-->
Formats/Codecs/Protocols

In the quest to deliver video at higher quality and lower latency, the streaming media industry is home to an ever-changing array of video formats, codecs, and delivery protocols. Look here for the latest news and trends in HEVC, AV1, VVC, CMAF, WebRTC, MPEG standards, royalties, just-in-time packaging, and more.

We're back August 11-13, for the next installment of Streaming Media Connect.
Save Your Free Seat Today
!
Features

Agentic AI Workflows and the Future of Streaming Ad Tech

AI makes it possible to model delivery across live, VOD, and FAST together and to update forecasts as signals come in, instead of planning channel by channel.

Multiview’s Vendor Landscape: How Streaming Architectures Determine Success

Multiview isn't a feature you bolt on. It's an architecture decision that shapes which devices you can reach, how much you pay to operate at scale, and how much control your product team has over the viewer experience. Server-side, packager-side, and client-side each represent a genuinely different set of tradeoffs across those dimensions. The right choice depends on your device footprint, customization requirements, existing infrastructure, and cost model. This article is meant to give you a solid framework for making that call.

The State of Streaming Codecs 2026

Streaming codec adoption used to be an engineering abstraction governed by RD curves, BD-rate tables, and roadmap slides that no one outside of R&D ever considered. Over the last 15 months, codec adoption decisions have morphed into a much broader discussion, involving C-level execs from finance and legal. While the precursors to this transition occurred pre-2025, the situation coalesced in 2025. During the same period, we saw one codec step to the front (AV1) and another shrink before our eyes (VVC).

Review: Meta's Video Codec Acid Test (VCAT)

Identifying which phones can handle AV1 decode is the goal of Meta's new VCAT testing tool, for Video Codec Acid Test, which is both the brainchild and the swan song of encoding legend David Ronca. In short, VCAT is an Android app for benchmarking battery drain and system health during HW/SW video decode operations on Android devices.

Spotlights

View from the Top: LTN | The time is now

LTN's Exec. Chairman & Co-Founder Malik Khan on the IP-first future for live sports and news

Low-latency streaming via CDN: How to optimize LL-HLS and LL-DASH for sub-3-second latency

Alexey Petrovskikh explores how GCore's low-latency live streaming solution leverages LL-HLS and LL-DASH to achieve a glass-to-glass delay of 2.0-3.0 seconds.

Boosting Streaming Profitability with IMAX StreamSmart

Streaming organizations must be able to accurately measure and swiftly assess the impact of workflow changes to validate their effectiveness. Therefore, they must have access to the right metrics that can reliably predict viewer perceptions of quality for achieving bitrate savings without compromising the viewing experience.

How to Elevate the Quality of Your Video Stream With AJA HELO Plus

With such a broad range of streaming content at our fingertips, delivering a standout stream requires attention to quality, latency, and so much more. AJA director of product management Paul Turner reveals the secrets to using AJA's HELO Plus H.264 streamer/recorder to deliver live streams and recordings that impress and engage.

Columns

Innovation vs. Optimization in Streaming Delivery

While innovation is good at the outset of a transformation (such as analog to digital video), it can become counterproductive to building sustainable businesses. Continuous innovation means taking away resources from making existing technologies more scalable, resilient, and reliable—three traits that are critical to the success of something like a streaming platform.

Is This the End of the CDN As We Know It?

Recent news, like the shuttering of Edgio, signals to many the imminent death of traditional content delivery networks (CDNs). But does it really?

Is 2024 the Year of WebRTC?

With large sports-streaming operators, WebRTC provides a real opportunity for ultra-low-latency streaming. But those same operators, which spend billions on licensing rights, can't afford to just swap the ability to stream content in real time for basic OTT functionality like SSAI and DRM.

The Greenest Codec: LCEVC

There's no doubt that LCEVC is a more efficient codec. But is it really going to make much of a difference in energy savings compared to other sustainability solutions?

Formats/Codecs/Protocols Companies and Suppliers