@Scale
Meta overcame mobile thermal limits to roll out AV1 across its calling fleet by pairing an in-house low-complexity encoder with machine-learning device scoring and dynamic H.264 fallbacks.
AI-assisted summary of Adopting AV1 for Real-Time Communication (RTC) at Scale | Yu Chen Sun Eric from Meta — original source. Check the original for full context.
Source published:
Key ideas
- Meta has expanded AV1 deployment across the majority of mobile devices in its fleet by pairing an in-house, low-complexity software encoder with the dav1d decoder. (3:30)
- To solve Android hardware fragmentation and thermal throttling, Meta implemented an ML-based telemetry model that outputs continuous device 'RTC Scores' alongside dynamic runtime fallback to H.264. (7:09)
- Real-time rate control uses a Video Buffer Verifier (VBV) leaky bucket model to prevent momentary bit overshoots from causing buffer drain delays that exceed latency budgets. (13:25)
- Packet loss resilience is handled without expensive IDR keyframe storms by combining dynamically toggled two-layer temporal scalability with Long-Term Reference (LTR) recovery frames. (15:58)
Detailed notes
## Background Published on YouTube by the @Scale channel on October 30, 2026, this technical presentation features Yu Chen Sun Eric from Meta's Media Foundation team discussing video call quality across Meta's family of apps. No show notes or video description were provided by the publisher.
## TL;DR Yu Chen Sun Eric details Meta's engineering journey to scale AV1 video compression across the majority of mobile devices for real-time communication (RTC). To navigate severe compute, battery, and thermal limits, Meta engineered an in-house low-complexity software encoder, transitioned decoding to dav1d, and deployed an ML-driven device eligibility framework coupled with dynamic runtime fallbacks to H.264. The architecture also integrates Video Buffer Verifier (VBV) rate control to prevent buffer bloat alongside hierarchical temporal layers and Long-Term Reference (LTR) frames to maintain stream continuity under packet loss without expensive keyframes.
## Atmosphere & style The talk delivers a methodical, deeply technical, and pragmatic systems engineering narrative. Eric speaks with measured authority and clarity, illustrating tough production challenges—like thermal throttling and Android fragmentation—with clear, problem-solution architectural breakdowns. It feels like an authentic insider debrief from the engineering trenches, striking a balance between rigorous performance optimization and collaborative industry vision.
## Bulletin - [03:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QO1LLoMJBM8&t=210s) Meta has expanded AV1 deployment across the majority of mobile devices in its fleet by pairing an in-house, low-complexity software encoder with the dav1d decoder. - [07:09](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QO1LLoMJBM8&t=429s) To solve Android hardware fragmentation and thermal throttling, Meta implemented an ML-based telemetry model that outputs continuous device 'RTC Scores' alongside dynamic runtime fallback to H.264. - [13:25](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QO1LLoMJBM8&t=805s) Real-time rate control uses a Video Buffer Verifier (VBV) leaky bucket model to prevent momentary bit overshoots from causing buffer drain delays that exceed latency budgets. - [15:58](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QO1LLoMJBM8&t=958s) Packet loss resilience is handled without expensive IDR keyframe storms by combining dynamically toggled two-layer temporal scalability with Long-Term Reference (LTR) recovery frames.
## Key takeaways - [00:05](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QO1LLoMJBM8&t=5s) Under severe bandwidth constraints such as 100 kbps, AV1 preserves sharp visual fidelity where H.264 degrades into severe blurriness and blockiness. - [00:05](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QO1LLoMJBM8&t=5s) Real-time communication imposes strict operating boundaries compared to VOD, requiring sub-300 ms end-to-end latency and simultaneous real-time encoding and decoding on client hardware. - [03:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QO1LLoMJBM8&t=210s) Off-the-shelf open-source AV1 encoders consumed 14% more battery on mobile devices, leading Meta to develop a custom in-house encoder with an ultra-low-complexity preset matching H.264's footprint. - [03:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QO1LLoMJBM8&t=210s) Switching client-side AV1 decoding from libaom to dav1d yielded better power efficiency, higher reliability, and measurable gains in user engagement metrics. - [07:09](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QO1LLoMJBM8&t=429s) Static Android whitelisting based on RAM or OS version proved unreliable, prompting Meta to adopt an ML model that predicts device RTC capabilities using production telemetry. - [10:02](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QO1LLoMJBM8&t=602s) Even recent flagship devices can suffer severe thermal throttling mid-call, requiring adaptive encoder presets that scale complexity up or down based on real-time encoding latency. - [10:02](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QO1LLoMJBM8&t=602s) H.264 is pre-negotiated alongside AV1 during initial SDP setup, allowing seamless, mid-call codec fallback without tearing down the active media pipeline. - [10:02](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QO1LLoMJBM8&t=602s) A peer-aware RTCP feedback loop reports receiver decoding latency back to the sender, triggering sender fallback to H.264 if the remote device CPU becomes overloaded. - [13:25](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QO1LLoMJBM8&t=805s) Monitoring the Video Buffer Verifier (VBV) state is vital in RTC, as unsent buffer accumulation can easily push drain times past 200 ms and trigger acute network congestion. - [15:58](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QO1LLoMJBM8&t=958s) A two-layer temporal hierarchy isolates an autonomous base stream from an enhancement layer, allowing decoders to drop enhancement frames without stalling playback. - [15:58](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QO1LLoMJBM8&t=958s) Because hierarchical prediction inherently lowers raw coding efficiency, Meta dynamically enables temporal layering during packet loss and disables it once network conditions recover. - [18:53](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QO1LLoMJBM8&t=1133s) Long-Term Reference (LTR) frames allow encoders to emit lightweight LTR-predicted (LTP) frames after packet loss, preventing massive bitrate spikes from full IDR keyframes. - [20:08](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QO1LLoMJBM8&t=1208s) Meta is urging SoC vendors to deploy hardware-accelerated AV1 encoding and decoding across all market tiers to support high-efficiency conversational AI video agents.
## Detailed walkthrough ### [00:05](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QO1LLoMJBM8&t=5s) The Evolution and Promise of AV1 in Real-Time Communication
Yu Chen Sun Eric, an engineer on the Media Foundation team at Meta working on video call quality across the Meta family of apps, opens the presentation by reflecting on the progress made over the past three years. Three years earlier, when Meta first shared their early work on AV1 for real-time communication (RTC), the codec could only be deployed on select high-end and mid-range mobile devices due to extreme computational demands. Today, Meta has achieved a major milestone: shipping AV1 to the majority of mobile devices across their applications.
A video codec serves two fundamental purposes in real-time communication: compressing video efficiently without visual degradation, and maintaining playback robustness during adverse network conditions. To illustrate the tangible benefits of AV1 over the ubiquitous H.264 (AVC), Eric presents a side-by-side video call comparison performed on Messenger using two Android phones. Under a severely constrained bitrate capped at 100 kbps, the H.264 stream appears distinctly blurry and blocky, whereas the AV1 stream remains visually crisp and detailed.
```mermaid flowchart LR accTitle: Real-Time Communication Constraints vs Benefits accDescr: RTC performance limits compared to native AV1 compression and adaptation features.
subgraph RTC["RTC Constraints"] C1["Latency < 300 ms"] C2["No Multi-Pass / Low Buffer"] C3["Simultaneous Encode + Decode"] end
subgraph AV1["AV1 Capabilities"] A1["Advanced Compression Efficiency"] A2["Reference Picture Resampling"] A3["Native Screen Sharing Tools"] end
RTC -.->|"Requires low complexity"| AV1 ```
Eric explains that RTC introduces strict operational boundaries compared to video-on-demand (VOD): - **Latency Thresholds**: End-to-end video latency must remain strictly under 300 milliseconds; exceeding this threshold introduces noticeable delays that frustrate users. - **Encoding Limitations**: RTC systems cannot rely on multi-pass encoding or deep decoder buffers; any sudden bitrate overshoot risks immediate frame freezing. - **Device Load**: The mobile client must execute both encoding and decoding simultaneously in real time, placing heavy demands on battery life and processing budgets. - **AV1 Advantages**: AV1 provides superior compression efficiency alongside native RTC tools such as Reference Picture Resampling (which adjusts resolution dynamically without forcing an intra/keyframe) and dedicated screen sharing coding tools built directly into the Main profile.
---
[03:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QO1LLoMJBM8&t=210s) The Challenge: Hardware Capacity, Encoder Choice, and Dav1d
While AV1 delivers substantial compression improvements, the central hurdle is computational complexity. An AV1 software encoder can easily require twice the processing power of an H.264 encoder. In group calls, a mobile client may be forced to handle three concurrent encoding and decoding streams. Enabling AV1 on an incapable device results in severe frame drops, UI freezes, or complete app crashes. Android presents an especially daunting challenge due to the fragmentation of thousands of distinct device models.
Eric notes that selecting the encoder was Meta’s most critical decision. Three years prior, the team tested an open-source AV1 encoder on a Google Pixel 4a and observed a 14% increase in power consumption relative to H.264, making mobile deployment unviable. However, the team realized that higher efficiency does not mandate high complexity:
> “However, we think an AV1 encoder should not necessarily require high complexity encoding because a modern codec actually offer a larger coding tools coding a larger set of coding tool. So a well-defined encoder actually has more opportunity to find a better tradeoff between quality and complexity.” — Yu Chen Sun Eric
To solve this, Meta built an in-house AV1 encoder tailored specifically for RTC. It introduced an ultra-low-complexity preset capable of matching H.264's complexity footprint while retaining AV1's coding benefits. On the decoding side, Meta initially deployed `libaom`, but after extensive A/B testing against various open-source decoders, migrated to `dav1d`. The switch yielded superior power efficiency, higher reliability, and measurable gains in user engagement metrics.
---
[07:09](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QO1LLoMJBM8&t=429s) ML-Based Device Eligibility System
Classifying capable devices on iOS is straightforward because Apple's hardware lineup is concise and easily validated via A/B testing. Android, by contrast, comprises thousands of hardware variations. Meta initially attempted heuristic-based whitelisting using parameters such as RAM size, release year, or Android OS version, but found all of them unreliable. While they later relied on Meta’s internal synthetic benchmarking systems, static rules could not handle real-world diversity.
```mermaid flowchart TD accTitle: ML-Based Device Eligibility Architecture accDescr: Telemetry collection pipeline feeding an ML model that outputs an RTC score to determine codec settings.
subgraph Logging["Client Telemetry"] P1["Real Call Product Data"] P2["Low-Level Performance Signals"] end
subgraph Intelligence["Model Inference"] M1["ML Eligibility Model"] M2["Device RTC Score"] end
subgraph Policy["Runtime Decision"] D1["Select AV1 Preset"] D2["Enable Decode Only"] D3["Fallback to H.264"] end
Logging --> M1 M1 --> M2 M2 --> Policy ```
To resolve this at scale, Meta designed a machine-learning-based eligibility system that replaces static rules with production telemetry: - **Telemetry Collection**: The logging pipeline extracts low-level performance signals directly from real user calls across older hardware and new annual phone releases. - **RTC Score Generation**: The machine learning model processes these signals and computes a continuous "RTC Score" characterizing how well AV1 operates on any specific device model. - **Policy Enforcement**: The RTC Score dictates whether a device can encode and decode, decode only, which encoder preset to configure, or whether the device must remain on H.264. - **Continuous Retraining**: As global AV1 call volume expands, fresh telemetry feeds continuously into the model to refine score accuracy and expand coverage over time.
---
[10:02](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QO1LLoMJBM8&t=602s) Dynamic Runtime Adaptations: Presets, Fallback, and Peer Feedback
Even with ML device profiling, real-world deployment revealed that static pre-call qualification was insufficient. During live A/B tests, several high-end smartphones released as recently as 2023 suffered encoding and decoding failures. Meta discovered that under sustained RTC call loads, these devices experienced severe thermal throttling, causing CPU frequencies to plummet far below expected baselines.
To address fluctuating runtime conditions, Meta engineered three dynamic fallback mechanisms:
1. **Adaptive Encoding Presets**: The encoder exposes a spectrum of presets ranging from high to low complexity. The client continuously tracks real-time encoding latency. If latency surges, the encoder steps down to a lighter preset; once latency stabilizes, it steps back up to maximize visual fidelity. 2. **Dynamic Codec Switching (H.264 Fallback)**: If reducing the AV1 preset to its absolute lowest complexity level still fails to alleviate encoding latency, the client dynamically switches the live call to H.264. Both codecs are pre-negotiated during initial call setup (SDP exchange), enabling seamless fallback without tearing down the media pipeline. 3. **Peer-Aware Decoder Feedback & Health Signals**: Because high-end callers frequently connect with peers on low-end devices, a sender may encode AV1 successfully while the receiver's CPU lacks the horsepower to decode it in real time. Meta introduced a RTCP feedback loop where the receiver reports decoding latency back to the sender; if decoding delays breach thresholds, the sender falls back to H.264. Furthermore, internal device health signals like low battery trigger proactive fallback to H.264 to preserve device longevity.
Having established these dynamic safeguards to scale AV1 to the majority of devices, Eric transitions to discussing call quality enhancements, focusing on rate control and error resilience, and pointing out that even momentary bitrate overshoots trigger acute network congestion and severe packet loss.
[13:25](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QO1LLoMJBM8&t=805s) Rate Control and the Video Buffer Verifier (VBV) Model
In Real-Time Communication (RTC), monitoring the average bitrate alone is inadequate; instant overshoots can severely disrupt call quality. To evaluate this behavior, Meta relies on the Video Buffer Verifier (VBV) leaky bucket model. Eric illustrates this with a scenario where the network video bandwidth is set to 100 kbps, and the encoder is instructed to output at that target. If frame $n$ produces 20k bits while 15k bits from previous frames remain unsent in the buffer, transmitting frame $n$ requires pushing out 35k bits total. Under a 100 kbps connection, draining that volume requires 350 milliseconds. In real-time video, end-to-end latency must generally remain under 200 ms; a 350 ms VBV delay introduces unacceptable latency, triggers network congestion, and causes the receiving video to freeze.
```mermaid flowchart TD accTitle: Leaky Bucket VBV Delay Model accDescr: Visual representation of unsent bits accumulating in the network buffer causing high VBV latency. subgraph S1["Buffer State"] A["Existing buffer backlog: 15k bits"] B["New encoded frame n: 20k bits"] end subgraph S2["Transmission Constraint"] C["Total payload: 35k bits"] D["Network Bandwidth: 100 kbps"] end subgraph S3["RTC Impact"] E["Drain Time: 350 ms"] F["Target Latency: < 200 ms\nResult: Congestion & Video Freeze"] end A --> C B --> C C --> E D --> E E --> F ```
To counter these spikes, the engineering team introduced rate control enhancements that instruct the encoder to continually monitor the VBV buffer level during runtime. This signal directs bit allocation across encoding threads: when an overshoot is detected, the target bit budget for subsequent frames is immediately reduced, pulling the VBV delay back into safe operating bounds. Eric stresses the fundamental challenge: “This is why accurate rate control is important in RTC.”
Rate control in RTC systems faces three main operational hurdles: - **Frequent Target Bitrate Swings:** Clients constantly adjust target bitrates in response to changing network conditions during an active call, requiring the encoder to preserve stable VBV delay through abrupt transitions. - **Dynamic Resolution Adjustments:** Call participants frequently trigger resolution shifts, forcing the rate controller to adapt bit allocations without destabilizing buffer levels. - **Undershooting Vulnerabilities:** While overshooting causes latency spikes and packet loss, undershooting misleads bandwidth estimation (BWE) algorithms, dampens the bitrate ramp-up process, and unnecessarily degrades visual quality.
---
[15:58](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QO1LLoMJBM8&t=958s) Error Resilience: Mitigating Packet Loss with Temporal Layers
Standard video encoding relies on inter-frame prediction, where current frames depend on preceding frames. When network packet loss occurs, this dependency chain breaks; the decoder cannot reconstruct subsequent frames, prompting sender retransmission requests. If retransmission also fails, the decoding pipeline stalls, forcing the encoder to generate an intra keyframe (IDR). Keyframes are significantly larger in bit size and exhibit degraded visual quality relative to the bandwidth consumed. To prevent keyframe storms under packet loss, Meta implemented two error resilience techniques in AV1: temporal scalability and long-term reference (LTR) frames.
Temporal scalability replaces linear frame chains with a time-based hierarchy. In Meta's AV1 deployment, a two-layer structure is used. Layer 0 serves as an autonomous base layer providing a lower frame rate video stream that decodes independently of higher layers. Layer 1 operates as an enhancement layer, delivering supplemental frames to elevate the frame rate under favorable network conditions. If packets in the enhancement layer drop, the decoder discards them and continues rendering the base stream without freezing.
```mermaid flowchart LR accTitle: Two-Layer Temporal Hierarchy accDescr: Showing base layer 0 decoding independently while enhancement layer 1 adds frame rate. subgraph Base["Layer 0: Base Layer (Protected)"] L0_1["Frame 0"] --> L0_2["Frame 2"] L0_2 --> L0_3["Frame 4"] end subgraph Enh["Layer 1: Enhancement Layer"] L1_1["Frame 1"] L1_2["Frame 3"] end L0_1 -.-> L1_1 L0_2 -.-> L1_1 L0_2 -.-> L1_2 L0_3 -.-> L1_2 ```
Meta combined this structure with end-to-end system optimizations: - **Heavier Forward Error Correction (FEC):** Base-layer packets receive higher FEC redundancy because their survival is critical to maintaining stream continuity. - **Adaptive Retransmission Filtering:** If real-time round-trip time (RTT) is excessively high, retransmitting dropped enhancement frames arrives too late for playback; the sender proactively suppresses enhancement-layer retransmissions. - **Dynamic Temporal Layer Toggling:** Because hierarchical prediction exhibits lower coding efficiency than unconstrained prediction, temporal layering is toggled adaptively: enabled during high packet loss and turned off once network conditions recover to preserve peak video quality.
Eric underscores the importance of this multi-tiered tuning: “This kind of end to end system level optimization is critical to provide our user the best experience.”
---
[18:53](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QO1LLoMJBM8&t=1133s) Fine-Grained Recovery via Long-Term Reference (LTR) Frames
While temporal layers enforce a rigid hierarchy, Long-Term Reference (LTR) frames offer fine-grained control over frame dependencies. Under the LTR design, an encoder preserves designated frames in its reference buffer for extended periods. When packet loss occurs, the encoder avoids transmitting an expensive keyframe; instead, it generates a new frame that references the earlier, acknowledged LTR frame—a mechanism termed an LTR-predicted (LTP) frame.
```mermaid flowchart LR accTitle: Long-Term Reference (LTR) Frame Recovery accDescr: An LTR-predicted frame recovers the video stream by referencing an older verified frame instead of issuing a full keyframe. A["LTR Frame (Cached in Buffer)"] --> B["Normal Inter Frames (Dropped/Lost)"] A ==>|"Skip Corrupted Chain"| C["LTP Frame (Predicted from LTR)"] C --> D["Restored Stream Continuity"] ```
To maximize recovery speed over poor network links, Meta applied end-to-end intelligence: when the transport layer detects high packet loss, the system proactively issues LTP frames before decoding pipelines collapse entirely. This bypasses broken dependencies, minimizes recovery time, and prevents keyframe-induced bitrate spikes.
- LTR frames reside inside encoder and decoder frame buffers far longer than standard short-term references. - LTP frames prevent video freezes without the massive bit cost of full IDR keyframes. - Proactive LTP dispatch significantly elevates user experience over lossy networks.
---
[20:08](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QO1LLoMJBM8&t=1208s) Adoption Milestones, Hardware Demands, and Future Outlook
Eric reflects on the engineering trajectory that made widespread AV1 deployment possible. Three years earlier, running AV1 on low-end mobile devices was unfeasible due to computational constraints. Today, Meta ships AV1 across the majority of mobile devices in its fleet, delivering verified visual quality gains alongside measurable increases in user engagement. Eric assesses the ecosystem status: “We believe this is a good industry moment right now to adopt AV1 in RTC.”
Looking to the future, Eric issues an explicit call to the hardware industry, encouraging system-on-chip (SoC) vendors to implement AV1 hardware acceleration across all market tiers, covering both hardware decoders and hardware encoders. Beyond traditional person-to-person video calls, emerging real-time domains stand to gain substantial efficiency from AV1: - **Conversational AI Applications:** Real-time interactive AI video agents require high-efficiency, low-latency video compression to operate smoothly at scale. - **Industry Collaboration:** Eric envisions community members presenting advanced AV1 deployments for AI streaming at future events, inviting colleagues to advance next-generation real-time video architectures together.
## Notable quotes > [20:08](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QO1LLoMJBM8&t=1208s) We believe this is a good industry moment right now to adopt AV1 in RTC. — Yu Chen Sun Eric
## Mentioned Yu Chen Sun Eric, Meta, Messenger, AV1, H.264, Android, iOS, Google Pixel 4a, libaom, dav1d, Apple, Google, Video Buffer Verifier
[Source](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QO1LLoMJBM8)