Amazon IVS adds a failover slate, so viewers don't stare at a buffering wheel

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AWS What's New aws.amazon.com

Here's a feature that gently covers those "oh no, the stream stopped!" moments in live streaming!

What was announced?

According to AWS What's New, Amazon Interactive Video Service (Amazon IVS) Low-Latency Streaming now provides a failover slate.

A failover slate is an animated image that IVS shows to viewers when a broadcaster's stream is unexpectedly interrupted.

The story so far

When a stream dropped, viewers saw a buffering wheel or a frozen frame. They had no idea what was going on, which could easily make them leave.

What changes

Viewers see the slate until the broadcaster reconnects. Live playback then resumes automatically, with no need to refresh the player.

The announcement describes it as a way to retain your audience during momentary disruptions, ideal for broadcasters streaming from mobile devices or places with unreliable connectivity.

Dive Deep

• You can enable it on new or existing channels
• You can monitor slate activity with Amazon EventBridge events and Amazon CloudWatch metrics

For Region availability, check the AWS Region table for where the IVS console and APIs are available. See the Amazon IVS Failover Slate documentation for details!

Wrap-up

• Viewers see an animated slate when a stream is interrupted
• Playback resumes automatically when the broadcaster comes back
• Works on existing channels, with EventBridge and CloudWatch for monitoring

This is for teams running streaming services with mobile or unstable connections!