Leia Inc. and AWS Partner Insys VT build DRM solution with near real-time session checking

As a 3D-experience company, Leia Inc. (Leia) was set to launch beta testing for its latest offering, LeiaFlix, an application that can stream 2D video content in 3D to Lume Pad, Leia’s proprietary handheld tablet that comes equipped with 3D Lightfield display technology. While developing this application, the company wanted to offer a selection of films from popular Hollywood studios.

To stream these types of movies, Leia needed to have a highly effective digital rights management (DRM) solution in production so that it could protect studios’ content from piracy. “We were looking for a solution that would support specialized session constraints and near real-time checking features,” says Gabriel Wilensky, director of product management at Leia.

At the same time, Leia was looking to build a highly scalable infrastructure that could handle fluctuations in demand on its video on-demand application. After exploring several options, Leia engaged AWS Partner Insys Video Technologies (Insys VT) to customize a DRM solution to its specific needs and take a serverless-first approach to bolstering its backend. Additionally, Leia was working on a tight schedule with a deadline to complete this project in three months.

Customizing a cloud DRM solution

Leia trusted AWS Advanced Tier Services Partner Insys VT because it offers over 15 years of experience working with video technologies, and its staff has earned over 20 different certifications on AWS. “We’re very cloud oriented,” says Ewa Zelek, product marketing specialist at Insys VT. “Our experience using AWS helps us deliver quality video and broadcasting services that meet our clients’ expectations.” In addition to Insys VT’s cloud expertise, the company offers Cloud DRM, a cloud-native DRM licensing server for video streaming.

To satisfy the security requirements of various Hollywood studios, Leia engaged Insys VT and adopted its Content Access Protection service, which gives Leia the ability to limit the number of active sessions per user and per asset. If a user misuses the LeiaFlix application, such as restreaming the video content on a third-party website, the company can limit its activity. “One security requirement we had to meet was carefully limiting access to our content,” says Wilensky. “Using AWS and Insys VT’s Cloud DRM solution, we were able to comply with the studios’ various security standards.” Further, Insys VT’s Cloud DRM solution is compatible with virtually any type of operating system, and it supports three different certification systems. If Leia changes its hardware, the Cloud DRM solution will still be functional.

Building a scalable environment on AWS

While developing additional features on Cloud DRM, Insys VT and Leia collaborated to improve its content ingestion using primarily serverless solutions on AWS. As the basis for its infrastructure, Leia powers its environment using AWS Lambda, which gives companies the ability to run code without thinking about servers or clusters. “The entire logic is built on AWS Lambda,” says Dawid Górniak, product manager at Insys VT. “It helps our customers save on costs because it scales to their traffic.”

For added elasticity, Leia uses Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2), which provides secure and resizable compute capacity for virtually any workload. Using these solutions, the company can scale the LeiaFlix application to issue 1,000 licenses per second. “With our infrastructure on AWS, we can easily support millions of simultaneous user sessions,” says Denis Otchenashko, software architect at Leia.

Leia stores metadata from its users’ sessions using Amazon DynamoDB, a fast, flexible NoSQL database service for single-digit millisecond performance at any scale. Insys VT set up this solution to run in parallel with Cloud DRM, helping Leia keep track of how its customers interact with its application. Leia also adopted Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), an object storage built to retrieve any amount of data from anywhere. Using this service, Leia can build a data lake and run advanced analytics in the cloud.

To stream its content, Leia and Insys VT implemented Amazon CloudFront, which helps it securely deliver content with low latency and high transfer speeds. The companies also set up AWS Elemental MediaConvert, a service that processes video files and clips to prepare on-demand content for distribution or archiving. “Using AWS Elemental MediaConvert, we have adaptive streaming capabilities,” says Wilensky. “Our content is dynamically converted into the optimal format for virtually any device.” Since implementing these solutions, Leia can stream high-resolution videos on LeiaFlix.

For an added layer of security, Insys VT helped Leia set up Amazon CloudWatch, which provides observability of companies’ AWS resources and applications on AWS and on-premises. Using this solution, Leia can set up dashboards to visualize its data and optimize its resources. “AWS CloudWatch will notify Leia if there are any issues with its application,” says Górniak. “That way, its team can respond quickly before it impacts the user experience.”

Launching beta testing in the United States

In just two months, Leia and Insys VT had built a new environment in the cloud and implemented a DRM solution that meets each studios’ specific security requirements. By November, Leia launched LeiaFlix. Now the company is improving its hardware for Lume Pad so that it can release the next generation of devices. As it spearheads this new project, the company will continue to rely on AWS and Insys VT to deepen its technical capabilities. “We had to build everything from the ground up,” says Otchenashko. “If it wasn’t for the assistance from Insys VT, we might not have met our aggressive deadline.”

About Insys Video Technologies

AWS Advanced Tier Services Partner Insys VT has over 15 years of experience working with video technology and provides over-the-top solutions and services to its customers. The company’s Cloud DRM solution is available in the AWS Marketplace, and it participates in the AWS Solution Provider Program.

Learn more