Orban and Coding Technologies Bring MPEG-4 aacPlus Audio to Windows Media Player Users
New aacPlus DirectShow Plug-in enables Microsoft’s Windows Media users to enjoy CD-quality Radio at a mere 32kbps
NAB — Las Vegas — April 24, 2006 — Coding Technologies, the leading provider of audio compression for digital broadcasting, mobile media, and the Internet, announced today with Orban, a professional broadcasting technology company the immediate availability of a public beta for the new Orban/Coding Technologies AAC/aacPlus Player Plugin. When installed, this free software will enable any of the 80+ million users of Microsoft’s Windows Media Player to take advantage of the remarkably high-quality, low-bandwidth audio format that is changing the way consumers experience digital audio via the Internet, mobile and broadcast applications.
The Orban Coding Technologies AAC/aacPlus Player Plugin is a free, full-featured Microsoft DirectShow component that enables MPEG-4 aacPlus audio files and streams within Windows Media Player. aacPlus (also known as HE-AAC) is an industry standard superset of the AAC codec that utilizes Coding Technologies’ Spectral Band Replication (SBR) and Parametric Stereo (PS) audio compression technologies to provide CD-quality audio in a footprint four times smaller than content encoded with MP3 (MPEG Layer-3) technology. Digital television, radio and Internet broadcasters take advantage of aacPlus to deliver high-quality audio streams while realizing dramatic savings in bandwidth costs.
Consumers listening to aacPlus streams benefit from an enhanced listening experience. Its compact bitrate virtually eliminates content rebuffering, a process that interrupts source playback and negatively affects the consumer’s listening experience.
“Orban and Coding Technologies realized that with the great efficiency and quality of aacPlus, it only made sense to empower the technology to work with Windows Media Player, one of the most popular and common media players today,” said Greg Ogonowski, Orban/CRL vice president of product development. “As a result, we’re delighted that Windows users all over the globe will now have a quick, free way to experience the wonders of aacPlus technology directly through their standard Windows Media Player.”
“Content rebuffering is the static of digital radio,” said Shawn Hopwood, senior director of Coding Technologies. “Our aacPlus audio codec helps cutting-edge content providers like XM Satellite Radio AOL and Sprint make rebuffering a thing of the past. We’re delighted to work with Orban to bring the aacPlus experience to such a large community.”
“Spacial Audio Solutions welcomes the addition of the Orban aacPlus Windows Media plug-in,” said Louis Louw, CTO of Spacial Audio. “With Spacial Audio’s recent adoption of aacPLUS in conjunction with Orban’s Windows Media plug-in, it will allow broadcasters to offer more player choices for listeners utilizing aacPLUS broadcasted streams.”
The Orban/Coding Technologies AAC/aacPlus Player Plugin works with Microsoft Windows Media version 9 or 10. It supports standard ID3 metadata tags that display real-time stream data such as artist, album, and song information. The installation of the free of charge plug-in component is fast and simple, taking less than a minute to install, and requires no authentication, registration, monitoring or tracking.
About aacPlus
aacPlus is an audio codec developed by Coding Technologies which delivers high-quality 5.1 multichannel audio at 128 kbps, near CD-quality stereo at 32 kbps, and FM quality stereo at 24 kbps. It is widely adopted by many international standardization and proprietary bodies including 3GPP, MPEG-4, ISMA (Internet Streaming Media Alliance), DVB (Digital Video Broadcasting), the DVD Forum, Digital Radio Mondiale, HD-Radio and MediaFLO.
aacPlus is currently available on over 150 mobile phone models worldwide and is the solution for most over-the-air (OTA) consumer mobile music providers including: AOL, Sprint, KDDI, SK Telecom and XM Sataliite Radio. Coding Technologies estimates there are over 20 Million aacPlus mobile phones/devices in the market today, and project this number will rise to 100 Million by the end of 2006.
Coding Technologies
Coding Technologies provides the best audio compression for mobile, broadcasting, and Internet. SBR (Spectral Band Replication) from Coding Technologies is a backward and forward compatible method to enhance the efficiency of any audio codec; putting the “PRO” in mp3PRO and the “Plus” in aacPlus. Parametric Stereo from Coding Technologies and Philips again significantly increases the efficiency of audio codecs for stereo signals at low bit rates. Products from Coding Technologies are fundamental enablers of open standards such as 3GPP, 3GPP2, MPEG, DVB, Digital Radio Mondiale, HD Radio, and the DVD Forum.
Coding Technologies is a privately held company with offices in Sweden, Germany, and Silicon Valley. Founded in 1997 in Stockholm, the company later merged with a spin-off of the renowned Fraunhofer Institute in Germany, the inventor of MP3. Coding Technologies’ customers include America Online, EMP, iBiquity Digital, KDDI, mmO2, Nokia, Orange, RealNetworks, SK Telecom, Sprint, T-Mobile, Thomson, Texas Instruments, Vodafone, and XM Satellite Radio. For more information, visit www.codingtechnologies.com.
About Circuit Research Labs, Inc.
Circuit Research Labs, Inc., the parent company of Orban, is a manufacturer of high-quality digital and analog audio processing, transmission encoding, and noise reduction equipment for the radio, TV and Internet audio industries. As technology evolves, Circuit Research Labs continues to innovate with state-of-the-art audio processing products for DAB, DTV and streaming media.
Circuit Research Labs, Inc. purchased Orban in May of 2000. Orban was founded in 1970 by Bob Orban, the world’s foremost expert in transmission audio processing for broadcast. Orban leads the industry in the design and manufacture of audio processors for radio, television and Internet broadcasting. Recognized for its standard-setting Optimod digital audio processors and the Opticodec codecs, the Orban name has become synonymous with reliable, high performance products. Today, its versatile audio processing equipment and codecs are the products of choice in fast-paced production environments worldwide.
Press contact
Gerald Moser
Coding Technologies GmbH
Deutschherrnstrasse 15-19
90429 Nuernberg – Germany
+ 49 911 928 91 14 (phone)
+ 49 911 928 91 99 (fax)
press@codingtechnologies.com
www.codingtechnologies.com
PR agency Europe
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anne.klein@axicom.de
www.axicom.de
PR agency USA
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