A network from AVIXA
If artificial intelligence is becoming the intelligence layer of next-generation AV, and cloud infrastructure is its new hardware, then codecs define the physics of what is possible between them.
For decades, professional AV over networks has been constrained by a fundamental trade-off among image quality, bandwidth, and latency. The dominant codecs of the IP era — H.264 and H.265 — enabled remarkable progress, but they were designed primarily for consumer streaming and broadcast distribution, not for the emerging demands of cloud-scale, AI-processed, spatially immersive media environments.
A new codec class is now entering the AV ecosystem: AV1. Its significance extends far beyond incremental compression efficiency.
AV1 is helping to redefine how media moves through AV-over-IP systems — and in doing so, it enables the AI-native AV architecture introduced in Part 1.
Professional AV has long pursued higher resolution, higher dynamic range, and more immersive formats:
Yet enterprise and campus networks remain finite resources shared with IT traffic. Even visually lossless codecs used in AV-over-IP systems typically require high bitrates and dedicated network design. As AV environments expand toward:
media transport becomes the primary scaling constraint. Codec efficiency is therefore not merely a technical detail.
It is an architectural limiter.
AV1 was developed by the Alliance for Open Media as a next-generation, royalty-free codec optimized for modern media distribution. Compared with H.264 and H.265, AV1 typically achieves:
For professional AV, these characteristics translate directly into system-level advantages:
AV1 effectively lowers the bandwidth cost of visual quality.
In the AI-native AV architecture, media frequently traverses between local capture environments and cloud processing layers:
capture → encode → network → cloud → AI → distribution
In this model, codecs determine feasibility. If bandwidth requirements remain high, cloud processing becomes impractical at scale. If compression artifacts degrade visual detail, AI analysis and immersive rendering suffer. AV1 addresses both constraints simultaneously. Its efficiency enables:
AV1 thus becomes a foundational enabler of cloud-integrated AV.
Historically, highly compressed codecs have been associated with latency penalties that limit their suitability for live AV applications. However, advances in hardware acceleration and encoder design are changing this assumption. Modern AV1 implementations now support:
As GPUs, SoCs, and media processors integrate AV1 acceleration, the codec is becoming viable for:
Latency — once the barrier to efficient codecs in pro AV — is steadily diminishing.
Resolution growth has outpaced network growth in many AV environments. Deployments involving multiple 4K or 8K streams often require:
AV1 changes this calculus. Because bitrate scales more efficiently with resolution, AV1 enables:
For large venues, enterprises, and higher-education environments, this shifts AV-over-IP from localized systems toward pervasive media infrastructure.
Immersive media — including XR, volumetric video, and spatial computing — places extreme demands on media transport:
Cloud-rendered XR architectures rely on streaming rendered frames to headsets or displays. Without efficient codecs, the required bandwidth becomes prohibitive. AV1’s characteristics make it particularly suited to spatial streaming:
As XR moves toward cloud rendering and remote collaboration, AV1 becomes a critical transport layer.
Another emerging dimension is the interaction between codecs and AI processing. AV1 was designed with modern perceptual and analytical workflows in mind, enabling:
These characteristics support AI-augmented media pipelines in which:
In AI-native AV, compression and intelligence become cooperative processes rather than competing ones.
A codec becomes viable in professional AV only when hardware support reaches critical mass. That threshold is rapidly approaching for AV1. Support is expanding across:
As AV manufacturers integrate AV1 into encoders, decoders, and endpoints, it is likely to follow the adoption trajectory previously seen with H.264 in AV-over-IP. Once hardware acceleration becomes ubiquitous, AV1 transitions from emerging to baseline.
The long-term significance of AV1 in AV environments lies not merely in efficiency but in scalability. When high-quality media can be delivered economically across shared networks, AV distribution can expand beyond rooms and venues to pervasive media fabrics spanning buildings, campuses, and organizations. Such fabrics enable:
As AV1 enters professional workflows, several design considerations emerge:
Codec choice, historically an implementation detail, becomes a strategic design parameter.
Part 1 of this series introduced the emerging AV architecture:
Capture → AV1 → Network → Cloud → AI → MCP → Experience
Within this stack, AV1 plays a specific role: it is the efficiency layer that makes large-scale, cloud-connected, AI-processed media transport feasible. Without efficient codecs, intelligent media environments remain localized. With them, media becomes fluid, scalable, and pervasive.
As AV1 adoption accelerates, it sets the stage for the next transformation explored in this series: the evolution of control systems into orchestration layers capable of managing intelligent media environments.
Part 3 will examine how media control protocols and AV control architectures are evolving from deterministic command systems into real-time orchestration frameworks — enabling spaces that adapt dynamically to activity, users, and media context.
The transport layer of AI-native AV is rapidly changing. Understanding AV1 is essential to designing the distributed, intelligent media systems that follow.
For more information, connect with me at craigpark.com.
As an architect by training (BS Architecture, Cal Poly SLO) and a collaborative technologist with four decades of practice, I’m passionate about mentoring the next generation of AV professionals at the intersection of technology, strategy, and leadership. I have been active in AVIXA since 1986 and served on the national board from 1993–2000. I am a Fellow of the Society for Marketing Professional Services (SMPS) and an Associate member of the American Institute of Architects.
I serve as Director of Digital Experience Design at Clark & Enersen, a 200-person interdisciplinary architecture and engineering firm, where I lead the planning and design of integrated audiovisual and digital experience environments for higher education, healthcare, and research clients.
In parallel, through my personal advisory practice at CraigPark.Company, I counsel AEC and technology organizations on business strategy, collaborative design and delivery, and growth leadership.
My expertise spans systems design, integrated building technology planning, and strategic business development. I bring an award-winning, B2B design-thinking approach developed through leadership roles with national AEC and technology firms.
Across both institutional and consulting roles, I have led marketing and growth strategy, designed future-ready learning and simulation environments, and helped organizations implement AI-powered tools that scale expertise and performance.
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