Video creator platform Video today joined the ranks of media and technology companies that support the royalty-free open-source AV1 video codec.
Vimeo collaborated with Mozilla, one of the founding members of the Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia), which developed AV1. Vimeo used and contributed to Mozilla’s open source encoder, rav1e.
The company said that at launch, recent videos in the Vimeo Staff Picks channel will be delivered using the AV1 codec on supported platforms.
“AV1 is setting a new standard for video compression and delivery over the web, and will greatly improve the quality and availability of content streamed on our platform to global audiences,” said Naren Venkataraman, senior vice president of technology at Vimeo, in a statement. “This launch is a major step forward in Vimeo’s ongoing commitment to providing the best video experiences to our creators, and a significant milestone in AV1 becoming ubiquitous across the industry.”
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“We’re proud to contribute to the development of the rav1e encoder and to join Mozilla’s efforts for free and open video. Together, we’re building a strong foundation for the next generation video codec,” said Vittorio Giovara, lead engineer of encoding at Vimeo, in a statement.
AV1 is something of a successor to VP9, an open-source video compression codec developed by Google. AV1 promise 30% better compression than VP9, based on testing performed by Bitmovin. That means AV1 can deliver 4K UHD video content while using less data.
AOMedia built AV1 for both commercial and noncommercial use in internet applications and services including browsers, streaming and videoconferencing services, as well as hardware and software implementation. AOMedia board members include Amazon, ARM, Cisco, Facebook, Google, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Mozilla, Netflix and NVIDIA.