Firms Partner in MPEG-4 Audio Decoder Offering
By Mark Long -- e-inSITE, 12/13/2002
Coding Technologies, Matsushita Electric Industrial (Panasonic) and NEC have introduced a new low-power decoder for the forthcoming MPEG-4 AAC-plus-SBR (aacPlus) standard, which the firms claim can decode CD-quality audio at low bit-rates while requiring 40 percent less processing power.
According to the three companies, aacPlus delivers streaming and download CD-quality stereo at 48 kbit/sec and excellent quality stereo at 32 kbit/sec. The technology and intellectual property (IP) for the low-power Spectral Band Replication (SBR) decoder was contributed by all three companies. As the licensing agent for SBR-in-aacPlus, Coding Technologies will serve as a one-stop-shop for both SBR patents and software in MPEG-4.
"The work of Panasonic, NEC and Coding Technologies has significantly increased the reach of aacPlus," said Coding Technologies president and CEO Martin Dietz in a statement. "Although processor power is increasing rapidly, power consumption is still a key factor in mobile markets. The efficiency afforded by low-power aacPlus will give an early boost to the new standard."
The aacPlus technology is based on a low-power Spectral Band Replication (SBR) decoding technique developed by coding Technologies that is both bit-stream-compliant with the MPEG-4 aacPlus standard and officially recognized by MPEG. In addition, the companies report that the availability of both low-power and high-quality MPEG-4 aacPlus implementations will enable the standard to run on the widest possible range of processors for mobile and portable device applications.
"Since it works with any codec, we see SBR as a very important technology going forward," said Matshushita Multimedia Development Center director Hiroshi Nishikawa. "Since this decoder implementation of SBR requires less computational resources, the MPEG-4 standard can be deployed on more entertainment services including digital broadcasting."
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