Join NASA behind the scenes of the advanced video and cloud workflows that power deep space research. Create the foundation for space commerce, and ignite our imagination about the future. Gain firsthand knowledge of the lessons learned from the first-ever 4K live stream from space.

1. © 2017, Amazon Web Services, Inc. or its Affiliates. All rights reserved.
In Space, Everyone Can See NASA
Stream (in 4K)
T e c h n o l o g i e s a n d W o r k f l o w s B e h i n d t h e F i r s t L i v e 4 K S t r e a m f r o m S p a c e
C T D 2 0 8
R o d n e y G r u b b s , I m a g e r y E x p e r t s P r o g r a m M a n a g e r , N A S A
D y l a n M a t h i s , C o m m u n i c a t i o n s M a n a g e r , N A S A ’ s I n t e r n a t i o n a l S p a c e S t a t i o n P r o g r a m
K e i t h W y m b s , C h i e f M a r k e t i n g O f f i c e r , A W S E l e m e n t a l
K h a w a j a S h a m s , V P E n g i n e e r i n g , A W S E l e m e n t a l
N o v e m b e r 3 0 , 2 0 1 7
AWS re:INVENT

2. © 2017, Amazon Web Services, Inc. or its Affiliates. All rights reserved.

3. National Aeronautics and Space Administration
A history of imagery and enabling the first live
4K downlink from the International Space Station
Rodney Grubbs
Dylan Mathis

4. NASA’s Big Picture
NASA’s exploration spans the universe. NASA has made decades of contributions to aviation, operates rovers on
Mars, and uses orbital telescopes to investigate distant galaxies. Everywhere imaginable, NASA is out there.

5. First Photo by an American in Space—Project Mercury

6. Humans on the Moon—Apollo 15

7. Cassini Captures Saturn and Earth
You are here

8. Curiosity Takes a “Selfie” on Mars

9. The International Space Station (ISS)

10. A Short History of Video with NASA

11. The International Space Station:
Earth’s Only Microgravity Research Laboratory
More space than a six-bedroom house
Measures 357 feet end-to-end
Weighs nearly one million pounds
More internal volume than a Boeing 747
240-foot solar-array wingspan
16+ consecutive years of human presence

12. Putting the “International” in International Space Station
5 Agencies
15 Nations
Benefits for Humanity

13. First Live HD Downlink from ISS (2006)

14. Enabling the First Live 4K Broadcast from ISS

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Powering the
First Live 4K Stream From Space

16. First Live 4K from ISS

17. © 2017, Amazon Web Services, Inc. or its Affiliates. All rights reserved.
2017 NAB Show: Super Session

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Zero G in 4K: The Challenges
• Getting an encoder into space
• Assuring failovers and redundancies every step of the way
• Testing, testing, testing—from live 4K signal tests with ISS
to continual load testing with AWS
• Amount of data and maintaining the quality
• Last mile: bandwidth required for the 4K UHD stream

19. © 2017, Amazon Web Services, Inc. or its Affiliates. All rights reserved.
Getting the AWS Elemental Encoder in Space
Initial discussion:
How do we get this on ISS in a smaller package?
Data center-class machine
Velcro to ISS “rack wall”

20. © 2017, Amazon Web Services, Inc. or its Affiliates. All rights reserved.
Results
• Weight – 10 lbs., 12 oz.
• Dimensions
• 13 ¾ inches wide
• 8 ½ inches deep
• 3 ½ inches tall
• Max power = 180 watts

21. © 2017, Amazon Web Services, Inc. or its Affiliates. All rights reserved.
Amount of Data per Frame Is Significantly Larger
Courtesy: 4k.com

22. © 2017, Amazon Web Services, Inc. or its Affiliates. All rights reserved.
Live 4K Capture & Transmission Onboard ISS
ISS UHD ENCODING WORKFLOW
RED EPIC
DRAGON
SOURCE 4K HEVC
Transport
Stream
AWS Elemental
LIVE
LIVE PROCESSING
Quad
3G SDI

23. © 2017, Amazon Web Services, Inc. or its Affiliates. All rights reserved.
ISS to Johnson Space Center (JSC)
ISS
JOHNSON SPACE CENTER
4K Feed
HD Feed
BUILDING 30
18
Mbps
HD Video
with Audio
4K Video
H.265/UDP
LVCC
Audio
4K
Baseband HDMI
Combined
Audio
BUILDING 8
T21
Decoder
Decode with
Audio Delay
HOUSTON ACR (BUILDING 2)
POTS
HD-SDI
Embedded Audio
with Delay
AWS Elemental Live
AWS Elemental Live
ENCOMPASS ATLANTA

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JSC to Las Vegas Convention Center
JOHNSON SPACE CENTER LAS VEGAS CONVENTION CENTER
ENCOMPASS ATLANTA
SATELLITE ROBERTS COMM TRUCK
Decoder
Decoder
TV
SWITCHER
4K
Projection
Dedicated
Fiber
HEVC UDP
POTS
Dedicated
Fiber
HEVC UDP
AWS
Elemental
Live
AWS
Elemental
Live
AWS
Elemental
Live
AWS
Elemental
Live

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2017 NAB Show: Super Session Mission Control

26. © 2017, Amazon Web Services, Inc. or its Affiliates. All rights reserved.
O v e rall: Viab le Liv e 4 K Wo r kflo w fro m Sp ace to E ar th
ROBERTS TRUCK AMAZON WEB SERVICES CLOUD REGIONISS ENCODING
RED EPIC
DRAGON
SOURCE
JOHNSON SPACE
CENTER
MONITOR
LAS VEGAS CONVENTION CENTER
ISP
ISP
Amazon
Route 53
DESCRIPTION
NETWORK
Amazon
CloudFront
DESCRIPTION
REGIONAL
CLOUDFRONT EDGE
Amazon
CloudFront
CDN
Amazon
CloudWatch
MONITOR
DEVICES
4K HEVC UDP
Transport Stream
4K HEVC UDP
Transport Stream
SATELLITE
AWS
Elemental
Live
Small form
factor system
LIVE VIDEO
PROCESSING
AWS
Elemental
Live
@ Space Center
Houston Theater
AWS
Elemental
Live
AWS
Elemental
Live
AWS
Elemental
Delta
AWS
Elemental
Delta

27. © 2017, Amazon Web Services, Inc. or its Affiliates. All rights reserved.
A More Detailed View of the Architecture
LAS VEGAS CONVENTION CENTER
AWS Elemental
Live
AWS Elemental
Live
Primary 1
Primary 2
Cox
CenturyLink
WEST REGION
AWS Elemental
Delta
Elastic Load
Balancing
EAST REGION
AWS Elemental
Delta
Elastic Load
Balancing
AMAZON WEB SERVICES CLOUD
Amazon
CLOUDFRONT
REGIONAL
EDGE CACHE
Amazon
CloudFront
CDN
Amazon
CloudFront
REGIONAL
EDGE CACHE
Amazon
CloudFront
Amazon
Route 53
DISTRIBUTION
Amazon
CloudWatch
DNS & Traffic
Flow Policies
DEVICES

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The Viewer Experience

29. © 2017, Amazon Web Services, Inc. or its Affiliates. All rights reserved.
Tweets During the Viewing
“That NASA live 4K
stream was mind
blowing. I finally got my
money's worth with this
damn Curve TV. That
s*** was AWESOME!?
“Best livestream ever”
“There is no mic drop in
space.”
“Watching the
#NASAlive4k
broadcast with about
20 aerospace
technology students”
“Watching #Astronauts Playing ping pong with drop of water from Space #ISS #Nasalive4K 😂😉😎
from a smartphone in #Sénégal Real broadcast”

30. © 2017, Amazon Web Services, Inc. or its Affiliates. All rights reserved.
Next Steps for AWS Media Services
Try services in the console; search the conference for AWS Elemental
Visit us in the AWS booth to learn more
Wednesday
CTD206: Ad insertion—MediaTailor
CTD203: File transcoding—MediaConvert
Thursday
CTD202: Introduction of services
CTD409: Video-origin deep dive—MediaStore, MediaPackage
(Chalk Talk)
Friday
CTD411: Build channel—Live and VOD (Workshop)
CTD204: Live streaming—MediaLive, MediaStore, MediaPackage
CTD410: Live streaming deep dive (Chalk Talk)

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Thank you!