IMAX streams next-level live event experiences with AWS

IMAX^® theaters offer audiences a premium viewing experience, displaying high-resolution imagery on massive screens in 1,776 theatres across 88 countries. The stunning picture quality and clarity drives consumers to actively search for IMAX showings when making plans to check out the latest Hollywood blockbuster or documentary at a local museum. Historically, IMAX theatres have primarily supported local content playback, with 250 locations currently wired for live event streaming. However, using the new IMAX StreamSmart™ technology along with Amazon Web Services (AWS) Media Services, IMAX can live stream content into almost any of its theaters globally without worrying about connectivity.

An industry first, IMAX debuted the new workflow earlier this year to stream the 2024 National Basketball Association (NBA) Finals in Asia. It aired all five games of the finals to three IMAX theatres in Taiwan and one in Hong Kong. Each sold-out viewing lasted about four hours and attracted over 7,000 fans during the series. By working closely with AWS, IMAX built, tested, and deployed its live streaming workflow in less than three weeks.

Fans in Taiwan enjoying Game 1 of the NBA Finals in IMAX. Source: IMAX

“When we first started discussing live streaming the NBA Finals in Asia, I knew that AWS was the only partner that we could trust to deliver a high-quality experience that aligns with the IMAX brand in such a short time,” said Abdul Rehman, Chief Product Officer at IMAX.

IMAX SVP and General Manager of Streaming and Consumer Technology Vikram Arumilli added, “If there’s a problem with a movie, our theaters can offer refunds or audiences can come back for another showing, but the margin of error in live events is basically zero. AWS enabled us to build the technology we needed quickly so that we could pull off these live screenings in uncertain environments with precision. This achievement is a testament to the technology we built and how effective it is.”

Bringing the IMAX experience to live events

IMAX has been working on new ways to attract audiences outside of prime weekend theatre-going time, and supporting more live content during the weekdays is a key part of that initiative. Until recently, IMAX had to upgrade theatre connectivity to more than 50 megabits per second (Mbps) to make its theatres capable of showing live events. Since hardwiring isn’t feasible in many areas, IMAX’s Streaming and Consumer Technology division deployed StreamSmart, a technology with the proprietary IMAX VisionScience™ at its core to further optimize bitrate and protect quality. Used alongside AWS Media Services, it reliably streamed high-quality live feeds from source to 70-foot IMAX screens at bitrates of 20 Mbps or less. The solution leverages AWS Elemental MediaLive to process an input feed at multiple bitrates and measure the perceived quality. In real-time, it dynamically optimizes the stream on a segment-by-segment basis, selecting the lowest bitrate that still preserves the same viewer experience.

For the NBA Finals viewings, AWS Elemental MediaConnect transported the live feed from the broadcast partner to the cloud and IMAX StreamSmart orchestrated AWS Elemental MediaLive to encode several bitrate versions of the video. StreamSmart’s AI-based decisioning engine dynamically selected the optimal segments and sent a new manifest to AWS Elemental MediaPackage for content packaging. The Amazon CloudFront content delivery network distributed the feed to theatres. AWS datacenters in Seoul and Osaka supported the workflow to ensure redundancy, and the IMAX network operations team monitored each event remotely in real time using the IMAX StreamAware™ solution, which evaluated quality using the IMAX ViewerScore™ (XVS™) of the incoming and outgoing feeds so the team could proactively identify and address any issues.

“Stability and reliability were key to our success. Losing the feed while live would create havoc,” noted Rehman. “Due to our time constraints, we chose to create this workflow from the top down, instead of piecemeal, then identified where we needed to adjust. From there, we built telemetry tools to quickly troubleshoot any issues. The dashboards available through AWS were very helpful.”

Optimal IMAX-assured quality everywhere

With the live stream workflow proven on IMAX screens at less than 20mbps, IMAX and AWS are actively working to empower content providers, streaming partners, and broadcasters to deliver IMAX-assured quality experiences at very low bitrates. Whether on 70-foot screens in theatres, 70-inch TVs in living rooms or 7-inch mobile devices on the go, this new technology efficiently meets fans where they are. This collaboration is redefining what’s possible for the industry.
“AWS enables us to be bold, be brave, and say yes to new projects, and we were able to take a leap of faith to stream the NBA Finals because I knew AWS had the full suite of solutions to support us,” concluded Rehman.

Learn more about how AWS Media Services with IMAX StreamSmart can help you deliver scalable, resilient, and high-quality live video to your viewers.