
Video Processing on AWS
In this post, I'll walk you through the fundamentals of video processing on AWS, from initial considerations to service selection. I'll share insights from real implementations, helping you navigate the decision-making process with confidence.
Published Jan 24, 2025
Building video processing solutions used to be a complex endeavor, requiring deep expertise in encoding, streaming protocols, and infrastructure management. I've witnessed a significant shift in this landscape, particularly through my recent work on a proof-of-concept for Bundesliga. What struck me most wasn't the technical complexities – it was the realization that AWS has fundamentally transformed video processing into a commodity.
AWS provides the required building blocks to build your video-on-demand platform, implement live streaming, or modernize existing broadcast workflows. The key is knowing how to arrange these blocks effectively.
In this post, I'll walk you through the fundamentals of video processing on AWS, from initial considerations to service selection. I'll share insights from real implementations, helping you navigate the decision-making process with confidence. My goal isn't to dive deep into technical specifics – that's a topic for future posts – but rather to provide you with a clear framework for building video processing solutions on AWS.
💡 Pro Tip: Before diving into technical implementations, align with your stakeholders on key requirements. Understanding your needs around quality, latency, and reliability will guide your architectural decisions more effectively than starting with technical specifications.
When I started working on video processing solutions, I quickly learned that success depends more on understanding your requirements than mastering technical complexities. Let me share the key readiness factors I have learned about when building video solutions on AWS. Each of these factors introduces trade-offs, and given your specific use-case, some might be more important than others. The key is finding the right balance that serves your business needs while staying within technical and budgetary constraints.
Level of Expertise: Even with AWS making video processing a commodity, having basic knowledge about video processing concepts helps in making informed decisions. Do you have in-house AWS and video streaming expertise along with an existing AWS support plan?
Budget Considerations: Data transfer out of the cloud is a major cost driver along with the resources needed to process that data. Keep in mind that data transfer correlates with your ability to scale. The higher the number of viewers, the more data needs to be transferred. This is where content delivery networks like Amazon CloudFront become crucial for both performance and cost optimization.
Video Quality Requirements: Higher video quality produces more data transfer and processing that might not be needed for all use-cases. Remember: not every stream needs 4K resolution. The key is finding the sweet spot between quality and cost that aligns with your viewers' expectations.
Latency Expectations: Latency - the delay between a live action and the viewed image on the customer side - can be critical in applications like sporting events. In my work with Bundesliga, I learned that the appropriate level of latency depends on many factors. Understanding acceptable latency levels helps in choosing the right combination of AWS services.
Reliability Requirements: Nobody wants to see a loading spinner when watching a video. Reliability can be achieved in multiple ways, up to creating multiple layers of redundancy - each with additional setup and costs. Your choice depends on how critical the video service is to your business operations.
Workflow Enhancements: Think about your need for additional features like DRM encryption, captions and subtitles, or ad insertions. Each enhancement adds complexity and cost to your solution, so it's crucial to identify must-have features early in your planning process.
💡 Pro Tip: These factors aren't independent - they interact with each other in ways that affect your overall solution. For example, higher quality requirements might impact both your budget and latency considerations.
A typical video processing pipeline consists of four fundamental stages, independent of whether you are building a live-streaming or video-on-demand solution. Understanding these stages helps in making informed decisions about which AWS services to use and how to architect your solution effectively.

Ingest - Getting Source Content into the System: This is where your content enters the video processing pipeline. For live streaming, this might be a camera. For video-on-demand, it could be a library of pre-recorded content. The key consideration here is ensuring reliable content acquisition while maintaining quality and managing costs.
Process - Making Content Consumable: Raw video content often needs to be transformed before it can be efficiently delivered to viewers. This includes compression to reduce file sizes, transcoding to support different devices, and packaging content into formats suitable for streaming. The goal is to balance quality with efficient delivery.
Store - Managing Content Lifecycle: Whether it's temporary storage for live streaming or long-term archival for video-on-demand, selecting the right content storage is crucial. This stage focuses on making content readily available while managing storage costs and ensuring content security.
Deliver - Reaching Your Audience: The final stage involves getting your processed content to viewers efficiently and reliably. This includes content distribution strategies, handling varying network conditions, and ensuring smooth playback across different devices and locations.
💡 Pro Tip: Think of these stages as building blocks rather than rigid boundaries. While each stage has its distinct purpose, they work together seamlessly in a well-designed video processing solution. The key is understanding how your specific requirements influence decisions at each stage.
After understanding the video processing pipeline stages, let's explore how AWS services map to each stage. My experience with Bundesliga taught me that AWS provides various services for different use cases that work seamlessly together. Let me guide you briefly through the services available at each stage.

💡 Pro Tip: Don't feel overwhelmed by the number of services. Start with the core services that match your immediate needs and add capabilities as your requirements evolve. Some of these services also provide capabilities that span multiple stages. Keep this in mind to reduce complexity.
Getting your content into AWS is the first crucial step. AWS offers several services depending on your specific requirements:
- AWS Elemental Live: An on-premise encoder converting high-res live streams into network-friendly formats. Perfect for multi-camera events and live studio productions.
- AWS Elemental Link: When you need to ingest raw signals directly from cameras or video equipment. Think of it as your bridge between physical video equipment and the cloud.
- AWS Elemental MediaConnect: For secure and reliable transport of high-quality video streams. Ideal for enterprise-level streaming and B2B live transfers.
- AWS Direct Connect: Creates a dedicated network connection to AWS. Essential when reliability and bandwidth consistency are crucial.
- AWS Snowball: For massive video libraries that need migration to the cloud. Perfect for archive digitization projects.
- Amazon S3: Your scalable storage solution for video files. Used both as initial storage for uploaded content and throughout the pipeline.
Processing transforms your content into viewer-ready formats and AWS offers the following options:
- AWS Elemental MediaLive: Creates viewer-ready streams for different devices and bandwidths. Essential for live streaming scenarios.
- AWS Elemental MediaConvert: Your go-to service for file-based video transcoding. Ideal for video-on-demand content.
- AWS Elemental MediaPackage: Prepares video for delivery while adding enhanced features like time-shifted viewing.
- AWS Elemental MediaTailor: Handles personalized ad insertion. Perfect when monetization is key.
Efficient storage is crucial for both live and on-demand content. Amazon S3 became the de facto standard as a reliable, scalable storage for your media assets. AWS Elemental MediaPackage also has the capability to cache content ahead of viewer requests.
Getting content to viewers efficiently is the final piece:
- AWS Elemental MediaConnect: For secure content distribution to partners or between regions.
- Amazon CloudFront: Your content delivery network, ensuring smooth playback globally.
In my years working in the media and entertainment industry, I encountered an often-overlooked challenge that's crucial for successful implementation. Media and broadcast operators have their established workflows, tools, and interfaces. While AWS Elemental Media Services provide powerful capabilities, operators will rarely interact directly with the AWS Management Console to manage video processing pipelines.
The technical implementation of video processing on AWS is straightforward, but making it usable for media operators requires additional thought. These professionals are experts in their domain, working with specialized broadcast tools and interfaces they've mastered over the years.
The solution lies in thoughtful integration and automation. Rather than expecting operators to adapt to new interfaces, you need to adapt your AWS-based video processing pipelines to existing operational workflows. This might mean:
- Building custom control interfaces or if possible integrating with familiar broadcast tools.
- Automating routine tasks through APIs and workflows.
- Creating intuitive monitoring dashboards that speak the language of media operations.
💡 Pro Tip: When designing video processing solutions, consider your operators' daily workflows early in the process. The most technically sophisticated pipeline adds little value if it doesn't integrate smoothly with existing operational practices.
Success still depends on understanding and addressing the human elements of media workflows.
Building video processing solutions on AWS is a journey of understanding both technical capabilities and human workflows.
The key to success lies in asking the right questions upfront, understanding your readiness factors, and carefully considering how your solution will integrate with existing operational practices. Remember, even the most sophisticated technical implementation needs to work harmoniously with your team's established workflows.
Looking ahead, you can expect me to share more detailed insights about specific aspects of video processing on AWS. Future posts will dive deeper into topics like livestreaming architectures, video-on-demand solutions, and operational best practices.