AWS has launched a new service that uses artificial intelligence to convert video into vertical formats optimized for mobile and social platforms in real time.

The company is touting its new AWS Elemental Inference, as a tool that will help broadcasters and streamers reach audiences on social and mobile platforms like TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts without manual post-production work or AI expertise.

Although today’s viewers consume content differently than they did even a few years ago, most live broadcasts are still produced in landscape format for traditional viewing. Converting these broadcasts into vertical formats for mobile platforms typically requires time-consuming manual editing that causes broadcasters to miss viral moments and lose audiences to mobile-first destinations, according to AWS.

AWS Elemental Inference uses an agentic AI application by analyzing video in real time and automatically applies the right optimizations at the right moments. Detection of vertical video cropping and clip generation happens independently, executing multistep transformations that require no human intervention to extract value.

AWS Elemental Inference analyzes video and automatically applies AI capabilities with no human-in-the-loop prompting required. IT applies AI capabilities in parallel with live video, achieving 6-10 second latency compared to minutes for traditional post-processing approaches. This “process once, optimize everywhere” method runs multiple AI features simultaneously on the same video stream, eliminating the need to reprocess content for each capability.

The service integrates seamlessly with AWS Elemental MediaLive, so AI features can be enabled without modifying existing video architecture. AWS Elemental Inference uses fully managed foundation models (FMs) that are automatically updated and optimized, so no dedicated AI teams or specialized expertise are needed.

Regina Rossi, head of product for AWS Media Services explained how development of the tool was driven in large part by live sports and the importance of using metadata in the conversion process.

“One of the things we’ve been hearing from our customers is that they need help when it comes to understanding the context of what's happening in their video—in particular, live sports which is their most valuable content,” Rossi said. "So we wanted to provide them with the appropriate metadata that gives them the ability to transform their video in a way that's meaningful.

“They want to meet their viewers where they are more and by that I mean, a lot more of their viewers were watching content on mobile phones as an example,” she added. “And for them to be able to be formatted for that mobile native viewer, they had to convert their horizontal video into vertical video. And so what we wanted to be able to do was actually use the right set of x, y coordinates, and be able to create things like a saliency map so that the focus of that video is going to be in that vertical frame.

“So when you're watching it on a phone, it actually moves with the action, so you're not missing out on what's happening in a scene.”

One of AWS’s earliest customers, Fox Sports Digital, reinforced how important vertical video is to the network, Rossi said, adding that “90% of their content is actually consumed vertically.”

Rossi emphasized that unlike earlier efforts in this space, AWS Elemental’s AI architecture is not just about “following the ball” during live play. The company has tested the technology on a variety of sports and found that a lot of them actually lend itself well to a vertical format, according to Rossi.

“Ones that might be harder are things like tennis, where you have a ball that's traveling really fast between opposite sides of the court. But even then, one of the things that we do is we make adjustments to some of the foundation models that we use,” she said. “So as an example, we're not doing just object tracking. We're not just following a ball back and forth. What we're doing is actually creating a saliency map, so understanding where the action is happening in a scene, and so we're able to then follow the action, not just the ball.”

Key Features at Launch

• Vertical video creation – AI-powered cropping intelligently transforms landscape broadcasts into vertical formats (9:16 aspect ratio) optimized for social and mobile platforms. The service tracks subjects and keeps key action visible, maintaining broadcast quality while automatically reformatting content for mobile viewing.
• Clip generation with advanced metadata analysis – Automatically detects and extracts clips from live content highlights for real-time distribution. For live broadcasts, this means identifying game-winning plays, touchdowns, and emotional peaks with precise start and end points—reducing manual editing from hours to minutes.

Now Available
AWS Elemental Inference is available today in 4 AWS Regions: US East (N. Virginia), US West (Oregon), Europe (Ireland), and Asia Pacific (Mumbai). AWS Elemental Inference can be activated through the AWS Elemental MediaLive console or integrate it into workflows using the APIs.

Customers pay only for the features used and video processed, with no upfront costs or commitments, meaning that customers can scale during peak events and optimize costs during quieter periods. More features and capabilities will be introduced throughout this year, including tighter integration with core Elemental services and features to help customers monetize their video content better.

Big Blue Marble has been named as Launch Partner with AWS Elemental Inference integrated into Big Blue Marble’s cloud-native Cloud Video Kit platform

The company will demo AWS Elemental Inference at its Booth (W1701) in the West Hall during the 2026 NAB Show, April 18-22 in Las Vegas.

To learn more about AWS Elemental Inference, visit the AWS Elemental Inference product pag

Ten years ago this week, Amazon Web Services announced the acquisition of Elemental Technologies, a pioneer in video processing technology. Founded in Portland, Ore. by Sam Blackman, Jesse Rosenzweig, and Brian Lewis in 2006, Elemental had already established its role as an influential player in the rapidly growing video streaming market.

Elemental was instrumental in accelerating live and on-demand video processing using GPU-based appliances, and in 2014 launched Elemental Delta, a video delivery platform providing next-generation TV services.

Brought into the AWS fold a year later, Elemental began its evolution as a cloud-based video processing company. In 2017, AWS Elemental Media Services was launched, introducing a purpose-built suite of tools that changed the way media companies create, produce, monetize, and deliver content. Originally comprised of AWS Elemental MediaConvert, MediaLive, MediaPackage, MediaStore, and MediaTailor, the services were expanded with the release of MediaConnect in 2018.

Since then, AWS Elemental Media Services has played an important role in tackling some of streaming’s biggest challenges, including an NFL Christmas doubleheader in 2024 livestreamed on Netflix to 65 million United States (U.S.) viewers tuning in for at least one minute of action. It also helped Tubi deliver the most-streamed Super Bowl in history, to a peak audience of 15.5 million, and helped NBCUniversal insert personalized advertisements across 5,000 hours of Paris Olympics content on Peacock also in 2024.

In 2017, AWS made history when it hosted a live chat from the International Space Station during the NAB Show using Elemental's technology to produce the first-ever live 4K video stream from space.

Manish Rao, who joined the company as GM of AWS Elemental in 2024, spoke with TV Tech about his evolving relationship with AWS Elemental, which began years before.

“I was running all of the video technologies for Prime Video for about seven years, so I worked very closely with the Elemental team in building a lot of these products, because Prime Video is always the first tester, first reference customer,” he said. “So I've been working with Elemental through the evolution of their cloud journey. Prior to the acquisition, Elemental was primarily an on-prem hardware video processing platform.”

New products or services rolled out over the past decade include MediaConvert, which processes video files to prepare high-quality on-demand content, MediaLive, which encodes high-quality live video for broadcast and streaming, while MediaPackage prepares and protects content. MediaStore stores and originates video assets, MediaTailor creates and monetizes personalized linear channels with dynamic ad insertion, while MediaConnect transports live video reliably and securely. Quality-defined variable bitrate (QVBR) encoding, a Technology and Engineering Emmy Award winning feature, was introduced in 2018 to help customers save on storage and distribution costs while increasing video quality.

Automated adaptive bit rate (ABR) configuration was added to MediaConvert in 2020 to pick ideal renditions for the ABR configuration of video. Soon after, AWS Elemental Link, a device that simplified cloud connectivity via linking live video sources to MediaLive was released with a UHD version to follow. Also launched in 2020, AWS Cloud Digital Interface (AWS CDI), helped spur the growth of live cloud-based production by providing network technology for reliably transporting uncompressed live video between applications in the cloud.

In 2017, the company suffered a tragic loss with the untimely passing of Sam Blackman. Although he wasn’t with Elemental at the time, Manish met Sam several times prior to joining AWS Elemental and remembers him for his dedication and enthusiasm.

“Sam was very down to earth,” he said. Reflecting on the first time he met Sam, ”I arrived early at an executive briefing conference, and Sam was already there, and he spoke about his family and Portland. He was a very charismatic person, and very in tune with what was going on in the market.”

Manish says that the changes in the streaming market and AWS Elemental’s technological milestones over the past decade have positioned AWS Elemental to thrive in the years ahead.

“The media industry is undergoing a generational shift from broadcast to streaming; I think, over the last two years, streaming has outgrown terrestrial broadcast,” he said. “And so our customers are looking to us to develop new products to make that transformation a lot easier. And with Gen AI coming into the landscape, I think customers are looking to us to both Elemental and AWS to help them through deliver better new viewing experiences to the Gen Z audience, increase audience reach globally, optimize costs through workflow automation and improve ad revenue.”

As part of the ten-year anniversary celebration, AWS will showcase a timeline of Elemental history at Stand 5.C90 during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam. AWS Elemental experts will also be on hand to answer questions in the Builder zone.

Amazon Web Services has launched AWS Elemental MediaConnect Gateway, a new cloud-connected software application to transmit live video between on-premises multicast networks and AWS. Part of AWS Media Services, the company says the new MediaConnect Gateway improves operations in hybrid environments, providing monitoring, security, and management of video feeds from the AWS Management Console. With MediaConnect Gateway, customers can build end-to-end live video contribution and distribution workflows in AWS at scale, seamlessly integrating into their on-premises infrastructure.

AWS will demo the new service at Booth W1701 in the West Hall of the LVCC during the NAB Show in Las Vegas, April 16-19.

Typically, delivery of live-video multicast streams between datacenters and the cloud requires investment in specialized third-party hardware and software or resources to develop a custom solution. These solutions can be costly, complex, and difficult to support, and monitoring requires extensive knowledge and investment in vendor-specific tools. MediaConnect Gateway gives customers the ability to view, monitor, and control live video stream transport in on-premises datacenters directly from the AWS Management Console or by using the MediaConnect API.

“Hybrid use-cases are prominent in live video applications among our customers,” said Brian Stein, GM of AWS Elemental. “MediaConnect Gateway gives customers full control over deploying and monitoring their hybrid live video workflows, saving them valuable time and resources so they can instead focus on their core business.”

MediaConnect Gateway can be used primarily for contribution and distribution of live video. For video contribution workflows, a content provider can originate live linear channels on premises and send these feeds to partners around the globe, using MediaConnect Gateway as a bridge between their multicast, on-premises network infrastructure and the cloud. Each MediaConnect Gateway instance can subscribe to one or more multicast groups, where a group represents either a single channel or multiple channels multiplexed together in a multi-program transport stream (MPTS). Once subscribed, MediaConnect Gateway converts the network traffic to unicast, adds encryption, and sends the video to a MediaConnect flow in the cloud. Then a live streaming application is created using the feed, processing and delivering the video to end viewers using AWS Elemental MediaLive, AWS Elemental MediaPackage, and Amazon CloudFront, for example, or another software application.

For video distribution, customers can use MediaConnect Gateway to build sophisticated networks that span hundreds or even thousands of end points on premises. A broadcaster that sends 24/7 live linear content to hundreds of affiliates can use MediaConnect Gateway to seamlessly bridge their on-premises multicast network at both the source and destination locations. The result is a cloud-managed solution with improved operational agility and decreased cost compared to a satellite-based workflow, the company said.

MediaConnect Gateway runs inside Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS) Anywhere, a service that allows customers to manage ECS containers on their servers. To get started, customers install the open-source ECS Agent on their VM or bare metal server. Once ECS Anywhere has been installed, customers can download MediaConnect Gateway as a software container. After that, all management of video feeds is handled in the AWS Management Console or using the MediaConnect API. When an on-premises multicast video feed is selected, the video signal is transported as unicast to the cloud using AWS Elemental MediaConnect, a service that combines the dependability of satellite and fiber-optic transport with the user-friendliness of IP-based networks.

Once in MediaConnect, the video can be sent to other AWS Regions, processed using AWS Media Services or other applications, shared with partners and affiliates, and delivered to other on-premises MediaConnect Gateway locations. And with the integration of MediaConnect Gateway into Amazon CloudWatch, customers can monitor the health of feeds without the need to invest in separate tools.

“AWS understands that so much of what broadcasters do starts and ends on premises,” said Dave Evans, Product VP, M2A CONNECT at M2A Media. “We’ve been using MediaConnect since launch, and now MediaConnect Gateway bridges the gap and makes the cloud even more broadcast-friendly. Our customers can contribute live video to the cloud and distribute their premium live content to thousands of endpoints globally, managing everything including receivers all within M2A CONNECT.”

SEATTLE—AWS Elemental has announced that its MediaConnect platform now supports Secure Reliable Transport (SRT) protocol for transporting live video. Support for SRT is meant to give greater flexibility and compatibility for creating low-latency live video transport workflows.

MediaConnect now supports the SRT, Zixi, Reliable Internet Stream Transport (RIST) and Real-Time Transport Protocol (RTTP). MediaConnect can translate between protocols, allowing for a varied ecosystem of live video transport applications, said AWS.

The MediaConnect platform is designed to help users running 24x7 TV channels or those who stream live events.

For more information, visit aws.amazon.com. 

PORTLAND, Ore.—The AWS Elemental MediaConvert platform has a new feature designed to automatically customize the Adaptive Bit Rate (ABR) encoding configuration for video sources, the Automated ABR Configuration. Automated ABR Configuration simplifies set up for transcoding, optimizes video quality and reduces ABR package size.

ABR packages are created when encoding video content for OTT distribution to web players, mobile devices and smart TVs. Packages contain multiple renditions of video, encoded in a range of bitrates and resolutions.

Automated ABR Configuration automates the setup of selecting bitrates, resolutions and the quantity and distribution of renditions that AWS says previously had to be done individually. With Automated ABR Configuration, MediaConvert can pick the ideal rendition configuration based on a content classification analysis during the encoding process, per AWS.

In addition, Automated ABR Configuration users Quality-Defined Variable Bitrate mode in MediaConvert to optimize ABR package size by preventing redundant or overlapping renditions within each package.

Consumers can use Automated ABR Configuration by creating a new MediaConvert job from the AWS Management Console and enabling Automated ABR Configuration for your HLS, DASH, CMAF or Smooth Streaming ABR output group. It can also be used via API or an available SDK.

For more information, visit AWS Elemental’s website. 

PORTLAND, Ore.—AWS Elemental MediaLive’s statistical multiplexing (Statmux) feature now supports MPEG-2 encoding.

According to the company, broadcasters can now use the AWS Cloud to perform MPEG-2 encoding to feed legacy devices with limited codec support, without needing to perform upgrades of their customer’s or partner’s decoding devices.

The MPEG-2 support means that broadcasters can now use MediaLive Statmux to reach the vast majority of devices that connect them to their customers, said AWS.

Statmux video quality has also been improved for all codecs. AVC and HEVC progressive video bitrates can be lowered by 5-8% and for HEVC interlaced channels, bitrates can be lowered by 25% versus previous levels. AWS said the improvement in HEVC interlaced behavior means MediaLive Statmux is more efficient for broadcasters that distribute content in SD or 1080i HD formats.

MediaLive Statmux also now provides inter-channel priority controls, enabling users to fine-tune the video quality of different channels without adjusting any channel configurations or restarting any channels.

PETERSFIELD, U.K.—InSync Technology has integrated its FrameFormer standards conversion software engine with Amazon Web Services (AWS) Elemental MediaConvert, bringing its motion-compensated frame rate conversion algorithms to the cloud platform solution, the company announced.

The integration will enable content owners to deliver media at any desired video frame rate using motion compensation, a method recognized around the world as effectively delivering smooth motion video and preserving quality, the company said.

FrameFormer conversion can be added to any content preparation workflow under the control of AWS Elemental MediaConvert. The conversion typically will be used to normalize content to the house standard or to localize content based on a required delivery standard, InSync Technology said.

Video frame sequences are passed to FrameFormer, which generates new output frames based on the products motion analysis and estimation algorithms, it said.

"We are delighted to add high-quality motion compensated frame rate conversion through integration with AWS Elemental MediaConvert," said James Shepherd, CTO of InSync Technology. "The InSync FrameFormer software engine is a great fit, as we require CPU-only resources, which provide the maximum flexibility and scalability that on-demand video services require."

AWS Elemental MediaConvert customers will be able to select the InSync FrameFormer motion compensated frame rate conversion service as an add-on option at an added cost from within the AWS Elemental MediaConvert console without having to obtain a separate license.

More information is available on the company’s website.  

SYDNEY—Handling the broadcasts for more than 120,000 thoroughbred horse races a year, Sky Racing has begun using AWS Elemental Live encoders to help deliver live streams of races.

Sky uses the AWS Elemental Live platform for adaptive bitrate encoding and Apple HLS packaging, which enables them to stream more than 40 live video channels simultaneously, according to the broadcaster. 

The Elemental Live encoders take in uncompressed HD video channels from Sky’s playout center. Each channel is encoded into video streams at different video resolutions and bitrates Sky needs to deliver to viewer devices. The streams are then packaged as Apple HLS video segments for delivery via content distribution networks. The Elemental Live encoders are also equipped with high-speed optical Ethernet interfaces to support SMPTE-2110 uncompressed video over IP inputs.

Sky also purchased two AWS Elemental Live L525AE encoders to encode an additional 16 live video channels simultaneously for the Sky Racing Active Service. Each encoder performs adaptive bitrate live stream encoding for eight HD video channels.

In addition, Sky Racing is also equipped with AWS Elemental Quality Defined Variable Bit Rate (QBVR) encoding. QBVR can maintain quality video encoding using the minimum bitrate needed by continuously adapting to the complexity of the video content, per Sky. Screens with less motion and less complexity use a lower video bitrate, while more complex content is allocated a higher bitrate to maintain the same quality.

Sky uses AWS Elemental encoding software installed on on-premises hardware, which maximizes the number of video channels that can be encoded per device from uncompressed video feeds originating from Sky’s Sydney broadcast facility.

Another AWS product being put to use by Sky is the Elemental Conductor Live management system for managing encoding. This platform provides centralized control and monitoring of all live streaming channels, including features like automatic changeover to back-up systems.

Further, Sky Racing has purchased multiple AWS Elemental Live L532AE multichannel encoders to provide up to 48 HD channels of live streaming encoding for a disaster recovery facility as a backup to the primary site’s live stream encoding.

The AWS technology was supplied and supported by Digistor. For more information, visit www.digistor.com.au.  

LONDON—V-Nova and Amazon Web Services are collaborating on a contribution solution for sports, entertainment and other content that sidesteps the need for costly leased connections by leveraging SMPTE VC-6 encoding that can achieve a bitrate savings of up to 70% when compared to JPEG 2000, V-Nova said.

By combining V-Nova’s P.Link SMPTE VC-6-based compression with AWS Elemental’s MediaConnect and AWS Direct Connect, it is possible to avoid a costly choice faced when contributing premium sports and entertainment via dark fiber backbones: the expense associated with dedicated connections capable of supporting the bandwidth requirements of low-latency contribution encoders. Similarly, it is no longer necessary to turn to lower-quality, higher-latency encoders to address the problem, V-Nova said.

“The significant cost of dedicated leased connectivity is one of a number of key barriers to the rollout of more live UHD channels and richer remote-production setups,” said Guido Meardi, CEO and co-founder, V-Nova.

“The combination of SMPTE VC-6 encoding and the on-demand flexibility of AWS increases the feasibility of these services and help to satisfy the ever-growing consumer appetite for premium video experiences,” he added.

P.Link offers Intra-frame low latencies and quality equivalent to a JPEG 2000 alternative at as much as a 70% bitrate savings. Testing has revealed excellent low-latency transport of feeds, including 4Kp60 at less than 200Mbps between London and Sydney, the company said.

Relying on AWS for transport enables mission-critical one-to-one or one-to-many links that are easy to set up, cost-effective and available on-demand. Additionally, SMPTE VC-6 encoding also reduces processing power, thus enabling higher-density and lower operating costs, the company said.

More information is available on the company’s website. 

PORTLAND, Ore.—AWS Elemental has announced that statistical multiplexing is now available with its MediaLive processing service.

Used in live broadcast workflows, statmuxing allocates bits in real time among multiple live video channels, instantly adjusting the bitrate of each channel in the statmux pool to make the best use of total available bandwidth and combining the encoded output of each into a single transport stream.

As a result, the network efficiency is maximized by optimizing the picture quality of a group of channels within a fixed total bandwidth, the company said.

AWS Elemental MediaLive with Statmux makes it possible for broadcasters to improve flexibility and avoid incurring the time and costs necessary to build an on-premise system with hardware encoders. The offering allows broadcasters and other content providers to manage video workflows and deliver content reliably with excellent picture quality, the company said.

Among the benefits of the offering are the flexibility of the cloud, which makes adding, removing and updating live channels simple; built-in resiliency; high video quality; operational efficiency; integrated Amazon CloudWatch to enable real-time monitoring of video metrics and multiplexer performance; and a unified headend.

More information is available on the company’s website.

Statistical Multiplexing (Statmux) is now available with AWS Elemental MediaLive, Statmux is a technology used in live broadcast workflows that allocates bits in real time among multiple live video channels. It instantaneously adjusts the bitrate of each channel in the statmux pool to make the best use of total available bandwidth and combines the encoded outputs into a single transport stream. This maximizes network efficiency by optimizing picture quality for a group of channels within a fixed total bandwidth.

Using AWS Elemental MediaLive with Statmux, customers can now deploy linear video processing and playout in the AWS Cloud for broadcast, cable, or terrestrial distribution.

Media companies, such as national broadcasters, originate live content and simultaneously share that content with their distribution partners. Traditionally, this has been accomplished by preparing channels for distribution using purpose-built, on-premises hardware encoders. These systems can take months to procure and configure, require extensive engineering to operate reliably, and cannot be repurposed once deployed. AWS Elemental MediaLive with Statmux lets broadcasters and content providers build and manage broadcast video workflows on fully managed AWS services and gain flexibility, reduce hardware and management costs, and deliver excellent picture quality with built-in reliability.

Key benefits of AWS Elemental MediaLive with Statmux include:

• Cloud flexibility—Add, remove, or update live channels based on evolving audience and business needs, easily introduce new codecs, prioritize resources on a per-channel basis, and take advantage of multiple codecs and resolutions.

• Built-in resiliency—Resources are automatically allocated across multiple availability zones for high availability and fully managed failover.

• High video quality—Statmux for MediaLive lets you maximize video quality while optimizing for fixed satellite or cable distribution bandwidth. And, you can tune quality settings on a per-channel basis without disruption to assure that the highest-priority channels maintain the highest quality.

• Operational efficiency—Build broadcast distribution workloads in minutes, without on-premises hardware, and deliver channels more efficiently over fixed network bandwidth.

• Monitoring and metrics—Integrated Amazon CloudWatch monitoring enables real-time views of video metrics and multiplexer performance.

• Unified headend—For content providers that distribute traditional broadcast video as well as multiscreen linear video, Statmux for MediaLive can deliver both through a single architecture. With the increasing importance of OTT delivery, having one system to manage all encoding can dramatically simplify operations.

Learn more about how customers are saving time, reducing overhead, maximizing low-cost cloud resources, and maintaining optimized picture quality with AWS Elemental MediaLive and Statmux here: https://aws.amazon.com/medialive/features/statmux.

November 15, 2019, UK, London:Arqiva, the international satellite and media services provider, has been selected by the international television company A+E Networks EMEA to provide on-demand content for the channel’s Amazon Prime on demand service in Germany and UK.

A+E Networks® EMEA, has been an Arqiva customer for over a decade, with the existing partnership spanning playout and connectivity across Africa and the Middle East, UK DTH satellite capacity and on-premise VoD processing services across EMEA (including the UK). As part of the new contract, Arqiva will manage the content processing, packaging and delivery of A+E Networks EMEA existing archive content in both UK and Germany, from where it is currently stored on Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) and Amazon Simple Storage Service Glacier, to Amazon Prime.

One of A+E Networks EMEA’s key requirements was for the solution to be able to process all VoD requests as close to the cloud-based archive as possible in order to minimise content movement and therefore avoid costly cloud egress into on-premise data centres. Based on its latest hybrid on-premise/cloud offering, the solution implemented by Arqiva is the first to feature a completely cloud-contained journey, where content is taken from the online archive, processed packaged and delivered to Amazon Prime. This not only ensures significant cost-savings but transcoding in the cloud using AWS Elemental MediaConvert also enables Arqiva to process more simultaneous jobs at a far quicker pace.

Another primary factor in A+E Network EMEA’s decision to select Arqiva’s fully managed solution was its ability to integrate the company’s existing Identity and Access Management resources, ensuring the security of the platform whilst allowing A+E to retain full control of its content access and operation capabilities.

Matt Westrup, VP Technology and Operations at A+E Networks EMEA, said:“In a very dynamic and competitive media environment the ability to quickly and seamlessly deliver an even broader range of A+E Networks EMEA’s premium content to our Amazon Prime audience is a real strategic advantage. A solution like this means we can effortlessly build on our broadcast heritage in a viable way.”

Alex Pannell, Commercial Director Video Channels at Arqiva, said:“This deal marks a really important milestone for Arqiva. A+E Networks Germany is the first customer to use our new cloud VoD solution and its feedback on both the platform and onboarding process has been fantastic. We’ve been working really hard to extend our broadcast products onto cloud infrastructure and have built up an extensive set of skills and experience building on AWS. We see the fact that a major multi-channel broadcaster has adopted the cloud for its content archive as clear proof this was the right strategy to pursue for the future.”

About Arqiva

Arqiva is a leading UK communications infrastructure and media services provider dedicated to connecting people wherever they are through the delivery of TV, radio, mobile and machine to machine communications.

We are an independent provider of telecom towers, with circa 8,000 active sites across Great Britain, and are also the only supplier of national terrestrial television and radio broadcasting services in the UK. Our advanced networks support the exponential growth of connected devices and the ever-increasing demand for data from smartphones to tablets, connected TVs to smart meters.

Customers include major UK and international broadcasters such as the BBC, ITV, Sky Plc., Turner Broadcasting, the independent radio groups, major telco providers – including the UK's four mobile network operators – and energy and water companies.

For more information, news and insights from Arqiva, please visit the website at: www.arqiva.com

About A+E Networks EMEA

A+E Networks EMEA is a leading global media network reaching 74m homes in more than 100 countries across UK, Europe, Africa and Middle East. Our portfolio of popular, high performing and creative brands - HISTORY®, Crime+Investigation®, Lifetime®, HISTORY2®, UK free to air BLAZE®, COSMO in Spain and dedicated VOD brands on key platforms HISTORY Play and Crime+Investigation Play - have entertained and inspired audiences for over 20 years; telling the stories that need to be told. We complement our award-winning factual and entertainment local commissions and global hit factual and drama series with innovative talent-led exclusive digital content and top-rated podcasts. We partner with 366 major operators broadcasting throughout UK, Africa, CEE, German Speaking Markets, Iberia and Italy. With offices in London, Johannesburg, Warsaw, Madrid, Munich and Rome.

SEATTLE—June 4, 2019—Today, Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS), an Amazon.com company (NASDAQ: AMZN), announced that National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) has chosen AWS as its standard for cloud-based machine learning and artificial intelligence workloads. NASCAR will use the breadth and depth of AWS technologies to build cloud-based services and automate processes, including a new video series on NASCAR.com called This Moment in NASCAR History powered by AWS. The video series will debut heading into the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series™ race at Michigan International Speedway, sharing the greatest historical moments in NASCAR racing with viewers. NASCAR is migrating its 18-petabyte video archive to AWS, and will leverage Amazon Rekognition—an AWS service that adds intelligent image and video analysis to applications—to automatically tag specific video frames with metadata, such as driver, car, race, lap, time, and sponsors so they can easily search those tags to surface the most iconic moments from past races. By using AWS’s services, NASCAR expects to save thousands of hours of manual search time each year, and will be able to easily surface flashbacks like Dale Earnhardt Sr.’s 1987 “Pass in the Grass” or Denny Hamlin’s 2016 Daytona 500 photo finish, and quickly deliver these to fans via video clips on NASCAR.com and social media channels.

NASCAR will leverage AWS services to enhance its full range of media assets including websites, mobile applications, and social properties for its 80 million fans worldwide. NASCAR plans to use Amazon SageMaker to train deep learning models against 70 years of historical footage to enhance metadata and video analytics. With Amazon Transcribe, an automatic speech recognition (ASR) service, NASCAR will be able to caption and time stamp every word of speech within archived videos so that NASCAR video producers can easily locate source footage via text searches. In addition, NASCAR will use AWS Media Services, including AWS Elemental MediaLive and AWS Elemental MediaStore, to support NASCAR Drive, which puts fans in the driver’s seat using in-car cameras, live audio, and live leaderboards. These AWS Media Services enable NASCAR to process, package, and store broadcast video content, including live races, for delivery to broadcast and industry partners.

“Speed and efficiency are key in racing and business which is why we chose AWS—the cloud with unmatched performance, the most comprehensive set of services, and the fastest pace of innovation—to accelerate our migration to the cloud,” said Craig Neeb, Executive Vice President of Innovation and Development, NASCAR. “Leveraging AWS to power our new video series gives our highly engaged fans a historical look at our sport while providing a sneak peek at the initial results of this exciting collaboration.”

“Amazon’s 20 years of machine learning experience, along with our broad analytics and machine learning capabilities, make us the best choice for organizations who want to use machine learning to gain insights into their data and establish new levels of engagement with their customers,” said Mike Clayville, Vice President, Worldwide Commercial Sales at AWS. “NASCAR is utilizing cloud technology to enhance the way people experience the sport and delivering even more impactful content to fans. AWS’s unmatched portfolio of cloud services gives NASCAR the most flexible and powerful tools to bring new elements of the sport to live broadcasts of races.”

About Amazon Web Services

For 13 years, Amazon Web Services has been the world’s most comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud platform. AWS offers over 165 fully featured services for compute, storage, databases, networking, analytics, robotics, machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), mobile, security, hybrid, virtual and augmented reality (VR and AR), media, and application development, deployment, and management from 66 Availability Zones (AZs) within 21 geographic regions, spanning the U.S., Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, India, Ireland, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Sweden, and the UK. Millions of customers—including the fastest-growing startups, largest enterprises, and leading government agencies—trust AWS to power their infrastructure, become more agile, and lower costs. To learn more about AWS, visit aws.amazon.com.

About Amazon

Amazon is guided by four principles: customer obsession rather than competitor focus, passion for invention, commitment to operational excellence, and long-term thinking. Customer reviews, 1-Click shopping, personalized recommendations, Prime, Fulfillment by Amazon, AWS, Kindle Direct Publishing, Kindle, Fire tablets, Fire TV, Amazon Echo, and Alexa are some of the products and services pioneered by Amazon. For more information, visit amazon.com/about and follow @AmazonNews.

About NASCAR

The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, Inc. (NASCAR) is the sanctioning body for the No. 1 form of motorsports in the United States. NASCAR consists of three national series (Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series™, NASCAR Xfinity Series™, and NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series™), three regional series, one local grassroots series, three international series and the Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA). The International Motor Sports Association™ (IMSA®) governs the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship™, the premier U.S. sports car series. Based in Daytona Beach, Fla., with offices in eight cities across North America, NASCAR sanctions more than 1,200 races in more than 30 U.S. states, Canada, Mexico and Europe. For more information visit www.NASCAR.com and www.IMSA.com, and follow NASCAR on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat (‘NASCAR’).

PORTLAND, Ore.—Users can now package, encrypt on-demand video the same way they would live video via the AWS Elemental MediaPackage.

Using MediaPackage’s just-in-time feature, users can package file-based video and live video to multiple distribution formats and protect content with multiple digital rights management standards, allowing video to be available on different playback devices.

An adaptive bitrate (ABR) video asset can be ingested into a MediaPackage VOD packaging group. As a result, a single ABR can be viewed on connected TVs, mobile phones, computers, tablets and game consoles. Configurations can also be updated to extend the range of supported devices without having to transcode video again.

Just-in-time packaging for VOD is now available in all AWS regions were AWS Elemental MediaPackage is available.

Las Vegas, NV, NAB Conference, Booth SU2202 – April 8, 2019 – Today Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS) an Amazon.com company, announced availability of Accelerated Transcoding, a new feature within AWS Elemental MediaConvert that enables broadcasters, over-the-top (OTT) distributors, and other premium content providers to complete their video transcoding projects up to 25 times faster. EPIX, a 24-hour premium TV network, now uses Accelerated Transcoding to convert 4K UHD content for streaming to approximately 70 million U.S. pay TV homes. Accelerated Transcoding will be demonstrated publicly for the first time during the 2019 NAB Show at the Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC) April 8-11 in AWS booth SU2202.

Whether on home theaters with dedicated projection, TV sets in living rooms, or mobile screens, multiscreen viewing is proliferating. As the range and resolution of device displays increase, more complex video encoding methods are needed, resulting in long content render times. These delays present challenges for cable networks and streaming content providers. For example, a full-length 4K feature in high dynamic range (HDR) could take more than a day to render using traditional video workflow infrastructure for all of the formats required and the myriad of consumer players available today. With the scalability, elasticity, and flexibility of cloud processing and the advent of new technologies such as Accelerated Transcoding, these compute-heavy workflows can be processed with dramatically reduced turnaround times, allowing customers to meet studio’s requirements for transcode and quality assurance with time to spare. In addition to significantly reducing the transcoding time, AWS Elemental MediaConvert includes Quality-Defined Variable Bitrate control (QVBR) which can reduce file size by up to 50% by automatically adjusting bitrate on a frame by frame basis. Both QVBR and Accelerated Transcoding are available in AWS Elemental MediaConvert with no additional cost.

“We were looking to transcode large volumes of film and original television content into 4K Ultra HD for on-demand streaming to our customers,” said Jon Dakss, Chief Digital Officer, EPIX. “AWS Elemental MediaConvert is a flexible solution that doesn’t require any on-premises hardware, runs in the cloud, and with Accelerated Transcoding ensures faster delivery of the best 4K streaming experience across multiple devices.”

Wholly owned by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), EPIX is a premium TV service with a line-up of critically acclaimed original programming and thousands of Hollywood movies. EPIX is available nationwide through cable, satellite, telco, and streaming TV providers including Comcast, Spectrum, Cox, DISH, Verizon FiOS, AT&T U-verse, Sling, and PlayStation Vue as well as through the EPIX NOW streaming app.

About AWS Elemental MediaConvert

AWS Elemental MediaConvert is a file-based video transcoding service with broadcast-grade features that allows customers to easily create VOD content for broadcast and multiscreen delivery at scale. The service also combines advanced video and audio capabilities with a simple web services interface and pay-as-you-go pricing. With AWS Elemental MediaConvert, content providers can focus on delivering compelling media experiences without having to worry about the complexity of building and operating an in-house video processing infrastructure.

WASHINGTON--NAB has announced several new members of its PILOT program, which promotes technology collaboration between broadcasters and educators, advocates and companies.

The new members include AWS Elemental, an Amazon Web Services Company; Facebook Journalism Project; and Xperi. Members of PILOT collaborate with broadcasters to define key areas for development of innovative technologies and services for media companies with a focus on artificial intelligence and machine learning; augmented and virtual reality; platform engagement; multi-platform measurement; the connected car; and Next Gen TV.

AWS Elemental is an Amazon Web Services company that combines deep video expertise with the power and scale of the cloud to provide nimble, flexible software-based video processing and delivery solutions. With AWS Elemental, customers can harness the elasticity of the cloud when needed, on demand and with pay as you go services.

Facebook Journalism Project (FJP) was created in January 2017 to establish stronger ties between Facebook and the news industry. FJP works to collaboratively develop new products and provide tools and training for journalists through partnerships and programs with news organizations.

Xperi Corporation creates technology solutions in areas such as premium audio, automotive, broadcast, mobile computing and communications, memory and data storage, among others. Xperi Corporation brands include DTS, FotoNation, HD Radio, Invensas and Tessera.

PILOT members will also participate in NAB technology program development, conventions and networking events. Other PILOT members include Accenture, Avis Budget Group, Frankly, Google, IBM, Lakana, Nielsen, and Oath.

The following obituary was provided by Dan Marshall, Senior Vice President, Worldwide Field Operations, for AWS Elemental: 

Manuel C. De Peña, Sr. Field Operations Director Eastern Region for AWS Elemental, died from injuries sustained in an auto accident on May 9, 2018. He was 58 and a resident of San Antonio, Texas and Ridgway, Co.

Manuel was a huge presence in the lives of all he touched. A devoted family man, he was extremely proud of his two sons: David De Peña, who graduated from Virginia Tech in 2014 with a degree in Chemical Engineering, and Jonathan De Peña, who graduated from Virginia Tech in 2018 with a degree in Finance. He and his wife of 28 years, Pam, met in Austin, Texas. The family lived in Austin, Texas, Meridian, Idaho, Tokyo, Alexandria, Va., Sterling, Va., Ridgway, Col., and Bulverde, Texas.

Manuel was born in Brownsville, Texas. He attended high school at St. Joseph Academy in Brownsville and college at the University of Texas at Austin.

In business, Manuel was impeccably straightforward and a supreme example of a person who truly cared about his customers. He was a voracious learner, always reading and studying. . Manuel seemed to be able to find a connection with anyone he met, and enjoyed staying in touch with friends and colleagues over the years.

Grant Nodine, senior vice president, technology, NHL, knew De Peña for 15 years and considered him a good friend.

“Manuel and I were fortunate to get to spend some great times together during his tenure at AWS/Elemental,” he said. “Whether it was together at NHL All-Star weekend, dinners, trade shows, or industry conferences whenever I saw Manuel he always lit up and I can say that one of his true talents was his ability to take joy in mundane things and to never take anything for granted. He was truly passionate about what he did and the people, myself included, who were lucky enough to work closely with him over the years are better for having done so. I was devastated to hear of his passing and will miss him terribly and sincerely hope that the memory of his professionalism, compassion, and joyfulness keeps his spirit alive in our hearts and minds for many years to come.”

Joe Inzerillo, Executive Vice President & CTO at BAMTECH Media, said: "You can tell a lot about people you meet in the industry by the fact you work with them through multiple companies. Manuel was a fixture in the encoding space and someone I respected greatly. He had integrity, grit and was a person I enjoyed working with to move this industry forward. He will be missed.  

Brian Angioletti, Vice President, Media Delivery at BAMTECH Media said, "I knew Manuel for more years then I can count, and over those years I found Manuel to be a thoughtful and honest individual. I trusted his opinions and always trusted that he was doing what was in our best interests. I genuinely looked forward to his visits and considered him a true friend and I will miss him dearly.

Pi Waller, Vice President, Video Operations at HBO described Manuel as "a good friend to HBO." "His thoughtful attention to detail and his vast knowledge of the encoding space was a huge value to us over the years. He was professional, courteous and always well prepared. Manuel was also a pleasure to work with – a great person and a great work ethic. He will be missed. 

A Celebration of Life ceremony will be held in Manuel’s honor from 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm on May 26, 2018 at the San Antonio Marriott Northwest.

The family requests that in lieu of flowers, memorial contributions be made for a scholarship to Virginia Tech. Donations are tax deductible and may be made on-line by visitinghttp://www.givingto.vt.edu.

Donations are tax deductible and Checks should be made payable to The Virginia Tech Foundation, Inc. and may be mailed to:

Virginia Tech Advancement (0336)

Office of Gift Accounting

902 Prices Fork Road

Blacksburg, VA 24061

Donations may also be made on-line by visiting http://www.givingto.vt.edu.

Please note on your check or correspondence that this gift is for a “scholarship in memory of Manuel De Peña” when mailing tributes or include this note in the Honorary/Memorial Gifts section when making gifts on-line.

Donations in Manuel’s name may also be made to the mikeroweWorks Foundation atmikeroweworks.org - Giving Options. This group provides scholarships to people who want to learn a skill or a trade.

OWNZONES Media Network, an OTT EntTech company, today announced API integration between the OWNZONES Connect media logistics solution and AWS Elemental MediaConvert.

OWNZONES Connect, which is a “post house in the cloud” media logistics solution, has made heavy use of Amazon Web Services (AWS) and AWS Media Services since the company’s inception.

OWNZONES is providing its expertise to Magnolia Pictures, the theatrical and home entertainment distribution arm of Todd Wagner and Mark Cuban’s 2929 Entertainment to help expand their traditional cinematic products to the over-the-top (OTT) TV market.

“Magnolia Pictures’ decision to partner with OWNZONES three years ago marked a critical turning point in their OTT business as they are no longer required to make significant investments in costly post production software and have the flexibility of scaling on demand and fill support of complex file formats,” said Aaron Sloman, Chief Technology officer for OWNZONES.

Sloman added: “Our developers have created a state of the art, forward-thinking solution that enables video providers the ability to process and deliver high quality video streams for broadcast television and multiscreen devices with the security, scalability and simplicity of cloud-based solutions and pay-as-you-go pricing. We are delighted to announce API integration with AWS and to provide our customers access to a complete digital content supply and fast, flexible access to the cloud.”

“We value OWNZONES’ technical expertise and knowledge that it has helped pave the way for us to reach a new generation of consumers,” said Magnolia Pictures’ Jeff Cuban.

“With high-speed streaming enabled by AWS Elemental MediaConvert, HD-quality controls and a future-ready cloud architecture powered by OWNZONES, Magnolia Pictures is well equipped to deliver an engaging online entertainment experience for movie lovers any time and every time.”

SEATTLE—Amazon Web Services has launched five new offerings within the AWS Elemental Media Services cloud portfolio to help customers build end to end workflows for both live and on-demand video with the professional features, image quality, and reliability needed to deliver premium video experiences to viewers across a multitude of devices.

The company is touting its new services as a way to give its customers more flexibility as they move from productions using specialized broadcast equipment and customized revenue models to cloud-based live productions that can provide personalized advertising on a “pay as you go” monetization arrangement scaled across multiple platforms. Its new services, the company said, simplify what were previously labor-intensive processes. Projects that once took months or years—such as standing up 24x7 live broadcast channels, converting a library of video-on-demand (VOD) assets for distribution, or streaming a high-profile live event—can now be completed in a fraction of the time with the new services, AWS Elemental said.

“For the better part of six decades, professional-grade video workflows were limited to a few major industry players who could afford to build and maintain customized infrastructure that would be updated only once or twice each decade,” said Alex Dunlap, General Manager at AWS Elemental. “These companies spent a great deal of time, money, and focus operating infrastructure with resources that could have been better spent creating great content and viewer experiences. We built AWS Elemental Media Services to let customers focus on delivering top-quality video reliably to any device, everywhere, without the undifferentiated heavy lifting of managing infrastructure. This not only helps traditional video providers innovate faster, but it also opens up new opportunities for startups, government agencies, schools, and multinational enterprises that, before today, had limited access to premium-quality video technology.”

AWS Elemental Media Services include the following individual services:

· AWS Elemental MediaConvert: Format and compress video-on-demand content for delivery to virtually any playback device, with high-quality video transcoding and broadcast-level features.

· AWS Elemental MediaLive: Encode broadcast-grade live video for televisions or connected devices. Quickly stand up broadcast channels or live events and deliver them reliably to your viewers.

· AWS Elemental MediaPackage: Prepare and protect live video streams for delivery to Internet devices with rich playback experience features such as start-over TV.

· AWS Elemental MediaStore: Deliver video from high-performance storage optimized for media.

· AWS Elemental MediaTailor: Insert targeted advertising into your video without sacrificing quality to increase viewer engagement and boost revenues.

Customers involved in the extensive private preview of AWS Elemental Media Services include BT, Pac-12 Networks, Amazon Prime Video, FOX Sports Australia, fuboTV, NINE in Australia, Spuul VOD in Singapore, cloud media services provider M2A Media, Cinépolis and Imagica.

Implementing HDR makes sense for your media operation if you understand that High Dynamic Range (HDR) is not just about more pixels, it’s about better pixels. Whether you are a content creator, broadcaster, cable/satellite operator or OTT streaming service provider, the opportunity is now as HDR video is expected to be the consumer technology taking the television experience to the next level.

To learn more about High Dynamic Range, download our latest white paper, Making Business Sense of the HDR Opportunity

I remember when I first met Sam Blackman, founder of AWS Elemental. It was at an NAB Show press conference in 2010, their first big industry show. To say that the company exploded onto the media technology scene is an understatement—AWS Elemental seemed to come out of nowhere and quickly made its presence known. Over the years it launched a number of products that revolutionized video processing and helped bring the power of transcoding to an ever larger array of services. AWS Elemental’s rise mirrored the rise of OTT and helped democratize video streaming. Every NAB seemed to bring a new benchmark to its success in the industry.

Dan Marshall (L), vice president of sales, and Sam Blackman, CEO & Chairman of Elemental Technologies, accept the TV Technology Mario Award for the Elemental Live Streaming Processor at the 2010 NAB Show.

By now, we know the history behind its success, that it was launched by three former Pixelworks engineers, Jesse Rosenzweig, Brian Lewis and Sam Blackman in 2006. Its meteoric rise caught the attention of Amazon, which acquired the company in 2015 for $296 million. At the time, Amazon Prime was a fledgling player in the OTT space competing against the likes of Hulu and Netflix; AWS Elemental helped bring Amazon Prime to the forefront.

Sam was a gentleman and a true visionary; as one of his colleagues mentioned in his passing, “He was the most inspiring mentor and leader for whom I have ever worked.” He always found time to share his enthusiasm and passion for the industry to everyone he met and this was a common theme among his associates with whom I spoke with after his passing. He also “had a sense of wonder,” according to one friend who I spoke with this week. Another colleague of mine commented that “he was like a kid,” when she watched him introduce the International Space Station live 4K broadcast at the 2017 NAB Show.

Sam’s qualities as a leader went far beyond the corporate world; he was also very much involved in the Portland, Ore. community. I was struck by how the city of Portland reacted to the news of his passing; AWS Elemental was a rising star not only in our industry, but in the community as well. Sam also helped launch one of the most successful charity events in our industry, the 4K 4Charity Fun Run, which takes place three times a year: IBC, NAB and in Portland Ore. in the fall. Since its launch in 2014, the event has raised more than $450,000 and attracted more than 4,000 participants. The IBC run will kick off at 7:30 AM on Saturday Sept. 16 at AmstelPark in Amsterdam for Sam. To register or donate, visit http://4k4charity.com/. Even if you don’t plan to run, you can remember Sam by attending the event, which will be preceded by a moment of silence.

One of the most important factors behind becoming a successful company is the ability of its leaders to hire the best people; AWS Elemental didn’t come to be what it is today without a talented workforce and its future is as solid as ever. That success, along with a proactive community spirit will be among Sam’s foremost legacies. 

The Blackman family has asked that donations be made in lieu of flowers to three organizations that cover the areas he was most focused on giving back – hunger, the environment, education.

Oregon Food Bank 

Forest Park Conservancy

Rosemary Anderson High School

PORTLAND, ORE.—TV Technologyis saddened to report the untimely passing of AWS Elemental CEO Sam Blackman at the age of 41.

Sam Blackman

After founding Elemental Technologies in 2006 with Brian Lewis and Jesse Rosenzweig, Blackman led the company from a tiny start-up to one of Portland’s major employers before selling it to Amazon in 2015 for $296 million. He stayed on as CEO.

It is reported that Blackman suffered a cardiac arrest over the weekend.

An AWS Elemental spokesperson said: “AWS Elemental has lost a passionate, visionary and humble leader and the world has lost an inspiring human being dedicated to community.

“Sam’s spirit will always be at the core of what we do. Sam loved his work, but his greatest love was for his wife and children. Our thoughts are with his family and all those he touched on his journey.”

A statement from Blackman’s family read: “Sam died peacefully yesterday surrounded by his loved ones. In his private life, he cherished his family, and in his public life he cherished his community and the business he founded, Elemental Technologies.

“He was a passionate advocate for community service who rallied so many towards a greater good for the environment, hunger, education and inclusion. We are thankful to all those who have shared their thoughts and prayers for Sam. We ask that you respect our privacy during this time of grief.”

Prior to the creation of Elemental, Blackman designed integrated circuit products for Pixelworks. He also held engineering positions at Silicon Graphics and Intel Corporation.

He leaves behind a wife and two young sons.

The Blackman family has asked that donations be made in lieu of flowers to three areas Blackman gave back to, the Oregon Food Bank, Forest Park Conservancy and Rosemary Anderson High School.

PORTLAND, ORE.—AWS Elemental was on the championship stage when BT used its live video processing technology to help support its live stream broadcasts of the UEFA Champions League final on June 3. BT offered both a 360-degree virtual reality and 4K live stream via its BT Sport application and YouTube.

For the live streams, BT’s on-site production trucks delivered the VR feeds from the 12 360-degree, 4K cameras set up around the stadium to AWS Elemental Live encoders for processing and packaging live streams. The 4K UHD streams originating from BT’s main channel playout center were also encoded by AWS Elemental Live for live streaming of the 4K content over YouTube Live. AWS Elemental was able to offer high quality bitrate outputs to viewers on browsers, Android and iOS devices, Chromecast and select gaming consoles.

BT utilizes AWS Elemental software to unify its traditional and multiscreen headend for its BT Sport app, BT TV and BT UHD services.

PORTLAND, ORE.—The newly branded AWS Elemental, an Amazon Web Services company, is being put to use by Frontier Communications. Frontier has deployed AWS Elemental video processing for its Vantage TV for live and on-demand services.

AWS Elemental provides unified headends that support video processing in local markets and national channel video processing at Frontier’s super headend. It also supports Frontier TV streaming content to smart phones, tablets and other personal devices. The AWS Elemental Cloud transcodes VOD assets that require dynamic scaling. In addition, the AWS Elemental Delta video delivery platform supports packaging and digital rights management for the Frontier TV Everywhere app.

These services are helping Frontier Communications create an IPTV platform, per Dan Marshall, senior vice president of field operations for AWS Elemental.

PORTLAND, ORE.—There’s a new brand in town, as AWS Elemental has announced that it will make its official debut at the 2017 NAB Show. The new brand reflects the combined resources and cloud computing capabilities of Amazon Web Services with the video processing acumen of Elemental Technologies.

“AWS Elemental combines deep video processing expertise with the virtually limitless resources of the cloud to power our customers’ video processing workflows and give them the tools to perfect the media experience,” said Keith Wymbs, chief marketing officer for AWS Elemental, in the companies official press release.

Under its new banner, AWS Elemental will feature some of its new workflows and technologies, all of which work in the cloud. These will include technologies for HDR, live channel playout, managing VOD libraries, frame accurate live-to-VOD functionality and cloud-based ingest services.

The company will also take part in sessions scheduled throughout the conference, including “Reaching for the Stars: Connecting to the Future with NASA and Hollywood.” AWS Elemental’s Sam Blackman and Khawaja Shams will take part in the panel that will include the first 4K live stream from the International Space Station.

In addition, AWS Elemental is still sponsoring the annual 4K 4Charity Fun Run that takes place on April 25.

AWS Elemental will be located at booth SU2202 during the 2017 NAB Show, which runs from April 24-27 in Las Vegas.