AWS Knowledge
Understanding AWS Elemental MediaLive Pricing & Costs
Piyush Kalra
Nov 19, 2024
Live video streaming is changing how content connects with the audience, and Amazon Web Services Elemental MediaLive is one of the best solutions in the market. While MediaLive revolves around interactive live video streaming, understanding its pricing bias makes sense for companies who wish to stream and save about 30% on the costs.
This article will help you understand AWS Elemental MediaLive—its functions and role, pricing structuring and strategy to bring down costs entailed in live shooting video operations.
What is AWS Elemental MediaLive?
(Image Source: AWS MediaLive)
AWS Elemental MediaLive allows broadcasted content to be streamed anywhere in the globe using computers or smart devices across different platforms. It is perfect for major sporting events, live concerts, or corporate webinars.
Here are the Key Features:
Live video encoding: This process takes raw live video and converts it to a format that can be sent over the Internet.
Multiple adaptation: Go from one stream to thousands of simultaneous viewers smoothly.
Broadly Compatible IO Devices: Inputs could be HD cameras or pre-recorded videos, and outputs could be HLS, DASH or RTMP.
Enhanced Functions: Ad marker integration, audio levels normalisation, and multilingual options.
When matched with other services focused on live video processing service, the versatility and ability to integrate the tools offered by AWS MediaLive make it a winner for businesses on all levels.
How Does AWS Elemental MediaLive Work?
Considering its basic operational unit, MediaLive is a real-time video encoding device capable of taking a raw video input and live encoding it to a suitable stream that can later be sent out for viewing. The process uses three major components.
1. Inputs: The term MediaLive inputs that are the sources of video content that the MediaLive processes encompass live streaming cameras, contribution encoders from an event's location, other MediaLive inputs in the form of pre-recorded video files, etc. Supported protocols include RTP, RTMP and HLS. Inputs serve as bridges between MediaLive and upstream systems through push (content sent from the source) or pull (MediaLive retrieves content). Push inputs employ input security groups to set limits by specifying valid IP ranges for the delivery.
Example: A sports broadcaster wants to use Media Live inputs in the RTMP protocol to transmit a live football match, which is done with the aid of several static cameras set in the stadium. The input security group that was set up allows only the IP addresses of the media team who are authorized to the stadium to upload the feed.
2. Channels: Channels are paramount in MediaLive because they are responsible for taking in and converting video files into augmented bitrate ready for adaptive streaming. Each of the live channels is set with different configurations of inputs and outputs and is able to perform functions like switching inputs and placing overlays during live-stream broadcasting. Channels are the ones that represent the outputs of groups, with each group containing several outputs, be it a video, audio, or captions. For safety reasons, channels can run in one-channel mode or two-channel mode: single or dual pipeline.
Example: In an award ceremony, the MediaLive channels are used to cut the live show into various AMR streams which enable higher-video quality viewing on several devices of the users. Dynamic overlays display winner names as well as a stream of live tweets.
3. Outputs: Outputs are the final step, where you can say the video is finished and received by relaying systems which can be Amazon Web Services elemental or media packages and Amazon cloud front CDN. These outputs are made ready for Interactive Playback Devices, including but not limited to Smart TVs, cell phones and web applications and ensure great streaming video quality for users.
Example: Take, for instance, a concert that has been streamed live. After this has been done, Media Live would make sure to put it up on their Amazon cloud, which would make it easily accessible to different target audiences, whether on their phones, laptops, or smart TVs.
Benefits of Cloud-Based Video Processing:
For one, there is no need to have and install and maintain expensive hardware on premises
You avoid heavy charges by paying only according to your usag,e which is perfect for small or large events.
Effortlessly adjust your options to meet your target audience size and production needs.
Deep Dive Into AWS Elemental MediaLive Pricing
AWS Elemental MediaLive offers flexible pricing designed to cater to businesses with varying usage needs. Here’s how its pricing structure works:
1. On-Demand Pricing
On-demand pricing allows you to pay-as-you-go model:
Live events come along with an hourly fee for the inputs, outputs, and features that are utilized.
Factors such as resolution, bitrate, frame rates and input-output costs play a role in the final price.
For example (US East - N. Virginia rates):
Standard Definition (SD) input at <10 Mbps starts at $0.12/hour.
High Definition (HD) output at 10-20 Mbps costs around $0.882/hour.
2. Reserved Pricing
With this reserved pricing option, businesses that stream often can expect discounts of approximately 70% lower than the usual price:
Requires a commitment of 1 or 3 years.
With this contract comes lower hour charges but, in turn, predictability in use.
For example (US East - N. Virginia rates):
HD Outputs could go down to close to $0.2151/hour if you were to reserve a period of 1-year term.
Businesses whose promotions, ads or programs last long or have seven or more events can use this mode effectively.
3. Additional Costs to Consider
Idle Charges: Channels and push inputs that have not been actively streamed are charged idle costs (e.g., in the US East—N Virginia, $0.01/hour for idle usage).
Data Transfer Charges: Streaming data out of MediaLive, attracts extra costs. The charges are cheaper for over 10TB of use, with 0.09 per GB applied for the first 10TB per 30-day month.
Please note prices may vary by region. For the accuracy of the rate of other regions, use the AWS Pricing Calculator.
Additional Benefits of MediaLive Pricing
AWS provides several opportunities to reduce costs during your MediaLive workflows:
AWS Free Tier: Eligible users receive 100GB/month of free outbound data transfer charges, along with trial access to certain MediaLive features.
Savings Plans: For those utilizing multiple AWS services, Savings Plans offer flexible pricing discounts based on consistent usage.
Case Study: Powering Global 4K Streaming for Seerslab
The Issue Faced
Seerslab, strong in AR technology development, ambitions to create a worldwide online concert service Fanboxn.live. They had to address issues such as combining different logins, minimizing high transaction costs, providing smooth 4K streaming globally, and integrating ticketing and streaming systems.
The Approach Adopted
According to the AWS statement, Seerslab managed to meet the requirements with:
AWS Elemental MediaLive for broadcast quality streaming 4k video content.
Amazon CloudFront for rapid, secure and global distribution of content.
The Result
Quick Implementation: The site Fanbox.live became operational in a short period of time.
Debut Grade: Conducted the concert of AleXa and had 6,900 paying customers globally.
Perfect World Broadcast 4K Video: Streams of 4k videos were perfectly broadcast worldwide.
Elastic and Cheap: AWS made easy scaling and low operating costs a reality.
Tools and Tips for Reducing MediaLive Costs
AWS MediaLive, after some time,e becomes a very complicated service to offer from the cloud perspective, but with the correct services, the operational costs will be more economical without changing the business flow:
AWS CloudWatch: They assist in keeping records by monitoring MediaLive channels and informing when some live channels or content become unusual or too expensive.
Terminate Unused Instances: Make it a habit to delete and terminate these resources and services if Via Ad is pushing any inputs or channels onto EC2 instances that have no use for them. If EC2 instances are kept running especially while not in use for MediaLive broadcasting, it can massively inflate the costs. In such situations, an audit, followed by the termination of such assets, proves cost-effective.
Right-Size Resources: In this situation, start live encoding course events. If the source is just SD, it is best to refrain from head provisioning High-Definition pipelines because that is a waste of resources and will only increase costs without an improvement in the final output quality. By ensuring that resources are made available as per their on-demand video, performance can be increased and waste minimized.
AWS Pricing Calculator: Before deploying the workflow and implementing the estimates, the AWS pricing calculator secures the funds by working on cost. This guarantees you do not encounter an expense you were oblivious to and, more so, ensures the costs of your project remain minimal by being aware of them beforehand.
Take Advantage of Reserved Instances: When actively streaming content, consider using reserved pricing plans. Reserve instances mean signing up for long-term use, which decisively lowers the cost compared to on-demand pricing. This makes them a proper option for tasks that are executed consistently in a timely manner.
Cut Costs by 60% on AWS with the Use of Pump: Pump allows early-stage companies and businesses to enjoy its services for free while expecting up to a 60% reduction on their AWS costs. Yes! It is completely and utterly free. We are the sole supply of an AI-enabled intelligent that maximizes GCP's and AWS’s services, including MediaLive.
Conclusion
AWS Elemental MediaLive offers robust features for those on a budget; however, one must not forget to grasp the pricing model in order to figure out how to best use the platform while remaining cost-effective. Keep in mind that a single live-hour event can cost producers 7hours worth of events on the spur of the moment, so ideally, you will only pay for what you absolutely need due to the scalability features of MediaLive. So as long as the strategy for price minimization and understanding the pricing correctly is implemented, it will be possible to incorporate MediaLive into the routine.
For example, young enterprises may take advantage of various AWS analytics tools in order to determine the service demand, time of use and the most relevant times for encoding and streaming of their services thereby reducing the operating costs.
