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    Intelligent Media Services:Overview

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    Intelligent Media Services:Overview

    Last Updated:Jun 02, 2026

    MediaLive is the core live streaming transcoding module of Intelligent Media Services (IMS). It ingests media from upstream sources, transcodes the content, and delivers it to downstream destinations.

    Introduction

    Live streaming pipelines must support many device types, and each device expects content in a specific format and protocol. MediaLive accepts media from upstream sources in a wide range of input formats and protocols, transcodes and records the content, and distributes the output to downstream services in the target format and protocol.

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    Important

    You are charged for using MediaLive features. For billing information, see MediaLive.

    For more information about the features, see Features.

    Terms

    Input

    An input connects an upstream source to a MediaLive channel. The source content can use any of the supported formats and protocols.

    Input security group

    An input security group defines one or more IP address ranges whose addresses are allowed to push content to a MediaLive input. Associate one or more input security groups with a push input to control which upstream systems can send content.

    Channel

    A channel is the core processing unit of MediaLive. It ingests source content from an input, decodes and encodes the content through transcoding, and packages the result as output for downstream delivery.

    Input source

    The source streams within an input that MediaLive processes during transcoding, including video streams and audio streams.

    Output

    The processed content that a channel delivers to a specific downstream destination over a specific protocol.

    Output group

    A collection of multiple outputs within a channel.

    MediaPackage

    MediaPackage is an IMS module that receives outputs from MediaLive and repackages them for delivery. For more information, see Live packaging.

    Enable MediaLive

    After you activate Intelligent Media Services (IMS), MediaLive is automatically enabled for the corresponding region. To switch the service region, switch the IMS region and reactivate IMS.

    Note

    For more information about how to activate IMS, see Activate the service.

    Procedure

    To get a live stream running with MediaLive, complete the following steps in order:

    1. Activate IMS.

    2. Create a channel group and a channel in MediaPackage to receive and repackage the output.

    3. Create an input in MediaLive to connect your upstream source.

    4. Create a channel in MediaLive.

    5. In the channel, add inputs and output groups, then associate the output group with the MediaPackage channel group and channels.

      Note

      • You can associate a channel with multiple inputs.

      • You can create up to 20 output groups for a channel.

    6. Start the channel to begin transcoding.

    7. Use the endpoints of the MediaPackage channel for live stream playback.

    Reference

    To learn how to use MediaLive, see Get started with MediaLive.