An Industry Team Up in Video Codecs

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A number of big industry names, including Amazon, Cisco, Google, Intel, Microsoft, Mozilla and Netflix, team up in the name of next generation video technology and form the Alliance for Open Media.

Alliance for OPen MediaFormed with the aim to "create a new, open royalty-free video codec specification," the alliance should build on previous work in the field by its members, namely Mozilla's Daala, Cisco's Thor and Google's VP9/10. The eventual codec will interoperable, web-optimised and scalable to any device or bandwidth, with support for real-time video delivery.

It will also allow user for both commercial and non-commercial content-- an important factor for members Amazon and Netflix.

Another, unstated, aim is to bypass the royalty demands of industry groups such as MPEG LA, the group licensing video formats such as H.264 and H.265, and HEVC video codec owner HEVC Advance.

The alliance hopes to bring in more members from 2016 before setting to take on the codec competition.

Go Alliance for Open Media