Alliance for Open Media Members Showcase AV2 Ecosystem Developments at IBC 2026

_AOMedia members showcase early implementations, development tools, and interoperability efforts supporting the next generation of open video_ **AMSTERDAM, Netherlands, Sept. 10, 2026** – Members of the Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia) exhibiting at IBC 2026 will showcase a range of technologies supporting the developing AV2 ecosystem, giving attendees an early look at how the industry's next-generation open video codec is progressing from specification to implementation. More than a dozen AOMedia Member companies are exhibiting at the event, with several demonstrating advancements in AV2 development, testing, playback, compliance, and deployment tools. Released earlier this year, AV2 is AOMedia's next-generation video compression standard, developed under the organization's royalty-free patent policy. Building on the success and broad adoption of AV1, AV2 delivers significant advances in compression efficiency and flexibility for streaming, communications, and emerging media applications. Since the specification's publication, AOMedia Members have advanced software implementations, development tools, interoperability testing, and hardware enablement efforts to support future AV2 deployments. IBC 2026 offers an opportunity to see many of those efforts in action. "IBC offers an opportunity to see how rapidly the AV2 ecosystem is taking shape," said Matt Frost, Director of Product Management at Google and Chair of AOMedia's Board of Directors." At IBC, AOMedia Members are demonstrating technologies that support everything from highly-optimized software decode to interoperability and testing. Together, these efforts help pave the way for the next generation of video experiences." AV2 delivers approximately 30% greater compression efficiency than AV1 based on objective quality metrics across a wide range of content types and resolutions, allowing video providers to deliver the same quality with fewer bits or improve quality while maintaining the same bitrate. AV2 further optimizes multi-stream and multi-view video experiences, enables higher frame rates and more robust HDR performance, and supports more efficient delivery of real-time communications applications. These advancements help unlock new possibilities for streaming, live events, immersive media, video conferencing, and other emerging use cases. "As a founding member of the Alliance for Open Media, Netflix has helped build open codecs from the ground up. AV1 now powers over a third of our global VOD streaming, delivering better picture quality to members everywhere," said Anne Aaron, Senior Director, Live & Encoding Technologies at Netflix. "AV2 builds on that foundation with a major leap in compression efficiency, and with enhanced features such as multistream support that unlock emerging use-cases in the streaming space. We're proud to have contributed to its development and look forward to adopting AV2 as our next-generation streaming codec, as we keep pushing the boundaries of what open video technology can do for our members around the world." Prime Video also emphasized its commitment to contributing to AV2 development and deployment. "Prime Video has been deeply involved in the development of AV2 from its earliest stages, contributing engineering expertise and real-world streaming insights to help shape the specification," said BA Winston, VP of Technology at Prime Video. "Built on the strong foundation of AV1, AV2 represents a major advancement in video compression technology and functionality. These advancements will enable us to push picture quality forward while improving the overall streaming experience for our Prime Video customers globally." Several AOMedia Members will highlight technologies that support AV2 implementation and adoption, including: * **Allegro DVT** will showcase an AV2 MultiStream playback and analysis demonstration based on AOMedia interoperability test cases. The exhibit will highlight AV2 composition capabilities, multilayer content rendering and synchronization, real-time bitstream inspection, and tools supporting AV2 validation and debugging. Allegro DVT will also demonstrate its AV2 compliance testing and decoder technologies. * **Intel** will demonstrate SVT-AV2, an open-source software encoder designed to accelerate AV2 implementation and evaluation across the ecosystem. * **Ittiam Systems** will showcase its Android Device Lab and VCAT characterization framework, which supports large-scale evaluation and benchmarking of AOMedia codecs, including AV2, across hundreds of mobile devices and hardware platforms. * **NVIDIA** will showcase a visual demo comparing AV1 and AV2. In addition to activities on the show floor, AOMedia Members will participate in interoperability demos during IBC week to help validate implementations and advance ecosystem readiness. Together, these activities demonstrate progress across multiple areas of the AV2 ecosystem, including encoding, playback, decoder technology, compliance testing, performance characterization, interoperability, and implementation tooling. Visit participating AOMedia Member exhibits throughout IBC 2026 to see AV2-related demonstrations and learn how Members are advancing implementation across the ecosystem. Developers can access the AV2 specification, reference software, and other open-source resources through AOMedia, while attendees can explore firsthand how AV2 is moving from specification to real-world deployment. As AV2 development accelerates across the industry, IBC 2026 provides a unique opportunity to see firsthand how AOMedia Members are transforming the specification into the technologies, tools, and implementations that will power the next generation of video experiences. ## About the Alliance for Open Media The Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia) is a collaborative effort to develop open standards and software for video, audio, still images, and immersive technologies. AOMedia brings together 50+ technology innovators – including global tech leaders, startups, and academics – to support this mission. Learn more at www.aomedia.org. **Media Contact** AOMedia Lillian Guinther Aomediamarcom@virtualinc.com

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Alliance for Open Media Publishes Open Audio Renderer (OAR) v1, Advancing Open Spatial Audio

_Reference implementation strengthens the open immersive audio ecosystem with production-ready rendering for loudspeakers and headphones_ **WAKEFIELD, Mass. July 30, 2026 —** The Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia) today announced the publication of the Open Audio Renderer (OAR) v1, a major milestone in the development of open immersive audio technologies. Developed by AOMedia's Audio Codec Working Group, in collaboration with the Storage and Transport Formats Working Group, OAR v1 provides a reference implementation for rendering spatial audio across a wide range of playback environments. As demand grows for immersive experiences across streaming, communications, gaming, extended reality (XR), automotive, and wearable devices, spatial audio has become an increasingly important part of modern media delivery. OAR provides developers with an open, interoperable foundation for bringing those experiences to users. OAR complements AOMedia's Immersive Audio Model and Formats (IAMF) specification, which defines how immersive audio content is packaged and delivered. While IAMF standardizes the representation of spatial audio, it does not specify how that content should be rendered for individual playback systems. OAR fills that role by converting IAMF content into audio signals optimized for the listener's playback environment. The renderer supports two primary modes: * **Loudspeaker rendering** , adapting immersive audio for playback systems ranging from stereo speakers to surround sound and home theater configurations. * **Binaural rendering** , producing immersive spatial audio over headphones by generating distinct signals for each ear. OAR also supports channel-based, scene-based (Ambisonics), and object-based audio representations. In object-based audio, individual sounds are accompanied by metadata describing their position and movement within a three-dimensional space. OAR interprets this information during playback, creating an optimized listening experience regardless of the playback hardware. "By providing a high-quality reference renderer for IAMF, we're making it easier for developers to build interoperable spatial audio experiences while giving implementers the flexibility to innovate," said Jan Skoglund and Remi Audfray, co-chairs of AOMedia's Audio Codec Working Group, in a joint statement. Development of OAR drew on contributions from experts across the global technology community, including researchers, streaming platforms, semiconductor companies, device manufacturers, and audio specialists working collaboratively under AOMedia's open development model. Professor Gavin Kearney of the University of York's AudioLab noted, "OAR represents a huge step forward for open, interoperable spatial audio rendering. Being able to contribute our work on immersive and interactive audio directly into a standard that the whole industry can build on is exactly the kind of real-world impact we strive for." By publishing a reference implementation, AOMedia enables developers to integrate IAMF-compatible spatial audio into products without building a renderer from the ground up. Implementers remain free to develop proprietary rendering solutions while relying on OAR as a common baseline for interoperability, consistency, and quality. OAR v1 is available now. To learn more about the Open Audio Renderer, the IAMF specification, and AOMedia's work on open media technologies, visit www.aomedia.org. ## About AOMedia Launched in 2015, the Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia) develops open standards for media — spanning video, audio, still images, and immersive technologies. AOMedia brings together 49 global innovators — including tech leaders with decades of media tech experience and some of the world’s largest patent holders — to support this mission. Its steering committee consists of Amazon, Apple, Cisco, Google, Intel, Meta, Microsoft, Mozilla, Netflix, NVIDIA, Samsung Electronics, and Tencent. Learn more at www.aomedia.org. **Media Contact** Lillian Guinther AOMedia Public Relations aomediamarcom@virtualinc.com

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AV2: What the Final Specification Means for Implementers

The Alliance for Open Media has reached a significant milestone in open video coding with the official release of the AV2 specification. While the announcement underscores major performance leaps and new capabilities, it also signals a critical shift from standard development to active implementation across the ecosystem. To explore what this release means in practice and what lies ahead, we spoke with Andrey Norkin (Principal Architect, Video, NVIDIA) and Adrian Grange (Senior Technical Program Manager, Google), Co-Chairs of AOMedia’s Video Codec Working Group. ## What does it mean that the AV2 specification is now “final”? This initial release of the AV2 specification signifies that the coding tools are complete. It provides a stable foundation that implementers can use to immediately begin developing and finalizing their products. While future versions are expected—including additional profiles and metadata to better support both existing and new use cases—the core coding tools will not change, ensuring long-term stability for developers. ## What changed between earlier AV2 previews and this release? The preview release was deliberately issued as a tool-complete version to give hardware implementers a head start on their design process before the final specification was locked in, thereby accelerating time to market. With those foundational designs underway, subsequent development focused on resolving open issues and refining the high-level syntax. This final release delivers the stable, comprehensive specification required to bring production-ready products across the finish line. ## What does this enable for developers and implementers right now? With the specification finalized, development can now advance across the entire ecosystem. This enables full-scale work on both decoders and encoders, encompassing both software and hardware implementations. Software implementations typically represent the initial step, while hardware support—which is essential for widespread device adoption—follows. Reference software is already available, and efforts to develop optimized implementations are well underway. ## AV2 delivers improved compression efficiency. What does that mean in practice? Based on objective quality metrics, including VMAF and PSNR, AV2 delivers the same quality with approximately 30% better compression efficiency compared to AV1 across a wide range of content types and resolutions. Visual quality gains are expected to be even higher, reaching closer to 40% in bitrate savings. In practice, this means video providers can deliver the same visual quality using fewer bits, or significantly enhance quality while maintaining the same bitrate. These improvements have direct benefits for both providers and viewers by reducing bandwidth requirements at scale and enhancing video quality for users, particularly in environments with limited connectivity. The specification supports multi-stream and multi-view scenarios. How should we think about those capabilities? AV2 enables multiple video streams to be combined into a single, synchronized bitstream, expanding how video content can be structured and delivered. This natively supports multi-view or composite video experiences where several related streams must be delivered together. Furthermore, it facilitates advanced scenarios where the final video is composed from multiple components, such as texture plus depth, or background and foreground combined with an alpha channel. ## Does AV2 introduce entirely new use cases, or improve existing ones? Rather than introducing entirely new applications, AV2 primarily focuses on significantly improving existing ones. Enhancements in compression efficiency and stream flexibility directly translate to better performance across common use cases like streaming and video conferencing, positively impacting quality, responsiveness, and overall delivery efficiency. That said, AV2 also natively supports more complex scenarios, such as multi-view video, which previously demanded complicated synchronization at the application level. ## How will AV1 and AV2 coexist as adoption grows? AV1 and AV2 are expected to coexist for a significant period. AV1 is already widely deployed across devices, and its adoption continues to expand. Meanwhile, AV2 adoption will grow gradually as implementations mature and hardware support becomes more broadly available, following the typical transition pattern observed in previous generations of video codecs. ## What happens next following the release of the AV2 specification? With the specification finalized, the focus shifts squarely to ecosystem implementation and adoption. This path involves the continued refinement of software implementations, followed by the development of broader hardware support. As these solutions mature, AV2 will increasingly be integrated into commercial products and services.

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AOMedia Video Codec Working Group Announces Availability of Libaom v3.14 “Pinkie Pie”

The AOMedia Video Codec Working Group is pleased to announce that libaom v3.14, aka “Pinkie Pie,” is now available. This release makes available all the improvements the libaom team made during the 8 months since the last libaom feature release (v3.13.0). In addition to video encoding in VOD and realtime modes, this release improves layered image encoding and software security. ## What Key New Features Does This Release Include? Pinkie Pie boasts significant compression efficiency and perceptual quality improvements for layered image encoding. We delve into layered image encoding improvements in the next section. Low complexity decode mode (the encoder optimizations that produce encoded bitstreams that can be decoded at low computational complexity) now supports good-quality encoding (speed 1 to 3) for not only vertical videos (608p to 1080p) but also horizontal videos (720p to 1080p). It achieves close to 30% decoding cost savings with a tightly constrained compression efficiency loss. Encoder algorithms in partition/mode search, loop restoration, CDEF, temporal filter, and rate control were tuned or reworked in this release, achieving a massive encoder speedup alongside significant coding efficiency gains. * Delivered ~40% encoder time reduction for speed 0 and 1. * Delivered compression efficiency gains across presets: speeds 0 and 1 see a 1.5%+ SSIM gain, a ~0.2% PSNR gain, and a 7% VMAF gain, while speeds 2 and 3 yield a 2.6%+ SSIM gain, a 1.4 -1.7% PSNR gain, and a 7 - 8% VMAF improvement. The improvements in this release provide substantial egress savings and computational cost reduction for YouTube. Realtime (RTC) encoding continues to be an active area of development. This release extended encoding with lookahead (also known as lagged encoding) to RTC mode, added support for speculative encoding (encoding a frame without updating encoder state), and improved the quality and scroll detection for high-resolution screen content. Since February we have been receiving increasingly high-quality reports of software security issues found by AI tools. These powerful AI tools are a great addition to the arsenal of security scanners and complement fuzzing, static analysis, and sanitizers. This release contains several fixes of security issues, such as integer overflows, excessive memory allocations, and memory errors, typically triggered by high bitrates or dynamic changes to SVC encoder settings. (See the release notes for details.) This critical work is ongoing and the next libaom release will include additional security fixes. ## Layered Image Encoding Improvements in This Release The AV1 Image File Format (AVIF) allows a still image to use multiple (up to four) AV1 spatial layers. Given a layered AVIF image, an application can either render only the highest spatial layer, or render all the intermediate layers and the highest spatial layer, resulting in a form of progressive decoding. A visual example of progressive decoding is provided at the end of this section. The new releases of libavif (v1.4.2) and libaom (v3.14) contain new layered image encoding features and tweaks to address high and unpredictable file size overhead because older versions did not handle this use case properly. In libaom, these improvements mainly come from the following two changes: * Extended the AOM_TUNE_IQ (Image Quality) tuning mode to work with inter-frame encoding modes (good-quality and realtime), improving the visual quality and compression efficiency of layered images compared with AOM_TUNE_SSIM. When encoding 2-layered images, AOM_TUNE IQ improves compression efficiency by up to 15% in good-quality mode and by up to 30% in realtime mode. * Added a new encoder option (use_fixed_qp_offsets=2) to disable quality boosting of the key frame, allowing full control of each layer's quality level. In general, a high-quality key frame helps reduce error propagation, so it is advantageous to boost the quality of a key frame. In a layered image, however, the key frame (the base layer) can have a lower quality than the rest of the frames, so quality boosting is counter-productive. The libavif v1.4.2 release can leverage these two improvements to achieve better quality at the same size, with less file size overhead. Additionally, libavif's 2-layer image encoding (`avifenc --progressive`) downscales the first layer by a half for further size savings, with a faster time to first render. We illustrate the improvements with an example. The original image is a JPEG image of size 2,790,013 bytes. To showcase file size differences better, we strip the Exif and XMP metadata from the encoded AVIF images. Original JPEG image (2,790,013 bytes) As a baseline, we first encode the image as a regular, non-layered image at speed 6 and quality level 60 (using the command line `avifenc -s 6 -q 60 --ignore-exif --ignore-xmp photo.jpg photo.avif`). The file size is 785,269 bytes. Baseline: regular, non-layered AVIF image (785,269 bytes) We then encode the image as a layered image at speed 6 and quality level 60 (using the command line `avifenc --progressive -s 6 -q 60 --ignore-exif --ignore-xmp photo.jpg photo.avif`) with different versions of libavif. * With libavif v1.3.0 and libaom v3.12.1, the file size is 1,542,974 bytes, nearly twice the size of the baseline! * With libavif v1.4.1 and libaom v3.13.2, all intra encoding is used as an interim workaround, and the file size is 833,672 bytes. Compared with the baseline, the file size overhead is (833,672 - 785,269) / 785,269 = 6%. * Finally, with libavif v1.4.2 and libaom v3.14.1, improved inter frame encoding is used, and the file size is 801,338 bytes. Compared with the baseline, the file size overhead is (801,338 - 785,269) / 785,269 = 2%. Layered AVIF image with improved inter frame encoding (801,338 bytes, a 2% file size overhead) In the final layered image of 801,338 bytes, the base layer (layer 0) is 26,061 bytes and the enhancement layer (layer 1) is 771,821 bytes. When an application decodes this image progressively, it can render the base layer immediately after receiving just 4% of the image (29,517 bytes), and then render the enhancement layer after receiving the whole image. Base layer (layer 0) of the layered AVIF image (29,517 bytes including file headers, 4% of total image size) Enhanced layer (layer 1) of the layered AVIF image ## Where can the libaom v3.14 Pinkie Pie release be found? As of this writing, the latest release in the libaom v3.14.x series is libaom v3.14.1. The source code of the release can be checked out from the git repository https://aomedia.googlesource.com/aom using the release tag v3.14.1. Alternatively, the release tarball, along with the signature file, can be downloaded from https://storage.googleapis.com/aom-releases/libaom-3.14.1.tar.gz and https://storage.googleapis.com/aom-releases/libaom-3.14.1.tar.gz.asc respectively. Thank you to the Video Codec Working Group for their efforts, and a special thanks to the Arm team for their contributions to the AArch64 optimizations in this release.

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Alliance for Open Media Releases AV2 Codec, Advancing Next-Generation Open Video Coding

**Wakefield, Mass. – June 9, 2026** - The Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia) today announced the release of the AV2 specification. AOMedia is a standards organization focused on bringing next-generation media experiences to more people, faster, and whose membership includes leading global innovators from across the media ecosystem. Developed under AOMedia’s royalty-free patent policy, AV2 is the next-generation video compression standard designed to meet the evolving demands of global video delivery. Building on the success and broad adoption of the Emmy Award-winning AV1 codec, AV2 delivers significant advances in video compression efficiency and flexibility. This increased efficiency enables higher-quality visual experiences at the same bitrate or significant bandwidth savings for equivalent quality, making it ideal for a wide range of applications from traditional streaming to emerging media. “AV2 was developed through a rigorous, collaborative process involving some of the world's leading technology companies,” said Adrian Grange and Andrey Norkin, Co-Chairs of AOMedia’s Video Codec Working Group. “Proposed tools were evaluated for implementation complexity and tested under common test conditions to ensure that not only is the specification high-performing but also well-optimized for efficient hardware implementation.” Beyond improved efficiency gains, AV2 was designed to support a wide range of use cases, including traditional streaming workloads. The specification enables scalable bitstreams and supports multi-stream and multi-view scenarios, including stereoscopic video, multiple camera angles, and composite video experiences delivered within a single bitstream, as well as more traditional VOD and video conferencing workflows. These capabilities enable more efficient bandwidth usage, improving viewing experiences across a range of network conditions, and support advanced applications across streaming, video conferencing, and emerging media. “The publication of the AV2 specification reflects years of collaborative and innovative work by the AOMedia community and provides a strong foundation for continued innovation in video delivery,” said Dr. Pierre-Anthony Lemieux, Executive Director of AOMedia. “This publication is a first essential step towards the broad adoption of AV2: efforts are already underway to integrate AV2 with popular streaming protocols and to define new profiles of AV2 targeting professional applications.” ## Looking Ahead: The AV2 Ecosystem and Extensions With the specification finalized, AOMedia is shifting focus toward ecosystem integration and future extensions: * **Container Formats** : An AV2 binding specification for ISO BMFF is planned for release. * **Software and Tools** : While `libavm` remains the reference software, the `dav2d` decoder project is making steady progress toward a high-performance software implementation. * **Conformance and Testing** : Commercial conformance stream packages from Allegro and HDR Nova are already available. AOMedia is also planning to produce example test streams representative of real-world "in-the-wild" scenarios. * **Professional Profiles** : The Video Codec Working Group has already initiated a project for a new 12-bit profile to support professional cinema workflows and high-dynamic-range (HDR) applications. The AV2 specification and related technical resources are available to the public at av2.aomedia.org. ## About the Alliance for Open Media Launched in 2015, the Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia) was formed to define and develop technologies to address marketplace demand for open standards for media compression and delivery. Board-level, Founding Members include Amazon, Apple, Cisco, Google, Huawei, Intel, Meta, Microsoft, Mozilla, Netflix, NVIDIA, Samsung Electronics and Tencent. AOMedia’s open-source, royalty-free video codec AV1 is a significant milestone in the ability to deliver a next-generation video format that is interoperable, open, optimized for internet delivery and scalable to any modern device at any bandwidth. Visit www.aomedia.org or follow AOMedia on LinkedIn. **Press contact:** AOMedia Lillian Guinther Aomediamarcom@virtualinc.com

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Libavif v1.4.0 Boasts Major Updates to Encoder Technology

The AOMedia Storage and Transport Formats Working Group (STFWG) is pleased to share that libavif v1.4.0 is now available. This marks the first major release of the technology since April 2025 and includes a host of significant updates. Key notable upgrades include: * Use by default of the new tune IQ (Image Quality) tuning mode of libaom. The tune IQ mode, which debuted in libaom v3.12.0 and matured in libaom v3.13.0, is a suite of encoder settings that aim to improve the perceptual quality of images. After a rigorous evaluation, tune IQ graduated and became the default tuning mode in libavif v1.4.0. * Support of the Sample Transforms feature in AVIF specification v1.2.0, a feature that allows extending the bit depth of AVIF images to 16 bits and beyond. For backward compatibility, Sample Transforms are restricted to the alternate version of an image so that the base version of the image can still be decoded by old AVIF decoders. For example, a 16-bit AVIF image must contain a 12-bit or 8-bit base image. * Numerous improvements to color space and gain map handling * Key bug fixes accumulated over the past 10 months ## The Tune IQ (Image Quality) Tuning Mode Tune IQ (Image Quality) is a new tuning mode in libaom for encoding still images. Many of the ideas in tune IQ were incubated in the SVT-AV1-PSY fork of SVT-AV1. Tune IQ was developed in libaom from late 2024 through the first half of 2025, and has since been ported to SVT-AV1. Tune IQ has four major goals * Improve compression efficiency on specific image quality metrics (e.g., SSIMULACRA 2) * Improve perceptual quality by humans * Maintain more consistent quality within each image * Encode images with quality consistently close to the specified target quality Tune IQ achieves these goals by tuning the encoder's decisions in bit allocation and rate-distortion optimization, as well as making better use of underutilized AV1 coding tools to reach their full potential. In addition, tune IQ uses a more reliable method to detect screen content and determine whether screen content coding tools such as intra block copy would be profitable. During the development process we also profiled the performance and sped up bottlenecks in both the encoder and decoder. Encouraged by the enthusiastic feedback of early adopters, the libavif team conducted several rounds of evaluation and subjective testing to guide further enhancement. After a year of continuous bug fixes and quality refinements, tune IQ became the default tuning mode for images in libavif v1.4.0 in March 2026. ### Visual Comparison The following is a great example of how tune IQ maintains more consistent quality within an image. Notice that tune IQ retains more detail around the body of water and the sky, while still retaining enough detail around the trees and scenery. The libavif team is really excited to share the perceptual quality improvements tune IQ achieves! **Original (3.4 MB)** **SSIM (261 KB)** **IQ (256 KB)** ### Screen Content Coding Example The following is a great example of how tune IQ significantly improves on the previous default tuning mode, tune SSIM, for an image containing screen content. The new screen content detection algorithm in tune IQ allows us to leverage screen content coding tools for more content, improving the compression efficiency further. **Original (255 KB)** **SSIM (54 KB)** **IQ (51 KB)** The new release is available in github, where binary distributions for Linux, macOS, and Windows can be downloaded now: https://github.com/AOMediaCodec/libavif/releases/tag/v1.4.1 The STFWG encourages users to upgrade to the new release and provide feedback: https://github.com/AOMediaCodec/libavif/issues. Your input helps drive continuous improvements to the technology, so all comments are welcome.

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Alliance for Open Media Releases Reference Software for Polygonal Mesh Coding Standard

_Reference implementation now publicly available for developers to use_ **Wakefield, Mass. — April 28, 2026** — The Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia) today announced that the reference software for its upcoming Polygonal Mesh Coding (PMC) standard is now publicly available. The software can be accessed on GitLab and is ready for developers to use, evaluate, and contribute feedback. Polygonal Mesh Coding (PMC) is a compression technology designed for polygonal meshes — a common method for representing 3D objects using vertices, edges, and faces. These meshes are widely used in applications such as gaming, augmented reality (AR) for e-commerce, virtual reality (VR) social spaces, and industrial design. Efficient compression reduces the amount of data required to store and transmit these assets, improving performance across networks and devices. The newly released reference software is a complete codec developed by AOMedia’s Volumetric Visual Media (VVM) Working Group. It reflects more than three years of collaborative development and standardization work. “This release marks an important step toward making volumetric media practical at scale,” said Khaled Mammou, co-chair of AOMedia’s VVM Working Group. “The reference software provides a working implementation of the PMC standard that developers can use today to evaluate performance, test integrations, and help shape the final specification.” The PMC standard introduces new compression tools, including advanced connectivity coding algorithms and improved methods for predicting geometry and attributes. These approaches address limitations in existing mesh compression technologies, which often focus on simpler mesh structures and do not fully optimize compression efficiency for streaming and complex 3D content. Early expectations indicate that PMC may achieve 20 to 40 percent better compression efficiency compared to established codecs such as Draco, though comprehensive benchmarking is still in progress. The reference software has already been used to support integration efforts with OpenUSD (Universal Scene Description), a framework for describing complex 3D scenes. A proposed update to OpenUSD introduces PMC encoding and decoding through a plugin, along with tooling to simplify testing. That proposal remains under review. “The availability of this reference implementation gives developers a concrete foundation to build on,” said Shan Liu, distinguished scientist and general manager of Tencent Media Lab and co-chair of the VVM Working Group. “It enables early experimentation with next-generation mesh compression and helps ensure that the standard meets real-world requirements across a range of applications.” AOMedia is inviting developers, researchers, and companies to download the software, test it with their own content, and provide feedback to the VVM Working Group. This input will help refine the specification as it moves toward finalization. “The work on PMC reflects strong collaboration across the industry,” said Igor Vytyaz, software engineer at Google and a software coordinator for the VVM Working Group. “By making the reference software available early, we can accelerate adoption and ensure the standard supports a broad set of use cases.” The PMC standard is part of AOMedia’s broader effort to develop open technologies for next-generation media. The VVM Working Group continues to finalize the PMC specification, with further updates expected as testing and validation progress. Developers can access the reference software and begin testing today at: https://gitlab.com/AOMediaVVM/reference-software/aomedia-pmc ## About AOMedia Launched in 2015, the Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia) develops open standards for media — spanning video, audio, still images, and immersive technologies. AOMedia brings together 49 global innovators — including tech leaders with decades of media tech experience and some of the world’s largest patent holders — to support this mission. Its steering committee consists of Amazon, Apple, Cisco, Google, Intel, Meta, Microsoft, Mozilla, Netflix, NVIDIA, Samsung Electronics, and Tencent. Learn more at www.aomedia.org. **Media Contact** Lillian Guinther AOMedia Public Relations lguinther@virtualinc.com

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Immersive Machines Joins Alliance for Open Media, Adding Audio Technology Expertise

**WAKEFIELD, Mass. – April 9, 2026** – The Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia) today announced that Immersive Machines, a developer of professional software tools for immersive audio mastering and delivery, has joined the organization at the Promoter level. Immersive Machines brings audio workflow and technology expertise and will contribute to the Storage and Transport Formats Working Group and the Audio Codec Working Group. Immersive Machines was founded in 2023 to address the need for intelligent batch processing and file management within audio software workflows. Over the past year, the team at Immersive Machines has seen growing interest in immersive audio experiences extending to major distribution platforms, and they identified AOMedia membership as an opportunity to support emerging open standards such as the Immersive Audio Model & Format (IAMF). With expanding support for IAMF, the company’s software, Immersive Master Pro, aims to simplify workflows for artists and producers delivering immersive audio content. “The response from the creative community to immersive audio has been more enthusiastic and more enduring than anyone imagined a decade ago,” said Nathaniel Reichman, Co-Founder and CEO of Immersive Machines. “Our role as technologists is to give artists, engineers and producers the tools to deliver immersive music and soundtracks to more platforms and audiences. AOMedia provides the framework for advancing open, forward-looking formats like IAMF and AV2, and we’re excited to bring IAMF workflows to the professionals using Immersive Master Pro in their daily work.” AOMedia’s codec-agnostic IAMF enables immersive audio experiences across a range of applications, including streaming, gaming, augmented and virtual reality, and traditional broadcasting. “AOMedia is pleased to welcome Immersive Machines as a new member, and we look forward to their contributions,” said Dr. Pierre-Anthony Lemieux, Executive Director, AOMedia. “As immersive audio technologies continue to evolve, members like Immersive Machines help us advance our work on open audio standards and enhance experiences for both content creators and consumers across the ecosystem.” ## About Immersive Machines **Immersive Machines** develops professional software tools for immersive audio mastering and delivery. Founded in 2023, the company’s flagship application, **Immersive Master Pro** , helps audio professionals manage and deliver immersive audio formats efficiently and at high quality. Used by artists, engineers, producers and post-production teams, **Immersive Master Pro** supports emerging immersive media workflows through reference audio playback, format conversion, intelligent batch processing and file management. For more information, go to: https://immersive-machines.com/ ## About the Alliance for Open Media Launched in 2015, the Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia) was formed to define and develop technologies to address marketplace demand for open standards for media compression and delivery. Founding Members include Amazon, Apple, Cisco, Google, Huawei, Intel, Meta, Microsoft, Mozilla, Netflix, NVIDIA, Samsung Electronics and Tencent. AOMedia’s open-source, royalty-free video codec AV1 is a significant milestone in the ability to deliver a next-generation video format that is interoperable, open, optimized for internet delivery and scalable to any modern device at any bandwidth. Visit www.aomedia.org or follow AOMedia on LinkedIn. **Press contact** : AOMedia Lillian Guinther Aomediamarcom@virtualinc.com Immersive Machines Al Houghton info@immersive-machines.com

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Demonstrating Real Time AV2 Decoding on Consumer Laptops

Now that the AV2 specification is publicly available after five years of hard work, AOMedia members are already demonstrating it in real-world playback environments. At CES 2026, AOMedia members Google, and VideoLAN participated in AV2 decoding demonstrations, with support from THX. They showed real-time AV2 playback on laptops using current reference implementations, spanning both native applications and browser-based streaming pipelines. Together, these efforts showed that AV2 decoding can operate end-to-end in realistic playback scenarios and on widely available laptop-class systems. ## Native application decoding with VLC VideoLAN demonstrated real-time AV2 decoding using VLC 4 running on a macOS laptop. The playback occurred in a native desktop media player rather than in a web browser. The same approach also ran on other platforms, reflecting VLC’s cross-platform design. The demonstration used a VLC plugin integrating the AVM reference decoder. The plugin was built against the latest AV2 development branch and executed on an ARM-based macOS system. This work represents the first known demonstration of AV2 decoding in a native desktop media player on laptops. It showed that AV2 decoding can be integrated into an existing media player architecture and run in real time on standard consumer hardware. ## Web-based decoding and streaming pipeline A second demonstration showed AV2 decoding in a browser-based streaming environment. Google demonstrated AV2 playback using Chrome to play AV2 videos streamed from YouTube to a gaming laptop, with real time playback at 1080p and 24 frames per second. For this demonstration, a set of videos was encoded using a pre-release AV2 bitstream generated with the libavm reference encoder. The content was delivered via an existing streaming platform and played back using a custom browser build that incorporated the libavm reference decoder. This demonstration exercised a complete encode-to-decode pipeline and showed that AV2 can function within a browser-based playback environment on consumer laptop hardware. ## Technical observations Across both demonstrations, several technical observations emerged: * AV2 decoding is already functional in real playback environments using reference implementations. * Real-time decoding was achieved at common resolutions on laptop-class hardware. * AV2 can be integrated through multiple implementation paths, including native applications and web-based streaming stacks. The demonstrations focused on feasibility and integration rather than on optimized performance or benchmarking. ## Context and next steps Both demonstrations relied on reference decoders and pre-release AV2 code. The results should not be interpreted as final performance characteristics, but as an indication of current implementation progress. As AV2 development continues, further work will focus on optimization, additional platform support, and production-grade implementations. AOMedia and its members will continue to share technical updates as AV2 advances toward broader adoption. Follow AOMedia on LinkedIn to stay up to date on AV2 development, implementation updates, and future technical demonstrations.

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SVT-AV1 4.0 Boasts Major API Updates

AOMedia’s Software and Implementation Working Group (SIWG) is excited to share that SVT-AV1 4.0, the latest release of its award-winning flagship project, is now available. SVT-AV1 4.0, released earlier this year, represents a major software update that features a whole host of API improvements, including: * Extended CRF range to 70, which reduces the impact or QP scaling, allowing the encoder to reach lower bitrates * Added quarter steps between CRF increments to allow for further granularity in QP selection * Added support for setting a custom global logger for library consumers * Cleaned up public API headers including removal of deprecated macros, structs, and fields * Added ability to calculate per-frame PSNR and SSIM metrics * Added tune Image Quality (IQ) and MS-SSIM for Still Image coding mode * This release boasts notable improvements of compute vs. compression efficiency across all modes, but in particular the AVIF encoding mode. It’s also worth noting that this latest version of the spec adds AC Bias, a psychovisual feature that improves detail preservation and film grain retention. SVT-AV1 4.0 can be accessed on GitLab, and the SIWG requests that users try it out and report back on their experiences to allow for continuous improvements in SVT-AV1. ## A Closer Look at SVT-AV1 The SIWG has been the steward of the SVT-AV1 since 2020, continually evolving and advancing it. As SVT-AV1 continues to improve, adoption continues to increase. Meta has noted that all its AV1 streams (which cover more than 75% of the watch time of videos on Facebook and Instagram) are produced using SVT-AV1. SVT-AV1 also allowed Meta to stream high-quality short-form videos (Reels) for the first time. In September 2025, SVT-AV1 won an IBC 2025 Innovation Award in the “Content Everywhere” category. Check out our recent SVT-AV1 highlight video, and take a moment to test version 4.0 on GitLab. Many thanks to the members of the SIWG for their work advancing this spec.

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Green Field Sound Brings Audio Solution Expertise to the Alliance for Open Media

**WAKEFIELD, Mass. – March 10, 2026** – The Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia) today announced that green field sound, a specialized audio strategy and technology consultancy, has joined the organization at the Promoter level. Green field sound brings nearly two decades of experience in sound strategy to AOMedia’s membership. The group will collaborate with AOMedia members in the Storage and Transport Formats Working Group (STFWG) to advance the Immersive Audio Model & Format (IAMF) specification. Green field sound was founded to help emerging media organizations improve their digital audio supply chains, maintain quality, and create more engaging listening experiences. The group has extensive experience working with production, post-production, engineering and product teams to develop audio strategies that increase efficiency, generate revenue and help grow organizations. "We're thrilled to join AOMedia and look forward to contributing to the IAMF specification and the underlying open audio codec specifications in development,” said Scott Kramer, Founder and CEO, green field sound. “Green field sound is dedicated to ensuring that professionals in the content creation industry have the tools required to meet exacting standards and deliver the highest quality experience for the audience. Given the synergies in our missions, AOMedia membership was a natural next step for us, and we look forward to contributing to technology that improves the industry.” IAMF is an audio container specification designed to revolutionize immersive audio experiences across a wide range of applications, including streaming, gaming, augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR) and traditional broadcasting. IAMF enables creators and platforms to deliver high-quality, immersive audio with efficient encoding and flexible rendering, adaptable to various playback environments such as headphones, multi-speaker setups, and VR systems. “Over the last decade, AOMedia’s membership has collaborated to advance video, imagery, and audio technologies for online media,” said Pierre-Anthony Lemieux, Executive Director, AOMedia. “It is our diverse and highly skilled members that drive these advances, and our ability to bring together representatives from large enterprises to small startups – and everything in between – has contributed to our success. We are pleased to welcome green field sound and their specialized audio expertise, and we look forward to working together to improve IAMF and deliver enhanced audio experiences for countless end users.” ## About green field sound Green field sound is an audio strategy and technology consultancy dedicated to elevating sound across the media landscape. With deep expertise in production, post-production, streaming distribution, and playback technologies, green field sound partners with studios, streaming platforms, content creators, and audio manufacturers to design, implement, and optimize workflows that improve efficiency and deliver quality listener experiences. Built on years of professional experience spanning creative sound production and engineering leadership, green field sound helps organizations unlock new opportunities in audio, from creation through consumption. ## About the Alliance for Open Media Launched in 2015, the Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia) was formed to define and develop technologies to address marketplace demand for open standards for media compression and delivery. Board-level, Founding Members include Amazon, Apple, Cisco, Google, Huawei, Intel, Meta, Microsoft, Mozilla, Netflix, NVIDIA, Samsung Electronics and Tencent. AOMedia’s open-source, royalty-free video codec AV1 is a significant milestone in the ability to deliver a next-generation video format that is interoperable, open, optimized for internet delivery and scalable to any modern device at any bandwidth. Visit www.aomedia.org or follow AOMedia on LinkedIn. **Press contact** : AOMedia Lillian Guinther Aomediamarcom@virtualinc.com 781.876.6242 Green Field Sound Scott Kramer scott@greenfieldsound.com

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Qencode Joins Alliance for Open Media to help Drive Open Video Innovation

**WAKEFIELD, Mass. – February 24, 2026** – The Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia) today announced that Qencode, a leading provider of video encoding, streaming and storage solutions, has joined the organization at the Promoter level. Qencode brings extensive video technology knowledge and hands-on experience to the Video Codec Working Group, the organization responsible for AV1 and AV2 advancements. Founded on the belief that world-class video technology should be accessible to companies of every size, Qencode provides transcoding, live streaming, video and image storage and management, and beyond. By joining AOMedia, Qencode deepens its commitment to an open, interoperable ecosystem where barriers to building exceptional video experiences continue to fall, and where companies of any size can innovate and thrive. “We are excited to join AOMedia and contribute a production-driven perspective, particularly around practical AV1 adoption, real-world interoperability, and guidance that helps make deployment simpler for developers,” said Murad Mordukhay, Founder and CEO, Qencode. “We look forward to collaborating with AOMedia’s diverse membership to help further advance video codec technology. Our vision is a world where it’s simple for anyone to turn their idea into the next great video platform, and we believe open standards are one of the most powerful ways to make that a reality.” AV1 is an open video codec designed to provide high-quality video compression with greater efficiency than previous codecs. It enables high-quality video while reducing streaming and storage costs, offering significant reductions in file sizes without compromising quality. The codec is optimized for high-resolution content such as 4K and 8K video and supports modern technologies like adaptive streaming and HDR content. AV2, the next-generation video coding spec built on the foundation of AV1, is now available in draft release, with full release expected later this year. “AOMedia is pleased to welcome Qencode as a new member, and we look forward to seeing the group contribute deep video streaming and storage expertise to the Video Codec Working Group,” said Dr. Pierre-Anthony Lemieux, Executive Director, AOMedia. “With AV1 reaching critical mass and AV2 nearing completion, we are at an exciting moment for video codec evolution. Members like Qencode help us bring next-generation media experiences to more people, faster.” ## About Qencode Founded in 2017, Qencode delivers intelligent video infrastructure for modern platforms. We provide smart, API-first video workflows for high-efficiency transcoding and AI-powered optimization, enabling development teams to build and scale high-quality video without operational complexity. Qencode supports next-generation formats including AV1 and is optimized for internet delivery across devices, bandwidth conditions, and global audiences. Our mission is to make world-class video technology accessible to every team building the future of video. Our vision is a world where it’s simple for anyone to turn their idea into the next great video platform. Visit www.qencode.com or follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter at @Qencode. ## About the Alliance for Open Media Launched in 2015, the Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia) was formed to define and develop technologies to address marketplace demand for open standards for media compression and delivery. Founding Members include Amazon, Apple, Cisco, Google, Huawei, Intel, Meta, Microsoft, Mozilla, Netflix, NVIDIA, Samsung Electronics and Tencent. AOMedia’s open-source, royalty-free video codec AV1 is a significant milestone in the ability to deliver a next-generation video format that is interoperable, open, optimized for internet delivery and scalable to any modern device at any bandwidth. Visit www.aomedia.org or follow AOMedia on LinkedIn. **Press contact** : AOMedia Lillian Guinther Aomediamarcom@virtualinc.com Qencode Stephanie Bailey press@qencode.com

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The University of York Joins the Alliance for Open Media, Bringing Decades of Research Expertise

**WAKEFIELD, Mass. – Feb. 17, 2026** – The Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia) today announced that the University of York, a leading British research university, has joined at the Promoter level. The University’s participation in the Alliance marks a commitment to partnering with AOMedia’s industry-leading members to shape open standards that will define the future of digital media innovation. The University of York will support the AOMedia Audio Codec Working Group in developing open audio codecs that deliver high-quality sound for modern multimedia applications, including AOMedia’s Immersive Audio Model and Formats (IAMF) container specification. This work will be strengthened through the University’s CoSTAR Live Lab, a UK national R&D facility advancing immersive and interactive technologies for live performance and next-generation media experiences. “This partnership underscores the University of York's dedication to making an impact with cutting-edge research collaboration, and we’re proud to contribute our expertise to the development of open media standards and help foster a more inclusive digital media landscape,” said Gavin Kearney, Professor of Audio Engineering, University of York and Director of CoSTAR Live Lab. AOMedia’s codec-agnostic IAMF is designed to enable creatives to revolutionize immersive audio experiences across a myriad of applications, from streaming and gaming to augmented reality and virtual reality, as well as traditional broadcasting. “The University of York’s exceptional research and commitment to technological innovation will significantly strengthen our work to develop open media standards,” said Dr. Pierre-Anthony Lemieux, Executive Director of AOMedia. “Academic members like the University of York bring valuable perspectives that underscore the importance of the diverse membership AOMedia is proud to foster. We are pleased to welcome the university and look forward to its contributions.” ## About The University of York A member of the prestigious Russell Group, we are a dynamic, research-intensive university. We work collaboratively in partnership with institutions across the world to develop life-saving discoveries and new technologies that tackle some of the most pressing global challenges. Our 30+ academic departments undertake groundbreaking research that underpins our inspiring teaching and challenges students to dream big, think critically and change the world. For further information, visit https://www.york.ac.uk/. ## About the Alliance for Open Media Launched in 2015, the Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia) develops open standards for media — spanning video, audio, still images, and immersive technologies. AOMedia brings together 49 global innovators — including tech leaders with decades of media tech experience and some of the world’s largest patent holders — to support this mission. Its steering committee consists of Amazon, Apple, Cisco, Google, Intel, Meta, Microsoft, Mozilla, Netflix, NVIDIA, Samsung Electronics, and Tencent. Learn more at https://aomedia.org/. **Press contacts** : Lillian Guinther AOMedia PR lguinther@virtualinc.com Samantha Martin University of York PR s.martin@york.ac.uk

aomedia.org

AOMedia: Reflections on 2025 and the Work Ahead

<blockquote> <p>By Dr. Pierre-Anthony Lemieux, Executive Director, AOMedia</p> </blockquote> <p>2025 proved to be another exciting year for the Alliance for Open Media, with more coming in 2026.</p> <h2 id="after-5-years-av2-is-here">After 5 Years, AV2 is Here</h2> <p>After 5 years of work, hundreds of meetings and 2700+ commits against the reference software, a draft of the AV2 specification is now available for open public review at:</p> <p><a href="http://av2.aomedia.org" target="_blank">http://av2.aomedia.org</a></p> <p>More than just a specification, it comes with an open reference software implementation.</p> <h2 id="av1-from-emerging-to-ubiquitous">AV1: From Emerging to Ubiquitous</h2> <p>AV1 achieved deployment on a global scale: <a href="https://netflixtechblog.com/av1-now-powering-30-of-netflix-streaming-02f592242d80" target="_blank">Netflix reports that AV1 now constitutes 30% of its global streaming traffic</a> and <a href="https://engineering.fb.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Meta-AV1-White-Paper-FINAL.pdf" target="_blank">Meta reports that more than 70% of its users now consume AV1 video across their platforms</a>.</p> <h2 id="new-doors-open-with-polygonal-mesh-coding-pmc">New Doors Open with Polygonal Mesh Coding (PMC)</h2> <p>AOMedia is looking beyond 2D video with the upcoming Polygonal Mesh Coding (PMC) standard that standardizes how 3D volumetric content is compressed and delivered. PMC will be a critical enabler for the metaverse, gaming, and AR/VR applications, bringing the same open-standard efficiency to 3D geometry that AV1 brought to video.</p> <h2 id="avif-12-the-modern-standard-for-images-on-the-web">AVIF 1.2: The Modern Standard for Images on the Web</h2> <p>On the still image front, the release of AVIF 1.2 has further solidified the format's position as the modern successor to legacy web image formats. With superior compression and advanced features, AVIF is now the default choice for a faster, visually richer web.</p> <h2 id="open-software-relentless-improvement">Open Software: Relentless Improvement</h2> <p>The open software tools powering AOMedia standards continued to mature and improve in 2025, with new releases of dav1d, SVT-AV1, libspatialaudio, libavif, libaom and many others. These tools make AOMedia standards easier to adopt and improve interoperability across the ecosystem.</p> <h2 id="award-winning-impact">Award-Winning Impact</h2> <p>The impact of AOMedia’s technical work has not gone unnoticed. In 2025, AOMedia was honored with a Technology &amp; Engineering Emmy® Award for the development of the AV1 specification and an IBC Innovation Award in the "Content Everywhere" category for making video streaming viable on low-end mobile devices via the introduction of decoding-aware modes in the SVT-AV1 encoder.</p> <h2 id="powered-by-collaboration">Powered by Collaboration</h2> <p>AOMedia is an open organization that brings together a diversity of stakeholders to collaborate on technology that advances online media. From industry leaders to disruptive startups to higher education representatives, and beyond, AOMedia members are dedicated to delivering the standards needed to provide a better experience, for both content providers and consumers. We welcome new members of all types and were happy to add a strong new contingent in 2025:</p> <ul> <li>ANT Group</li> <li>Spatial9</li> <li>MediaKind</li> <li>Pozalabs</li> <li>Disney</li> <li>Two Orioles</li> <li>University of York</li> <li>Airoha</li> <li>Qencode</li> <li>Greenfield Sound</li> </ul> <p>Check-out our full <a href="/about/members" target="_blank">list of members</a> and <a href="/join" target="_blank">join</a> the effort!</p> <p>Thank you to all who helped make 2025 a successful year!</p>

aomedia.org

AOM Newsletter Q4 2025

With 2026 just around the corner, we at AOMedia wanted to take a moment to recap some of the exciting milestones, announcements and awards that the organization has enjoyed over the past few months. It’s been a busy but exciting period, and it is our dedicated members who have made all these achievements possible. Thank you to all who have contributed to AOMedia’s success. Read on for some recent highlights. ## Celebrating 10 Years AOMedia celebrated its 10-year anniversary with a networking reception at IBC in Amsterdam last September. The event brought together members and partners from around the world to toast to 10 years of innovation and a bright future ahead. ## Awards ### IBC Innovation Awards Two days later, AOMedia's SVT-AV1 was honored with a 2025 IBC Innovation Award in the "Content Everywhere" category. Congratulations to the Software Implementation Working Group, and thank you for your input on this project. Learn more about the recognition and watch our SVT-AV1 video on YouTube. ### Emmy Recognition Later that month, AOMedia also received a prestigious Technology and Engineering Emmy® Award for its AV1 Video Codec. Congratulations to the Codec Working Group on this achievement. Learn more about the honor here. ## AV2 Announcement + Webinar On September 15, AOMedia announced the upcoming launch of the next-generation video codec, AV2. Read the full announcement here. Building on the announcement, the team held a live session, **The Future of Innovation is Open** , during which leaders from Google, Meta, Netflix and AOMedia explored the power of openness in today’s media landscape. The webinar included four sections: an AOMedia Introduction, an AV2 Overview, AV1 State of the Union, and an Open Media Standards Panel. The full session is now available on demand. ## Blogs Catch up on all of AOMedia's latest blog posts: SVT-AV1: Proven Performance, Promising Horizons AV1 in Motion: Scaling Adoption and Shaping What's Next IAMF: Immersive Audio for a New Decade Shaping the Future of Immersive Media: AOMedia's Volumetric Visual Media WG AOMedia's SVT-AV1 Wins 2025 IBC Innovation Award AVIF at Five: Powering a Faster, Sharper Web Experience AOMedia Highlights from QoMEX 2025 On-Demand Webinar: The Future of Innovation is Open ## New Members Since our last update, AOMedia welcomed Pozalabs, Two Orioles and Airoha as promoter members. Learn more about these new members in their announcement releases, and check out the full member list below. Pozalabs Joins the Alliance for Open Media Two Orioles Joins the Alliance for Open Media AOMedia Member list If you’re interested in AOMedia membership, please email membership@aomedia.org for details. ## AOMedia and AV1 in the News * YahooTech: Netflix Could Get a Massive Streaming Boost Soon Thanks to Big Tech Breakthrough * TechRadar: A Big, New Streaming Video Upgrade * Android Authority: Your YouTube and Netflix Streams May Look Better and Buffer Less Later this Year * EMMY Awards: Honorees Announced for 76th Annual Technology and Engineering Emmy® Awards * TVB Europe: Alliance for Open Media Set to Release AV2 by end of 2025 * How to Geek: AV2 Will Upgrade Your Media Streaming Later in 2025 _Follow us on social at the buttons below!_

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AV1 Image File Format Specification Gets an Upgrade with AVIF v1.2.0

## AVIF v1.2.0 includes support for sample transforms _By Yannis Guyon, Leo Barnes, and Wan-Teh Chang_ The files encoded with a bit depth extension relying on Sample Transforms are backward-compatible in the sense that they can be decoded for up to 12-bit precision by legacy implementations. They can also deliver the full 16-bit precision (or more!) with newer software. AOMedia's Storage and Transport Format Working Group has released AVIF v1.2.0, a new revision of the AV1 Image File Format specification. The work is part of AOMedia’s broader effort to advance high-quality still image storage and ensure consistent mapping between codecs and container formats. The latest specification refines the format and introduces functional enhancements, most notably, **support for sample transforms**. ## Key Features and Innovations The addition of sample transforms makes it possible to use higher bit depths, even when the underlying codec does not natively support 16-bit or greater precision. This enhancement empowers creators to **achieve superior image quality and greater flexibility in high-fidelity imaging workflows**. To try sample transforms, clone and build libavif, then use a command such as: build/avifenc input_16bit.png --depth 12,8 output.avif This produces an AVIF file that preserves the top 12 bits for compatibility, with the full 16-bit image retrievable during decoding As an example, encoding the image [1] with `avifenc --depth 12,8 --lossless --speed 0` leads to 10% file size savings over the source 16-bit PNG, with absolutely no quality loss. The encoded AVIF is also backward compatible for 12 bits out of 16 with legacy AVIF decoders. (Results may vary depending on settings.) [1] The release also strengthens conformance, clarifies the mapping between AV1 bitstream metadata and file-level signaling, and updates references and requirements to align with the latest HEIF, ISOBMFF, and MIAF specifications. Editorial Improvements include **a new list of required boxes for AVIF files** to help developers generate standard-compliant files. Additionally, the new specification includes guidance on gain maps—tone map derived image items, which are a method for encoding AVIF HDR images that are backward compatible with SDR displays. ## Ready to get started? Review the AVIF v1.2.0 specification and try out sample transforms using the latest libavif implementation on GitHub. We welcome feedback and contributions—share your experience or questions in the libavif GitHub repository and help shape the future of open image formats with AOMedia.

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AOMedia Honors SVT-AV1 Innovators

Dr. Pierre-Anthony Lemieux, Executive Director of AOMedia, presented the Technical Excellence Award for exceptional work on SVT-AV1 at an evening ceremony during the AOMedia research symposium. The Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia) steering group announced the winners of the inaugural AOMedia Technical Excellence award. The award recognizes and celebrates significant contributions to advancing open media standards for multimedia. This year’s award winners were honored for "Exceptional contributions to the development and productization of SVT-AV1, " an open-source, CPU-based AV1 encoder. The 2025 AOMedia Technical Excellence award recipients include: * Christopher Degawa * Faouzi Kossentini * Foued Ben Amara * Hassen Guermazi * Phoenix Worth * Salome Thirot The steering group recognized award winners at a ceremony and celebration during the AOMedia Research Symposium on November 13, 2025, in Los Gatos, California. AOMedia is grateful for the awardees’ contributions to the SVT-AV1 projects, as well as the greater AOMedia mission to define and develop open media technologies and standards. We look forward to continuing to work together on standards and software for multimedia spanning video, audio, still images, file formats and immersive experiences. AOMedia is committed to open innovation. Want to get involved? **Join us to help advance open technologies for media and entertainment**.

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On Demand Webinar: The Future of Innovation is Open

The Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia) is pleased to share that **The Future of Innovation is Open On-Demand Webinar** is now available to watch on YouTube. The session features leaders from Google, Meta, Netflix and AOMedia offering a dynamic series of short talks followed by a panel discussion. Throughout the session, members explore the evolving landscape of open media and share how open collaboration has accelerated the adoption of AV1 across their industries. They also offer a forward-looking discussion on AV2, AV1’s successor, and what it means for the future of digital media innovation. A quick look at each chapter: **Chapter 1: AOMedia Introduction with Dr. Pierre-Anthony Lemieux, AOMedia (00:00)** Executive Director of AOMedia, Dr. Pierre-Anthony Lemieux introduces the vision and mission of Alliance for Open Media, highlighting the collaborative efforts from members across the media ecosystem that has driven innovation and set new standards for media technology. **Chapter 2: AV2 Overview with Debargha Mukherjee, Google (04:27)** Google Principal Engineer Debargha Mukherjee shares an inside look at the research and development efforts for the next-generation AV2. He offers a historical perspective on video codecs, looking at how they’ve evolved over the past 35 years, and he then moves into the creation of AV2, looking at requirements, technical development, coding tools and more. **Chapter 3: AV1 State of the Union with Anush Moorthy, Netflix (15:30)** Anush Moorthy, Senior Manager of Video Algorithms & Media Systems at Netflix, covers the details of AV1 and the three intricate stages of a codec rollout. He also shares success stories of AV1, exploring its global adoption, technical advancements, and the real-world impact of open media technologies across industries. **Chapter 4: Open Media Standards Panel (26:11)** Leaders from Google, Meta, Netflix, and AOMedia come together for a panel discussion on how open standards drive innovation, foster collaboration, and help the entire industry deliver better experiences for audiences worldwide. As innovation continues to evolve, AOMedia remains committed to driving open, collaborative solutions that benefit the entire ecosystem. Don’t miss this opportunity to learn from industry leaders and see how openness is defining the next chapter of media technology. Watch the On Demand Webinar here: The Future of Innovation is Open

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AOMedia Highlights from QoMex 2025

During the 17th International Conference on Quality of Multimedia Experience (QoMex 2025), AOMedia hosted a half-day industry workshop showcasing insights from leading voices at Amazon, Google (YouTube), Meta, Netflix, Samsung and Trinity College Dublin. By bringing together industry leaders and academic experts, the workshop helped foster collaboration and new perspectives that will shape the next generation of media standards and formats. The session was organized by AOMedia members Netflix and Meta. Leading member companies and distinguished academics shared their latest research outcomes, delving into innovative approaches in media codecs, media processing, and related industry applications. Presenters gave the following updates: * Live AV1 Encoding at Broadcast Quality: Ramzi Khsib showcased how AWS Elemental turned the open-source SVT-AV1 into a broadcast-grade live encoder, achieving real-time performance with CPU and algorithm-level optimizations, low-latency parallelization, psycho-visual enhancements, and refined rate control for production-ready reliability. View the full presentation here. * Film Grain Synthesis at Netflix Scale: Li-Heng Chen shared Netflix’s approach to scaling AV1 film grain synthesis, highlighting optimizations that preserve texture and visual quality while maintaining efficiency at large scale. Find out what's next here. * AVM Video Codec Architecture (AV2): Andrey Norkin of Netflix discussed AV2’s recent results, highlighting its bitrate savings as compared to AV1. He also covered a suite of advanced tools improving prediction, transforms, filtering, and screen content coding. View the full presentation here. * Latest AVM Coding Gain Results: Ryan Lei of Meta highlighted the latest Common Test Conditions for evaluating AV2 coding gains, went into more depth on the specific coding gains that AV2 has produced, and shared some of the future work for the AOMedia Testing Subgroup. Watch the video here. * Psychophysical Models for Optimizing Media: Rafał Mantiuk of the University of Cambridge discussed contrast sensitivity functions and visual difference predictors as they relate to psychophysical models for optimizing media. He introduced ColorVideo VDP and CastleCSF, a comprehensive model of the contrast sensitivity visual system, which shows the smallest contrast discernable by the human eye. Learn more here. Additional presentations included Introduction to IAMF Technology (Jani Huoponen, YouTube & Woohyun Nam, Samsung), Applying to Cinema-Grade Virtual Production (François Pitié & Vibhoothi, Trinity College Dublin), and Learned Image Compression (Jona Ballé, NYU). Full recordings are available at this link: QoMex 2025 Presentations Playlist Following the AOMedia presentations, the second half of the session included a panel discussion on how to innovate on future media. Four experts (Patrick Le Callet, Ramzi Khsib, Rafał Mantiuk, Jona Ballé, moderated by Zhi Li) explored how merging psychophysics, signal processing, and AI can create more efficient, human-centered models for visual perception and media compression. The full panel discussion is available here: QoMex 2025 Panel Discussion. Special thanks to the AOM member companies, workshop participants, and the dedicated organizers of QoMEX 2025 for their efforts in hosting the AOMedia Research Workshop Europe. Stay informed about upcoming events and all things AOMedia by signing up for our newsletter and following us on LinkedIn.

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Two Orioles Joins the Alliance for Open Media

**WAKEFIELD, Mass. – Oct. 22, 2025** – The Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia) today announced that Two Orioles, a leader in video compression products, has joined at the Promoter level. As a member of the Alliance, Two Orioles will collaborate with AOMedia members, the world’s leading internet and media technology companies, to advance open standards for the next generation of media experiences. Two Orioles’ media experts will support the AOMedia Codec Working Group, as well as the AOMedia Software Implementation Working Group, in its work to advance the development and adoption of high-performance video codecs, including AV1 and AV2, which enable high-quality video streaming without friction. “As AOMedia continues to improve the future of video compression, we continue to improve the future of video encoders. We’re excited to play a hand in the development of the standard we work so closely with in our products, especially as we transition to AV2,” said Ronald Bultje, Founder, Two Orioles. AV2, a generation leap in open video coding and the answer to the world’s growing streaming demands, delivers significantly better compression performance than AV1. AV2 provides enhanced support for AR/VR applications, split-screen delivery of multiple programs, improved handling of screen content, and an ability to operate over a wider visual quality range. "We’re excited to welcome Two Orioles to the Alliance for Open Media, reflecting our joint commitment to leverage how AV1, and the upcoming AV2, can improve media experiences in new and cutting-edge ways," said Dr. Pierre-Anthony Lemieux ,AOMedia Executive Director. "We look forward to collaborating in our goal towards interoperability of internet video." ## About Two Orioles Launched in 2015, Two Orioles are experts in the field of video compression software. Its Eve-VP9 and Eve-AV1 production-grade video encoders feature optimal visual quality at high encoding speeds, and its AV1 decoder dav1d is universally used as a software fallback when hardware decoding is not available. Two Orioles prides itself in working closely with clients to help adopt tomorrow’s video technology today. Learn more at www.twoorioles.com. ## About the Alliance for Open Media Launched in 2015, the Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia) develops open standards for media — spanning video, audio, still images, and immersive technologies. AOMedia brings together 49 global innovators — including tech leaders with decades of media tech experience and some of the world’s largest patent holders — to support this mission. Its steering committee consists of Amazon, Apple, Cisco, Google, Intel, Meta, Microsoft, Mozilla, Netflix, NVIDIA, Samsung Electronics, and Tencent. Learn more at www.aomedia.org. **Press contact** : AOMedia Melissa Bednar AOMedia Public Relations mbednar@virtualinc.com 919.671.2796 Two Orioles Ronald Bultje info@twoorioles.com

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AVIF at Five: Powering a Faster, Sharper Web Experience

When the Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia) introduced the AV1 Image File Format (AVIF) in 2019, it stepped into a landscape dominated by legacy formats that had shaped the web’s visual language for decades. As AOMedia celebrates ten years of driving open media innovation, AVIF stands out as one of its clearest success stories — reshaping how images are delivered and experienced online. Five years after its launch, AVIF is reshaping expectations for what still images on the web can be — smaller, sharper, and better suited for today’s bandwidth realities. The Storage and Transport Formats Working Group, where AVIF has been developed, has clear goals: ensure AOMedia standards integrate seamlessly into the broader media ecosystem, enable interoperability across platforms, and support the practical deployment of open media technologies. “It’s basically to glue AOMedia standards in with other standards,” explained Thomas Daede, Principal Video Engineer at Vimeo and a co-chair of the group. “Our group handles the specifications for how media gets stored and moved — from metadata and container formats to aspects like HDR, synchronization, and codec integration,” added Dimitri Podborski, Multimedia Standards Engineer at Apple and the second co-chair of the working group. “It’s what makes AOMedia’s codecs practical in the real world, whether it’s packaging video or still images in a way that works across devices and platforms.” ## From Concept to Real-World Use The first version of AVIF was finalized in 2019. This was quickly followed by version 1.1.0 in 2022, which added HDR image properties (including support for HDR video thumbnails). Since then the group has continued to improve AVIF with additional features and functionalities. The next version — version 1.2.0 — is expected to be published soon, and adds, among others, support for sample transforms. Sample transforms make it possible to achieve higher bit depths even when a codec doesn’t natively support 16-bit or higher. “That is a nice addition for creators who want to push image quality further,” said Podborski. Beyond the specification documents, the true measure of AVIF’s success is its adoption — and in this regard, the momentum is evident. With support across major web browsers and operating systems, AVIF has crossed an important threshold: practical ubiquity. It’s a rare achievement for any new image format, and it unlocks real benefits for developers and end users alike. ## Why It Matters As web content grows more visual — and more bandwidth-hungry — efficient compression matters. AVIF dramatically reduces file sizes while preserving rich details. The addition of HDR properties in version 1.1.0 has also enabled AVIF to handle the more demanding needs and capabilities of HDR content, an essential functionality in the current multimedia ecosystem. The impact is immediate: lighter websites that load faster, consume less mobile data, and deliver richer visuals. “The main thing is that it has increased the speed of website loads and shrunk the size of websites,” Daede explained. “You can either choose to make your site smaller or boost image quality — most people have gone the smaller site route, so pages pop up faster and use less data.” In practice, that means a better user experience whether someone is browsing using gigabit fiber or a congested cellular network. And the benefits aren’t abstract: major platforms, including Vimeo, are seeing AVIF usage climb steadily. “The percentage of AVIF has gone way, way up,” Daede said. “It’s significant.” As of late 2023, the company reported that about ⅔ of images served on Vimeo were AVIF. ## Looking Ahead The next evolution is already on the horizon. As work on the next generation codec progresses, the working group is laying groundwork for AVIF version 2.0, which will integrate future codec improvements and respond to community needs. “One of the group’s primary goals is to make the next version of AVIF fully equipped for future use cases — especially with the next generation codec,” Podborski said. “We’re asking: How do we expand metadata support and improve alignment with related standards for media packaging and delivery? We’re looking at the features web developers really want, so AVIF stays the best choice for modern image workflows.” Beyond the web, AVIF’s influence is also expanding into new domains. It’s now a component of the Alliance for OpenUSD (Universal Scene Description), supporting 3D workflows where efficient, high-quality images are essential. Taken together, these milestones affirm that AVIF is more than an incremental upgrade — it’s becoming the practical modern image format the open web needs. For AOMedia, that’s exactly the point: technology that delivers, scales, and stays free for anyone to build on.

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AOMedia’s SVT-AV1 Wins IBC 2025 Innovation Award in “Content Everywhere” Category

We’re excited to share that AOMedia’s SVT-AV1 was recently named the 2025 IBC Innovation Award winner in the "Content Everywhere" category . SVT-AV1, the flagship project from AOMedia’s Software Implementation Working Group (SIWG) offers a very favorable tradeoff between encoding complexity and bitrate savings that allows users to deploy it in most practical video processing workflows. At the same time, it offers the option to reduce decoding complexity, with negligible drop in bitrate efficiency, allowing video files to play more smoothly on any device – even $90 smartphones that lack AV1 hardware decoders. Originally started as an open-source project by Intel and Netflix back in 2018, later joined by Tencent and Meta, SVT-AV1 (“SVT” stands for Scalable Video Technology, where the term scalability refers to the computation aspect of video encoding) aspired to become the highest performing open-source video encoder, offering the widest range of compute complexities. In 2020, it became the cornerstone and flagship project of the newly formed Software Implementation Working Group. After a lot of hard work and contributions from AOMedia members Intel, Netflix, Tencent, Meta - and as of late from VLITT - but also from the entire open-source community that embraced the SVT-AV1 project, it first achieved top performance compared to other popular open-source video encoders, including x264, x265 and libvpx, for practical offline (“video-on-demand”) workflows. In fact, SVT-AV1 is the only known SW video encoder to cover three orders of magnitude in compute complexity. As of its latest release, version 3.1, support for low-delay, all-intra (which includes still-image coding in the AVIF format) and real-time communication (RTC) use cases has been constantly improving, as well. SVT-AV1 has already had a tangible impact. For example, after Meta deployed the fast-decode feature earlier this year, the company saw decoder cycle savings of 25-50%. Additionally, more than 70% of Meta users are now consuming SVT-AV1 video, including those utilizing lower-end Android devices. Learn more about SVT-AV1 in our recent blog, and via this video: Established over 20 years ago, the IBC Innovation Awards are held to honor projects that use technology to transform how content is created, managed, and delivered. As Fergal Ringrose, Chair of the Innovation Awards Jury, shared: "Our 2025 winners show that innovation isn't just about what’s practical – it’s about what's possible, impactful and transformative across content, society and sustainability." Winners of the Content Everywhere Award are celebrated for the connected experience their project brings to the world – using technology to engage audiences everywhere. The award was announced at the recent IBC Convention in Amsterdam, where it was received by Hassene Tmar, Technical Program Manager, Meta; Nagesh Puppala, GM, Media and Entertainment Solutions, Intel; and Dr. Pierre-Anthony Lemieux, Executive Director of AOMedia. Congratulations to AOMedia’s Software Implementation Working Group on this significant recognition.

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Shaping the Future of Immersive Media: The Work of AOMedia’s Volumetric Visual Media Working Group

The Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia) has long been known for advancing open, royalty-free technologies that power digital experiences around the world. In 2022, the organization launched the Volumetric Visual Media (VVM)working group to focus on a rapidly emerging field: the efficient coding and streaming of volumetric media. Volumetric visual media refers to three-dimensional (3D) representations of people, objects, or environments that can be viewed from any angle. Unlike traditional 2D video, which fixes perspective, volumetric media enables free navigation and interaction essential for applications in augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), gaming, telepresence, and beyond. In a recent conversation, Khaled Mammou, Co-chair of the AOMedia VVM working group, described how the group is developing the standards that will make volumetric experiences both practical and scalable. ## Defining the Mission The VVM working group develops specifications for compressing and streaming volumetric content across broadcast, download, and interactive applications. Its scope is intentionally focused: compression technologies that integrate with scene graph representations. This means the group is not working on transport formats, audio or haptics, or rendering technologies, but on the critical piece that determines whether volumetric media can be stored, transmitted, and displayed efficiently at scale. As Mammou notes, “Our focus is on compression technologies that make volumetric visual media usable in real-world applications.” ## From Concept to Standardization “Although still relatively new, the group has moved quickly,” said Mammou. After its creation in February 2022, the VVM issued a Call for Proposals (CfP) in May 2023 to establish a baseline for its first standard: Polygonal Mesh Coding (PMC). Polygonal meshes are a common way of representing 3D surfaces. “Efficiently coding and streaming these meshes is central to enabling immersive applications,” he observed. Responses to the CfP were evaluated later that year, and by March 2024, the first PMC test model (TM 1.0) was released. In July 2025, version 11.0 of the test model was introduced, stabilizing the tools. “The working group expects to finalize the PMC standard by the end of 2025 — a major milestone that will give developers and hardware manufacturers a clear target to support in next-generation applications.” ## Collaboration Across Industry The working group includes a wide range of companies with deep expertise in media technologies. “These organizations are working together to ensure that the standard addresses the needs of developers, platform providers, and end users,” said Mammou. Beyond internal collaboration, the VVM has also begun building external bridges. “We have established a liaison with the Alliance of Open USD (AOUSD), which is focused on the Universal Scene Description (USD) format.” USD is a growing standard for describing complex 3D scenes, and combining it with VVM compression technologies will make storing and streaming rich immersive content far more efficient. ## Real-World Potential Although the standard is not yet complete, the potential applications of volumetric media are vast. Consider a few examples drawn from research and industry experiments: * **Telepresence and immersive meetings** : Real-time, low-latency communication with photorealistic rendering, where participants can interact as if they are in the same room. (One of the remaining pitfalls of video calls is that they still don’t enable real eye contact, which is vital for meaningful connections.) * **Replay broadcasting** : Sports fans could relive a moment from any angle, not just those captured by a single camera. * **Gaming and social media** : Players and users can capture and share lifelike 3D assets, increasing realism while lowering the barrier to content creation. * **Education and training** : Medical students could practice surgery on interactive 3D anatomical models; engineers could train with virtual replicas of machinery. * **Film production and virtual sets** : Directors can shoot against immersive, photorealistic backgrounds created from 3D captures of real environments. Each of these scenarios depends on efficient compression to manage the massive data requirements of volumetric media — and that is exactly what the VVM group is solving. ## Looking Ahead: The Next Decade of Immersive Media When asked about the future, Mammou emphasizes the growing importance of volumetric compression as immersive platforms continue to expand. “With the development of AR and VR platforms, efficient compression and streaming of volumetric visual media will become as critical as compression is today for 2D video.” Key areas of focus over the next 5–10 years include: * **Standardized formats** : Creating a mature set of standards for volumetric media that work seamlessly with scene description formats like USD and glTF (Graphics Library Transmission Format). * **Hardware acceleration** : Implementing volumetric coding in hardware to enable real-time, low-latency performance on power-constrained devices like smartphones and headsets. * **Scalable adoption** : Ensuring that tools and formats are accessible to a wide range of industries, from consumer applications to specialized professional use cases. “The ultimate goal is to make immersive, interactive experiences accessible to anyone, across devices and platforms,” Mammou commented. ## Help Us Shape the New Frontiers of Digital Media The work of the Volumetric Visual Media working group represents an important step toward the future of digital experiences. By developing open standards for efficient volumetric compression, AOMedia is laying the foundation for everything from immersive education and telepresence to gaming, film production, and cultural preservation. If you or your organization want to help shape this future, consider joining AOMedia and contributing to the standards that will power the next generation of media. Want to learn more and see how you can get involved? Contact the VVM working group: wg-vvm-chair@aomedia.org

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IAMF: Immersive Audio for a New Decade

AOMedia Video 1 (AV1) When AOMedia introduced the Immersive Audio Model and Formats (IAMF) in late 2023, it marked a decisive step into the next frontier of media: sound that doesn’t just accompany visuals but envelops the listener entirely. “IAMF is designed to make immersive audio scalable, flexible, and open,” said Thomas Daede, Principal Video Engineer at Vimeo and co-chair of the AOMedia Storage and Transport Formats Working Group (STFWG), which oversees IAMF’s advancement. “It supports ambisonics and complex multi-channel speaker layouts in a single file, so creators can deliver rich 3D sound that adapts to virtually any playback setup.” Two years in, IAMF is moving steadily from specification to real-world adoption — with early support from industry leaders, new creator tools, and of course a lot of hard work by the members of its AOMedia working group. “We’re building IAMF to scale — not just technically, but practically,” said Thomas Daede. “It’s flexible enough to serve everything from VR and 360 video to mobile apps and home theater, all while remaining open and vendor-neutral. It’s about giving creators and devices the freedom to render sound in truly dynamic ways.” ## A Practical Path to Immersive Sound IMF’s promise is straightforward: universal, immersive audio for everything from VR to next-generation streaming. For developers, it means a single audio file can serve vastly different playback scenarios — headphones, soundbars, full theater setups — with no loss of detail or fidelity. The format’s versatility is reflected in who’s backing it. Google and Samsung have championed IAMF under the “Eclipsa Audio” brand, showcasing its potential at industry events like NAB. For developers, a key milestone this year was the release of an open-source digital audio workstation (DAW) plugin that lets audio creators export directly to the IAMF format — a crucial bridge from experimental demos to production workflows. (You can find additional details about Eclipsa Audio and DAW on Google’s blog.) ## Where It’s Being Heard While IAMF is newer than AVIF, the STFWG’s other key standard, early signs point to a healthy trajectory. Samsung has announced select TVs supporting IAMF playback, and public demos in Chrome help push the format into web applications. Eclipsa Audio highlights IAMF’s power in 360-degree video and virtual reality environments where audio must adapt in real time to head tracking and speaker setups. This flexibility makes IAMF especially suited for VR experiences, immersive 360 video, and premium home theater audio. “A single audio track can target both headphones, a cell phone speaker, or a high-end sound bar,” said Daede. “It’s a way to deliver immersive audio to everyone — not just the few with exotic gear.” ## The Road Ahead The core promise of IAMF is to make immersive audio open and accessible. As the community refines tools and improves compression, the format is positioned to scale. “We’d like to see it more widespread,” said Daede. “Better creator tools, broader support in playback devices — that’s what will push it forward.” For an industry eager to expand how stories are heard as much as how they’re seen, IAMF’s open standard approach offers a practical foundation. It ensures immersive audio can become a baseline feature, not a walled-garden luxury. ## AOMedia at 10: Open, Practical, Ready for More As AOMedia marks its first decade, AVIF and IAMF show how open standards keep media innovation moving forward — smaller files, richer visuals, and more immersive sound, all delivered in ways that work across the devices people already have. Backed by many experienced engineers, and by major players including Google, Samsung, and Vimeo, both formats are poised to grow — helping define what the next decade of streaming, sharing, and storytelling looks and sounds like.

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Alliance for Open Media Wins Prestigious Technology and Engineering Emmy® Award for the AV1 Video Codec

_AOMedia’s Video Encoder SVT-AV1 Also Recognized with an IBC2025 Innovation Award_ **WAKEFIELD, Mass. – Sept. 30, 2025** – The Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia), a collaboration of innovators working together to define and deploy open standards that power the next generation of media experiences, today announced it has received a Technology and Engineering Emmy® Award from the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS) for its AV1 video codec standard. AV1 is an open video codec designed to deliver high-quality video with less bandwidth than previous codecs – allowing video programs to reach more people more efficiently and more affordably. As a global standard, AV1 is deployed across a variety of popular platforms and devices. “AOMedia thanks NATAS for recognizing the impact of AV1 on media and entertainment, and the hard work of the many innovators – from individuals to large organizations – whose dedication has made the standard a success. These innovators came together in 2015 with a fresh approach to developing open media standards, and AV1 stands as clear proof of the power of that approach,” said Dr. Pierre-Anthony Lemieux, Executive Director of AOMedia. NATAS announced the honorees for the upcoming 76th Annual Technology and Engineering Emmy® Awards, citing AOMedia and its AV1 specification as a winner. Launched in 1948, The Awards honor development and innovation in broadcast technology and recognize companies, organizations and individuals for breakthroughs in technology that have had a significant effect on broadcast engineering. The Emmy® Award win comes on the heels of another win for AOMedia at the recent IBC Convention in Amsterdam. At the event, AOMedia was presented a 2025 IBC Innovation Award in the Content Everywhere category for its SVT-AV1 software encoder. SVT-AV1 reduces decoding complexity without sacrificing compression efficiency. It was recognized for its success making video streaming viable on low-end mobile devices and low-bandwidth networks. Learn more about AOMedia's work and the future of innovation in digital media experiences in our upcoming webinar, The Future of Innovation is Open, on Monday, October 20, 2025, at 8 p.m. EST/5 p.m. PST. Register now. ## About the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS) is a service organization dedicated to the advancement of the arts and sciences of television and the promotion of creative leadership for artistic, educational and technical achievements within the television industry. It recognizes excellence in television with the coveted Emmy® Awards for News & Documentary, Sports, Daytime and Children’s & Family programming, as well as achievements in television Technology & Engineering. NATAS membership is made up of National members joined by more than 18,000+ broadcast and media professionals represented in 19 regional chapters across the country. Beyond awards, NATAS has extensive educational programs including its National Student Production Awards for outstanding journalistic work by high school students, as well as scholarships for aspiring filmmakers and broadcasters. For more information, please visit the website at http://www.theemmys.tv/. ## About AOMedia Launched in 2015, the Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia) develops open standards for media — spanning video, audio, still images, and immersive technologies. AOMedia brings together 49 global innovators — including tech leaders with decades of media tech experience and some of the world’s largest patent holders — to support this mission. Its steering committee consists of Amazon, Apple, Cisco, Google, Intel, Meta, Microsoft, Mozilla, Netflix, NVIDIA, Samsung Electronics, and Tencent. Learn more at www.aomedia.org. **Media Contact** Melissa Bednar AOMedia Public Relations mbednar@virtualinc.com 781.876.8962

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AOMedia in the News, September 29, 2025

Follow AOMedia on Twitter. * **Tech Radar** : A big new streaming video upgrade supported by Disney, Apple, Google and more was just unveiled, and it could improve sports viewing and picture quality * **Yahoo! Tech** : Netflix could get a massive streaming boost soon, thanks to key tech breakthrough * **How-to Geek** : AV2 will upgrade your media streaming later in 2025 * **TVBEurope** : Alliance for Open Media set to release AV2 by end of 2025 * **Android Authority** : Your YouTube and Netflix streams may look better and buffer less later this year * **TheEmmysTV** : Honorees Announced for 76th Annual Technology and Engineering Emmy® Awards

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AV1 in Motion: Scaling Adoption and Shaping What’s Next

AOMedia Video 1 (AV1) is likely the most widely recognized technology developed by the Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia) since its founding in 2015. An open video codec designed to provide high-quality video compression with greater efficiency, AV1 has both evolved significantly since its 2018 launch and served as the foundation for several other specs produced by the organization. With AOMedia celebrating its tenth anniversary this year, we reached out to Adrian Grange and Andrey Norkin, co-chairs of the Codec Working Group (CWG) – the team responsible for AV1’s creation and advancement – to learn more about the spec’s timeline, adoption and future. ## Advancements and Adoption As an emerging global standard, AV1 is deployed across a wide range of popular platforms and devices, making video content more accessible and cost-effective for all. The codec enables high-quality video and lowers streaming and storage costs, offering significant reductions in file size, without compromising quality. AV1 is optimized for high-resolution content such as 4K video and supports modern technologies like adaptive streaming and HDR content. “Since the CWG was launched, its focus has been to develop state-of-the-art video codec technology, under AOMedia’s royalty-free patent policy ,” explained Grange. “We want to help all service providers by advancing the industry and unlocking new possibilities for video technology. Ultimately, the goal is to bring next-generation media experiences to more people, faster.” AV1 technology has come a long way since it was first released, with numerous advancements and increasing adoption across a host of innovators in the video space. The AOMedia Adoption Showcase highlights how some of the world’s most recognizable brands are utilizing AV1 to deliver high-quality video, while also cutting streaming and storage costs. Click through to learn how companies like Google, Netfix, Meta and others have benefited from AV1. In addition to powering video consumption, the codec has also served as a building block for additional AOMedia specifications. These include AVIF (AV1 Image File Format); the ISO base media file format (ISOBMFF), real-time transport protocol (RTP), high dynamic range 10 (HDR10) + ‘binding’ specs; and AOMedia Film Grain Synthesis 1 (AFGS1), which builds on AV1’s film grain synthesis algorithm to allow its application with any codec. ## Building for the Future Looking forward, the CWG is focused on advancing its next-generation video codec, which will build on the success of AV1. When asked about the projected evolution of the space, Grange noted that the video codec landscape is shifting from the traditional hybrid predict/transform architectures, prevalent for over 40 years, to solutions driven by machine learning and AI. This evolution includes ML-based enhancements to existing tools and end-to-end ML solutions that analyze content, source material characteristics, and display properties to optimize encoding. In the future, the industry may move away from custom ASIC-based hardware towards more flexible, software-friendly solutions leveraging on-device neural processing units, such as NPUs, GPUs, or CPUs. As the CWG progresses its flagship codec, it is working to enhance it to address the demands of this changing landscape. The impact of AV1 over the past seven years is evident, and the efficient compression and affordable pricing it offers have made it an attractive codec option for an ever-growing list of organizations. As AOMedia looks to its next ten years, we’re sure to see exciting developments emerge in its next-generation codec that will lead to further adoption and improved video consumption.

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AOMedia at SPIE Optics and Photonics in San Diego

The SPIE Optics and Photonics conference is coming up in San Diego this August, and AOMedia members Tencent and Google will be on hand to present a special session on Volumetric Visual Media Coding and Processing. Dr. Shan Liu, distinguished scientist and general manager at Tencent, and Dr. Yaowu Xu, distinguished engineer and senior director of engineering at Google, will share the stage to dive into the details of volumetric visual media and its role in the future of media. The presentation will be part of Sessions 5 and 6, Immersive Imaging I and II on August 5th. Volumetric visual media is an emerging 3D immersive technology that captures and represents objects or environments with depth and volume. This allows users to interact with digital content from multiple perspectives, creating a more lifelike, holographic experience. Volumetric visual media is central to applications in augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and mixed reality (MR), driving innovation across sectors such as gaming, filmmaking, animation, manufacturing, and cultural heritage. With the increasing market interest in extended reality, spatial and immersive media applications, we are seeing the demand for efficient volumetric visual data coding and processing technologies continue to rise. Many companies and institutes have been investing in developing such technologies, and standard groups, such AOMedia’s Volumetric Visual Media Working Group, have been putting efforts on standardization of volumetric visual media compression. Join this special session to hear more about these new technologies, how they can efficiently compress and process volumetric visual media data, and what recent standard activities are underway. Register for the event now. Follow AOMedia on LinkedIn, Instagram and Threads for our latest content.

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Pozalabs Joins the Alliance for Open Media

**Wakefield, Mass. — May 27, 2025** — The Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia) today announced that Pozalabs, an AI-powered music technology company, has joined the Alliance. As a member of AOMedia, Pozalabs will collaborate with the Alliance’s community of internet and media technology member companies to drive open standards for cutting-edge video, audio, and multimedia advancements worldwide. Pozalabs’ audio technology experts will support the AOMedia Audio Codec Working Group in developing open audio codecs that deliver high-quality sound for modern multimedia applications, including AOMedia’s Immersive Audio Model and Formats (IAMF) container specification. AOMedia’s codec-agnostic IAMF is designed to enable creatives to revolutionize immersive audio experiences across a myriad of applications, from streaming and gaming to augmented reality and virtual reality, as well as traditional broadcasting. Pozalabs has developed a proprietary AI music generation model that produces expressive, structured compositions tailored to specific moods, genres, and emotions. Its technology enables fine-grained control over the length, arrangement, and instrumentation of music, with all compositions output in stem format—making them ideal for immersive audio and interactive content applications. “Joining AOMedia represents a key milestone in aligning our generative music technologies with global standards,” said Taehyun Kim, CEO of Pozalabs America. “We’re committed to building an open and accessible audio ecosystem for the next generation of content creators.” "We’re excited to welcome Pozalabs, reflecting our joint commitment to improve open media in new and cutting-edge ways,” said Matt Frost, Chairperson of AOMedia. "We’re eager to collaborate to advance open web media experiences and accelerate the adoption of open web media standards, bringing cinematic-quality 3D immersive audio to today’s consumer electronics." ## About Pozalabs Pozalabs is a leader in AI music generation, offering proprietary composition models, APIs, and B2C platforms like eapy, viodio, and LAIVE. Its solutions support music creation across content, gaming, and commercial use. Learn more at pozalabs.com. ## About the Alliance for Open Media Launched in 2015, the Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia) was formed to define and develop technologies to address marketplace demand for open standards for media compression and delivery spanning video, audio, still images, and immersive technologies. Board-level members include Amazon, Apple, Cisco, Google, Intel, Meta, Microsoft, Mozilla, Netflix, NVIDIA, Samsung Electronics and Tencent. AOMedia’s open-source codec, AV1, is a significant milestone in the ability to deliver a next-generation video format that is interoperable, open, optimized for internet delivery and scalable to any modern device at any bandwidth. Visit www.aomedia.org. Media Contacts: Taehyun Kim CEO of Pozalabs America taehyun@pozalabs.com +82-10-2303-1866 Jessie Hennion AOMedia Public Relations jhennion@virtualinc.com 781.876.6280 Melissa Bednar AOMedia Public Relations mbednar@virtualinc.com 781.876.8962

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SVT-AV1 V3.0 is Now Available

The AOMedia Software Implementation Working Group (SIWG) is excited to share SVT-AV1 V3.0, a major release that represents an important improvement in performance and includes a few key bug fixes. Scalable Video Technology (SVT) refers to the ability of an encoder to scale its performance according to the compute capabilities of the platform on which it is running, essentially allowing it to use the maximum amount of allocated resources to achieve the highest possible video quality. SVT-AV1 is an open-source, CPU-based AV1 encoder. It is an AOMedia project that provides an AV1-compliant open-source encoder library. ## Why is this update important? The latest release of SVT-AV1 delivers significant performance improvements along with a major API update, including: * A clean-up of unused fields, use stdbool type, and redundant parameters in svt_av1_enc_init_handle * Repositioning the presets and removing one preset resulting in a max preset of M10 in the current version * Addition of a temporal layer and averageQP fields in output picture structure, along with an option to specify a QP offset for the startup GOP The API changes are not backwards compatible. More details about the changes can be found in issue 2217. The release also featured some key encoder updates, including: * Improved mid- and high-quality presets and quality vs. speed tradeoffs for fast-decode 2 mode: * ~15-25% speedup for M3-M10 at the same quality levels * ~1% BD-rate improvement for presets M0-M2 * Repositioning of the fast-decode 1 mode to produce ~10% decoder cycle reduction vs fast-decode 0 while reducing the BD-rate loss to ~1% * Further Arm Neon and SVE2 optimizations that improve high bit-depth encoding by an average of 10-25% for 480p-1080p resolutions beyond the architecture-agnostic algorithmic improvements since v2.3.0 * Porting of several features from SVT-AV1-SPY fork to further improve the perceptual quality of tune 0 mode * Added lossless coding support and an avif mode to reduce resource utilization when encoding still images Finally, SVT-AV1 also released two follow-up minor releases v3.0.1 and v3.0.2 that includes a cleanup build, bug fixes and documentation, specifically: * Removal of the third party cpuinfo code in favor of using one provided by the system. (For those without cpuinfo, it will be pulled and compiled into the library, similar to before) * Improved unit test coverage for Arm Neon and SVE2 code * Updated documentation ## Where can you find it? The latest SVT-AV1 release can be found on GitLab. Please take a moment to give it a try and report feedback. Your input helps drive the continued improvements that benefit us all. Thank you to all the members of the Software Implementation Working Group and the vibrant open source community for their ongoing contributions. Your hard work makes these updates possible. Follow AOMedia on Reddit, LinkedIn and Instagram.

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