If you haven't set up video playback for your website, please read my previous post first: set up playback
When delivering video content online, it's vital to ensure that videos stream quickly and reliably to your audience. AWS CloudFront, a Content Delivery Network (CDN) service, can be a game-changer in this regard. Today, I'll guide you through setting up CloudFront and integrating it into a video rendering process.
1. Setting Up AWS CloudFront
Step 1: Navigate to CloudFront
Login to your AWS Management Console and open the CloudFront service.
Step 2: Create a New Distribution
Click on "Create Distribution", then choose "Web".
Step 3: Select Your Origin
For the origin settings, choose your S3 bucket where the videos are stored. Make sure to enable the "Restrict Bucket Access" option, so your S3 contents aren't publicly accessible without CloudFront.
Step 4: Set Up Distribution Settings
Configure your settings. For video content, it's a good idea to enable HTTPS. Note down the Distribution Domain Name; you'll need it later.
Step 5: Update S3 Permissions
Go to the S3 permissions page and adjust the bucket policy to grant CloudFront the necessary access.
2. Integrating CloudFront into Video Rendering
With CloudFront set up, let's now integrate it into our video serving mechanism.
from flask import Flask, render_template, url_for
app = Flask(__name__)
@app.route('/video/<video_id>', methods=['GET', 'POST'])
def video(video_id):
vid = Video.query.get_or_404(video_id)
# ... [Other relevant code, e.g., for comments, replies, etc.]
cloudfront_path = 'https://YOUR_CLOUDFRONT_DOMAIN' + vid.save_path
return render_template('main/video.html', cloudfront_path=cloudfront_path)
In the video.html template:
<div class="border-card video-container">
<video controls>
<source src="{{ cloudfront_path }}" type="video/mp4">
Your browser does not support the video tag.
</video>
</div>
3. Wrapping Up
With this setup, every video you serve will now stream through CloudFront, taking advantage of its vast network of edge locations. This ensures that your videos are delivered quickly and reliably to viewers worldwide.
Remember that with CloudFront, you might incur additional costs, especially if you serve large amounts of video content. However, the enhanced viewer experience often justifies this investment.
To further improve performance and manage costs, consider adjusting the cache settings in CloudFront, compressing videos, and implementing adaptive bitrate streaming.
Happy streaming!
