Video Coding and Related Patent Licensing Pools: A Beginner’s Guide

 Over time, there has been a substantial advancement in video technology, which has increased demand for video material. It is frequently challenging to guarantee high-quality streaming at a fast rate due to the larger file sizes of videos. Video encoding, which compresses videos into appropriate codecs and speeds up their transmission without sacrificing quality, is a common remedy for this problem. Licensing pools are established in order to encourage innovation in this area and guarantee that everyone has fair access to such technologies.


The article that follows talks about video coding, streaming technologies, video coding standards, and the significance of video codec patent licencing pools.


Defining Video Encoding

Let's first grasp video encoding before we talk about video coding standards or streaming technology.

The process of transforming uncompressed video data into a digital format that can be used by a variety of devices is known as video encoding. A video codec, a tool or application that shrinks the size of a digital data file to one that can be stored and distributed more easily, can assist in this conversion. An encoder and a decoder are the two halves of a codec. While the decoder recreates the finished movie for viewing, the encoder assists in compressing raw video files.

Role of Video Coding Standards and Streaming Technologies in Video Transmission

A document that describes the bitstream structure and decoding strategy for compressing videos is known as a video coding standard. Understanding the video coding process requires the existence of such a standard. VP9, H.266/Versatile Video Coding (VVC), AOMedia Video 1 (AV1), H.265/High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC), and H.264/Advanced Video Coding are among the various video coding standards that are currently on the market (AVC).

In addition to video coding standards, streaming technologies are essential because they facilitate the distribution of compressed videos to end devices and viewers. Motion Picture Experts Group-Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP (MPEG-DASH) and HTTP live streaming are a couple of the more well-known standards and protocols for streaming video (HLS). In accordance with these standards, the video is divided into smaller pieces, sent to the end device, and then the data is put back together to enable playback.

Standard Setting Organizations for Video Codecs
A standard-setting organisation (SSO) by definition creates and adopts a commercial standard for a specific industry. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), two standard-setting bodies, have created a number of standards that have influenced the media sector. The Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG) series of standards, including MPEG-1, MPEG-2, and MPEG-4, were developed by the ISO. The H.26x line of coding standards, which includes H.261, H.262, H.263, H.264, H.265, and H.266 has been released by the ITU (the VVC standard).

Video Codec Patent Licensing Pools and their Importance
Innovation in a given sector is hampered when rival companies possessing patents on a certain technology refuse to share their intellectual property. A patent pool, which is an agreement between two or more patent holders who transfer their IP to a joint venture, is one solution to address this issue. The companies that make up the pool either agree to a cross-license with one another or with a third party. The utilisation of patents under FRAND (fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory) terms is made possible by such a pool for licensees.

There are three main patent pool managers for video codecs: HEVC Advance, MPEG LA, and Velos Media. For the purpose of developing, managing, and administering patent pools associated with the HEVC or H.265 standards, HEVC Advance (also known as Access Advance) was established. Recently, this patent pool administrator introduced a multi-codec bridging agreement as well as the VVC/H.266 pool (MCBA). The establishment of a VVC standard patent licencing pool has also been announced by MPEG LA. Velos Media is yet another independent business that buys licences to common patents from other businesses. While these pools give licensees access to the greatest number of patents conceivable, it is likely that some patents that are crucial to the standards are not included in any of these pools.

To get more information, read entire article about Patent Licensing Pool.

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