Case Study: DirectLink expands live local TV reach and reduces costs with AWS Elemental

AWS Elemental supports DirectLink’s authenticated delivery of local broadcast channels to subscribers

DirectLink is a small, member-owned telecommunications cooperative in Canby, Oregon, serving about 8,000 households with voice, high-speed internet and TV. To meet changing consumer expectations and reach subscribers who were too far from the video headend or had poor off‑air reception, DirectLink launched EZVideo — a Roku-based live streaming service delivering local channels and VOD — but faced the challenge of doing this cost-effectively as a small provider paying relatively high content and infrastructure costs.

DirectLink adopted a unified, software-defined video architecture using Elemental Live encoders and Elemental Conductor, converting legacy MPEG-2 to MPEG-4 and moving to unicast adaptive‑bitrate streaming for Roku devices. The rollout reduced per‑channel costs, simplified headend operations and training, lowered capex, enabled local live and on‑demand content delivery, and positioned the cooperative to expand channel offerings and complete a fiber buildout while maintaining customer satisfaction and competitive resilience.

DirectLink

Derrick Mottern

Vice President, Network Operations