Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS
Visit us at booth 20236 in the Las Vegas Convention Center, South Hall 1.
We look forward to seeing you there!
CES 2019
Personalized and immersive sound powered by MPEG-H Audio and Fraunhofer upHear
At CES 2019, Fraunhofer IIS will showcase MPEG-H Audio, the first next-generation audio system used in a regular terrestrial 4K TV service. MPEG-H delivers immersive, interactive sound and has been on the air 24/7 in South Korea since the launch of its UHDTV system in May 2017. Come and experience how MPEG-H Audio enables the viewer to personalize a program’s audio mix, for instance by switching between different languages, enhancing hard-to-understand dialogue or adjusting the volume of the commentator. In terms of content delivery and playback, MPEG-H’s universal delivery concept ensures the best sound, regardless of the consumer device or listening environment.
Next, we invite you to step inside our living room, which hosts various 3D soundbars with MPEG-H support, demonstrating how to deliver cinema-style immersive sound to consumers in a convenient, high-quality fashion. For the most immersive consumer experience of soundbars and TVs, Fraunhofer has developed the upHear Immersive Audio Virtualizer, which supports the rendering of 3D audio content as well as the upmix of legacy surround or stereo audio.
Immersion in the fast lane – with Fraunhofer Symphoria
After immersing yourself in sound in our living room, why not experience a new sense of dimensionality and spaciousness in a vehicle as well? Join us in our car to enjoy extended spatial sound as a result of increased width, depth and height, a clearly defined sound stage as well as a perfectly balanced surround sound field for each seat, all thanks to Fraunhofer Symphoria. The technology virtually dissolves the physical boundaries of a vehicle, creating a previously unknown feeling of freedom and space and turning your car into your favorite concert hall or venue.
We’ll also be presenting Sonamic Loudness, an automotive audio technology offering increased comfort to the listener by providing a consistent loudness level and preserving the perceived dynamics of the content when switching between radio stations or media sources. This automatic and continuous loudness normalization function also provides increased safety, allowing drivers to concentrate fully on the road instead of the volume.
xHE-AAC – The audio codec of choice for adaptive streaming and digital radio
Fed up of poor network connectivity causing audio streams to drop when you’re on the go? xHE-AAC puts an end to that. The latest addition to the AAC codec family offers maximum coding efficiency, with a bit rate range spanning from 12 kbit/s up to 500 kbit/s and above for stereo services. Combining this with seamless bit rate switching over DASH and HLS, and mandatory MPEG-D DRC Loudness and Dynamic Range Control, xHE-AAC is the ideal solution for adaptive audio and video streaming services – whether it’s for movies, music, audiobooks or podcasts – as well as for digital radio broadcasting. The codec is natively supported in Android Pie, and will be showcased at Fraunhofer’s CES booth in video and Internet radio streaming applications.
upHear Voice Quality Enhancement – be heard!
Yandex.Station
Visitors can also take a look at our upHear Voice Quality Enhancement solution for enhanced speech recognition in smart devices. It facilitates voice-controlled human-machine interactions that use microphones built into mobile phones and smart home devices such as smart speakers. The technology removes interfering sounds captured by the device’s microphones, extracts the user’s voice and cancels out acoustical echoes – making it easier to understand a request. Russian-based technology company Yandex has incorporated upHear Voice Quality Enhancement into its first smart speaker, enabling the device’s keyword spotter and speech recognizer to accurately hear voice commands issued from anywhere in a room, even when the speaker is playing music at the same time.