Press Releases
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NEURAL AUDIO AND VOICEAGE TEAM UP TO DELIVER NEURAL-OPTIMIZED AMR-WB+
SOLUTION
COMBINING THE AMR-WB+ 3GPP & DVB-H AUDIO COMPRESSION STANDARD AND NEURAL AUDIO’S
OPTIMIZED LOW BIT RATE AUDIO PROCESSING TECHNOLOGY
Barcelona, Spain (February 12, 2007) – As the 3GSM World Congress 2007 ramps up,
Neural Audio Corporation, the market leader in developing advanced audio and
surround sound technologies, and VoiceAge Corporation, the world’s premier
supplier of speech and audio codecs and co-developer of AMR-WB+, today announced
the release of the new Neural-optimized encoder for AMR-WB+. Developed in full
collaboration, the Neural–AMR-WB+ solution satisfies the critical need for ever
better processing solutions for Internet service providers and mobile operators
who strive to increase audio quality while reducing bit rate consumption for
audio and music download and streaming applications to mobile devices.
“The new Neural–AMR-WB+ solution will allow greater bandwidth efficiency to
network operators while allowing consumers to experience ever higher audio
quality on their mobile devices,” stated Geir R. Skaaden, Neural Audio CEO. “By
combining Neural Audio’s world renowned audio optimization processing technology
with VoiceAge’s AMR-WB+ standard audio compression technology, our companies
have created a solution that satisfies the critical demand for high-quality
audio/video streaming applications to consumer electronics devices such as
mobile phones, digital music players, computers and more.”
The new Neural-optimized AMR-WB+ encoding solution, combining years of research
on audio optimization and codec pre-conditioning, provides:
• Superior quality stereo music streaming and download from remarkably low bit
rates (e.g., the key rates of 24 and 16 kbps, and even lower) through 48 kbps;
• Improved listener satisfaction while reducing fatigue by delivering more
natural sounding music;
• Improved bit-rate-saving network carrier effect through significantly improved
bit rate performance leading to lower communications bandwidth usage.
Using Neural–AMR-WB+, both network operators and consumers get more for less:
• more content to
• more users over
• more networks
• at an always increased audio quality • less bandwidth
• less processing power
• less battery power
• less download time
• less storage memory
“Neural Audio brings years of research in a field of expertise highly
complementary to VoiceAge’s speech and audio compression technology development
achievements. Building on our respective strengths, together we have created the
Neural–AMR-WB+ encoding solution to realize the highest quality audio at the
lowest bit rates available today for a wide array of mobile and portable
applications,” stated Laurent Amar, VoiceAge president. “The Neural–AMR-WB+
encoding solution presents tremendous advantages for both network operators and
consumers, which should help accelerate the robust growth of the mobile
multimedia services market.”
Aimed primarily at the mobile market, for mobile-TV, radio and streaming
applications, Neural–AMR-WB+ also delivers enhanced features, which can benefit
a broad range of other applications, from wired, and IP telephony to online
gaming and more. Parties interested in learning more about the Neural Audio and
VoiceAge partnership, ongoing projects, new product release dates or becoming
licensees can contact Neural Audio’s team at mobilesolutions@neuralaudio.com.
ABOUT VOICEAGE CORPORATION
VoiceAge® is a leading developer of digital speech and audio compression
solutions for devices that operate over wired and wireless networks, including
internet, cellular, Wi-Fi, WiMAX and convergence applications as well as
consumer electronics equipment and toys. Our business activities focus on:
speech and audio compression technology R&D, standardization, codec and audio
processing software implementations and IPR licensing. Using designs based on
our widely deployed flagship ACELP® technology platform, VoiceAge speech and
audio codec solutions deliver unsurpassed quality experienced daily by well over
two billion users worldwide. Visit us at
www.voiceage.com.
ABOUT NEURAL AUDIO
Neural Audio, through its Neural Surround™ THX® Technologies brand and unique
audio optimization technologies, has become the key enabler in the delivery of
high quality content for the TV, radio, game, Internet, home theatre and mobile
markets. Key broadcast partners and customers such as THX Ltd., XM Satellite
Radio, Yamaha Corporation of America, Sony Corporation, Pioneer Electronics,
Onkyo Corporation, Denon Electronics, Marantz America and Harris Corporation,
Broadcast Communications have adopted Neural Audio technologies to provide the
best quality audio available today to their customers. For more information,
please visit www.neuralaudio.com and
www.neuralsurround.com.
CONTACT INFORMATION:
Dakx Turcotte
Marketing and Business Development Manager - Neural Audio Corporation
Email: dakx@neuralaudio.com
Office: +1-415-814-3200 x:135
Jackie Broo
Communications Manager – Neural Audio Corporation
Email: jackie@neuralaudio.com
Office: +415-814-3200 x:116
Baris Demir
Director of Marketing
VoiceAge Corporation
prinfo@voiceage.com