Axis Launches M3098-V AI Dome Camera With Native AV1 Support

The AXIS M3098-V sets a new efficiency benchmark for B2B surveillance by standardizing the AV1 codec, which bypasses the restrictive licensing costs associated with H.265 while maintaining superior compression. For the streaming ecosystem, this signals a shift toward edge-heavy processing where metadata and video are synchronized locally, reducing the TCO for multi-site deployments. As AI-native hardware becomes the industry default, expect competitors to accelerate their transition away from legacy H.264 pipelines to meet the data demands of 4K-at-scale operations. Watch for the September 2026 launch of AXIS OS 13, which is expected to move edge devices toward mandatory HTTPS-only network connections.

The launch of the AXIS M3098-V follows a broader strategic move by Axis Communications to dominate the enterprise AI-native segment. In early 2026, the company showcased a new generation of hardware at Intersec Dubai, highlighting the ARTPEC-9 system-on-chip (SoC) as the foundation for its 'Security by Design' initiative. This SoC is critical for enabling the AV1 support seen in the M3098-V, a feature Axis claims is an industry first for network cameras to solve the bandwidth-to-quality trade-off at 4K resolutions. Per Axis reports from April 2026, the industry is increasingly demanding high-resolution forensic detail without the 'alert floods' typical of older motion-detection systems.

Competitive pressure is mounting from unified cloud-first platforms like Verkada and enterprise rivals such as Hanwha Vision. According to a Fora Soft 2026 industry guide, the commercial surveillance market has bifurcated into professional AI-native tiers and mass-market consumer lines. Axis has responded by integrating functionalities like togglable overlays—a feature introduced in early 2026 that uses AV1 metadata to switch between clean forensic views and analytic bounding boxes in a single stream. This eliminates the need for bandwidth-heavy dual-streaming while preserving the integrity of recorded evidence.

Furthermore, the hardware reflects shifting regulatory landscapes. Per Axis internal documentation from June 2026, the company is proactively preparing for NDAA 2023 regulations and 2028 compliance requirements through specific hardware IDs and the AXIS OS lifecycle. This includes the move to AXIS OS 12.6, which updated foundational components like OpenSSL and Apache to address recent CVEs. Industry analysts from Oliver Insider note that by 2026, 'commercial CCTV' has evolved into a networking and IT-security challenge, where edge devices must function as secure, autonomous data centers.