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What's the Difference Between AWS Elemental and AWS MediaLive?

Compare AWS Elemental and AWS MediaLive side by side — features, pricing, and ideal use cases to help you choose the right product.

Compare side-by-side

Comparisons
AWS Elemental
AWS MediaLive
Category

Application
Integration, Media Infrastructure

Application
Integration, Live Streaming
Description

On-premises solutions for video processing and delivery using AWS Elemental technology.

Encodes live video for broadcast and streaming
Best for
  • On-premises video processing
  • Broadcast infrastructure
  • Live event production
  • Contribution encoding
  • Live streaming
  • Broadcast contribution
  • Live events
  • Linear channel playout
Key features
  • Hardware appliances
  • Software licenses
  • HEVC/AV1 encoding
  • SDI/IP workflows
  • AWS integration
  • Multiple input types
  • Redundant pipelines
  • Ad marker passthrough
  • Audio encoding
  • Statmux
Pricing model

Contact sales for pricing

Pay per input and output channel hour
Free tier

No

No
Expert take

“Elemental Appliances run video processing on-premises for live events and broadcast workflows where cloud latency is unacceptable or connectivity is limited.”
— Didier Durand, re:Post Top Contributor [profile]

“MediaLive encodes live video streams for broadcast and OTT delivery. It supports redundant pipelines with automatic failover for 24/7 live channel reliability.”
— Giovanni Lauria, re:Post Top Contributor [profile]
Product page

Learn more about AWS Elemental »

Learn more about AWS MediaLive »

When to use AWS Elemental or AWS MediaLive

Use AWS Elemental when:

  • On-premises video processing
  • Broadcast infrastructure
  • Live event production
  • Contribution encoding

Learn more about AWS Elemental »

Use AWS MediaLive when:

  • Live streaming
  • Broadcast contribution
  • Live events
  • Linear channel playout

Learn more about AWS MediaLive »

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