Customers can purchase and deploy on-premises encoding appliances and software, such as AWS Elemental Live from Amazon Web Services (AWS). However, the operational costs to maintain appliances and keep software updated can be a barrier to unlocking new features and video quality improvements. If a customer has hybrid deployments of both ground and cloud live video workflows, management and monitoring complications only increase. Customers who want to migrate to the cloud may also have hardware already deployed in data centers or long-term leases in place.

Many customers prefer using the fully managed capabilities of AWS Elemental MediaLive, but have video sources, such as serial digital interface (SDI), anchored on premises. One way to solve this is to use a cloud-controlled device such as AWS Elemental Link, but these devices may not meet the needs of a multi-channel environment or where customers want precise control of encode settings. Some customers also require encoding for last mile delivery on a locally managed content delivery network (CDN) or packager, and round trips to the cloud for processing add unnecessary complexity and cost.

Introducing AWS Elemental MediaLive Anywhere
AWS Elemental MediaLive Anywhere is a feature of MediaLive that lets you run live video encoding on premises while using the cloud for management. As the name implies, you now can encode video using MediaLive just about anywhere. MediaLive Anywhere is deployed on your hardware, with video processing performed on premises while configuration, control, monitoring, and management tasks are done in the cloud. With MediaLive Anywhere, you can improve hybrid workflow operations, minimize video transit, and connect to on-premises video sources and destinations.

Streamline live video operations and simplify on-premises encoding
Using MediaLive Anywhere, you can manage hybrid or on-premises video encoding with consistent APIs, channel profiles, logs, and metrics. All of your channels can be configured, controlled, and monitored in one place — even when you have multiple on-premises locations. Each time you start a channel in MediaLive Anywhere, you receive the latest features and updates. This means you get the latest in video processing capabilities, including new codecs and encoding quality, without having to worry about updating software.

If you have video sources anchored on premises, such as SDI, or local network destinations, such as a managed CDN or packager, connectivity is critical. With MediaLive Anywhere, you can reduce complexity by encoding from on-premises video sources. Similarly, you can reduce overhead and avoid unnecessary round trips to the cloud when you need to send live video to local network destinations.

Ease migration and improve streaming efficiency
In some cases, AWS Elemental Live appliances and software remain the right choice, especially when live video workflows are almost entirely on premises. AWS and the AWS Partners that resell these appliances are committed to providing the most versatile and feature-complete physical encoding appliances for customers to use in their own data centers, including the new lineup of next-generation AWS Elemental Live L900 series appliances released in April 2024.

If you have hybrid ground and cloud deployments, MediaLive Anywhere is a better choice. In addition, you might be waiting for existing facility leases to expire or have longer term capital expenditure investments in place and face delayed cloud migration. MediaLive Anywhere is designed to ease the migration from managing on-premises hardware to fully managed cloud encoding. You can repurpose hardware deployed in data centers as cloud-controlled encoders, depending on the hardware. Customers with existing AWS Elemental Live L800 and L900 series appliances can migrate to MediaLive Anywhere in just a few steps.

With MediaLive Anywhere, you can also improve the economics of linear streaming by moving to pay-as-you-go pricing. Paying for only the channels you run, and only at the times they need to run, can make it more cost effective to stream 24/7 channels and live events. You also have flexibility in the number of channels you run on each hardware device, and aren’t locked into purchasing software licenses that you may not fully utilize.

Every day, PBS and its more than 330 member stations fulfill their essential mission to the American public, providing trusted programming that is uniquely different from commercial broadcasting, and treating audiences as citizens, not simply consumers. MediaLive Anywhere will enable PBS to streamline the ingestion and delivery of local programming to their stations' online viewers while consolidating the operational management of their entire linear video stream catalog in the cloud.