Overview

AWS provides two live video streaming AWS Solutions to cost-effectively deliver media content to a global audience as part of the AWS Solutions Library. This page provides guidance to help you choose between the two live video streaming AWS Solutions to best fit your business needs.
For additional guidance on choosing the right option for your use case from all the live streaming solutions and services available on AWS, read this blog post.
Which Live Streaming on AWS Solution should I choose?

Feature | Live Streaming on AWS with Amazon S3 | Live Streaming on AWS |
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AWS services | AWS Elemental MediaLive Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) |
AWS Elemental MediaLive AWS Elemental MediaPackage |
Customizations | Less | More |
Inputs | Supports URL_PULL, RTMP_PUSH, RTP_PUSH, and Elemental Link device with no redundancy | Supports URL_PULL, RTMP_PUSH, RTMP_PULL, RTP_PUSH, and MediaConnect inputs with redundancy |
Outputs | HLS only | Multiple outputs including CMAF, HLS, and DASH for playback support on different players |
Support for content protection | N/A | DRM |
DVR-like features (live rewind, restart, etc.) |
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Build live-to-VOD workflows | ![]() |
Benefits

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Technical details

The AWS CloudFormation template launches the AWS products and services necessary to ingest, transcode, and deliver live streaming video.
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Live Streaming on AWS with Amazon S3
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Live Streaming on AWS
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Live Streaming on AWS with Amazon S3
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You can configure this solution to ingest Real-Time Transport Protocol (RTP), Real-Time Messaging Protocol (RTMP), HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) content, or live video from an AWS Elemental Link device.
Step 1
AWS Elemental MediaLive, ingests an input feed and transcodes your content into one adaptive bitrate (ABR) HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) stream as output.Step 2
Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) provides a scalable highly available storage bucket to host the encoded segments.Step 3
An Amazon CloudFront distribution is configured to use the Amazon S3 custom endpoints as its origin. The CloudFront distribution delivers your live stream to viewers with low latency and high transfer speeds.Step 4
An Amazon S3 bucket stores the CloudFront logs.Related content
TrainingBuilding a Live Video Channel with MediaLive, MediaPackage and CloudFrontThis course provides an overview of setting up AWS Elemental MediaLive, configuring AWS Elemental MediaPackage, and configuring Amazon CloudFrount to distribute the MediaPackage.
TrainingBuilding a Live Video Channel with MediaLive and MediaPackageIn this tutorial, you will learn how to take in a high-quality video feed from a live event, use AWS Elemental MediaLive to create an adaptable bitrate (ABR) stream. How to configure AWS Elemental MediaPackage to package the ABR stream so that it can be sent over the internet to any number of customers. And finally to use Amazon CloudFront to distribute that ABR stream to any number of connected devices throughout the world.
TrainingAWS Elemental MediaLive PrimerThis course provides an overview of the fundamental functions of AWS Elemental MediaLive, focusing on key operational aspects of live streaming video workflows. It includes a tour of the main elements of the user interface and a demonstration of the steps to create a live video stream using AWS Elemental MediaLive. It also outlines the basic steps to monitor system health.
TrainingMedia Services Learning PlanThis Learning Plan is designed to help Business Decision Makers, Media Engineers, and Media Operators use AWS services to create high-quality media experiences. The digital training included in this Learning Plan will expose you to building live and on-demand video workflows, while the self-paced lab activities provide a mechanism to build your skills.
About this deploymentVersion3.2.1Released08/2023AuthorAWSEst. deployment time5 minsEstimated costDeployment optionsReady to get started?Deploy this solution by launching it in your AWS Console
Need help? Deploy with a partner.Find an AWS Certified third-party expert to assist with this deployment -
Live Streaming on AWS
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Step 1
AWS Elemental MediaLive, which ingests two input feeds and transcodes your content into two adaptive bitrate (ABR) HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) streams as output.Step 2
AWS Elemental MediaPackage ingests the MediaLive ABR output and packages the live stream into HLS, Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP (DASH), and Common Media Application Format (CMAF) formats that are delivered to three MediaPackage custom endpoints.Step 3
An Amazon CloudFront distribution is configured to use the MediaPackage custom endpoints as its origin and includes a CDN identifier custom HTTP header to authenticate requests. MediaPackage only fulfills playback requests that are authorized between MediaPackage and CloudFront using the CDN Identifier. This CDN Identifier is created as part of the CloudFormation deployment and securely stored in AWS Secrets Manager.Step 4
The CloudFront distribution delivers your live stream to viewers with low latency and high transfer speeds.Step 5
A demo HTML preview player is available to help you test the solution. The player is a static website hosted in an Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) bucket. Amazon CloudFront is used to restrict access to the solution's website bucket contents.Related content
TrainingBuilding a Live Video Channel with MediaLive, MediaPackage and CloudFrontThis course provides an overview of setting up AWS Elemental MediaLive, configuring AWS Elemental MediaPackage, and configuring Amazon CloudFrount to distribute the MediaPackage.
TrainingBuilding a Live Video Channel with MediaLive and MediaPackageIn this tutorial, you will learn how to take in a high-quality video feed from a live event, use AWS Elemental MediaLive to create an adaptable bitrate (ABR) stream. How to configure AWS Elemental MediaPackage to package the ABR stream so that it can be sent over the internet to any number of customers. And finally to use Amazon CloudFront to distribute that ABR stream to any number of connected devices throughout the world.
TrainingAWS Elemental MediaLive PrimerThis course provides an overview of the fundamental functions of AWS Elemental MediaLive, focusing on key operational aspects of live streaming video workflows. It includes a tour of the main elements of the user interface and a demonstration of the steps to create a live video stream using AWS Elemental MediaLive. It also outlines the basic steps to monitor system health.
TrainingMedia Services Learning PlanThis Learning Plan is designed to help Business Decision Makers, Media Engineers, and Media Operators use AWS services to create high-quality media experiences. The digital training included in this Learning Plan will expose you to building live and on-demand video workflows, while the self-paced lab activities provide a mechanism to build your skills.
About this deploymentVersion4.2.2Released08/2023AuthorAWSEst. deployment time20 minsEstimated costDeployment optionsReady to get started?Deploy this solution by launching it in your AWS Console
Need help? Deploy with a partner.Find an AWS Certified third-party expert to assist with this deployment