Amazon Web Service has presented its new cloud-connected software application Elemental MediaConnect Gateway, for transmitting live video between on-premises multicast networks and AWS.

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. Customers have 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.”

Customers will use MediaConnect Gateway primarily for contribution and distribution of live video. For video contribution workflows, let’s take a content provider that originates live linear channels on premises. The provider sends 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.

“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.”