This is the time of year when predictions for the next twelve months flood our feeds—some full of fervor and flare, while most fade into forgotten flops. Where the technology vendor community is concerned, these crystal ball thought pieces are rarely bullish, instead playing the field with safe bets. After all, most suppliers don’t like to ruffle feathers. That’s usually our job. This year, one prediction from Synamedia stands out. The video infrastructure stalwart has predicted a dramatic underachievement for VVC (Versatile Video Codec – H.266), despite strong industry promotion for the next-gen video codec. Elke Hungenaert, VP of Product Management at Synamedia, evangelizes that the industry is not ready for VVC, resulting in the compression technology failing to achieve the mass adoption in 2026 that many pundits are predicting. “The challenges are that device support is limited, and deployment costs are high. Meanwhile, AI-enhanced AVC/HEVC and perpetual encoding already deliver real-world, practical…