Bringing the best live video experience to Cloudflare Stream with AV1

Consumer hardware is pushing the limits of consumer bandwidth as VR headsets support 5760 x 3840 resolution and nearly all new TVs and smartphones sold today support 4K. However, consumer internet bandwidth hasn't kept up with these advancements, leading to buffering issues for users streaming video content. To address this issue, Cloudflare Stream now supports the AV1 codec for live videos and their recordings in open beta. AV1 is an open and royalty-free video codec that uses 46% less bandwidth than H.264, the most commonly used video codec on the web today. The adoption of AV1 can help improve live video streaming experiences by reducing buffering and improving overall video quality.