Deploy a reference implementation to build a scalable, distributed video-on-demand workflow

Publication date: April 2017 (last update: December 2021)

The Video on Demand on AWS solution automatically provisions the AWS services necessary to build a scalable, distributed workflow to ingest, store, process, and deliver video content on demand. It ingests metadata files and source videos, processes the videos for playback on a wide range of devices, stores the transcoded media files, and delivers the videos to end users through CloudFront.

This solution uses the following AWS services to build a highly available and resilient architecture:

• AWS Elemental MediaConvert to transcode media files from their source format into versions that play back smartphones, tablets, PCs and other devices.

• AWS Elemental MediaPackage (optional) to create video streams formatted to play on several devices from a single video input.

• Amazon CloudFront to accelerate delivery of your video content to end users.

• AWS Step Functions to build applications from individual components that each perform a discrete function.

• AWS Lambda to run code without provisioning or managing servers.

• Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) for object storage.

• Amazon DynamoDB to track source and destination file metadata and progress through the workflow.

• Amazon CloudWatch to track encoding jobs.

• Amazon Simple Queue Service (Amazon SQS) to capture the workflow output.

• Amazon Simple Notification Service (Amazon SNS) to send publishing, encoding, and error notifications.

This solution provides an example architecture to build a global consumer video workflow on AWS. You can customize the architecture to meet your specific needs. For more information, refer to Customization.

This implementation guide discusses architectural considerations and configuration steps for deploying Video on Demand on AWS in the AWS Cloud. It includes links to an AWS CloudFormation template that launches and configures the AWS services required to deploy this solution using AWS best practices for security and availability.

The guide is intended for IT infrastructure architects, administrators, and DevOps professionals who have practical experience with video-on-demand workflows and architecting in the AWS Cloud.