Let’s start this month’s roundup with a faster decoder!

dav1d 0.5.0 & 0.5.1 release#

In October, dav1d saw two new releases with some fantastic speed improvements. Here is a summary:

• Large improvements in speed on SSSE3 CPU (up to 40% speedup)
• Speed improvements on AVX-2 (for 4-7%)
• Speed improvements on ARM64 (up to 10%) and ARM32.
• 0.5.1 is a minor release which brings improvements in speed for SSE2 CPUs (up to 50% speedup), and ARMv7 CPUs (up to 41% speedup).

Detailed release notes can be found at:

Performance numbers can be found at:

• http://www.jbkempf.com/blog/post/2019/dav1d-0.5.0-release-fastest

Google drops LIBGAV1 bombshell on AV1 decoders space#

While the dav1d team was busy optimizing dav1d for all platforms (even ARM), Google dropped a decoder of their own - gav1. It is not clear why Google didn't just use dav1d for Android as gav1 significantly lags behind dav1d in decoding performance according to the performance testing done by Phoronix.

More details on this decoder can be found at:

Chips&Media Launches Wave510A Hardware AV1 Decoder IP#

Chips&Media announced the beginning of licensing of industry's first AV1 video decoder - its Wave510A hardware decoder IP. Wave510A supports decoding up to 4K60p but can be scaled out to handle 4K120p and 8K60p video as well.

More details below:

Socionext Breaks New Ground in Real-Time AV1 Encoding with AWS#

Japanese system-on-chip technology provider Socionext showcased a solution that enables cloud-based AV1 real-time encoding, ensuring a consistent high-quality video stream while significantly reducing processing time and delivery costs.

Here’s how it works: Capture content with a JVC “CONNECTED CAM” camera that incorporates an encoder and supports the Zixi protocol. The JVC camera is the only professional camera compatible with the Zixi protocol, a mechanism that uses Forward Error Correction (FEC) and Automatic Repeat Request (ARQ) packet loss recovery. The signal output from the JVC camera is sent to MediaConnect for cloud ingress. The signal is then input to an EC2 F1 instance, encoded to next-generation compression codec AV1 in real-time, and transmitted via CloudFront to the intended audience.

Socionext showcased tremendous quality difference while reducing the bitrate requirements by 60% (4 Mbps vs 1.6 Mbps)

More details at:

• https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/media/socionext-breaks-new-ground-in-real-time-av1-encoding-with-aws/

rav1e weekly pre-releases in October#

rav1e had 1 release in October. Here are the major changes:

• SSSE3 support
• Aarch64 neon support
• FlipADST
• Additional asm tests (CDEF, Inverse transform).
• Make sure all the dependencies are using the same version of syn, reducing the overall build time.

Full details at:

• https://github.com/xiph/rav1e/releases/tag/20191023

Tencent joins AV1 codec group Alliance for Open Media#

In October AV1 membership got a high profile member added in the form of Tencent. Tencent has joined at the board level, which is the first tier of the organization. Full details at the link below:

• https://aomedia.org/tencent-joins-av1-codec-group-alliance-for-open-media/

Previous ecosystem updates#

AV1 resources#

Contact#

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