Seven technology giants including Amazon, Cisco, Google, Intel, Microsoft, Mozilla and Netflix have come together to create an open source video format. The new project aims to aid development of new formats, technologies and codecs. The new open source video format will facilitate viewing of UHD videos and other such media over the Web.
These seven tech giants will combine their expertise, with the aim of meeting online demand for high quality audio, video, images and streaming on various devices across the globe.
According to a blog post made by the alliance, the priorities they have set include:
- Interoperable and open
- Optimised for the Web
- Scalable to any modern device at any bandwidth
- Designed with a low computational footprint and optimised for hardware
- Capable of consistent, highest-quality, real-time video delivery
- Flexible for both commercial and non-commercial content, including user-generated content
With this project, the companies plan to build an “open, royalty-free video codec specification with binding specifications for media format, content encryption and adaptive streaming to accommodate upcoming new media types.”
Mozilla CTO David Bryant explains in a blog post, “One of the biggest challenges in developing open standards in a field like video codecs is figuring out how to review the patents. The Alliance provides a venue for us to share the legal legwork without having to worry about it being used against us down the road.”
“That distributes the load, allows us to innovate faster and cheaper, and gives everyone more confidence that we are really producing a royalty-free codec,” he added.
The Alliance for Open Media is a project of the Joint Development Foundation, an independent non-profit organization that provides the corporate and legal infrastructure to enable groups to establish and operate standards and source code development collaborations.
