# What is AWS Elemental Live? Version 2.25 release First release of the 2.25 software version. AWS Elemental Live is video encoding solution that runs on hardware or on virtual machines in your premises. It encodes and transcodes real-time (live) video for broadcast and streaming delivery. You use Elemental Live to transform live video content from one format and package into other formats and packages. You typically need to transform the content in order to provide a format and package that a playback device can handle. Playback devices include smartphones and set-top boxes attached to televisions. This [high-level introduction](https://aws.amazon.com/elemental-live/) to Elemental Live includes workflow diagrams, detailed feature specifications, and a link to Sales. **Topics** + [ # Information about using Elemental Live ](live-finding-info.md) + [ # Interfaces for Elemental Live ](live-intro-interfaces.md) + [ # How Elemental Live works ](how-live-works.md) + [ # Elemental Live terminology ](what-is-terminology.md) # Information about using Elemental Live Information about AWS Elemental Live is available in the following guides and resources. **This guide** This guide offers conceptual and procedural information for specific features of Elemental Live. For a list of the features covered in this guide, see the topic list previous to this section. ** Elemental Live API guide** This guide is intended for system integrators and Elemental Live operators. It contains the following information: + An outline of the interfaces for machine and human control, configuration, and monitoring. For a summary of the interfaces covered in the guide, see the next section. + An overview of how to work with transcoding events, event profiles, and presets. + A list and explanation of event and system parameters. This guide is available on the Support tab of the web interface of your Elemental Live appliance. [AWS Elemental Live Installation Guide](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/elemental-live/latest/installguide/) [AWS Elemental Live Upgrade Guide](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/elemental-live/latest/upgradeguide/) [AWS Elemental Live Configuration Guide](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/elemental-live/latest/configguide/) # Interfaces for Elemental Live Elemental Live can be controlled, configured, and monitored through the following interfaces. **** | Interface | Description | | --- | --- | | Web browser via HTML | Using a web browser is the easiest way to control, configure, and monitor Elemental Live. This interface is used when a human is interacting with the server or when no automation or integration with other systems is required. | | Web Services REST Interface | The REST-based interface supports all features of the web interface as well as automation features. | | SNMP Interface | The SNMP interface allows basic monitoring and control of Elemental Live. It allows a management system to query the state of the service and content it manages. | # How Elemental Live works How Elemental Live works From the point of view of Elemental Live, a live streaming workflow that includes Elemental Live involves three systems: + An Elemental Live *event*, which ingests and transcodes source content. + One or more *upstream systems* that provide the *source content* (the video) to Elemental Live. Examples of an upstream system are a streaming camera or appliance that is directly connected to the internet, or a contribution encoder that is located in a sports stadium where a sports event is being held. The source content is in a specific package format and protocol. For example, the source content might be available as streaming HLS or streaming TS (transport stream). The source content contains video, audio, and optional captions streams that are in specific codecs or formats. + One or more *downstream systems* that are the destinations for the output that Elemental Live produces. A typical downstream system consists of an origin service or a packager that is connected to Elemental Live, a content distribution network (CDN) that is downstream of the origin service or the packager, and a playback device or website where the users view the content. . To create an Elemental Live workflow, you create an event. Broadly speaking this event contains two sets of configuration information: + A list of inputs (sources) and information about how to ingest those sources. + A list of output groups that specifying packaging and encoding information. To start processing the content, you start the event. When the event is running, it ingests the source content from the upstream system that is identified by the input. The event then transcodes that video (and the related audio, captions, and metadata) and creates outputs. Elemental Live sends the outputs to the specified downstream systems. # Elemental Live terminology Terminology CDN A content distribution network (CDN) is a network of servers that is downstream of the origin server or packager. The CDN distributes the content from the origin server to dozens or hundreds of networked servers that serve the content to your viewing users. This distributed network ensures that content can be delivered to thousands or millions of viewing users simultaneously. Downstream system The *downstream system* is a set of one or more servers that is positioned after Elemental Live in the workflow. The downstream system handles the content that is output from Elemental Live. Encode An encode exists within an output. There are three types of encodes: video, audio, and captions. Each encode contains the instructions for one video stream, one audio stream, or one captions track that the transcoding process will create. Different encodes have different characteristics. For example, one video encode produced from the input might be high resolution while another is low resolution. Event An Elemental Live event ingests and transcodes (decodes and encodes) source content from the inputs that are attached to that event, and packages the new content into outputs. Event configuration An Elemental Live event configuration contains information about how the event ingests, transcodes, and packages content into output. Origin service An origin service might be part of the downstream system that is positioned after Elemental Live in the workflow. It accepts the video output from Elemental Live. Output An output exists within an output group. It is a collection of encodes that you want to handle as one set. Output Group An output group is a collection of outputs within the Elemental Live event. Packager A packager might be part of the downstream system. It accepts the video output from Elemental Live and repackages it. AWS Elemental MediaPackage is a packager. Playback device A playback device is the final component of the downstream system. It is the device that the people who are your audience use to view the video. Source content The video content that Elemental Live transcodes. The content typically consists of video, audio, captions, and metadata. Upstream system The system that is in front of Elemental Live in the workflow and that holds the source content. Examples of an upstream system are a streaming camera or appliance that is directly connected to the internet, or a contribution encoder that is located in a stadium at a sports event.