2019年12月27日
By 菲利普•哈里森解决方案架构师，亚马逊网络服务
专题文章

如何在云端构建实时线性OTT频道

在本文中，我们将研究无服务器线性播放, 如何在云端构建线性通道. When I think about the costs associated with delivering live linear streaming television, 我想起了成人游泳节目《百家乐软件》中的一集 & Morty, in which Rick creates a set-top box that gets access to TV channels from not only every single cable provider in this universe, 但整个多元宇宙的每一个有线电视供应商. 这就意味着数十亿的电视频道. 我们还没有达到那个水平, but our current live linear landscape is increasingly glutted with channels, 其中许多都是狭隘的主题, pre-shot, pre-canned programming that's put on a schedule and then played out to consumers increasingly over the internet.

图1(下面) represents some research done by Channel 10 in Australia, owned by CBS in the States. Essentially, they segmented their audiences into four different buckets: Cord Forevers, 绳剃须刀, 线切割机, 和Cord never. Cord Forevers are generally people that are a bit older and continue to watch the linear television through a set-top box and a cable provider. 绳剃须刀 have cable and watch only SVOD and BVOD services through that set-top box. 线切割机--a term most of us are very familiar with that term--are viewers that have cut back on their cable set-top box and are using OTT services almost exclusively. Finally, 我们有Cord never, younger kids that have grown up with Twitch and YouTube and don't really understand what television is in the traditional sense at all.

脐带永远，脐带切割机，脐带永远

Figure 1. 电视/机顶盒内容消费者的4个主要人口统计数据

关键在于，无论你处于哪个细分市场, linear television is still in the top two experiences across all segments, which shows that there is still quite a large appetite both now and into the future for linear experiences when viewers are watching TV. 另一个指标是Apple TV应用或Android TV应用 图2(下面) 模仿电子节目指南(EPG), which I find quite an interesting clash of new non-linear devices and traditional linear approaches to consuming live broadcast content.

电视指南应用程序

Figure 2. 安卓或iOS版的《百家乐app下载》应用

Of course, 观众没有理由不去看《百家乐软件app最新版下载》, 在这个画面被捕捉到的时候，哪个节目刚刚播完. But what ends up being the case--according to all of the commercial broadcasters that I’ve spoken to--is that viewers spend more time watching the linear live stream of scheduled programming, 比播放已经播出的内容更重要. Never mind that watching content after it has aired is a better experience or that they can watch it in high quality, whenever. 即使对许多掐线者来说也是如此, the primary experience of watching TV is just sitting down and watching whatever is on.

云播放组件

So let’s say we wanted to do something like this exclusively in the cloud. 假设我们想从一个线性电视频道变成几百个.

图3(下面) illustrates how complexity is inherent to playout and headend broadcast infrastructure. It’s so convoluted that as to make it almost hard to believe it really works. 但建设这种基础设施是非常普遍的, 尤其是对那些在全球范围内进行频道创制的广播公司来说, or even just across the European continent (as illustrated in Figure 3), which consists of many different countries and satellite DTH providers.

跨大陆实时线性播放

Figure 3. 令人眼花缭乱的混乱的实时线性播放横跨大陆

如果你想在云端制作一个电视频道, the simplest way is to take the architecture that exists right now on many premises and shift that into the cloud. 这种方法可以节省成本, agility, and the ability to expand very quickly into new regions and also downsize and upsize your capacity when needed.

图4(下面) 覆盖了混合的AWS服务. The icons that look like computer chips are essentially partner services you’d acquired via the AWS Partner store or things that you would bring yourself. So it isn’t a complete end-to-end solution that you can go to AWS and just buy out of the box; you have put together a few different services and make that into a complete architecture from beginning to end.

电视频道在云端