First AV1 Hardware Acceleration at IBC

Jan Ozer September 1, 2018 Codecs, Encoding Comments Off on First AV1 Hardware Acceleration at IBC 505 Views

I’m not going to IBC, but if you are, please check out AV1 hardware encoding acceleration from Socionext. Here’s the blurb from the press release. 

There will be a demonstration of the world’s first hardware-based implementation of an AV1 encoding system. AV1 is a new, advanced video data compression standard established by the
Alliance for Open Media, a consortium that includes Socionext, and is capable of compressing data about 30% more effectively than HEVC, whilst keeping the same image quality.

At NAB, folks from the Alliance for Open Media were suggesting that AV1 acceleration hardware wouldn’t be available until 2020, the normal development cycle for chipsets supporting new codecs. The big questions I have for Socionext include:

  • When will the hardware ship?
  • How much acceleration? Note that my recent review of AV1 in Streaming Media Magazine found encoding very, very slow. 
  • Whether there’s any quality reduction as compared to software-only AV1 encoding. 
  • Cost.

Socionet will be at stand 1.E02 at IBC.  If anyone makes it over there, and can ask these questions, please let me know at [email protected].

About Jan Ozer

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I help companies train new technical hires in streaming media-related positions; I also help companies optimize their codec selections and encoding stacks and evaluate new encoders and codecs. I am a contributing editor to Streaming Media Magazine, writing about codecs and encoding tools. I have written multiple authoritative books on video encoding, including Video Encoding by the Numbers: Eliminate the Guesswork from your Streaming Video (https://amzn.to/3kV6R1j) and Learn to Produce Video with FFmpeg: In Thirty Minutes or Less (https://amzn.to/3ZJih7e). I have multiple courses relating to streaming media production, all available at https://bit.ly/slc_courses. I currently work as www.netint.com as a Senior Director in Marketing.

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