https://DevOpsCloud.io -- Cloud Monk Losang Jinpa, Ph.D., MCSE/MCT, GitOps DevOps Engineer

• Definition: The Alliance for Open Media (AOM) is a consortium of leading internet and media technology companies working together to define and develop open standards for media compression and delivery. The most notable project under AOM is the development of the AV1 video codec.
• Function: AOM works to create open, royalty-free technology for media streaming and compression, with the AV1 codec being its flagship product aimed at providing a high-efficiency video coding standard.
• Components:

   * '''AV1 Codec''': A high-performance video codec designed for efficient video compression and high-quality streaming.
   * '''libaom''': The reference implementation of the AV1 codec, providing tools for encoding and decoding AV1 video.
   * '''Working Groups''': Various groups within AOM focused on different aspects of media technology, including codec development, testing, and deployment.

• Features:

   * '''High Compression Efficiency''': AV1 offers superior compression efficiency compared to older codecs like H.264 and VP9, reducing bandwidth usage for video streaming.
   * '''Royalty-Free Licensing''': Designed to be free from licensing fees, making it accessible for widespread adoption.
   * '''Wide Support''': Supported by major companies and integrated into popular web browsers, media players, and streaming platforms.
   * '''Open Source Implementation''': libaom is available as an open-source project, encouraging community contributions and transparency.

• Usage: Utilized in video streaming services, web browsers, video conferencing applications, and other platforms that benefit from efficient video compression.

• Encoding a video using libaom in C:

   ```c
   #include 
   #include 
   #include 

 int main() {
     aom_codec_ctx_t codec;
     aom_codec_enc_cfg_t cfg;
     FILE *infile = fopen("input.y4m", "rb");
     FILE *outfile = fopen("output.ivf", "wb");

     aom_codec_enc_config_default(aom_codec_av1_cx(), &cfg, 0);
     cfg.g_w = 1280; // Set width
     cfg.g_h = 720;  // Set height
     cfg.g_timebase.num = 1;
     cfg.g_timebase.den = 30;

     if (aom_codec_enc_init(&codec, aom_codec_av1_cx(), &cfg, 0)) {
         fprintf(stderr, "Failed to initialize encoder\n");
         return 1;
     }

     // Encoding process (simplified)
     // Read frames from infile, encode them, and write to outfile

     aom_codec_destroy(&codec);
     fclose(infile);
     fclose(outfile);
     return 0;
 }
 ```

• Decoding an AV1 video using libaom in C:

   ```c
   #include 
   #include 
   #include 

 int main() {
     aom_codec_ctx_t codec;
     FILE *infile = fopen("input.ivf", "rb");

     if (aom_codec_dec_init(&codec, aom_codec_av1_dx(), NULL, 0)) {
         fprintf(stderr, "Failed to initialize decoder\n");
         return 1;
     }

     // Decoding process (simplified)
     // Read compressed data from infile, decode it, and process the frames

     aom_codec_destroy(&codec);
     fclose(infile);
     return 0;
 }
 ```

• Using libaom in a Python script (with a hypothetical Python binding):

   ```python
   import libaom

 # Initialize encoder
 encoder = libaom.Encoder(width=1280, height=720, timebase=(1, 30))

 # Encode frames
 with open("input.y4m", "rb") as infile, open("output.ivf", "wb") as outfile:
     for frame in infile:
         packet = encoder.encode(frame)
         outfile.write(packet)

 # Initialize decoder
 decoder = libaom.Decoder()

 # Decode frames
 with open("input.ivf", "rb") as infile:
     for packet in infile:
         frame = decoder.decode(packet)
         # Process the frame
 ```

• AOM (Alliance for Open Media): An organization dedicated to developing open standards for media compression and delivery, with the AV1 codec being a prominent project. AV1 provides high compression efficiency and royalty-free licensing, making it a valuable tool for video streaming and other applications. The libaom library offers open-source tools for encoding and decoding AV1 video, supporting various platforms and applications.