Immersive Machines was founded in 2023 to address the need for intelligent batch processing and file management within audio software workflows.

Over the past year, the team at Immersive Machines has seen growing interest in immersive audio experiences extending to major distribution platforms, and they identified AOMedia membership as an opportunity to support emerging open standards such as the Immersive Audio Model & Format (IAMF). With expanding support for IAMF, the company’s software, Immersive Master Pro, aims to simplify workflows for artists and producers delivering immersive audio content.

“The response from the creative community to immersive audio has been more enthusiastic and more enduring than anyone imagined a decade ago,” said Nathaniel Reichman, Co-Founder and CEO of Immersive Machines. “Our role as technologists is to give artists, engineers and producers the tools to deliver immersive music and soundtracks to more platforms and audiences. AOMedia provides the framework for advancing open, forward-looking formats like IAMF and AV2, and we’re excited to bring IAMF workflows to the professionals using Immersive Master Pro in their daily work.”

AOMedia’s codec-agnostic IAMF enables immersive audio experiences across a range of applications, including streaming, gaming, augmented and virtual reality, and traditional broadcasting.

“AOMedia is pleased to welcome Immersive Machines as a new member, and we look forward to their contributions,” said Dr. Pierre-Anthony Lemieux, Executive Director, AOMedia. “As immersive audio technologies continue to evolve, members like Immersive Machines help us advance our work on open audio standards and enhance experiences for both content creators and consumers across the ecosystem.”

About Immersive Machines

Immersive Machines develops professional software tools for immersive audio mastering and delivery. Founded in 2023, the company’s flagship application, Immersive Master Pro, helps audio professionals manage and deliver immersive audio formats efficiently and at high quality.

Used by artists, engineers, producers and post-production teams, Immersive Master Pro supports emerging immersive media workflows through reference audio playback, format conversion, intelligent batch processing and file management. For more information, go to: https://immersive-machines.com/

About the Alliance for Open Media

Launched in 2015, the Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia) was formed to define and develop technologies to address marketplace demand for open standards for media compression and delivery. Founding Members include Amazon, Apple, Cisco, Google, Huawei, Intel, Meta, Microsoft, Mozilla, Netflix, NVIDIA, Samsung Electronics and Tencent. AOMedia’s open-source, royalty-free video codec AV1 is a significant milestone in the ability to deliver a next-generation video format that is interoperable, open, optimized for internet delivery and scalable to any modern device at any bandwidth. Visit www.aomedia.org or follow AOMedia on LinkedIn.

Press contact:
AOMedia
Lillian Guinther
Aomediamarcom@virtualinc.com

Immersive Machines
Al Houghton
info@immersive-machines.com

Now that the AV2 specification is publicly available after five years of hard work, AOMedia members are already demonstrating it in real-world playback environments. At CES 2026, AOMedia members Google, and VideoLAN participated in AV2 decoding demonstrations, with support from THX. They showed real-time AV2 playback on laptops using current reference implementations, spanning both native applications and browser-based streaming pipelines.

Together, these efforts showed that AV2 decoding can operate end-to-end in realistic playback scenarios and on widely available laptop-class systems.

Native application decoding with VLC

VideoLAN demonstrated real-time AV2 decoding using VLC 4 running on a macOS laptop. The playback occurred in a native desktop media player rather than in a web browser. The same approach also ran on other platforms, reflecting VLC’s cross-platform design.

The demonstration used a VLC plugin integrating the AVM reference decoder. The plugin was built against the latest AV2 development branch and executed on an ARM-based macOS system.

This work represents the first known demonstration of AV2 decoding in a native desktop media player on laptops. It showed that AV2 decoding can be integrated into an existing media player architecture and run in real time on standard consumer hardware.

Web-based decoding and streaming pipeline

A second demonstration showed AV2 decoding in a browser-based streaming environment. Google demonstrated AV2 playback using Chrome to play AV2 videos streamed from YouTube to a gaming laptop, with real time playback at 1080p and 24 frames per second.

For this demonstration, a set of videos was encoded using a pre-release AV2 bitstream generated with the libavm reference encoder. The content was delivered via an existing streaming platform and played back using a custom browser build that incorporated the libavm reference decoder.

This demonstration exercised a complete encode-to-decode pipeline and showed that AV2 can function within a browser-based playback environment on consumer laptop hardware.

Technical observations

Across both demonstrations, several technical observations emerged:

• AV2 decoding is already functional in real playback environments using reference implementations.
• Real-time decoding was achieved at common resolutions on laptop-class hardware.
• AV2 can be integrated through multiple implementation paths, including native applications and web-based streaming stacks.

The demonstrations focused on feasibility and integration rather than on optimized performance or benchmarking.

Context and next steps

Both demonstrations relied on reference decoders and pre-release AV2 code. The results should not be interpreted as final performance characteristics, but as an indication of current implementation progress.

As AV2 development continues, further work will focus on optimization, additional platform support, and production-grade implementations. AOMedia and its members will continue to share technical updates as AV2 advances toward broader adoption.

Follow AOMedia on LinkedIn to stay up to date on AV2 development, implementation updates, and future technical demonstrations.

SVT-AV1 4.0, released earlier this year, represents a major software update that features a whole host of API improvements, including:

• Extended CRF range to 70, which reduces the impact or QP scaling, allowing the encoder to reach lower bitrates
• Added quarter steps between CRF increments to allow for further granularity in QP selection
• Added support for setting a custom global logger for library consumers
• Cleaned up public API headers including removal of deprecated macros, structs, and fields
• Added ability to calculate per-frame PSNR and SSIM metrics
• Added tune Image Quality (IQ) and MS-SSIM for Still Image coding mode
• This release boasts notable improvements of compute vs. compression efficiency across all modes, but in particular the AVIF encoding mode. It’s also worth noting that this latest version of the spec adds AC Bias, a psychovisual feature that improves detail preservation and film grain retention.

SVT-AV1 4.0 can be accessed on GitLab, and the SIWG requests that users try it out and report back on their experiences to allow for continuous improvements in SVT-AV1.

A Closer Look at SVT-AV1

The SIWG has been the steward of the SVT-AV1 since 2020, continually evolving and advancing it.

As SVT-AV1 continues to improve, adoption continues to increase. Meta has noted that all its AV1 streams (which cover more than 75% of the watch time of videos on Facebook and Instagram) are produced using SVT-AV1. SVT-AV1 also allowed Meta to stream high-quality short-form videos (Reels) for the first time.

In September 2025, SVT-AV1 won an IBC 2025 Innovation Award in the “Content Everywhere” category. Check out our recent SVT-AV1 highlight video, and take a moment to test version 4.0 on GitLab.

Many thanks to the members of the SIWG for their work advancing this spec.

Green field sound was founded to help emerging media organizations improve their digital audio supply chains, maintain quality, and create more engaging listening experiences. The group has extensive experience working with production, post-production, engineering and product teams to develop audio strategies that increase efficiency, generate revenue and help grow organizations.

"We're thrilled to join AOMedia and look forward to contributing to the IAMF specification and the underlying open audio codec specifications in development,” said Scott Kramer, Founder and CEO, green field sound. “Green field sound is dedicated to ensuring that professionals in the content creation industry have the tools required to meet exacting standards and deliver the highest quality experience for the audience. Given the synergies in our missions, AOMedia membership was a natural next step for us, and we look forward to contributing to technology that improves the industry.”

IAMF is an audio container specification designed to revolutionize immersive audio experiences across a wide range of applications, including streaming, gaming, augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR) and traditional broadcasting. IAMF enables creators and platforms to deliver high-quality, immersive audio with efficient encoding and flexible rendering, adaptable to various playback environments such as headphones, multi-speaker setups, and VR systems.

“Over the last decade, AOMedia’s membership has collaborated to advance video, imagery, and audio technologies for online media,” said Pierre-Anthony Lemieux, Executive Director, AOMedia. “It is our diverse and highly skilled members that drive these advances, and our ability to bring together representatives from large enterprises to small startups – and everything in between – has contributed to our success. We are pleased to welcome green field sound and their specialized audio expertise, and we look forward to working together to improve IAMF and deliver enhanced audio experiences for countless end users.”

About green field sound

Green field sound is an audio strategy and technology consultancy dedicated to elevating sound across the media landscape. With deep expertise in production, post-production, streaming distribution, and playback technologies, green field sound partners with studios, streaming platforms, content creators, and audio manufacturers to design, implement, and optimize workflows that improve efficiency and deliver quality listener experiences. Built on years of professional experience spanning creative sound production and engineering leadership, green field sound helps organizations unlock new opportunities in audio, from creation through consumption.

About the Alliance for Open Media

Launched in 2015, the Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia) was formed to define and develop technologies to address marketplace demand for open standards for media compression and delivery. Board-level, Founding Members include Amazon, Apple, Cisco, Google, Huawei, Intel, Meta, Microsoft, Mozilla, Netflix, NVIDIA, Samsung Electronics and Tencent. AOMedia’s open-source, royalty-free video codec AV1 is a significant milestone in the ability to deliver a next-generation video format that is interoperable, open, optimized for internet delivery and scalable to any modern device at any bandwidth. Visit www.aomedia.org or follow AOMedia on LinkedIn.

Press contact:
AOMedia
Lillian Guinther
Aomediamarcom@virtualinc.com
781.876.6242

Green Field Sound
Scott Kramer
scott@greenfieldsound.com

Founded on the belief that world-class video technology should be accessible to companies of every size, Qencode provides transcoding, live streaming, video and image storage and management, and beyond. By joining AOMedia, Qencode deepens its commitment to an open, interoperable ecosystem where barriers to building exceptional video experiences continue to fall, and where companies of any size can innovate and thrive.

“We are excited to join AOMedia and contribute a production-driven perspective, particularly around practical AV1 adoption, real-world interoperability, and guidance that helps make deployment simpler for developers,” said Murad Mordukhay, Founder and CEO, Qencode. “We look forward to collaborating with AOMedia’s diverse membership to help further advance video codec technology. Our vision is a world where it’s simple for anyone to turn their idea into the next great video platform, and we believe open standards are one of the most powerful ways to make that a reality.”

AV1 is an open video codec designed to provide high-quality video compression with greater efficiency than previous codecs. It enables high-quality video while reducing streaming and storage costs, offering significant reductions in file sizes without compromising quality. The codec is optimized for high-resolution content such as 4K and 8K video and supports modern technologies like adaptive streaming and HDR content. AV2, the next-generation video coding spec built on the foundation of AV1, is now available in draft release, with full release expected later this year.

“AOMedia is pleased to welcome Qencode as a new member, and we look forward to seeing the group contribute deep video streaming and storage expertise to the Video Codec Working Group,” said Dr. Pierre-Anthony Lemieux, Executive Director, AOMedia. “With AV1 reaching critical mass and AV2 nearing completion, we are at an exciting moment for video codec evolution. Members like Qencode help us bring next-generation media experiences to more people, faster.”

About Qencode

Founded in 2017, Qencode delivers intelligent video infrastructure for modern platforms. We provide smart, API-first video workflows for high-efficiency transcoding and AI-powered optimization, enabling development teams to build and scale high-quality video without operational complexity. Qencode supports next-generation formats including AV1 and is optimized for internet delivery across devices, bandwidth conditions, and global audiences. Our mission is to make world-class video technology accessible to every team building the future of video. Our vision is a world where it’s simple for anyone to turn their idea into the next great video platform. Visit www.qencode.com or follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter at @Qencode.

About the Alliance for Open Media

Launched in 2015, the Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia) was formed to define and develop technologies to address marketplace demand for open standards for media compression and delivery. Founding Members include Amazon, Apple, Cisco, Google, Huawei, Intel, Meta, Microsoft, Mozilla, Netflix, NVIDIA, Samsung Electronics and Tencent. AOMedia’s open-source, royalty-free video codec AV1 is a significant milestone in the ability to deliver a next-generation video format that is interoperable, open, optimized for internet delivery and scalable to any modern device at any bandwidth. Visit www.aomedia.org or follow AOMedia on LinkedIn.

Press contact: AOMedia
Lillian Guinther
Aomediamarcom@virtualinc.com

Qencode
Stephanie Bailey
press@qencode.com

The University of York will support the AOMedia Audio Codec Working Group in developing open audio codecs that deliver high-quality sound for modern multimedia applications, including AOMedia’s Immersive Audio Model and Formats (IAMF) container specification. This work will be strengthened through the University’s CoSTAR Live Lab, a UK national R&D facility advancing immersive and interactive technologies for live performance and next-generation media experiences.

“This partnership underscores the University of York's dedication to making an impact with cutting-edge research collaboration, and we’re proud to contribute our expertise to the development of open media standards and help foster a more inclusive digital media landscape,” said Gavin Kearney, Professor of Audio Engineering, University of York and Director of CoSTAR Live Lab.

AOMedia’s codec-agnostic IAMF is designed to enable creatives to revolutionize immersive audio experiences across a myriad of applications, from streaming and gaming to augmented reality and virtual reality, as well as traditional broadcasting.

“The University of York’s exceptional research and commitment to technological innovation will significantly strengthen our work to develop open media standards,” said Dr. Pierre-Anthony Lemieux, Executive Director of AOMedia. “Academic members like the University of York bring valuable perspectives that underscore the importance of the diverse membership AOMedia is proud to foster. We are pleased to welcome the university and look forward to its contributions.”

About The University of York

A member of the prestigious Russell Group, we are a dynamic, research-intensive university. We work collaboratively in partnership with institutions across the world to develop life-saving discoveries and new technologies that tackle some of the most pressing global challenges. Our 30+ academic departments undertake groundbreaking research that underpins our inspiring teaching and challenges students to dream big, think critically and change the world. For further information, visit https://www.york.ac.uk/.

About the Alliance for Open Media

Launched in 2015, the Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia) develops open standards for media — spanning video, audio, still images, and immersive technologies. AOMedia brings together 49 global innovators — including tech leaders with decades of media tech experience and some of the world’s largest patent holders — to support this mission. Its steering committee consists of Amazon, Apple, Cisco, Google, Intel, Meta, Microsoft, Mozilla, Netflix, NVIDIA, Samsung Electronics, and Tencent. Learn more at https://aomedia.org/.

Press contacts:
Lillian Guinther
AOMedia PR
lguinther@virtualinc.com

Samantha Martin
University of York PR
s.martin@york.ac.uk

By Dr. Pierre-Anthony Lemieux, Executive Director, AOMedia

2025 proved to be another exciting year for the Alliance for Open Media, with more coming in 2026.

After 5 Years, AV2 is Here

After 5 years of work, hundreds of meetings and 2700+ commits against the reference software, a draft of the AV2 specification is now available for open public review at:

http://av2.aomedia.org

More than just a specification, it comes with an open reference software implementation.

AV1: From Emerging to Ubiquitous

AV1 achieved deployment on a global scale: Netflix reports that AV1 now constitutes 30% of its global streaming traffic and Meta reports that more than 70% of its users now consume AV1 video across their platforms.

New Doors Open with Polygonal Mesh Coding (PMC)

AOMedia is looking beyond 2D video with the upcoming Polygonal Mesh Coding (PMC) standard that standardizes how 3D volumetric content is compressed and delivered. PMC will be a critical enabler for the metaverse, gaming, and AR/VR applications, bringing the same open-standard efficiency to 3D geometry that AV1 brought to video.

AVIF 1.2: The Modern Standard for Images on the Web

On the still image front, the release of AVIF 1.2 has further solidified the format's position as the modern successor to legacy web image formats. With superior compression and advanced features, AVIF is now the default choice for a faster, visually richer web.

Open Software: Relentless Improvement

The open software tools powering AOMedia standards continued to mature and improve in 2025, with new releases of dav1d, SVT-AV1, libspatialaudio, libavif, libaom and many others. These tools make AOMedia standards easier to adopt and improve interoperability across the ecosystem.

Award-Winning Impact

The impact of AOMedia’s technical work has not gone unnoticed. In 2025, AOMedia was honored with a Technology & Engineering Emmy® Award for the development of the AV1 specification and an IBC Innovation Award in the "Content Everywhere" category for making video streaming viable on low-end mobile devices via the introduction of decoding-aware modes in the SVT-AV1 encoder.

Powered by Collaboration

AOMedia is an open organization that brings together a diversity of stakeholders to collaborate on technology that advances online media. From industry leaders to disruptive startups to higher education representatives, and beyond, AOMedia members are dedicated to delivering the standards needed to provide a better experience, for both content providers and consumers. We welcome new members of all types and were happy to add a strong new contingent in 2025:

• ANT Group
• Spatial9
• MediaKind
• Pozalabs
• Disney
• Two Orioles
• University of York
• Airoha
• Qencode
• Greenfield Sound

Check-out our full list of members and join the effort!

Thank you to all who helped make 2025 a successful year!

With 2026 just around the corner, we at AOMedia wanted to take a moment to recap some of the exciting milestones, announcements and awards that the organization has enjoyed over the past few months. It’s been a busy but exciting period, and it is our dedicated members who have made all these achievements possible. Thank you to all who have contributed to AOMedia’s success. Read on for some recent highlights.

Celebrating 10 Years

AOMedia celebrated its 10-year anniversary with a networking reception at IBC in Amsterdam last September. The event brought together members and partners from around the world to toast to 10 years of innovation and a bright future ahead.

Awards

IBC Innovation Awards

Two days later, AOMedia's SVT-AV1 was honored with a 2025 IBC Innovation Award in the "Content Everywhere" category. Congratulations to the Software Implementation Working Group, and thank you for your input on this project. Learn more about the recognition and watch our SVT-AV1 video on YouTube.

Emmy Recognition

Later that month, AOMedia also received a prestigious Technology and Engineering Emmy® Award for its AV1 Video Codec. Congratulations to the Codec Working Group on this achievement. Learn more about the honor here.

AV2 Announcement + Webinar

On September 15, AOMedia announced the upcoming launch of the next-generation video codec, AV2. Read the full announcement here.

Building on the announcement, the team held a live session, The Future of Innovation is Open, during which leaders from Google, Meta, Netflix and AOMedia explored the power of openness in today’s media landscape. The webinar included four sections: an AOMedia Introduction, an AV2 Overview, AV1 State of the Union, and an Open Media Standards Panel. The full session is now available on demand.

Blogs

Catch up on all of AOMedia's latest blog posts:

SVT-AV1: Proven Performance, Promising Horizons
AV1 in Motion: Scaling Adoption and Shaping What's Next
IAMF: Immersive Audio for a New Decade
Shaping the Future of Immersive Media: AOMedia's Volumetric Visual Media WG
AOMedia's SVT-AV1 Wins 2025 IBC Innovation Award
AVIF at Five: Powering a Faster, Sharper Web Experience
AOMedia Highlights from QoMEX 2025
On-Demand Webinar: The Future of Innovation is Open

New Members

Since our last update, AOMedia welcomed Pozalabs, Two Orioles and Airoha as promoter members. Learn more about these new members in their announcement releases, and check out the full member list below.

Pozalabs Joins the Alliance for Open Media
Two Orioles Joins the Alliance for Open Media
AOMedia Member list

If you’re interested in AOMedia membership, please email membership@aomedia.org for details.

AOMedia and AV1 in the News

• YahooTech: Netflix Could Get a Massive Streaming Boost Soon Thanks to Big Tech Breakthrough
• TechRadar: A Big, New Streaming Video Upgrade
• Android Authority: Your YouTube and Netflix Streams May Look Better and Buffer Less Later this Year
• EMMY Awards: Honorees Announced for 76th Annual Technology and Engineering Emmy® Awards
• TVB Europe: Alliance for Open Media Set to Release AV2 by end of 2025
• How to Geek: AV2 Will Upgrade Your Media Streaming Later in 2025

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AVIF v1.2.0 includes support for sample transforms

By Yannis Guyon, Leo Barnes, and Wan-Teh Chang

The files encoded with a bit depth extension relying on Sample Transforms are backward-compatible in the sense that they can be decoded for up to 12-bit precision by legacy implementations. They can also deliver the full 16-bit precision (or more!) with newer software.

AOMedia's Storage and Transport Format Working Group has released AVIF v1.2.0, a new revision of the AV1 Image File Format specification. The work is part of AOMedia’s broader effort to advance high-quality still image storage and ensure consistent mapping between codecs and container formats. The latest specification refines the format and introduces functional enhancements, most notably, support for sample transforms.

Key Features and Innovations

The addition of sample transforms makes it possible to use higher bit depths, even when the underlying codec does not natively support 16-bit or greater precision. This enhancement empowers creators to achieve superior image quality and greater flexibility in high-fidelity imaging workflows.

To try sample transforms, clone and build libavif, then use a command such as:

build/avifenc input_16bit.png --depth 12,8 output.avif

This produces an AVIF file that preserves the top 12 bits for compatibility, with the full 16-bit image retrievable during decoding

As an example, encoding the image [1] with avifenc --depth 12,8 --lossless --speed 0 leads to 10% file size savings over the source 16-bit PNG, with absolutely no quality loss. The encoded AVIF is also backward compatible for 12 bits out of 16 with legacy AVIF decoders. (Results may vary depending on settings.)

[1]

The release also strengthens conformance, clarifies the mapping between AV1 bitstream metadata and file-level signaling, and updates references and requirements to align with the latest HEIF, ISOBMFF, and MIAF specifications. Editorial Improvements include a new list of required boxes for AVIF files to help developers generate standard-compliant files.

Additionally, the new specification includes guidance on gain maps—tone map derived image items, which are a method for encoding AVIF HDR images that are backward compatible with SDR displays.

Ready to get started?

Review the AVIF v1.2.0 specification and try out sample transforms using the latest libavif implementation on GitHub. We welcome feedback and contributions—share your experience or questions in the libavif GitHub repository and help shape the future of open image formats with AOMedia.

The Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia) steering group announced the winners of the inaugural AOMedia Technical Excellence award. The award recognizes and celebrates significant contributions to advancing open media standards for multimedia.

This year’s award winners were honored for "Exceptional contributions to the development and productization of SVT-AV1, " an open-source, CPU-based AV1 encoder.

The 2025 AOMedia Technical Excellence award recipients include:

• Christopher Degawa
• Faouzi Kossentini
• Foued Ben Amara
• Hassen Guermazi
• Phoenix Worth
• Salome Thirot

The steering group recognized award winners at a ceremony and celebration during the AOMedia Research Symposium on November 13, 2025, in Los Gatos, California.

AOMedia is grateful for the awardees’ contributions to the SVT-AV1 projects, as well as the greater AOMedia mission to define and develop open media technologies and standards. We look forward to continuing to work together on standards and software for multimedia spanning video, audio, still images, file formats and immersive experiences.

AOMedia is committed to open innovation. Want to get involved? Join us to help advance open technologies for media and entertainment.