Is medialive with multiple channels the way to go?

Question

Im making preliminary plans and research for a specific type of video streaming platform where customers would have the ability to create accounts and set up streams every once in a while.  
  
Im new to AWS and have been searching for a good solution to implement this. Now I have come up with a workflow like this: stream source -> MediaLive -> MediaStore -> Cloudfront -> stream consumer.  
  
What I see as a small problem here is every customer would need their own MediaLive channel set up, which would generate idle fees if its done once. Other option I come up with is to start and stop the channel for each time the customer decides to do a stream but this will take some time every time it is done if Im correct. Are these my options or is there another solution what I have not found or understood? And if channel state is stopped, it will not generate idle fees, am I correct?  
  
Edited by: vvhp on Apr 8, 2020 9:59 AM  
  
Edited by: vvhp on Apr 8, 2020 11:22 AM

Answer

Hi vvhp,  
  
While it is possible to leave a MediaLive channel running on a 7x24 basis, this would be an expensive approach for a stream that is only being actively used on occasion. MediaLive charges are based on the channel state, not on whether or not there is an active stream present at the input. Whether this makes sense is dependent on what percentage of time the channel is actively being used (note you can purchase reservations for channels running at or near 24x7 to realize a savings over on-demand pricing).  
  
Otherwise you are looking at a brief delay during channel start-up while the resources needed for your channel are made ready. Once the live stream is concluded, it is important to then stop the MediaLive channel to avoid un-necessary charges. Note, if you decide to keep the channel as defined, there is a small idle charge (see idle charges on the MediaLive pricing page) but as I mentioned above this applies only when the MediaLive channel is in the IDLE state. You could avoid these idle charges by creating/destroying the channels and inputs every time they are used, but this would result in additional time required to start the channel each time.  
  
If you are planning to use push inputs (RTP or RTMP for example) and want to maintain a constant endpoint IP address, you could preserve just the input for your customer, and create/destroy the channel each time they use it. That would cut your idle charges in half as you would only pay the idle charge on the input. Again, you would still have to deal with the delay in re-creating the MediaLive channel, but you would just attach the pre-existing input to that new channel each time.  
  
I hope this helps you decide on a course of action as you consider your workflow design. Good luck!  
  
Regards,  
  
Steve  
  
Edited by: AWSsteve on Apr 8, 2020 11:41 AM

Is medialive with multiple channels the way to go?

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