Video compression doesn’t always get the attention it deserves, but make no mistake: Compression technology is one of the most important driving forces in the video surveillance industry. Each time a significant advancement in video compression occurs, it cuts bandwidth usage and storage requirements roughly in half, driving innovation, accelerating industry growth, and transforming the competitive landscape.
This was the case when the H.264 compression codec was released, and it happened again a few years later when proprietary compression enhancements drastically improved H.264 (such as Axis Zipstream). It is a clear pattern at this point: When compression takes a giant leap, it drastically changes the market, benefiting end-customers.
Is H.264 Nearing End of Life?
Today, H.264 is the most widely supported (and available) video codec, enabling easy video recording, compression, and distribution. While H.264 has a positive reputation and generally performs well for a wide range of use-cases, it is beginning to show its age. The codec is now more than 20 years old and has been dominant in the video surveillance industry for 15 years; however, it is starting to struggle with more modern demands – particularly sharing and storing high-resolution video footage.
While H.265 was originally expected to take its place, restrictive licensing has limited its adoption and made implementation extremely difficult. As a result, H.265 has failed to gain traction, despite the growing need for a newer, more advanced solution.
Many organizations that will not work with H.265 have a compelling, newer alternative: AOMedia Video 1 (AV1). Released in 2018 by the Alliance for Open Media (AoM), AV1 is an open-source, device-agnostic standard designed for optimal implementation across both software and hardware, and is available license-free. Notably, AoM counts technology leaders like Google, Netflix, Amazon, and others among its founding members, underscoring the widespread support of the AV1 standard.
As the demand for network video continues to grow, the availability of a truly modern video encoding standard like AV1 is poised to revolutionize the surveillance market.
Why AV1 Compression Matters for Video Surveillance
There are several reasons why AV1 compression has risen to prominence at this moment. First, AV1 makes clear improvements on H.264’s baseline capabilities, enabling efficient video streams with an excellent balance of quality and bitrate. Its ability to handle high-resolution video and complex motion is equivalent to what H.265 can deliver; however, as an open-source product, AV1 comes without the complex and burdensome licensing requirements plaguing H.265.
Most users upgrading from H.264 to AV1 will experience a substantial bitrate reduction and reduced video storage – enabling them to store a greater volume of higher-quality video without significantly increasing costs.
AV1 thrives in more modern use-cases; in fact, it is already the preferred decoder for cloud-based applications, and many of today’s standardized cloud technologies (including WebRTC, which facilitates communication between browsers and mobile applications) have already made the shift to AV1. Since AV1 is also supported by today’s major cloud providers, the process of both integration and deployment is becoming significantly easier.
By embracing AV1 encoding, the surveillance market can make it simpler to integrate different applications, allowing cloud and hybrid solutions to reach the market more quickly. AV1 is essentially the missing piece between cloud and on-premises technologies, serving as an effective bridge for organizations leveraging the hybrid security deployments favored today.
All that said, it is the rise of AV1 in the streaming market that makes the clearest case for its adoption in video surveillance. Mainstream video streaming sites like Netflix and YouTube already leverage AV1, as do browsers like Google Chrome and operating systems like Windows and MacOS.
AV1 has proven highly capable of handling high-resolution video and ensuring real-time performance, even at the scale demanded by today’s most widely used streaming platforms and operating systems, which means it can certainly do the same for video surveillance. Even enterprise customers with thousands of devices in use can leverage AV1 to achieve the scalability and reliability of their business demands.
It is difficult to overstate the importance of AV1’s open-source, royalty-free model. The license-free nature of the technology makes it accessible to businesses of all sizes, and users do not need to worry about being locked into a proprietary product line. This enables flexibility when it comes to system design, and the fact that it is specifically designed for cloud integration makes it a valuable asset for modern surveillance solutions.
Other Advantages: Storage and Scalability
The technology behind AV1 provides other advantages. Improved storage efficiency and capacity without sacrificing the quality of video enables longer retention periods with higher quality images. Organizations that could previously only afford to store video for a few weeks may now be able to retain it for months or decide to store it at a higher resolution.
AV1 enables enhanced efficiency for real-time video, not just stored video. This can be particularly beneficial in high-traffic environments like airports, hospitals, campuses, and smart cities. Minimizing bandwidth needs while maximizing video quality is a high priority in these circumstances – as well as for remote locations such as solar farms, oil pipelines, and water treatment plants – and AV1 makes the process simple.
Perhaps the most important factor driving the adoption of AV1 is scalability. While H.264 is reaching the limits of its viability in the modern video surveillance landscape, AV1 offers businesses a highly scalable option capable of delivering high-quality compression services in on-premises, cloud, and hybrid deployments according to the evolving needs of a business. Being limited by the capabilities of a video encoder will be a thing of the past.
Integrators: Key Players in the Transition
The transition to AV1 doesn’t just benefit end-users, but integrators as well. Because AV1 can be easily integrated with a range of platforms, devices, and applications, integrators can deliver customers highly customized solutions tailored to their specific needs.
By helping organizations lower bandwidth consumption and storage requirements, it reduces operational expenses. The high level of scalability that AV1 provides also ensures integrators can reduce infrastructure strain in large-scale surveillance systems. Additionally, the ease of integrating AV1 with emerging tech means integrators can keep their customers up to date with the latest technology, ensuring future compatibility with emerging technology like AI-based analytics.
It is important to note that while the value of AV1 is clear, the transition will not happen overnight. Given the prevalence of H.264, surveillance solutions must continue supporting legacy encoding methods for some time.
Today, most devices that support AV1 can also support H.264 and even H.265, depending on customer preference. Ultimately, integrators will play a key role in helping their customers ensure their solutions and applications are compatible with AV1 and any other encoding methods they may use in their environments.
Organizations that want to fully realize the benefits of AV1 will need to make sure they are using AV1-compatible devices, software, and infrastructure, and integrators can help them begin the long-term transition process without sacrificing short-term functionality.
When H.264 was first released, it revolutionized video surveillance. AV1 is already following in its footsteps. The benefits of AV1 are well understood in other industries, and the time has come to apply them to video surveillance. As forward-looking security vendors introduce support for AV1 encoding, today’s businesses can dramatically improve their approach to video surveillance, so why wait? The time to act is now.
