Codec Evolution & Technical Advantages
AV1 (AOMedia Video 1) is a royalty-free, next-generation video compression standard developed by the Alliance for Open Media to address the efficiency limits and licensing complexity of H.264 and H.265. Between 2025 and 2027, AV1 transitions from early adoption into practical deployment as surveillance systems increasingly demand higher resolutions, longer retention, and cloud-optimized architectures.
Technical Advantages vs. H.264 and H.265
AV1 delivers materially higher compression efficiency, providing up to ~70% bitrate reduction versus H.264 and approximately 20–30% improvement over H.265 at comparable visual quality. For surveillance systems, this translates directly into reduced storage consumption and lower sustained network bandwidth, particularly for 4K and multi-sensor cameras.
AV1’s royalty-free model removes the licensing uncertainty and recurring costs associated with H.265, improving long-term predictability for manufacturers, VMS vendors, and large-scale operators. Native support in modern browsers and media frameworks simplifies secure remote viewing and reduces dependence on server-side transcoding. The codec is also optimized for high resolution, HDR, and complex motion scenes common in real-world surveillance environments.
Implementation Challenges
AV1 encoding and decoding remain more computationally demanding than legacy codecs. While this limited early adoption, the 2025–2027 period is defined by widespread availability of hardware-accelerated AV1 in camera SoCs, GPUs, and server platforms. During the transition, mixed-codec environments will remain common, requiring continued support for H.264 and H.265 alongside AV1.
Adoption Status and Timelines (2025–2027)
2025
AV1 adoption becomes practical as next-generation cameras and servers ship with native hardware acceleration. Deployment is primarily tied to new system builds and platform refresh cycles rather than retrofits.
2026
Broader ecosystem support emerges across cameras, VMS platforms, GPUs, and client devices. Performance and power concerns largely diminish as hardware acceleration becomes standard, enabling AV1 to be used at scale without operational penalties.
2027
AV1 is expected to be a mainstream codec option in professional surveillance systems, particularly for cloud, hybrid, and bandwidth-constrained deployments. Legacy codecs remain supported for backward compatibility, but AV1 increasingly becomes the preferred option for new designs.
Key accelerators during this period include rising storage and bandwidth costs, expansion of cloud and remote video access, increased browser-based viewing, and industry efforts to reduce codec licensing risk.
Impact on the Video Surveillance Landscape
Between 2025 and 2027, AV1 materially lowers total cost of ownership by reducing storage growth and sustained network utilization. Higher compression efficiency enables longer retention at higher resolutions without proportional infrastructure expansion. Improved client compatibility and lower bitrates enhance remote viewing performance and reduce latency. As end-to-end AV1 support matures, reliance on CPU-intensive server-side transcoding declines, simplifying system architecture and improving scalability.
AV1 ultimately supports a shift toward more efficient, cloud-ready, and economically sustainable surveillance platforms.
Supporting Articles
- Alliance for Open Media – AV1 Adoption Showcase
https://aomedia.org/av1-adoption-showcase/ - Axis Communications – AV1 and the Future of Video Surveillance
https://newsroom.axis.com/en-us/blog/av1-codec-video-surveillance
