastructure. We have been able to quickly integrate video conferencing tools with Amazon IVS to provide our customers an interactive broadcast solution.”
The Amazon IVS Management Console and APIs for control and creation of streams are available in the US East (N. Virginia), US West (Oregon), and Europe (Ireland) regions, with video ingestion and delivery available around the globe over a separate managed network of infrastructure that is optimized for live video.
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