Fraunhofer is a German based company that is a leading manufacturer of multimedia systems innovating new technologies in multimedia and audio divisions. This company has been successfully operating for the past 20 years and has successfully launched many new cutting-edge services. Fraunhofer is credited for its development of mp3 and AAC (Advanced Audio Coding). The MPEG surround system, audio communication device and other hundreds of technologies were all born at Fraunhofer.
This name might not be familiar to most people because they have licensed their application customization and audio codecs to about 1,000 companies in the past two decades. The company states that it has sold about 5 billion products worldwide including AAC, mp3 and other technologies. The German government partly funds this organization and they have a number of institutes who do a complete research on new products and areas.
Fraunhofer’s Full-HD Voice Codec
Fraunhofer is expected to showcase its new invention Full-HD Voice Codec for VoIP Apps at CES 2013. Along with this, it will also showcase enhanced low delay AAC-ELD which supercharges the quality of communication in any VoIP app. This is designed to accommodate smartphones, televisions or tablets so that the benefits are enjoyed by all. Consumers all over the world keep expecting high quality sound and picture, and technology is delivering its best. Similarly, high quality audio is expected in VoIP communication which is nothing wrong and Fraunhofer is striving hard to reach the maximum point.
This is already supported by Android and iOS devices and now the AAC-ELD codec is made available to developers of apps and other service providers. This ensures that superior quality VoIP applications are run at Full-HD quality voice level. Customers can now enjoy the best of services while communicating with each other. If Graham was here, he would have never been happier than this.
Harold Popp, Head, MRS department, Fraunhofer IIS states that when developers are given access to the best codecs in the world which can deliver a complete HD quality voice, VoIP apps which are created will bring out the best quality possible. This full- HD technology is already used in video conference systems used by professionals and also video telephony applications. They are used to deliver CD-like audio quality which you can experience in Apple FaceTime.
Since this technology is already used in Android and iOS, it can be easily deployed in VoIP apps for consumers. App developers have the liberty to access the AAC-ELD codec from the Fraunhofer Library in Android, starting from versions 4.1. From version 4.0 this codec can be accessed in iOS. The codec is supported by OSX as well so that cross-platform operations of the AAC-ELD codec can be performed.
Audio Quality
VoIP services were similar to the legacy telephony service and offered audio quality with a bandwidth of 3.4 kHz. A few providers were able to increase the bandwidth to about 7 kHz which is bare minimum. Humans have the capacity to hear up to 20 kHz of bandwidth. The main barrier that crosses the audio quality is the speech codec. As they try to imitate the human voice tract, the speech codec is customized for a lone speaker. Speech codecs are poor at delivering other signals like ambience sounds, background noise and music. And so it ends up compromising the audio quality while conversing.
This issue can be fixed by using the state-of-the-art technology AAC-ELD codec which has the capability to deliver performance removing restrictions of speech codecs and deliver the maximum audio bandwidth of 20 kHz. This codec treats music, ambience and voice equally, and hence is able to deliver the best audio quality.
A simple discovery has led to the rise of a wonderful innovation which is extremely useful to humans. So get ready to experience the 20 kHz of bandwidth whenever you communicate. Maybe you might feel that the person is talking into your ears and he/she is very close to you physically.
Author Bio: Andrea Walters, a freelance writer for MyTechHelp – a leader in providing support across various products brands and tech devices for individuals and small businesses in need of instant tech help.
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