AWS Elemental has launched a new remote-controlled device that allows customers to transport live video from on-prem cameras and other production equipment and securely process that video with AWS Elemental MediaLive through the AWS Console.
AWS Elemental Link supports multiple applications in live video environments, such as broadcast studios, news facilities, sports and entertainment event venues and mobile production trucks.
The Kleenex-sized box is designed to make getting content into the Cloud easier than ever before, according to Mike Callahan, head of Media Solutions marketing at AWS. The box requires power, internet and a connection from a camera or video device and it automatically begins sending content into the user’s AWS MediaLive service. Once the device has been purchased it is delivered to the user preconfigured for their account. “All of the monitoring and control is done out of the MediaLive service console. So you can centralise all of your operational work from one place while simplifying what’s actually done in the field,” Callahan tells TVBEurope.
“Making it small means it will fit perfectly in the backpack of whoever’s out using it. It could be a reporter who’s out on their own and they can just plug in, get connected, and they can do what they need to do without having to have anyone with them who might be looking after the technology side of things. It’s pretty simple to use,” he adds.
Elemental Link does need to be connected to the internet, but Callahan says it could be used in conjunction with a cellular bonding device. “The product actually adapts the output stream to your internet bandwidth. So if you’re out in the field and you find that you have reduced bandwidth or reduced network throughput for one reason or another, Elemental Link will actually change the amount of data that it’s trying to send out to match what’s available to you. This will happen in real time, and helps to solve any of those types of issues.”
Callahan is also keen to promote the device’s security. “Because we’re linking it to the user’s account, and we’re encrypting the signal as it’s being sent up, there’s no way for somebody else to be either sending a signal to your to your account without you knowing about it, or to take the signal and use it in another way, so that security is an important part of this device as well.”
