Everything you need to know about Amazon IVS in 2023
Amazon IVS has become a popular way to stream live videos in SD, HD, and Full HD quality. Many digital content creators stream a live video to grab users' attention which is 10 to 20 times more than VOD or pre-recorded videos. The live streaming industry is expected to grow and be valued at $184+ Billion by 2027, and Amazon IVS will play a key role here.
Aren’t we missing something important here? Yes, it is about engaging audiences that will assist your business in growing by leaps and bounds
However, if one needs more engagement and better UX, that comes from Interactive Live Streaming. Amazon IVS holds expertise in providing audiences with a lean-forward experience.
Let’s dig more and grab additional details about Amazon IVS and how it is useful. So let’s get started!
What is Amazon IVS?
Amazon interactive video service (IVS) is a wholly managed live video streaming solution This interactive live streaming handles everything from ingestion, transcoding, packaging, and content delivery This service is well-known for optimizing live video content
It comes with various benefits, including a pre-build player SDK which is ideal for creating engaging live video experiences. It intelligently handles traffic on a live-streaming session. In addition, you can integrate IVS with other AWS services to facilitate monitoring and analyzing live streaming.
Amazon IVS uses the same live streaming technology that powers Twitch, a popular live streaming platform worldwide. In 2014, AWS purchased Twitch for $ 970 USD - a live stream gaming network.
This video service is helpful for all OTT Platforms, GameTech, eCommerce, Media Houses, EdTech, live event organizers, and other SMBs can also use it. Moreover, this interactive live streaming service is compatible with multiple devices, including Android and iOS OS. IVS is helpful for streaming videos to other platforms such as YouTube and Facebook.
Now, we should see how Amazon’s interactive video service (IVS) is useful to meet the top 3 live streaming challenges in 2023.
Inconsistent Live Streaming Quality
According to one of the reports, OTT platforms may lose 25% of their revenue due to low video quality. Similarly, all other digital content creators and publishers are at risk of losing heavy revenue and potential
audience. In addition, inconsistent video streaming quality can ruin the viewing experience, leading viewers to abandon live streaming.
Amazon IVS resolves this problem of lower live video quality because it is compatible with many streaming apps. Moreover, a digital content creator can use IVS by ensuring buffer size (VBV) doesn’t exceed the average bitrates of a video stream
Problem with Metadata
Metadata contains information about complete video streams and video frames. It includes file size, CC, audio, error messages, etc. Metadata must know the device it is meant for. It can badly affect the performance of a live video, especially when there is Metadata failure in handling heavy load.
Amazon interactive video service (IVS) has a built-in Metadata API to inject Metadata into your live video streams to display graphics, polls, and other components It ensures that your audience gets the Metadata payload at the same time regardless of geographical location
Challenge of Device Compatibility
Technology is continuously evolving, which is beneficial to improve the performance of live streaming. Here 5G works best by cutting the latency by 10X. Thanks to OTT, now users have many devices which they can use to access live video streaming. TVs, Mobile Phones, Laptops, PCs, and other devices are used for device compatibility.
All digital content creators are concerned that viewers can’t watch live streams on any device Amazon interactive video service (IVS) plays a crucial role here by enabling users to watch AWS live streaming on
Android or iOS devices. Moreover, it lets a user view live videos on the web using a desktop device.
What are the features of Amazon IVS?
Amazon interactive video service (IVS) has a quick and easy setup that allows every user to build engaging live streaming with low-latency live video. IVS has the following vital features.
Set Up Live Video in Minutes
Amazon IVS has all the necessary components to build an engaging AWS live streaming quickly. In addition, all viewers can watch the live stream on Android, iOS, and websites. It has the same technology that powers Twitch.
Record Live Stream
Configuring Amazon interactive video service (IVS) is possible for recording live video streaming at Amazon S3 bucket. Now, these can be used as video files for creative video-on-demand (VOD) content. Streaming as VOD can be done using AWS Elemental MediaCovert or directly streaming as VOD.
Pay-as-you-go Pricing
Amazon IVS is cost-effective because it uses the pay-as-you-go model for which a user only pays for the duration of the service used. Its pricing is based on the hours of video sent (input) to hours of video delivered (output).
View on Different Devices
IVS is famous for converting live video streaming to video resolutions and bitrates. Live streaming in adaptive bitrate (ABR) augments the quality of the audience experience. In addition, it helps improve live video across different devices & networks.
4 Use Cases of Amazon interactive video service
It is imperative to know the complete potential of Amazon IVS, which we can do with the following use cases
Develop Communities with Amazon IVS Chat Rooms
Amazon’s interactive video service (IVS) enables you to build virtual relationships with your audience. It enables a streamer to manage the live chat rooms and messaging APIs. Moreover, it empowers both streamers and viewers to build special relationships by participating in discussions and asking questions
Monetize your eCommerce Live Streams
This interactive video service lets streamers sync promotional elements with live videos. This robust transmission encourages viewers to make informed decisions to purchase a specific product or service It is possible with low latency and HD or UHD quality videos
Gauge the Opinion of your Audience
Enable streamers to quickly boost the viewers' engagement and improve the retention rate For example, a streamer can take instant feedback from viewers with polling and online voting applications with timed Metadata. In addition, it is useful to entertain and expand the audience.
Real-Time Q&As
Amazon IVS creates an impact with real-time Q&As during an AWS live video streaming. It makes all viewers ask questions in a chat and get instant answers. It makes a viewer engage more in your live video content.
Key Features of Amazon IVS
Amazon’s interactive video service (IVS) is a fully-managed live video streaming solution that provides one-of-its-kind features that are given here
Amazon IVS Chat
Amazon interactive video service (IVS) is a managed live chat that accompanies live videos. With chat rooms streamers and viewers can chat virtually in real time Participants can create, send, and view messages, but they cannot edit them Developing a customized chat experience is possible with this interactive video service that is scalable and reliable.
Amazon IVS Broadcast SDK
Sending live videos to Amazon IVS is possible using iOS and Android apps with mobile broadcast SDK In addition, sending live videos is also possible with a web broadcast SDK. IVS is popular for supporting live videos sent from devices to optimize encoder settings.
Amazon IVS Player SDK
Get a low-latency experience for web, Android, and iOS with Amazon’s IVS player SDK. This SDK is designed to work with live video streams with support for chunked streaming and an ABR switching algorithm. This switching algorithm ensures low latency of live videos.
Conclusion
Amazon IVS is a bane for digital content creators who want to flawlessly stream their content. It empowers a live video to create more engagement with ultra low-latency and high resolutions. Moreover, it is suitable for any business looking for an effective live streaming solution within the pre-decided budget.