Metis adds real-time collaboration to classroom live streams with Amazon IVS

Metis Eduventures Private Limited is the education technology (EdTech) company behind Adda247, India’s largest test prep platform. Metis has readied more than 50 million students for 400 different exams in 10 regional languages. Its mission is to make quality education widely accessible, even to those outside major cities. Offering interactive online classes via live stream or on-demand viewing is one way it achieves this. To provide students with the highest quality learning experience, Metis leveraged Amazon Web Services (AWS) to power its interactive live streams. Using Amazon Interactive Video Service (Amazon IVS), Metis now supports an average of 50,000 unique viewers daily across 700 weekly online classes.

While Metis previously used third-party video platforms to support educational initiatives, the company wanted to enhance and streamline the student experience by integrating interactive online classes natively into Adda247. Engineers mapped out the build and launched a working demo in October 2022. From there, they slowly added classes and by January 2023, 400 online classes were using Amazon IVS to deliver live streams to learners across India.

More than 85 percent of Metis users live in areas where network connectivity and bandwidth are typically an issue, limiting the availability and accessibility of online courses. Amazon IVS addresses these challenges through adaptive bitrate (ABR), which automatically adjusts the video quality based on the recipient’s internet connection with no manual intervention or infrastructure considerations required.

“Scalability was our top priority in evaluating live video service providers, and that’s why we chose Amazon IVS. We may have 50 classes running concurrently, with 20,000 students viewing streams simultaneously, and we need to be able to support that demand,” said Sandeep Panwar, a software engineer at Metis. “Video quality was also a key factor. Ninety-nine percent of our viewers are mobile and have limited network infrastructure. With Amazon IVS, we can customize settings to broadcast at lower bandwidth while optimizing video quality. We’re able to mold the service to our specific use cases, which is a great advantage.”

The following example screenshot shows an interactive Adda247 online class. A teacher is seen instructing the class with a live chat feature on the right of the screen that enables students to comment in real time.

Screenshot example of an Adda247 classroom showing a teacher presenting and attendees engaging in the discussion through live chat, powered by the Amazon IVS Chat SDK.

Focused on closely replicating the in-classroom experience virtually, Metis engineers continued advancing their online class offering, adding two-way interactivity so students and instructors can chat and see responses in near real time. Classes may also use the interactive elements to share lecture notes or upload photos. Most often, instructors lead lessons from a virtual classroom setup at a Metis studio and stream in 720p, but some broadcast from their own setups remotely. During live streams, viewers can bookmark sections to revisit. The streams are recorded to Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), then made available for on-demand viewing via Amazon CloudFront’s content delivery network. All interactive elements are preserved in the recording.

Metis recently advanced its Amazon IVS implementation with multiple hosts, a collaborative live streaming capability that allows participants to interact in real time using IVS Real-Time Streaming which delivers live streams with a latency that can be less than 300 milliseconds. With this integration, Metis has built an interactive classroom experience where students can digitally “raise their hand” and, when called upon, join the live stream for a real-time discussion with the teacher. An example of this interaction is in the following screenshot, where a student is seen from their home side-by-side with the classroom’s teacher.

Screenshot of the Adda247 app. The teacher has brought a student “on stage” for a live conversation using Amazon IVS Real Time Latency.

“When students are trying to understand new concepts, it’s very beneficial for them to be able to communicate with the teacher verbally,” said Panwar. “Using collaborative live streaming in Amazon IVS helps us close communication gaps, gives students more freedom to express or explain themselves, and gives teachers the ability to clarify or provide additional context to challenging topics.”

In addition to powering its live video with Amazon IVS, Metis leverages AWS Elastic Beanstalk for web application deployment and Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) compute resources.

“Having our cloud infrastructure and services on AWS helps simplify our development process and maintain security,” said Panwar. “Our view is that quality education and teachers shouldn’t be limited to large cities, so we’re working to broaden accessibility in a way that’s enjoyable and beneficial for students.”

Conclusion

Metis has harnessed the power of Amazon IVS to make online education accessible across India with Adda247 by providing high-quality, interactive classes to students across the country—even in areas with limited connectivity. This commitment to innovation and accessibility is paving the way for a brighter educational future, and continued advancements in technology like multiple hosts and Amazon IVS Real-Time Streaming will further elevate these experiences moving forward.

Get started with Amazon IVS

Amazon IVS is a managed live streaming solution that makes low-latency or real-time video available to viewers around the world, allowing you to create engaging live experiences.

Visit the Amazon IVS Real-Time Streaming homepage to learn more and watch the Getting Started with IVS Real Time video.