AWS for M&E Blog

Over the past few years, Visual Effects (VFX) studios have gone more global by opening satellite studios or hiring artists working from home all around the world. Whether the reasons are location specific financial incentives, unlocking local talent, or co-locating with a production team, having a render farm in a single location is no longer […]

This blog post was co-authored by Michael Muir, Senior Product Specialist at Epic Games. Figure 01: Epic Games’ Unreal Engine provides real-time content generation, manipulation and rendering. Introduction Epic Games’ Unreal Engine has revolutionized the creation and manipulation of real-time 3D content. With technology advances such as Lumen and Nanite in Unreal Engine 5, leaps […]

AWS Thinkbox Deadline 10.3, a new version of the batch compute render scheduler, is now available. This version introduces support for Epic Games’ real-time 3D content creation tool, Unreal Engine, and includes version updates for many other industry standard digital content creation (DCC) applications. Compatible across Windows, Linux, and macOS platforms, Deadline 10.3 supports over […]

When he founded Outpost VFX in 2012, CEO Duncan McWilliam never thought that his studio’s on-premises computing infrastructure would max out the building’s electrical system—or that he would be asking the landlord for more power. Outpost VFX creates visual effects for films and episodic television. Some of its recent credits include the Amazon Prime series, […]

The need for resilient technology workloads transcends all industries. It is particularly important for the media and entertainment (M&E) industry because disruption of media workloads may lead to customer churn or brand tarnish. A misunderstanding of resilience as a concept can lead to workloads that may not have resilient architecture or workloads that are over-engineered. […]

In April 2022, AWS introduced the Live Cloud Production Initiative (formerly known as the Virtual Live Remote Production Initiative) to bridge technology gaps and expand our broadcast solution portfolio in collaboration with AWS partners. The aim is to deliver outcomes that benefit our current and future partners, customers, and the M&E community. Because of the […]

Neil Ralph, AWS Principal Sports Partnership Manager reflects on five years of working with Formula 1 in a conversation with Chris Roberts, F1 Director of IT, who spearheaded the organization’s cloud transformation journey. Carlos Sainz Jr, Ferrari #55, during the Formula 1 AWS Gran Premio de Espana Practice 3, at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on […]

Introduction Scheduling live linear TV playout for distribution via over-the-top (OTT) platforms is a common use case for media customers around the globe. This approach provides an opportunity to monetize content in multiple ways. For example, some OTT platforms provide a “before-TV experience” as a premium feature where viewers can watch their favorite content before […]

This blog post was co-authored by Tony Gentile (Datazoom), and Kerry Travilla (Datazoom). Introduction Observability of real user experiences is incredibly valuable for streaming service operators but can often be difficult or tedious to implement. Writing code to track every event from an application or video player is often prioritized lower than “getting things to […]

Groundbreaking Recap Feature, Catch Up With Highlights, Built with Amazon Media Replay Engine (MRE) With the digitization and continued advancement of broadcast delivery technology, sports fans have come to expect a dynamic viewing experience. Whether streaming a game live or recording to view on-demand, audiences are increasingly looking for standout elements in the coverage of […]