AWS Elemental MediaLive Now Supports HEVC and 4K/UHD Outputs for Live Channels

AWS Elemental MediaLive now supports High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) for standard-definition (SD), high-definition (HD), and ultra-high-definition (UHD) encoding with HDR support.

Encoding with HEVC offers a number of advantages. While UHD video requires an advanced codec beyond H.264 (AVC), high frame rate (HFR) or High Dynamic Range (HDR) content in HD also benefit from HEVC’s advancements. In addition, benefits can be achieved with HD and SD content even if HDR and HFR are not needed.

HEVC is 30-50% more efficient than AVC, resulting in significantly lower CDN costs. If just half of your audience can view HEVC content, resulting in an encoding savings of 35%, you can easily realize 17.5% in CDN bandwidth savings. This means you can improve video quality while reducing distribution costs, and be prepared for the next generation of UHD and HDR content.

AWS Elemental MediaLive is a broadcast-grade live video processing service. It lets you create high-quality live video streams for delivery to broadcast televisions and internet-connected multiscreen devices, like connected TVs, tablets, smartphones, and set-top boxes.

The service functions independently or as part of AWS Elemental Media Services, a family of services that form the foundation of cloud-based workflows and offer you the capabilities you need to transport, create, package, monetize, and deliver video.

Visit the AWS region table for a full list of AWS Regions where AWS Elemental MediaLive is available.