Amazon Web Services (AWS) introduced "Elemental Inference" on
Tuesday to provide a fully managed artificial intelligence (AI)-based service that automatically turns live and on-demand video into vertical formats that advertisers can use for social platforms in
real-time as content is encoded.
This is a significant leap forward because it moves beyond simple cropping to intelligent, context-aware reformatting of video content.
The platform relies on AI to automatically
detect the action in a live video feed. Within six to 10 seconds it can optimize it for vertical viewing. It enables the shift industry executives now see to mobile-first, AI-powered distribution.
Customers like Fox Sports Digital and NBCUniversal are early adopters and use the technology to reach younger audiences on their phones, scrolling vertically. Broadcasters and streamers can reach
audiences on social and mobile platforms such as TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts without manual postproduction work or AI expertise.
Viewing habits have evolved significantly
in recent years, with most audiences now consuming content differently than before.
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Broadcasts are traditionally produced in landscape format, but adapting these broadcasts to vertical formats
suitable for mobile platforms often involves extensive manual editing.
This process can result in broadcasters and streamers missing viral engagement opportunities, and potentially lost
viewership to platforms that prioritize mobile-first content.
The service uses an agentic AI application by analyzing video in real time and
automatically applies what it has calculated to be the ideal optimizations at the right moments.
Detection of vertical video cropping and clip generation
happens independently, executing multi-steps that require no human intervention to extract value.
Users can choose to create a feed through the stand-alone console or configure AWS
Elemental Inference through the AWS Elemental MediaLive console, or integrate it into your workflows using the APIs.
At launch, the technology can crop
into vertical formats with a 9:16 aspect ratio, and optimize for social and mobile platforms.
The service tracks subjects and keeps key actions, while maintaining broadcast quality to reformat
the images.
It automatically detects and extracts clips from live content highlights for real-time distribution.
For live broadcasts, this means identifying game-winning plays,
touchdowns and emotional peaks with precise starting and end points, and reduces editing from hours to minutes.
Today, the technology has been made available in the U.S. Eastern (West
Virginia), U.S. West (Oregon), Europe (Ireland), and Asia-Pacific (Mumbai, India).
AWS has initiated what it calls "consumption-based pricing," where marketers only pay for the features used
and the video processed, with no costs or commitments up front. This enables content creators to scale during peak events and optimize costs during quieter periods.