IVS Recording | Real-Time Streaming - Amazon IVS

IVS Recording | Real-Time Streaming

There are two recording options for IVS real-time streaming:

  • With individual participant recording, each publisher’s media is recorded in separate files.

  • In contrast, composite recording combines media from all publishers into a single view and records it in one file.

Individual participant recording incurs no additional Amazon IVS charges, while composite recording incurs charges for the hourly rate for the video encoded. Both recording options incur standard S3 storage and request costs. For more details, see Amazon IVS pricing.

For a more customizable solution, consider using the open-source IVSStageSaverr project as the foundation for your own self-hosted recording service.

Individual Participant Recording

This option is ideal for live streams with a single publisher or when separate recordings of each publisher are needed, especially for moderation purposes. For more details, see Individual Participant Recording.

Recording each publisher's media in a separate file using individual particpant recording.

Composite Recording

This option combines media from multiple publishers into a single view and records it in one file, ideal for a video-on-demand experience. For more details, see Composite Recording.

Recording a stage to an S3 bucket using server-side composition.

Thumbnails

Thumbnail recording for IVS real-time streaming can be set up for both individual participant recordings and composite (multi-participant) recordings. To enable or disable thumbnail recording and adjust the interval at which thumbnails are generated:

  • For individual participant recordings, use the thumbnailConfiguration property.

  • For composite recordings, use the thumbnailConfigurations property.

Thumbnail intervals range from 1 to 86400 seconds (24 hours); by default, thumbnail recording is disabled. For details, see the Amazon IVS Real-Time Streaming API Reference.

A thumbnail configuration includes a storage field, which can be set to SEQUENTIAL and/or LATEST. The storage field determines the S3 storage behavior for the thumbnails:

  • SEQUENTIAL saves all thumbnails in a serial manner. This is the default.

  • LATEST saves only the most recent thumbnail, overwriting the previous one.

If you specify both SEQUENTIAL and LATEST, thumbnails are written to two separate S3 paths, one for the sequential archive and one for the latest thumbnail.