Introduction
Introduction to Lambda-based rendering in React Video Editor
Lambda rendering is a way to export videos in the cloud - instead of relying on your local machine. It’s how you take your video editing setup in React Video Editor and make it work at production scale using AWS Lambda.
In simple terms: when someone hits "Export", the heavy lifting happens on powerful cloud servers, not your laptop.
Still confused?
Not super technical? No problem. You don’t need to know how AWS works to use Lambda rendering. It’s already wired up for you in the RVE Pro Repo. Just follow the setup steps, and you’ll be exporting videos from the cloud in no time.
Why Use Lambda Rendering?
When you're building a real product (not just playing around locally) you need something that scales and doesn’t fall over. Lambda rendering gives you:
- Speed – Render videos faster using cloud resources
- Scalability – Handle multiple exports at once
- No infrastructure stress – No servers to manage or maintain
- Global delivery – Works from anywhere, fast
It’s also more reliable than asking a user’s browser or laptop to crunch thousands of frames.
How It Works (Behind the Scenes)
Here’s the basic flow:
- A user clicks "Export"
- Your app sends a request to AWS Lambda
- The video is rendered using Remotion (under the hood)
- The final file is uploaded (e.g. to S3)
- Your app gets a link to the finished video
That’s it. No dedicated servers, no worrying about scale. Just smooth cloud rendering that works.