Software AV1 encoders drain smartphone batteries in 1-2 hours
The article's headline suggests that production or large-scale VC systems do not typically run software AV1 encoders on smartphones due to significant battery consumption. It specifically states that using such encoders could drain a smartphone battery in 1-2 hours of calls.
Key Takeaways
- Software AV1 encoders on smartphones can drain a full phone battery in 1-2 hours of calls.
- The note says no production VC system is running software AV1 encoders on smartphones.
- The claim specifically refers to large-scale video conferencing systems.
- The bottleneck described is battery consumption, not AV1 support itself.
Why It Matters
The immediate implication is that software AV1 encoding on smartphones is too power-hungry for production video conferencing deployments, because it can empty a full battery in 1-2 hours of calls. For the streaming and communications stack, that narrows practical use of AV1 on mobile devices to approaches that avoid software encoding on the phone. The clearest signal to watch next is whether any large-scale VC system publicly adopts a non-software AV1 path on smartphones, since this note says none are doing so today.
Read full article at news.ycombinator.com