Intel and Netflix roll out video-compression software for open-source community

Intel Corp., the world's second-biggest semiconductor maker, has joined hands with Netflix Inc., the globe’s dominant streaming service, to release a new video-compression software into the open-source community.

Called Scalable Video Technology for AV1 or SVT-AV1, the software achieves, on Intel Xeon Scalable processors, the best possible tradeoffs between performance, latency, and visual quality, for visual cloud workloads.

The software, called video codec in tech parlance, would help achieve increased efficiency, boost user experiences and accelerate the time to market, while lowering costs for developers and service providers, a release said. 

Speaking about the launch, Lynn Comp, vice-president of the network platforms group and general manager of the visual cloud division at Intel, said the software performs better and can save half the bandwidth as compared to the H.264 AVC, which is a popular video codec in the market today.  

Comp added, “SVT-AV1 makes it possible for services ranging from video on demand to live broadcast of 4k/60p 10-bit content on Intel Xeon Scalable processors, including the recently launched second-generation Intel Xeon Scalable processor.” 

SVT-AV1’s performance advantages derive from the SVT architecture that has delivered many codecs (pieces of software for file compression) already, including SVT-HEVC and SVT-VP9. The release said that SVT-AV1 was unique in that it allowed encoders to scale performance levels up or down based on the latency requirements ranging from video-on-demand to livestreaming.

David Ronca, director of encoding technologies, Netflix, said, “The SVT-AV1 collaboration with Intel brings an alternative AV1 solution to the open-source community, enabling more rapid AV1 algorithm development and spurring innovation for next-generation video-compression technology.”