Bitmovin Uses AV1 to Stay at Industry Forefront
Bitmovin has been driving advancements in video streaming infrastructure since it launched in 2012. The Emmy award-winning company introduced the first commercial adaptive streaming player and pioneered software-defined encoding services that work on any cloud platform. The company provides solutions to over 400 clients, including the BBC, ClassPass, Discovery, fuboTV, and Hulu.
Andy Francis is the technical content lead of Bitmovin and spoke to us about their relationship with AV1, emphasizing that above all, “Now is the time to get started with AV1, if you haven’t already. You can start seeing its benefits right now, which are only going to snowball and save you more in the long run.”
Capitalizing on AV1 to Fuel Innovation
Even before the AV1 spec was fully finalized, Bitmovin had developed working demos with Firefox, and they released the first AV1 livestream at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) tradeshow.
Leading the adoption of the latest video encoding technology has always been part of what they do, and AV1 has played a big role in that philosophy.
Francis explains why. "If you compare it bit rate to bit rate, you can definitely get better quality out of AV1 than VP9, H.264, or H.265,” he said.
In extensive testing with the Bitmovin Encoder, the company found that on average AV1 can offer the same visual quality at 50% less bitrate for H.264/AVC and 30% less bitrate for H.265/HEVC respectively. AV1 is fully integrated into Bitmovin’s video-on-demand (VoD) workflows for faster than real-time encoding.
The Increasing Pace of AV1 Adoption
Francis’s most recent blog, The State of AV1 Playback Support: 2024, provides a look at the “current state of AV1 playback support, covering which browsers, mobile devices, smart TVs, consoles and streaming sticks are compatible with the AV1 codec right now.”
He notes that Apple’s adoption of the AV1 codec in 2023 introduced an entirely new ecosystem to the advantages of AV1. The iPhone 15 Pro now has a dedicated AV1 decoder, and Apple’s desktop processors and the iPad will soon follow.
“A second tipping point arose from Android’s implementation of dav1d, VideoLAN’s AV1 decoder. That's a big one, especially for user-generated content and things that don't require digital rights management (DRM). The dav1d decoder has been shown to be incredibly efficient for AV1 decoding, and I know some platforms have already rolled it out," said Francis.
Lowering the Total Cost of Ownership for Content Creators
AV1 is more complex to encode than previous codecs like H264, requiring more time and resources. Advances with AV1 have allowed Bitmovin to significantly reduce this complexity and cost.
“Over the past two years, we’ve decreased the cost of encoding AV1 from ten times that of H264 to just four times,” said Francis.
Despite the higher initial encoding costs, AV1's lower bit rates lead to significant savings on content delivery network (CDN) usage, making it a more cost-effective option for high viewership streams. The Bitmovin website offers an AV1 break-even calculator to allow creators to determine how many views it takes to make up for the cost of using AV1 in addition to H.264 or H.265.
AV1 Suitability for Low-end Mobile Devices
With the advent of the dav1d decoder, it has become more feasible to use AV1 on lower-end devices, especially at lower bit rates.
“Meta, for example, has combined VP9 and AV1 for lower power devices and is using AV1 for lower bit rate streams on lower end mobile devices, which is an interesting strategy,” said Francis. “Then you get away from taxing the battery in the way that higher bit rate decoding can require.”
It’s Not Just for the Big Players Anymore
Initially, encoding with AV1 was more cost-effective for large-scale viewership, requiring hundreds of thousands of views to break even. However, optimizations by AOM and Bitmovin have reduced this threshold significantly.
“As far as public communications around AV1, mainly you see things from Netflix, YouTube, and Meta. So, I think that's created a certain perception that it’s only feasible if you're working on that scale. Things have changed, however. Now, even with a few thousand views, companies can save money over time. This technological advancement has made high-quality encoding accessible and financially viable for medium and smaller-scale companies, debunking the myth that it is only suitable for large-scale projects,” commented Francis.
How Bitmovin Customers, Large and Small, Use AV1 Encoding
Following the lead of Netflix and YouTube, smaller companies are adopting AV1 starting with high-resolution content, where the most significant bandwidth savings are realized. Initially, Netflix and YouTube used AV1 for 4K content, gradually expanding to their top-viewed content.
Now, Netflix encodes all new content with AV1, showcasing the progression from selective use to a standard practice. Smaller companies are mirroring this approach, beginning with high-resolution and high-viewership content to maximize cost savings, and are likely to eventually adopt AV1 for all their encoding needs.
Who Should Join AOMedia
“Bitmovin has been a longstanding member of AOMedia because our business model requires that we stay in the technological vanguard,” said Francis. “I think any company that wants to stay on the forefront of what's happening with codecs and streaming technologies should join.
“I also think being associated with AOMedia in general is a valuable thing. Especially for smaller companies, this is a way to get in the same room and collaborate with engineers at Netflix and Apple and YouTube,” said Francis.