Event platform Voilà reimagines the live digital event experience in HD with Amazon IVS

Live event platform Voilà is built around high quality, interactive video streaming. Envisioned as an intuitive solution to deliver a premium and engaging live event experience digitally, it was used for more than 70 corporate events in the first nine months of 2022 and has continued gaining adoption. Able to stream 1080p video globally at scale, the platform leverages Amazon Web Services (AWS) as its backbone, with Amazon Interactive Video Service (Amazon IVS) managing core streaming functionality.

“We believe in the power of live events because you can generate far more emotion from the audience than with pre-recorded streams and create discussions that wouldn’t happen otherwise. For Voilà, we wanted a live video streaming solution that would provide the best quality to viewers around the world, and quickly realized Amazon IVS was the clear choice,” said Voilà Co-founder and CMO Julien Duizabo.

Voilà provides the end-to-end tools for customers to manage events, including a dedicated website, participant communication, interactive live streaming, reporting, and replay functionality. Event hosts subscribe to the platform on a per-event or on-going basis, with enhanced technical support options also available. Using a management console, the hosts can create and control the experience, as well as email attendees. Event attendees register with the platform prior to the event, then receive login details to view live streams. Content is live streamed using Amazon IVS, backed by the global footprint of AWS resources, so it can be viewed in nearly any geographical location and on any mobile device or computer. While live video is the platform’s focus, it also provides an option to record live streams to Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3).

During events, live streams originate in 1080p, with Amazon IVS designed to automatically adjust the bitrate and resolution to deliver the best experience possible for each viewer’s connectivity. Leveraging the Amazon IVS software development kit (SDK), the Voilà team built interactive features to complement live streams, including the ability to add 3D overlays, host chats, customize emojis, run polls, and highlight event attendee sentiments through dynamic word clouds populated from chat activity. In September 2022 alone, the platform received more than 276,000 interactions during live streamed events. To accommodate viewers across devices, the platform’s player can receive streams in landscape or portrait mode, while maintaining interactive elements.

“Digital events need to be community-based for success; they must be more interactive instead of merely a replica of what would have happened in person. With Amazon IVS, we’re able to provide brands with a strong visual identity and a way to effectively engage with their community, even with hundreds of thousands of viewers in multiple countries,” Duizabo concluded.

For more information about building with interactive live video, visit: https://thinkwithwp.com/ivs/