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Av1an

Av1an is available in the NetActuate Marketplace as a one-click, open-source appliance you can deploy into any NetActuate PoP. Chunked, parallel AV1/VP9/HEVC video encoding, far faster across all your CPU cores. It is grouped under the Media & Streaming category.

What It Does​

Av1an is a chunked, parallel video encoding framework that makes modern codecs practical to run yourself. It splits your source into scene-based chunks and encodes them in parallel across every CPU core, driving the native encoders SVT-AV1, aom and rav1e together with FFmpeg. The result is dramatically faster AV1 (and VP9/HEVC) encoding than a single encoder process, with target quality and scene-detection handled for you.

Key features

  • Parallel, scene-based chunked encoding that scales across all cores
  • Bundles the native AV1 encoders SVT-AV1, aom and rav1e, plus FFmpeg
  • Target-quality and VMAF-aware encoding workflows
  • Runs the official, unmodified masterofzen/av1an container
  • Headless CLI over SSH with a bundled av1an wrapper and a sample clip
  • First-boot self-check runs a real test encode and fails closed if the CPU cannot run the native encoder

Use cases

  • Batch-encode a video library to AV1 to cut storage and delivery bandwidth
  • Fast, scalable AV1 transcoding close to your storage or origin
  • Quality-targeted encodes for VOD and archival on hardware you control

Why run it on the NetActuate edge Running Av1an in a PoP near your source media keeps large mezzanine files off the public internet, puts many cores to work in parallel, and encodes on infrastructure you control. This is a headless CLI appliance: SSH in and encode with the bundled av1an wrapper (for example av1an -i input.mp4 -o out.mkv --encoder svt-av1). A landing page on the management port documents the SSH usage and reports the encoder self-check; there is no web console and no login.

Vendor and Project​

Av1an is an open-source project, offered here under the Open Source listing with best-effort community support.

NetActuate supports the underlying infrastructure. Application-level support follows the listing SLA class (open-source, best effort).

Sizing​

vCPURAMDisk
Minimum22 GB20 GB
Recommended88 GB40 GB

No VPU (hardware acceleration) is required for this appliance. Choose a size at deploy based on your expected load.

Configuration Fields​

When you deploy, you provide these fields. They are written into the appliance at first boot.

FieldRequiredDefaultNotes
Landing page portNo8080Port the static landing/instructions page is served on, published on the instance IP (default 8080). Av1an is a headless CLI reached over SSH; this page documents usage and reports the encoder self-check.

Using the Appliance​

Encode over SSH in minutes

  1. Confirm the encoder is healthy. Browse to http://YOUR_VM_IP:8080/ . The landing page confirms the appliance is up and shows the result of the first-boot test encode (it reports av1an-encoder-ok when the native encoder ran successfully on this VM).
  2. Copy a source file to the instance with scp, then SSH in.
  3. Encode. Run av1an -i input.mp4 -o out.mkv --encoder svt-av1 --video-params "--preset 6 --crf 30" . The av1an wrapper runs the bundled container against your current directory; aom and rav1e are available too. A tiny sample clip is at /opt/av1an/sample.mkv if you want to try it immediately.

Exposure posture: the appliance is a headless CLI reached over SSH; the only HTTP surface is the read-only landing/instructions page. There is no web console.

FAQ​

Is there a software license fee? No. Av1an is open source and free to run. You pay only for the NetActuate infrastructure and bandwidth.

Which port does the appliance serve on? The primary service is published on port 8080 by default; see the configuration fields for any adjustable ports.

Who supports it? NetActuate operates the underlying infrastructure. The application itself is community-supported open source (best-effort SLA class).

Version and Changelog​

VersionStatusReleased
0.5.2Current (default)2026-07-14

Deploy​

Need Help?​

Contact support@netactuate.com or open a support ticket from the portal.