SL Benfica Launches VOD Service with Insys Video Technologies and AWS

The reigning champions of the Portuguese League (Primeira League), SL Benfica has become the first football club in the country with its own digital video platform. Launched at the Sport Lisboa e Benfica Stadium in Lisbon in January 2020, Benfica Play features exclusive content produced daily for club supporters. With a large and loyal global fan base, it was vital that Benfica quickly roll out its video service and handle large peaks in viewer numbers.

SL Benfica wanted to increase engagement with its global fan base while giving viewers access to exclusive, never-seen-before content. When the football club decided to launch a Video-on-Demand service, it was keen to roll out a fully customized service with the club’s own look and feel within just a few weeks. This unique service would offer a range of exclusive interviews and behind-the-scenes footage from both matches and training sessions. SL Benfica would also include scheduled “live” streams curated from pre-recorded videos to generate the same excitement and experience as match day. With fans eagerly counting down the days to the premiere of an exclusive video, the video service needed to scale to handle large traffic spikes.

With only a few weeks to launch the service, SL Benfica turned to Insys Video Technologies, a fast-developing video integration company specializing in the delivery of comprehensive implementation of over-the-top (OTT) projects. Insys is an AWS Select Consulting Partner with AWS certified architects and developers. Insys was a top choice because of its experience implementing online video projects, along with its ability to quickly deploy fully customized video platforms.

SL Benfica wanted a vendor that could provide local support and quickly adapt to rapidly changing requirements throughout the project. Insys sent a dedicated project manager and an experienced architect to Lisbon to oversee the implementation from start to finish. With the architect onsite, Insys was able to drive the project with the flexibility needed to launch Benfica Play in just a few weeks.

Since SL Benfica already produces content for its own linear television channel, it had a ready-made team of cameraman and journalists able to create exclusive content for the video-on-demand (VOD) service.

Benfica Play is powered by Insys Sport, a white-label streaming video solution designed for sports clubs, leagues, federations and associations, as well as broadcasters with sports transmissions rights. Insys Sport makes it easy to rapidly launch sports streaming services that significantly improve fan engagement and open up monetization opportunities.

Insys Sport is a cloud-based solution that operates within a scalable AWS cloud environment, allowing for high peaks in traffic to provide a scalable, resilient fan experience. Content is stored in Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), an object storage service that offers industry-leading scalability, data availability, security, and performance. Insys Sport uses Amazon CloudFront, a content delivery network (CDN) service that securely delivers video to customers with low latency and high transfer speeds. Transcoding for VOD delivery is handled by AWS Elemental MediaConvert, which allows SL Benfica to easily create VOD content for broadcast and multiscreen delivery at scale. Insys Sport features API integration with AWS Elemental MediaLive, a broadcast-grade live video processing service, and AWS Elemental MediaPackage, which creates video streams formatted to play on connected TVs, mobile phones, computers, tablets, and game console.

With a strong focus on fan engagement and content protection, security was a critical factor for SL Benfica. The content is fully protected using Insys Multi DRM. Furthermore, the service is equipped with AWS Shield, a managed Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) protection service that safeguards applications running on AWS.

Within just four weeks from the start of the project, SL Benfica was able to delight fans and the media with the launch of Benfica Play at the Sport Lisboa e Benfica Stadium in Lisbon.

Benfica Play is now available to fans across the globe, giving them daily access to new and exclusive video content and bringing them closer to their club and sporting idols than ever before. The VOD service gives club members a discount on their monthly subscription as well as access to additional content.

Insys Video Technologies and SL Benfica will continue to work together to maintain, develop, and update the Benfica Play VOD service to ensure it continues to delight fans in years to come.