Fraunhofer IIS Demonstrates 5.1 Surround Streaming With High Efficiency Advanced Audio Coding on Android 4.1

ERLANGEN, GERMANY--(Marketwire - Sep 20, 2012) - In addition to the press release distributed September 7, 2012, Fraunhofer IIS, the world's renowned source for audio and multimedia technologies, published a video demonstrating the native support of High Efficiency Advanced Audio Coding (HE-AAC) multichannel in Android 4.1 today.

The video, featuring Robert Bleidt, division general manager at Fraunhofer USA Digital Media Technologies, is available for download at http://www.iis.fraunhofer.de/en/bf/amm/

HE-AAC multichannel is part of the new Fraunhofer FDK AAC codec library for Android. This software makes open-source Fraunhofer implementations of the MPEG audio codecs AAC, HE-AAC, HE-AACv2, and AAC-ELD available in Android since version 4.1.

HE-AAC multichannel enables playback of high-quality 5.1 surround content on Android 4.1 phones and tablets connected via HDMI to a home theatre system. In combination with adaptive HTTP streaming technologies, such as MPEG-DASH, Android devices become true delivery platforms, allowing service providers to easily offer their content in the most efficient, high-quality MPEG standards available.

HE-AAC is today's most efficient high-quality audio codec used in TV, radio, and streaming services worldwide. The codec is integrated into most operating systems, streaming platforms and consumer electronics devices. In addition to its unique coding efficiency, HE-AAC has the dynamic ability to change audio bit-rates in order to adapt to changing network conditions as consumers stream content to a variety of devices. Consequently, HE-AAC will also be used in applications based on the new adaptive HTTP streaming standard MPEG-DASH.

The Fraunhofer FDK AAC codec library for Android also includes AAC-ELD, the high-quality communication codec in ISO MPEG. AAC-ELD is a Full-HD Voice codec, which provides CD-like audio quality.

In contrast to regular speech codecs, AAC-ELD also transmits music and other audio signals at a quality level comparable with HDTV and BluRay without increasing the bit-rates in comparison to today's phone services. As a result, many of the problems typically found in speech codecs used today for real-time communications applications, such as video chat and VoIP, are avoided. Background noise, multiple talkers, children's voices, and music, amongst others, cause these problems.

AAC-ELD enables new Android communication apps and services to transform everyday communications into an emotional, state-of-the-art rich-media experience.

The full announcement from IBC is available at http://www.iis.fraunhofer.de/en/pr/presse/2012/september/IBC_Android.jsp

For more information, visit http://www.iis.fraunhofer.de/amm.

About Fraunhofer

The Fraunhofer IIS Audio and Multimedia division, based in Erlangen, Germany, has been working in compressed audio technology for more than 20 years and remains a leading innovator of technologies for cutting-edge multimedia systems. Fraunhofer IIS is universally credited with the development of mp3 and co-development of AAC (Advanced Audio Coding) as well as technologies for the media world of tomorrow, including MPEG Surround and the Fraunhofer Audio Communication Engine.

Through the course of more than two decades, Fraunhofer IIS has licensed its audio codec software and application-specific customizations to at least 1,000 companies. Fraunhofer estimates that it has enabled more than 5 billion commercial products worldwide using its mp3, AAC and other media technologies.

The Fraunhofer IIS organization is part of Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, based in Munich, Germany. Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft is Europe's largest applied research organization and is partly funded by the German government. With 20,000 employees worldwide, Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft is composed of 60 Institutes conducting research in a broad range of research areas. For more information, contact Matthias Rose, matthias.rose@iis.fraunhofer.de, or visit www.iis.fraunhofer.de/amm.