In what was only very recently a merciless battleground of controversy and royalties spats, the video codec patent scene has been suspiciously quiet of late. This year could see the return of codec disruption though, as patent pool licensor administrator HEVC Advance was awoken from its slumber by the arrival of Huawei as a member company, a week after South Korean electronics firm LG also signed up. Two nods of support in as many weeks from Asia-Pacific is an encouraging sign for HEVC patent holders as AV1 adoption fever has taken hold in recent years. Huawei has become a licensor and licensee of the HEVC (H.265) patent pool, meaning all Huawei’s essential HEVC patents will become available to member companies,…