Streaming Audio to Amazon Connect through Kinesis Video Streams: A Step-by-Step Guide

Are you tired of dealing with complex audio streaming setups for your Amazon Connect contact center? Look no further! In this article, we’ll explore the powerful combination of Kinesis Video Streams and Amazon Connect, and provide a step-by-step guide on how to stream audio to Amazon Connect through Kinesis Video Streams.

What is Kinesis Video Streams?

Kinesis Video Streams is a fully managed service offered by AWS that makes it easy to capture, process, and store video and audio streams from various sources, including cameras, microphones, and other devices. It provides a scalable, secure, and highly available infrastructure for real-time video and audio processing and analysis.

Benefits of using Kinesis Video Streams with Amazon Connect

Using Kinesis Video Streams with Amazon Connect provides several benefits, including:

• Scalability: Kinesis Video Streams can handle large volumes of audio streams, making it an ideal solution for large contact centers.
• Real-time processing: Kinesis Video Streams provides real-time processing and analysis of audio streams, enabling real-time transcription, sentiment analysis, and other advanced features.
• Cost-effective: Kinesis Video Streams is a cost-effective solution compared to traditional audio streaming solutions, as it eliminates the need for expensive hardware and infrastructure.
• Integration with Amazon Connect: Kinesis Video Streams integrates seamlessly with Amazon Connect, providing a unified and comprehensive contact center solution.

Prerequisites

Before we dive into the step-by-step guide, make sure you have the following prerequisites in place:

• An AWS account with access to Kinesis Video Streams and Amazon Connect.
• A contact center set up in Amazon Connect.
• A Kinesis Video Streams account with a valid stream name and ARN.
• A microphone or audio source connected to your device.

Step 1: Create a Kinesis Video Streams Account and Stream

Log in to your AWS account and navigate to the Kinesis Video Streams dashboard. Click on “Create stream” and provide a name and description for your stream.

aws kinesisvideo create-stream --stream-name "my-audio-stream" --stream-description "Audio stream for Amazon Connect"

Note down the Stream ARN and Stream Name, as we’ll need them later.

Step 2: Install the Kinesis Video Streams SDK

Download and install the Kinesis Video Streams SDK for your preferred programming language (e.g., Python, Java, or C++). For this example, we’ll use Python.

pip install amazon-kinesis-video-streams

Step 3: Configure the Kinesis Video Streams SDK

Configure the Kinesis Video Streams SDK by providing your Stream ARN and Stream Name.

import boto3

kinesis_video_streams = boto3.client('kinesisvideo')

stream_arn = 'arn:aws:kinesisvideo:REGION:ACCOUNT_ID:stream/my-audio-stream'
stream_name = 'my-audio-stream'

Step 4: Capture and Send Audio Data to Kinesis Video Streams

Capture audio data from your microphone or audio source using the Kinesis Video Streams SDK.

import pyaudio
import threading

CHUNK = 1024
FORMAT = pyaudio.paInt16
CHANNELS = 1
RATE = 16000

p = pyaudio.PyAudio()

stream = p.open(format=FORMAT,
                channels=CHANNELS,
                rate=RATE,
                input=True,
                frames_per_buffer=CHUNK)

def send_audio_data():
    while True:
        audio_data = stream.read(CHUNK)
        kinesis_video_streams.put_media(StreamName=stream_name, Media={'Audio': audio_data})

threading.Thread(target=send_audio_data).start()

Step 5: Create an Amazon Connect Contact Flow

Log in to your Amazon Connect account and create a new contact flow or edit an existing one. Add a “Get customer input” block and select “Audio” as the input type.

Block Type	Properties
Get customer input	Audio, No prompt, 10 seconds

Step 6: Configure Amazon Connect to Receive Audio Streams from Kinesis Video Streams

In your Amazon Connect contact flow, add a “Invoke AWS Lambda function” block and select the Lambda function that will receive the audio streams from Kinesis Video Streams.

import boto3
import json

lambda_handler = lambda event, context:
    s3 = boto3.client('s3')
    s3.put_object(Body=event['audio'], Bucket='my-audio-bucket', Key='audio.wav')
    return {
        'statusCode': 200,
        'statusMessage': 'Audio received successfully'
    }

Step 7: Integrate Kinesis Video Streams with Amazon Connect

In your Kinesis Video Streams SDK, add the following code to send the audio streams to Amazon Connect.

import boto3

amazon_connect = boto3.client('connect')

def send_audio_streams_to_amazon_connect(audio_data):
    response = amazon_connect.start_outbound_voice_contact(
        InstanceId='INSTANCE_ID',
        ContactFlowId='CONTACT_FLOW_ID',
        DestinationPhoneNumber='+1234567890',
        SourcePhoneNumber='+9876543210',
        Attributes={
            'audio': audio_data
        }
    )
    print(response)

Conclusion

That’s it! You’ve successfully set up streaming audio to Amazon Connect through Kinesis Video Streams. With this solution, you can leverage the power of real-time audio processing and analysis, enabling advanced features like sentiment analysis, transcription, and more. Remember to test your setup thoroughly and optimize your configuration for your specific use case.

Common Issues and Troubleshooting

If you encounter issues with your setup, refer to the following troubleshooting tips:

• Check the Kinesis Video Streams SDK logs for errors and exceptions.
• Verify the audio data is being captured correctly using tools like Audacity or FFmpeg.
• Ensure the Amazon Connect contact flow is configured correctly and the Lambda function is invoked successfully.

Additional Resources

For more information on Kinesis Video Streams and Amazon Connect, refer to the following resources:

• Amazon Kinesis Video Streams documentation: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/kinesisvideostreams/latest/dg/what-is-kinesis-video-streams.html
• Amazon Connect documentation: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/connect/latest/adminguide/amazon-connect-admin-guide.pdf

Happy streaming!

Frequently Asked Questions

Get ready to unlock the power of streaming audio to Amazon Connect through Kinesis Video Streams! Here are some frequently asked questions to get you started: