CES
Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits
2012 International CES
For further information or to schedule a meeting, please contact Jennifer Utley at amm-info@iis.fraunhofer.de
For your free VIP exhibition-only ticket, please click here: Registration at 2012 International CES.
Sonnox Fraunhofer Plug-Ins
Premiere for the Sonnox Fraunhofer Codec Plug-In
At CES, Fraunhofer IIS and Sonnox will premiere the Sonnox Fraunhofer Plug-In, the consumer version of the Sonnox Fraunhofer Pro-Codec. This highly successful plug-in for professional audio workstation software enables mixing engineers to audition, encode and decode audio signals in real-time, thus saving precious time in the music mixing and mastering process. The new consumer version has been specifically adapted to the needs of aspiring musicians and song-writers dedicated to high quality audio production. Similar to the professional version, it brings the full catalog of Fraunhofer codecs (e.g. mp3, AAC, HE-AAC) to digital audio workstations for encoding and decoding. The Sonnox Fraunhofer Codec Plug-In will be available in the first quarter of 2012.
The Sonnox Fraunhofer Pro-Codec was released in June 2011 for $US495 and was just recently nominated for the prestigious TEC Award, which honors the achievements of audio professionals since 1985.
Sonnox Fraunhofer Pro-Codec Plug-In
The Pro-Codec Plug-In enables mix and mastering engineers to audition up to five codecs in real time within a DAW environment, produce an optimized mix and batch encode to multiple formats simultaneously. The plug-in now also supports MPEG Surround for mixing multi-channel sound at stereo bit-rates and in high audio quality.
Fraunhofer Dialogue Enhancement for TV & Radio - BBC Audio Experiment at Wimbledon
Balancing the loudness of dialogue and ambient sound is one of the big challenges when mixing sound for TV and radio. Together with the BBC, Fraunhofer tested a new technology that gives users the chance to change this balance individually and thus enhance the speech intelligibility.
At CES visitors can try this Fraunhofer technology to enhance the speech intelligibility while watching a tennis match. The sound mix can go from lots of crowd and court sounds and a very quiet commentary, to a clearly audible commentary with only little sounds from the match. The Fraunhofer technology is compatible with existing mono and stereo broadcast infrastructure.
High-quality 5.1 sound at stereo bit-rate
The ISO standard MPEG Surround delivers an easily accessible high-quality surround sound experience to the consumer that is also cost-efficient to broadcasters and mobile operators since it only requires stereo bit-rates. In addition, the surround programs can be enjoyed via stereo receivers in excellent stereo quality. There is no need to simulcast stereo and multi-channel programs. MPEG Surround is available as part of professional encoder solutions from various vendors. In addition, Fraunhofer IIS offers the complete Shoutcast broadcaster solution. On the receiver side, Fraunhofer presents a reference MPEG Surround Internet radio implementation on the TI platform commonly used in AVRs and other living room devices. In addition, MPEG Surround is suitable for cars and also for mobile terminals as the virtual surround mode enables 5.1 sound on conventional stereo headphones.
HE-AAC – The audio codec of choice for TV broadcasting
Over the last couple of years, HE-AAC became one of the most important enabling technologies for multimedia systems and is today globally established in state-of-the-art TV broadcast systems. HE-AAC combines high audio quality with very low bit-rates, and is the most efficient audio codec available for TV broadcasting.
Flexible and future-proof, the HE-AAC codec supports any channel configuration from mono to up to 48 channels including stereo, as well as 5.1 surround. It allows for the additional transmission of side information to enable future services within a TV program, such as the Fraunhofer Dialogue Enhancement technology for improving speech intelligibility.
HE-AAC is the predominant codec in most state-of-the-art broadcast and streaming systems. For example, HE-AAC multi-channel is part of the DVB toolbox and being used in many European and South American countries for 5.1 and stereo HDTV broadcasts. As a result, the majority of HD-capable TV receivers being sold today supports HE-AAC multi-channel. And, all major broadcast encoder manufacturers included HE-AAC into their devices long ago. Due to its widespread use, HE-AAC can easily be integrated into existing production and distribution chains. Of course, HE-AAC fully supports all broadcast relevant audio metadata. As HE-AAC is the mandatory audio codec for HbbTV, it is integrated into Smart TVs and Connected TVs.
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