Fredrik Nilsson is Vice President of the Americas for Axis Communications, overseeing the company’s operations in North and South America.
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Even as picture quality has improved and cameras have grown increasingly advanced, video compression technology has stayed more or less the same in the video surveillance industry for decades. The H.264 video codec has been the most common compression codec for nearly 20 years, with newer codecs like H.265 never achieving widespread adoption. H.264 has played an important role in security: Originally a popular consumer technology, H.264 made its way into the surveillance industry in 2008, accelerating the shift from analog to IP-based video. Organizations have relied on the codec for decades, and many have adopted an “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” mentality, sticking with H.264 even as their video needs evolve.
That’s beginning to change, with a popular consumer technology once again making headway in the security industry. AV1 is replacing H.264 as the industry standard, emerging as the ideal codec to meet today’s video demands. Developed in 2018 by the Alliance for Open Media (AoM), AV1 is already being deployed at a massive scale by technology giants including Google, Netflix and Amazon. When you watch a video on YouTube, you’re engaging with AV1. When you binge a show on Netflix, you’re engaging with AV1 there, too. Once again, a codec commonly used by consumers is changing the landscape of video surveillance, expanding use cases and accelerating growth.
The advent of high-resolution video has pushed H.264 to its limits, and AV1 offers notable improvements specifically designed to meet modern demands. The codec’s balance of quality and bit rate makes it ideal to handle streaming video effectively, and its high-resolution video and motion capabilities exceed even what H.265 was designed to handle. AV1 also delivers high-quality compression across on-premises and cloud environments, serving as a valuable bridge between the two and enabling modern hybrid deployments. Perhaps most importantly, AV1 is open-source and royalty-free, making it affordable to use and easy to integrate.
That said, these advancements are happening behind the scenes. When businesses deploy video devices, they’re usually thinking about security (and, in recent years, operations and business intelligence), not compression codecs. They’re thinking about image quality, frame rate, analytics capabilities and other features. But the advancements delivered by AV1 have a measurable effect on the video capabilities businesses can leverage, and technology providers are making it easier than ever to access them. With IoT edge devices (including security cameras), video management systems (VMS), network video recorders (NVR) and other solutions finally supporting AV1 at scale in 2026, these new capabilities are increasingly accessible and affordable.
When we talk about AV1’s ability to handle high-resolution video, what we’re really saying is that AV1 makes it possible for organizations to store significantly more video and support the growing need for increased video quality and resolution. AV1 offers 30% to 50% better compression efficiency for 4K and 8K video than H.264, lowering bit rates while significantly enhancing visual quality. Tools like flexible block partitioning and improved motion detection allow AV1 to reduce data usage while still maintaining a high level of detail. The ability to use less space to store a greater volume of video is particularly important at a time when data center demand causes supply shortages and increasing storage costs.
AV1 is improving how businesses leverage real-time video, too. In addition to enhancing image quality, AV1 compression also minimizes bandwidth needs, allowing security teams and real-time analytics to review higher-quality footage in real time. For hospitals, college campuses and other high-traffic environments, that can make a real difference. The same can be said for solar farms, water treatment plants and other remote locations where bandwidth challenges have traditionally limited surveillance capabilities. As a result, AV1 is dramatically enhancing the ability to monitor locations ranging from busy retail stores to distant critical infrastructure sites.
But it’s the openness of AV1 that matters most. Adoption of H.265 was hampered by the fact that it launched with restrictive and expensive licensing requirements. This made it difficult (and costly) to implement, leading many to stick with the H.264 codec that was still able to meet most of their needs. It’s a lesson that AoM took to heart when creating AV1: If a video codec is going to be widely adopted, it needs to be as open as possible. As a result, the AV1 codec is open-source and royalty-free, making it accessible to businesses of all sizes and in all industries. Additionally, at a time when most consumer industries have adopted a cloud- and app-first mentality, AV1 is built into all browsers and apps and fully ready for the cloud.
This level of openness also ensures that organizations can continue to build custom video deployments. Since AV1 is not proprietary, users won’t be locked into a single product line—they can upgrade to a more advanced codec while retaining the ability to use the platforms, devices and applications that work best for them. Given the wide range of needs today’s organizations may have (and the ever-growing number of video solutions available to them), the openness of AV1 enables the flexibility needed to remain adaptable in the modern video market. It’s another behind-the-scenes element of AV1 projected to have a major impact across the industry in 2026 and beyond.
Video compression may not get much attention—at least not from end users—but its impact is felt far and wide. And with operating systems like Windows and MacOS, streaming sites like Netflix and YouTube, and browsers like Google Chrome all embracing AV1 within the past several years, it’s clear that the dam has begun to break and wide-scale adoption is coming. That means advanced high-resolution streaming and storage capabilities may soon be at your fingertips, making it possible to leverage video in new and exciting ways without breaking the bank. It’s a quiet revolution, but it’s here—and it’s time to take advantage.
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