Amazon Web Services (AWS) has announced the general availability of Amazon Interactive Video Service (Amazon IVS) to make it easier for customers to add live and interactive video to their mobile and web applications.
Livestreaming continues to grow in popularity which is why Amazon has made the very same technology that powers Twitch available in a new fully managed service.
Using Amazon IVS, customer can easily configure and stream live video through their website or mobile application with scalable delivery capable of supporting millions of global concurrent viewers.
AWS users can now use the Amazon IVS SDK and APIs to build interactive features into their livestreams including virtual chat spaces, votes and polls, moderated question and answer sessions and synchronized promotional elements.
Amazon IVS
By removing the cost and complexity associated with setting up live, interactive video streams, Amazon IVS allows customers to focus on building engaging experiences for their viewers instead.
To get started using the new fully managed service, customers simply need to send their live video to it using standard streaming software like Open Broadcaster Software (OBS). Amazon IVS then ingest the video and automatically transcodes and optimizes it, making it available for live delivery across AWS-managed global infrastructure in seconds.
There are no additional charges or upfront commitments required to use Amazon IVS and customers only pay for video input to the service and video output delivered to viewers. The service also has a very low latency that can be less than three seconds as opposed to the 20-30 seconds offered by other platforms.
GM of Amazon IVS, Martin Hess explained why the company decided to add livestreaming capabilities to AWS in a press release, saying:
“Customers have been asking to use Twitch’s video streaming technology on their own platforms for a range of use cases like education, retail, sports, fitness, and more. Now with Amazon IVS, customers can leverage the same innovative technology that has taken Twitch over a decade to build and refine. Any developer can build an interactive live streaming experience into their own application without having to manage the underlying video infrastructure.”
