shomi, a Canadian subscription VOD (SVOD) service run by Rogers Communications (TSX:RCI.A) and Shaw Communications (TSX:SJR.B), is using Elemental Technologies to support its OTT video service. shomi is using Elemental Cloud in conjunction with the Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) and Amazon CloudFront. shomi says the technology helped it launch and surpass subscription targets set for its first year of operation.
shomi manually curates content collections rather than relying on algorithms to pre-select consumer viewing options. Subscribers access OTT content through the company's website and apps, including, most recently, the Xbox One, and through VOD libraries from participating cable providers.
Augusto Rosa, shomi's senior director, head of video and network infrastructure, said: "We're preparing video assets for viewing nearly 20% faster than before and rapidly scaling our offerings and subscriber base, thanks to Elemental and its deepening integration with AWS services. This is critical to meeting the growing demand in the Canadian streaming market."
shomi is using Elemental compression and packaging solutions integrated with AWS storage and origination services to streamline its workflows. In an Elemental Cloud workflow, shomi uses Elemental to manage, process, and package large batches of file-based video content for both OTT and VOD delivery. Adaptive bitrate assets are packaged with corresponding DRM schemes and stored on Amazon S3. shomi currently uses Amazon CloudFront as an origin server directly out of S3 to realize the benefit of high S3 throughput to an Akamai CDN for delivery to customers on various connected devices. Additionally, file-based transcoding is used on-premises for on-going development testing and to output mp4 files. The adaptive bitrate outputs are also uploaded to the cloud for packaging and storage in Amazon S3.