Integrating AWS Elemental Inference with TrackFlix Live for AI-Powered Smart Cropping

Live video consumption continues to expand across mobile devices and social platforms. While most live productions are created in a traditional 16:9 landscape format, mobile audiences increasingly prefer vertical viewing experiences that better fit smartphone screens.

Adapting live broadcasts for vertical viewing has traditionally required additional production workflows, manual editing, or separate video outputs, adding complexity for content owners and broadcasters. As organizations look for ways to reach audiences across a growing number of viewing platforms, delivering both landscape and portrait-oriented streams from the same source has become increasingly important.

AI-Powered Smart Cropping with AWS Elemental Inference

To address this challenge, TrackIt integrated AWS Elemental Inference into TrackFlix Live, enabling AI-powered smart cropping for live video streams. This capability automatically transforms a landscape broadcast into a vertical stream in real time, helping organizations deliver mobile-friendly viewing experiences without introducing additional production overhead.

TrackFlix Live Smart Crop Toggle

Integrating AWS Elemental Inference with TrackFlix Live

TrackFlix Live is a serverless live streaming solution built on AWS Elemental MediaLive, AWS Elemental MediaPackage, Amazon CloudFront, and other AWS managed services. It enables organizations to transform video assets into live streams and distribute them securely to viewers across multiple devices.

To support vertical video delivery, smart cropping can be enabled when configuring an event in TrackFlix Live. When enabled, the platform automatically provisions the AWS Elemental Inference resources required for the stream before the live transmission begins.

Once the event starts, AWS Elemental Inference analyzes the incoming video feed in real time and identifies the most relevant area of the frame. Rather than applying a static crop, the service continuously adjusts the framing to keep presenters, speakers, and other important content centered within a portrait-oriented view.

The smart-cropped output is then incorporated into the live streaming workflow alongside the original landscape stream. AWS Elemental MediaPackage packages both outputs for delivery, while Amazon CloudFront distributes the content to viewers globally.

At the end of the event, the AWS Elemental Inference feed is automatically removed as part of the cleanup process, ensuring that resources are only used for the duration of the transmission.

Delivering Multiple Viewing Experiences from a Single Source

A key advantage of this approach is the ability to generate both landscape and portrait-oriented streams from the same source feed.

Instead of maintaining separate production workflows for different viewing platforms, broadcasters and content owners can continue producing content in a traditional 16:9 format while simultaneously delivering a mobile-friendly 9:16 stream.

This allows organizations to support a wider range of viewing experiences without increasing operational complexity or introducing additional manual processing steps.

Conclusion

As viewing habits continue to evolve, organizations increasingly need to deliver content across a variety of devices and formats. Supporting mobile-first audiences often requires more than simply repurposing traditional broadcast workflows.

While this implementation focuses on Smart Cropping, AWS Elemental Inference also provides additional AI-powered capabilities such as Clip Generation with Advanced Metadata Analysis. By identifying noteworthy moments within a live stream and generating metadata that can be used to create highlight clips, these capabilities open the door to future enhancements that can further improve content discovery, audience engagement, and social media distribution. 

Integrating AWS Elemental Inference with TrackFlix Live enables the addition of AI-powered smart cropping directly into the live streaming workflow. The result is a streamlined approach to generating mobile-optimized vertical streams alongside traditional landscape broadcasts, helping organizations reach audiences wherever they choose to watch.

Additional Links

• TrackFlix Suite Press Release
• TrackFlix Live GitHub Repository
• TracFlix Live GitHub README 
• AWS Elemental Inference Blog Post