Amazon has announced today the launch of a new tool called Interactive Video Service (IVS) — which harnesses the same technology as Twitch to enable business owners to add personalized live video to their mobile apps (iOS and Android) and websites.
Amazon launched IVS — intended for businesses who want to incorporate live video without investing in a whole streaming infrastructure — through its Web Services subsidiary, which provides cloud computing platforms to individuals, companies, and governments.
As with Twitch, Amazon says IVS customers will be able to generate streams with a latency of less than three seconds — latency refers to the time it takes for video to travel from the camera to the viewer — and which can support millions of concurrent viewers globally. Because of this low latency, Amazon notes that IVS customers will be able to build real-time interactivity into their streams, such as chat spaces, ecommerce capabilities, polls, leaderboards, moderated Q&As, and other promotional elements.
In a blog post, which lays out how to create a channel on IVS, Amazon notes that clinets who are livestreaming a product launch, for instance, could sync additional information to be displayed as the news is unveiled. And Blake Robbins
, a partner at VC firm Ludlow Ventures, notes that Amazon IVS could be used by a digital creator — such as top streamer Ninja, who is reportedly seeking a new platform home in the wake of Mixer‘s dissolution — to launch his own white labeled streaming service.“Customers have been asking to use Twitch’s video streaming technology on their own platforms for a range of use cases like education, retail, sports, fitness, and more,” Martin Hess, the GM of Amazon IVS, said of the launch in a statement. “Now…customers can leverage the same innovative technology that has taken Twitch over a decade to build and refine. Any developer can build an interactive live streaming experience into their own application without having to manage the underlying video infrastructure.”
Amazon IVS is already being harnessed by edutech company Blackboard, Chinese live video app 17Live, and ScreenCloud— which produces digital signage for businesses. IVS offers pay-as-you-go pricing at an hourly rate based on total duration of video input and output, Amazon says.
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