Distributing content from MediaConnect to MediaLive

If you plan to distribute the contents of your AWS Elemental MediaConnect flow to AWS Elemental MediaLive, remember the following:

• For each video stream, create two flows in the same AWS Region, and in the same Availability Zones (such as us-east-1a). For example, if you are creating two MediaLive inputs using MediaConnect flows, the first flow of input 1 needs to be in the same Availability Zone as the first flow of input 2. These redundant flows will serve as the primary and backup inputs for the MediaLive channel.

• Create the MediaLive channel in the same AWS Region as the AWS Elemental MediaConnect flows.

• Set up permissions that allow MediaLive to communicate with AWS Elemental MediaConnect. This process consists of the following procedures:

  1. Create a policy that allows MediaLive to submit a request to AWS Elemental MediaConnect (see Create a MediaLive Policy).

  2. Assign that policy to a role for MediaLive (see Create a Role for MediaLive). You will need the Amazon Resource Name (ARN) for this role when you specify AWS Elemental MediaConnect flows as inputs to a MediaLive channel.

• Create your AWS Elemental MediaConnect and MediaLive resources in this order:

  1. Set up permissions.

  2. Create the AWS Elemental MediaConnect flows.

  3. Make a note of the flow ARNs.

  4. Create the inputs on the MediaLive channel. (You can create the MediaLive channel whenever you want. Just be sure to create the inputs for that channel after you create the flows.)

Billing considerations

When using MediaConnect as an input source for MediaLive, keep in mind the following considerations that can impact your costs:

Billing impact when stopping MediaLive channels

• When you stop or pause a MediaLive channel that uses MediaConnect as inputs, the associated MediaConnect outputs don’t automatically stop as well. As a result, even though the MediaLive channel is no longer active, the MediaConnect output attempts to send data to it. This can lead to additional charges on your MediaConnect flows.

Mitigating additional charges

• To avoid incurring unnecessary charges in this scenario, we recommend that you manually stop your MediaConnect flows whenever the associated MediaLive channels are no longer in use. You can either stop the flows yourself, or work with your MediaLive team to do this.

• If you work with a separate MediaLive team, we recommend that you have them notify you when they are pausing or stopping a MediaLive channel that uses your MediaConnect flows. That way, you can work together to temporarily stop the associated MediaConnect outputs during those periods, preventing additional charges. This coordination between the MediaLive and MediaConnect teams will help ensure you're only paying for the active usage of the services.

For more information on the pricing and billing implications of using MediaConnect, see the Pricing section of this guide.