Case Study: IMAX delivers premium live event streaming with AWS Elemental

IMAX streams NBA Finals to 4 theaters in under 3 weeks with AWS Elemental

IMAX, known for its premium theater experiences, sought to expand into live event streaming to attract audiences outside of traditional movie times. Their challenge was to deliver high-quality, reliable live streams to global theaters, many of which lacked the high-bandwidth connectivity traditionally required, without compromising the iconic IMAX visual standard. To address this, IMAX partnered with vendor AWS Elemental, utilizing AWS Media Services.

The solution implemented by AWS Elemental involved a workflow using AWS Elemental MediaConnect for transport, AWS Elemental MediaLive for encoding and real-time bitrate optimization, and AWS Elemental MediaPackage for packaging, all orchestrated by IMAX's proprietary StreamSmart technology. This allowed them to stream high-quality feeds at under 20 Mbps. The result was a successful live stream of the NBA Finals to sold-out theaters in Asia, deployed in under three weeks with zero major disruptions, proving the workflow's reliability and enabling future low-bitrate, IMAX-assured quality streaming initiatives.

IMAX