Today we announced the general availability of AWS Elemental MediaPackage, a video origination and just-in-time packaging service that allows video distributors to securely and reliably deliver streaming content at scale. The service offers just-in-time packaging for cost-effective video distribution using multiple delivery and content protection standards, and makes it easy to enrich audience experiences with time-shifted TV and other advanced features. With AWS Elemental MediaPackage, customers can reduce workflow complexity, increase origin resiliency, and better protect multiscreen content without the risk of under or over-provisioning infrastructure for a solution to delivery content across a growing ecosystem of connected devices and dynamic viewing experiences.

Today we announced the general availability of AWS Elemental MediaLive, a live video processing service that enables video providers to encode high-quality live video streams for broadcast television and multiscreen devices. It does all the heavy lifting behind the scenes for resource provisioning, service orchestration, scaling, healing, resiliency failover, monitoring, and reporting. With push-button deployment, customers can stand up live channels in minutes with resources that automatically scale up and down based on load and number of channels. To achieve the same result with on-premises solutions requires planning, procurement, installation, provisioning, configuration, setup, testing, and troubleshooting that can take weeks, months, or even years before going into production. The channel-based, pay-as-you-go service simplifies operational complexity, improves cost efficiency, and minimizes financial risk. AWS Elemental MediaLive enables customers to build flexible 24×7 live video workflows or deliver event-based live streams with full control over encoding parameters using a best-of-breed service with support for standard video players and CDNs.

You can now hear the latest launch announcements from AWS on your Alexa-enabled device with the AWS Alexa skill. The AWS skill augments the existing channels (Blog posts and What’s New posts) with a hands-free option for consuming information about new services and features from AWS. You can enable the skill on your Alexa-enabled device by filtering search results to Alexa Skills on amazon.com and searching for “AWS”. After enabled, you can customize the skill to only hear about your favorite services (e.g. EC2) or categories (e.g. Compute) from AWS.

Today we announced the general availability of AWS Elemental MediaTailor, a content personalization and monetization service that allows video providers to serve video with targeted ads to end users while maintaining broadcast quality-of-service in multiscreen video applications. Advertising is inserted upstream before delivery, on the server side; so, a continuous stream arrives at the consumer device, eliminating any possibility of discrimination between content and commercials. Ads are better monetized, maintain video quality that consistently matches the primary content, and are simpler to manage across multiplatform environments. AWS Elemental MediaTailor offers managed transcoding of ad content to provide the best end user experience while also enabling standards-based client- and server-side ad reporting within a single service. Customers are given full control over the player, origin, and CDN while providing the highest-quality viewer experience.

The Kigali Bulk Water Supply Project has reached financial close and will supply 40,00 m3/day of potable water to domestic, commercial and industrial end users…

Backing from EPA will fund projects in Grand Forks, Jamestown and other communities.

Recently completed projects benefit Central Florida waterbodies, St. Lucie estuary and Everglades.

New Jersey scientists are urging the state to impose maximum contaminant levels (MCLs) for perfluorinated chemicals (PFCs) in drinking water. The chemicals, once used in the production of nonstick cookware, and curretly still in use on miltary bases in firefighting foams, has been linked to cancer, developmental problems, and other diseases.

Read more on PFOAs, PFOS on WaterWorld.com:
Univ. of Rhode Island receives $8M federal grant to research perfluorinated compounds

Calgon Carbon enters $3.5M agreement for removal of PFOS

STUDY: Tap water of 6 million in the US contains PFASs

I have to say I had to consult the dictionary when the Chancellor’s budget speech included the notion of a ‘Geospatial Commission’, Ed confides to his diary. The dictionary says geospatial means geographical-related data. Surely even this Chancellor is not so dumb as to think this sort of thing is worth investing £80 million in, …

This story continues at Ed’s Geospatial Guile

Or just read more coverage at Electronics Weekly

China DRAM start-up, Fujian Jin Hua Integrated Circuit, is moving fab equipment into its Jinjiang fab (pictured) with the intention of running first silicon in Q3 2018, reports Digitimes. The fab is to make DRAM on a 32nm process supplied by UMC. It is being initially equipped to run 60k wpm. It is spending $5.3 …

This story continues at Fujian Jin Hua equips Jinjiang fab

Or just read more coverage at Electronics Weekly