Discover the power of fast and efficient codecs and get optimized solutions to boost multimedia performance across Windows, macOS, and Linux.
Media codecs significantly impact our daily lives. Whether you’re watching a streaming video, joining a video call, or listening to a podcast, codecs ensure smooth, fast, and reliable content delivery. These technologies make digital communication and entertainment more efficient and accessible. By compressing and decompressing audio and video files, media codecs enable high-quality streaming across a wide range of devices and platforms—helping to reduce file sizes, save bandwidth, and maintain playback quality in today’s digital media landscape.
Media codecs significantly impact our daily lives. Whether you’re watching a streaming video, joining a video call, or listening to a podcast, codecs ensure smooth, fast, and reliable content delivery. These technologies make digital communication and entertainment more efficient and accessible. By compressing and decompressing audio and video files, media codecs enable high-quality streaming across a wide range of devices and platforms—helping to reduce file sizes, save bandwidth, and maintain playback quality in today’s digital media landscape.
Codecs are classified based on function and purpose. Some focus on audio or video, while others function as encoders, decoders, or both. They can be lossy, compressing files by permanently removing some data to reduce file size, or lossless, preserving all original data by removing only unnecessary metadata. Additionally, codecs can be software-based or hardware-based, with hardware codecs designed for optimized performance on dedicated devices.
The table on the left lists the main libraries for HW accelerated encoding/decoding.
Codecs are classified based on function and purpose. Some focus on audio or video, while others function as encoders, decoders, or both. They can be lossy, compressing files by permanently removing some data to reduce file size, or lossless, preserving all original data by removing only unnecessary metadata. Additionally, codecs can be software-based or hardware-based, with hardware codecs designed for optimized performance on dedicated devices.
The table on the left lists the main libraries for HW accelerated encoding/decoding.
Regarding accessibility, codecs can be open-source or proprietary, with licensing requirements that impact their integration into various products and services. Because of these differences, we offer a deep understanding of codec technology to help make the right choice for any multimedia application. For more details, please read our article on the Differences Between GPL and LGPL for Licensed Software.
We also developed Fluster, an open-source tool designed to streamline codec testing. Fluster is a Python-based framework for decoder conformance testing, making verifying codec compliance and functionality easier.
Regarding accessibility, codecs can be open-source or proprietary, with licensing requirements that impact their integration into various products and services. Because of these differences, we offer a deep understanding of codec technology to help make the right choice for any multimedia application. For more details, please read our article on the Differences Between GPL and LGPL for Licensed Software.
We also developed Fluster, an open-source tool designed to streamline codec testing. Fluster is a Python-based framework for decoder conformance testing, making verifying codec compliance and functionality easier.
Low-latency streaming protocols are essential for real-time applications, where minimizing delay is critical. With expertise in protocols like WebRTC and the newer WebTransport, we enable seamless, low-latency communication for interactive and live-streaming experiences.
Additionally, we specialize in HTTP-based streaming protocols such as HLS and DASH, which are widely used for delivering adaptive, high-quality media over the Internet. This blend of real-time and HTTP streaming protocol experience allows us to create solutions optimized for various streaming needs, from live broadcasts to on-demand content delivery, ensuring a smooth and responsive viewing experience.
Low-latency streaming protocols are essential for real-time applications, where minimizing delay is critical. With expertise in protocols like WebRTC and the newer WebTransport, we enable seamless, low-latency communication for interactive and live-streaming experiences.
Additionally, we specialize in HTTP-based streaming protocols such as HLS and DASH, which are widely used for delivering adaptive, high-quality media over the Internet. This blend of real-time and HTTP streaming protocol experience allows us to create solutions optimized for various streaming needs, from live broadcasts to on-demand content delivery, ensuring a smooth and responsive viewing experience.
our case studies
Developments that bring real-world results, these case studies show how our solutions help your business achieve goals and enhance user experiences.
A major endpoint manufacturer faced a critical multimedia challenge when the browsers installed on the device were used for multimedia playback in a DaaS & VDI session, when accessing essential business tools, including SaaS platforms and collaborative applications.
Most of the browsers included on the endpoints are Chromium-based, the open-source base for popular browsers like Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge.
The main technical challenge centered on Chromium’s default multimedia limitations. Due to licensing restrictions, the pure, open-source Chromium project does not natively include proprietary codecs such as H.264 for video and AAC for audio. This exclusion prevented users from playing standard multimedia content, directly impacting the platform’s utility and user experience. Furthermore, Chromium utilizes FFmpeg as its primary multimedia framework for multimedia playback; however, this version is a Chromium-only, specific version bundled within the browser itself.
The client required a seamless, legal, and compatible solution to enable H.264 and AAC playback within their Chromium distribution and the specific FFmpeg bundled version.
Fluendo’s expertise in multimedia consulting, GStreamer, and FFmpeg integration was essential to deliver a specialized, legally-compliant, and high-performance multimedia solution for their VDI users.
The company specializes in drone-based sensing technologies for precise aerial data collection, integrating advanced video and sensor analytics for applications such as surveillance, environmental monitoring, and industrial inspection. To improve efficiency and scalability, the company partnered with Fluendo to migrate its computer vision application from an OpenCV-based prototype to a GStreamer-based multimedia solution.
The collaboration included dedicated consulting support, with in-depth pipeline analysis, performance optimization, latency reduction, and enhanced metadata management. Fluendo also provided tailored training and hands-on guidance, empowering the client’s team to confidently maintain and evolve their high-performance multimedia architecture for real-time aerial sensing applications.
The company delivers advanced technology solutions that enhance public safety and border security, protecting critical infrastructure for nations worldwide, including multiple NATO members. To support these mission-critical requirements, Fluendo developed a highly modular video streaming and recording platform based on GStreamer, designed as a proof of concept for secure, scalable multimedia systems.
The solution features configurable streaming protocols, RTSP to WebRTC conversion, advanced metadata handling, and automated video recording and post-processing tools. With JSON-based configuration, dedicated desktop and browser clients, and robust metadata injection and storage, the platform ensures ease of integration, interoperability, and long-term expandability for public-sector and defense environments.
Features such as JSON-based configuration, RTSP to WebRTC conversion, dedicated desktop and browser clients, and robust metadata injection and storage ensure ease of use, compatibility, and expandability.
The company develops autonomous marine vehicles for long-duration missions in remote and harsh environments, supporting environmental monitoring, inspection, and research applications. These platforms require reliable, real-time video communication even under limited or unstable bandwidth conditions.
To address these challenges, the company partnered with Fluendo to design a real-time video streaming solution tailored to demanding marine scenarios. Fluendo implemented a GStreamer-based multimedia pipeline leveraging hardware-accelerated video codecs and WebRTC to ensure low-latency, high-quality video capture and transmission. A user-friendly graphical interface was also developed, allowing mission operators to view live video feeds directly from the vessel, enhancing situational awareness and operational efficiency.
Fraunhofer HHI required the integration of Digitally Signed Content (DSC) support into GStreamer to ensure content integrity and traceability across multimedia workflows. At the time, GStreamer did not provide standardized mechanisms for embedding and validating digitally signed metadata within encoded video streams, which created a gap for organizations seeking trusted and verifiable media pipelines.
Fluendo’s expertise was essential because of its 20-year history as a leader in the GStreamer community and its previous success with the SPIRIT OC1 project, which served as the baseline for this engagement. As multimedia experts with deep insight into the framework, the team was uniquely positioned to implement DSC SEI messages on top of H.266/VVC bitstreams. This project aimed to deliver a modular, maintainable solution that could be contributed upstream to the open-source community.
our use cases
These use cases present conceptual examples of how our ideas and technologies could address real-world industry challenges.
As the digital broadcast landscape transitions toward the IP-based ATSC 3.0 standard (NextGen TV), the industry faces a critical infrastructure gap. Unlike legacy systems, this new framework utilizes the same Internet Protocol backbone as major OTT platforms, enabling a hybrid model of over-the-air signals and interactive internet content.
Within this ecosystem, Dolby AC-4 has emerged as the mandatory audio standard, offering advanced capabilities such as immersive Atmos metadata, dialog enhancement, and personalized audio streams.
The transition to Next Generation Audio (NGA) is moving from a premium feature to a global regulatory requirement: United States (ATSC 3.0 / NextGen TV), European Union (DVB-T2 & UHD), Brazil (TV 3.0), South Korea (UHD services).
The rapid adoption of AC-4 by major networks for live sports and high-profile events has created significant technical hurdles. Current hardware and monitoring tools risk obsolescence without a high-fidelity, legal decoding path. Furthermore, legacy decoders are unable to process the complex metadata required for modern audience measurement and immersive audio experiences. The reliance on “experimental” or uncertified decoders in commercial cloud-encoding SaaS environments introduces substantial legal and technical risks for broadcasters and hardware OEMs.
Bits & Bytes
Explore our blog, one byte at a time. Our team unpack our latest news, industry insights and in-depth articles to connect you with the multimedia world.
Discover how Fluendo integrated Dolby AC-4 decoding into GStreamer through a complete ecosystem.
Implementing cryptographic video authentication in GStreamer to combat deepfakes and ensure content integrity.
Implementing reconstructed frame extraction and VMAF quality assessment directly in GStreamer's encoding pipeline
Solving video playback artifacts and latency in mobile applications.