Streaming Media readers choose AWS

This year, the Streaming Media Readers’ Choice Awards engaged more than 2,700 voters who cast nearly 28,000 votes in 28 categories covering a variety of technologies, from analytics to webcasting and everything in between. Among the winners announced on November 20 at Streaming Media West in Los Angeles were five AWS products and services that enable content providers to deliver superior viewing experiences, both on-premises and in the cloud. From video encoding and transcoding to machine learning and monetization services, keep reading to learn more about the products and services media industry professionals selected as top tier for 2019.

Readers’ Choice: Closed Captioning Solution: Amazon Transcribe

Amazon Transcribe is an automatic speech recognition (ASR) service that makes it easy to add speech-to-text capability to a variety of common applications, including the transcription of customer service calls and generating subtitles on audio and video content. Using the Amazon Transcribe API, you can analyze live audio streams and audio files stored in Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) and have the service return a text file of the transcribed speech. Get started with Amazon Transcribe here.

Readers’ Choice: Cloud Encoding/Transcoding Service: AWS Elemental MediaLive

AWS Elemental MediaLive is a broadcast-grade live video processing service that lets you create high-quality video streams for delivery to broadcast televisions and internet-connected multiscreen devices. With MediaLive, you can easily set up streams for both live events and 24×7 channels with advanced broadcasting features, high availability, and pay-as-you-go pricing. Watch this webcast to dive deeper into live video encoding with MediaLive.

Readers’ Choice: Hardware ABR Encoder: AWS Elemental Live

AWS Elemental Live helps deliver content from studio or remote facilities to subscribers on a global scale. When live video encoding needs to be done on-premises, AWS Elemental Live efficiently formats live video for delivery to broadcast televisions and streaming to internet-connected devices by processing video streams in real-time and compressing the live video source into multiple versions for distribution to viewers. Watch this animated explainer video to learn more.

Readers’ Choice: Per-Title Encoding Platform: AWS Quality-Defined Variable Bitrate

Available with AWS Elemental MediaLive and AWS Elemental MediaConvert as well as with AWS Elemental encoding appliances, Quality-Defined Variable Bitrate (QVBR) is a content-conscious version of variable bitrate (VBR) bitrate control. QVBR works by analyzing the video source and automatically allocating bits to address information differences. Bitrate is adjusted depending on video complexity (more complex, more bits), enabling video providers to reduce bit waste, save on video storage and delivery costs, and provide superior and consistent viewing experiences for customers. Gain an understanding of how QVBR works and the benefits here.

Readers’ Choice: Server-Side Ad Insertion Solution: AWS Elemental MediaTailor

AWS Elemental MediaTailor lets video providers insert targeted advertising into their video streams without sacrificing broadcast-level quality-of-service. With MediaTailor, viewers receive a broadcast-grade viewing experience with advertising personalized to them, and video providers can monetize live events with no up-front costs. MediaTailor also improves ad delivery rates and works with a wide range of content delivery networks, ad decision servers, and client devices. This is the second year the service has received a Streaming Media Readers’ Choice Award in this category. Learn more about monetizing media on AWS in this webcast.