The Technology Behind Modern Video Platforms

Oleh Fernos · November 25, 2025

The Technology Behind Modern Video Platforms: CDN, AV1 Codec, and 8K Streaming Explained

AV1 codec and CDN diagram

Key Technologies in 2025

  • CDNs – Cloudflare, Fastly, Akamai serve videos from edge servers 20–50 ms away
  • AV1 codec – 30–50 % more efficient than H.265, royalty-free
  • Adaptive Bitrate (ABR) – DASH & HLS switch quality every 2–10 seconds
  • Per-Title Encoding – Netflix pioneered, YouTube adopted: each video gets custom bitrate ladder

8K & Future

YouTube, Vimeo, and Twitch now support 8K60 HDR. VVC (H.266) is slowly rolling out, promising another 30 % bandwidth saving by 2027.