AWS for M&E Blog
Disc Golf Pro Tour boosts fan engagement and drives viewership with AWS
In December 2023, the Disc Golf Pro Tour (DGPT) successfully completed its migration to Amazon Web Services (AWS), overcoming a variety of challenges with its previous over-the-top (OTT) provider. This transition enabled DGPT to enhance performance, gain valuable data insights, and scale seamlessly. With the support of the AWS Migration Acceleration Program (MAP), the AWS account team, and the expertise of Insys Video Technologies, DGPT is now poised for future growth and innovation.
Customer profile and challenges
The Disc Golf Pro Tour is the worldwide premier professional disc golf tour, showcasing the best players in the sport. Part of the DGPT’s mission is to promote the sport of disc golf and provide fans with high-quality live and on-demand video coverage of tournaments throughout the year on its direct-to-consumer OTT platform, the Disc Golf Network.
Between 2021 and early 2023, DGPT faced several issues with its OTT provider. The platform lacked essential data and metrics and struggled with maintaining performance at scale. They also lacked dedicated enterprise-level real-time technical support and had no option to offer subscription tiers. Additionally, there were frequent transcoding errors and delays, inadequate support for 60 fps streaming, no ability to offer Live DVR functionality, and unclear and unreliable development timelines. These challenges hindered DGPT’s ability to deliver a seamless viewing experience to its growing fan base.
“For modern sports fans, asynchronous consumption of media content is arguably just as important as the live event itself,” said Jeff Tocci, Director of Broadcast Technology for DGPT. “Whether it’s for international fans who are watching in different time zones or for disc golfers who want to get outside on a nice day and play the sport themselves, there is an expectation that our content is available for subscribers regardless of when they tune in.”
Why AWS and Insys Video Technologies
DGPT’s requirements for creating a new solution included ensuring stable and reliable performance, adding Live DVR functionality and 60 fps streaming. They also needed near-instant transcoding times, a visually appealing and user-friendly application, flexibility to integrate third-party solutions, comprehensive metrics and analytics, and support for multiple subscription tiers.
When DGPT reached out to AWS for a potential technology partnership, AWS proposed a full migration to its platform. This proposal included an AWS Migration Acceleration Program and the goal of building a new solution using AWS Media Services.
DGPT selected Insys Video Technologies as their implementation partner for several reasons. Insys VT offered flexible integration without insisting on an all-in-one package and was willing to work with DGPT in any capacity needed, including integrating other third-party solutions. They guaranteed meeting DGPT’s non-negotiables within an abbreviated timeline and had a proven track record with other direct-to-consumer sports clients. Lastly, Insys VT listened to DGPT’s needs and understood their product and had a team size that was a good match for DGPT’s small and agile company structure.
Solution overview
The architecture is designed using key AWS services, ensuring high availability, scalability, and performance. The solution is divided into two main components: the Services Stack and the Media Services Stack.
Services Stack with InsysGO
The Services Stack, with InsysGO, is the backbone of DGPT’s application, handling the core functionalities and integrations. Deployed within an Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (Amazon VPC) spanning multiple Availability Zones to enable high availability, it provides secure and isolated network environments. An External Load Balancer with AWS WAF manages incoming traffic, distributing it across multiple instances for reliability and security, while an Internal Load Balancer handles internal traffic within the Amazon VPC. The InsysGO API, Admin, and Frontend are deployed as Amazon Elastic Container Service (Amazon ECS) tasks, offering scalable and managed container orchestration.
The architecture utilizes an Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS) for PostgreSQL, for relational database needs, MongoDB Atlas for NoSQL requirements, and Amazon ElastiCache for caching, facilitating low-latency data access. For file storage, Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) is employed, with Amazon CloudFront for content distribution and AWS Lambda for file resizing, enabling efficient and scalable file handling.
Media Services Stack
The Media Services Stack is designed to handle live and on-demand video streaming, leveraging AWS Media Services for seamless delivery. AWS Elemental MediaLive ingests live video streams, encoding them into multiple formats for distribution. AWS Elemental MediaPackage formats the streams into HLS, DASH, and MSS to ensure compatibility with various devices. Amazon CloudFront then distributes these formatted streams to end-users, providing low-latency and high-performance content delivery. Lambda@Edge, a feature of CloudFront, functions facilitate near real-time processing, such as adding captions or performing other transformations, enhancing the overall streaming experience.
Additionally, Amazon DynamoDB stores metadata and generated captions, allowing for quick access and updates. Amazon Simple Notification Service (Amazon SNS) is used to send notifications and updates about the video streams and captions, validating users are informed.
Amazon CloudWatch is used for comprehensive monitoring and management of the entire architecture. It provides near real-time insights into system performance and triggers AWS Lambda functions to manage Amazon ECS instances based on various events. This facilitates efficient operation and responsiveness throughout the system.
Post migration performance of the Disc Golf Network app
AWS and Insys Video Technologies worked together to build a robust and scalable streaming solution tailored to DGPT’s needs. The new cloud solution brought significant benefits to DGPT, notably enhancing streaming performance and delivering digital rights management (DRM)-protected content to disc golfers across the world. The scalable infrastructure of AWS also validated that DGPT could handle increased traffic during major tournaments without performance issues. Additionally, the successful migration has paved the way for future opportunities, including edge connectivity with AWS Wavelength and potential partnerships with Amazon Prime Video and Amazon Ads.
Jeff Tocci mentioned, “I’m extremely happy with the results. Thanks to AWS, we now have Live DVR and time shifting enabled for all of our programming, as well as near-instant VOD file generation, so fans can consume professional disc gold content (from the beginning, if they choose) whenever is most convenient for them.”
Subscriber insights from events
DGPT gathered valuable subscriber insights from events streamed on the Disc Golf Network (DGN) app, including The Open at Austin and the Jonesboro Open. Most notably, were insights on customer satisfaction and watch times. On a 0–10 scale, most subscribers rated satisfaction with the service at 8, with an average score of 7.1.
During The Open at Austin, DGN Pro subscribers averaged 59 minutes of watch time.
For the Jonesboro Open, average watch times were 51 minutes for DGN Basic/Standard subscribers and just over 1 hour for DGN Pro subscribers.
Added functionality in DGN 2.0 and future roadmap
The DGN 2.0 app introduced a range of new features and improvements to enhance user experience. It now boasts enhanced server capacity and reliability, as well as Live DVR functionality for more flexible viewing. Support for 60 fps streaming and improved image quality offer a more dynamic visual experience, while near-instant transcoding times facilitate quick content delivery. The app’s enhanced DRM capabilities, automated publishing process, and support for multiple subscription tiers streamline content management and distribution.
Additionally, the new content management system (CMS) is tailored specifically for live sports with mobile push notifications to keep users updated. The introduction of dedicated technical support and comprehensive stats and analytics further enhances the app’s functionality. Lastly, unlimited configurability allows for extensive customization to meet various user needs.
DGPT’s future roadmap and upcoming enhancements include near real-time translation capabilities along with advanced analytics features to provide deeper insights. Additionally, DGPT is committed to the continued development of more features, such as a fully integrated event schedule page, to further enhance the fan experience.
Success metrics
Krzysztof Bartkowski, CEO of Insys Video Technologies, highlighted key success metrics for DGPT’s OTT application. “The video quality has significantly improved, with an upgrade to 60bfps and enhanced bitrates. Additionally, live-to-VOD content is now available instantly, a marked improvement over the previous delay of several hours.”
“I am delighted that Insys Video Technologies, part of the ORS Group, is now delivering broadcast-grade quality and reliability to the Disc Golf Network,” said Bartkowski. “Leveraging AWS cloud-native services, we have introduced an extensive feature set, including DRM content protection, time shift, and flexible product tiering. It is fantastic to see the Disc Golf Network expand its business globally, overcoming technological limitations to reach new heights.”
Conclusion
DGPT’s partnership with AWS and Insys Video Technologies has been transformative, significantly enhancing its OTT application. By leveraging AWS Media Services, DGPT has improved reliability, introduced Live DVR and 60 fps support, and achieved near-instant transcoding times. Additionally, they streamed 30 events throughout the 2024 season, offering 8-10 hours of high-quality live streaming per event per day, with recordings available instantly and near-zero outages. The DGN 2.0 app, with its enhanced features and future roadmap, positions DGPT for continued growth and innovation, driving viewership and delivering an exceptional viewing experience for disc golf fans worldwide.
“The next generation of DTC sports broadcasting has arrived and the Disc Golf Network has become a trailblazer in the space thanks to AWS,” Tocci concluded. “Unencumbered by the technical limitations and development timelines of other all-in-one OTT providers, we are better positioned as a company. Whether it’s developing new functionality in-house, or integrating other third-party solutions into our tech stack, it truly feels like the sky is the limit for our business. If we dream it, we can do it with AWS.”
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