February
2, 2000
Audible Chooses
VoiceAge's ACELP®.net as
Preferred Speech Codec Recognition of ACELP®.net
by the Leading Spoken Audio Service on the Web
WAYNE, N.J.
and MONTREAL--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 2, 2000--VoiceAge
Corporation, specialists in the integration,
development and commercialization of applications
and products requiring a digital processing
of voice or audio, and Audible, Inc. (Nasdaq:
ADBL - news), today announced ACELP®.net
as the new and preferred low bit-rate speech
codec at http://www.audible.com/(TM), the leading
source for Internet-delivered premium spoken
audio for playback on PCs and AudibleReady(TM)
mobile devices.
"ACELP®.net was selected by Audible
for its remarkable sound quality at low bit-rates
and for its outstanding technical performance,''
said Guy Story, Vice President of Technology
at Audible, Inc. ``This means that listeners
who download or stream audio from audible.com
and listen on numerous AudibleReady devices
will soon be able to choose between audio quality
levels, depending on their preference for higher
audio quality or smaller file size. This agreement
affirms our commitment to provide the best possible
audio experience.''
Laurent Amar, Vice President of Business Development
at VoiceAge Corporation termed the quest for
bandwidth, storage capacity, quality of service
and cost issues as being among the industry's
major challenges.
"More than anything, the deployment of
digital distribution of audio over the Internet,
ignited by MP3, has generated high enthusiasm
but also exposed the need for high quality,
low bit-rate compression technology for storage
and streaming applications,'' he remarked. "ACELP®.net
is occupying that space on the web and this
agreement with Audible, Inc. broadens the use
of this technology on the Internet and in the
rapidly growing category of portable digital
audio players.''
About Audible.com
audible.com™ features is daily selected
audio content from The Wall Street Journal and
daily digests of The New York Times, San Jose
Mercury News, Los Angeles Times, as well as
The Economist Audio Digest, The Industry Standard,
Forbes and Harvard Business Review. The site
also offers a powerful collection of audiobook
bestsellers and classics by authors such as
Stephen King, John Grisham, Frank McCourt, Jon
Krakauer, Scott Adams, Mary Higgins Clark, James
Redfield, James Patterson, William Shakespeare,
Emily Dickinson and Jane Austen. There are also
speeches, lectures, language lessons, and on-demand
radio programs including Marketplace, Car Talk,
Fresh Air and Science Friday. All of the programs
at audible.com are available for PC-based playback
and on-the-go listening using numerous AudibleReady™
portable digital audio players offered by leading
consumer electronics and computer manufacturers.
About ACELP®.net
Designed around the famous ACELP® technology,
already at the core of most low-bit rate of
international and national cellular telephony
standards, VoiceAge Corporation's ACELP®
related codec is the only compression algorithm
recommended by Audible, Inc. for high-quality
encoding of speech content at low bit rates.
ACELP®.net, when encoding spoken word audio
at 16 Kpbs, is comparable to MP3 at 64 Kpbs,
shortening download time and extending playback
time by as much as 4x.
About Audible, Inc.
Audible is the Internet's largest, most diverse
provider of premium spoken audio services for
content download or playback on personal computers
or AudibleReady™ mobile devices. Audible
allows customers to take advantage of their
commuting, travel and desktop computer time
by delivering premium entertainment and information
audio while their eyes are busy but their minds
are free. Audible's content partners include
leading audio book publishers, broadcasters,
magazine and newspaper publishers, business
information providers, and educational and cultural
institutions. Visitors to www.audible.com™
can browse, sample, purchase and subscribe to
more than 20,000 hours of audio programs. Among
the company's key business partners are Casio
Inc., Compaq Computer Corporation, S3/Diamond
Inc., Microsoft Corporation, Royal Philips Electronics,
RealNetworks, Inc. and Texas Instruments Inc.
This press release contains information, that
is not historical fact and may be deemed to
contain forward-looking statements. Actual results
may differ materially from those anticipated
in any forward-looking statements as a result
of certain risks and uncertainties, including,
without limitation, Audible's limited operating
history, history of losses, uncertain market
for its services, and its inability to license
or produce compelling audio content and other
risks and uncertainties detailed in the company's
Securities and Exchange Commission filings.
About VoiceAge Corp.
Based in Montreal, Canada, VoiceAge is a spin-off
company of Sipro Lab Telecom Inc., better known
for its voice compression technology brokerage
capabilities, and Universite de Sherbrooke,
renown for its speech research group. Drawing
on this wealth of expertise and experience,
VoiceAge is well positioned to develop alternative
solutions for specific customers or industries'
needs through proprietary solutions.
The second generation of the ACELP® Technology
(Algebraic-Code-Excited Linear Prediction),
owned by VoiceAge and developed by Universite
de Sherbrooke and Sipro Lab Telecom Inc., has
become a de facto standard on the Internet in
the realm of voice applications.
In addition, over the last decade the first
generation of the ACELP® Technology was
positioned in several International Telecommunication
standards, notably: GSM EFR (ETSI), PCS 1900,
IS 136 (TIA, North American TDMA), IS 95 (TIA,
North American CDMA), TETRA, G.729 and its Annexes,
as well as G.723.1.
AudibleReady and audible.com are trademarks
of Audible, Inc.
ACELP and VoiceAge are either registered trademarks
or trademarks of VoiceAge Corporation in Canada
and / or other countries
For additionnal information contact:
Audible, Inc.
Jonathan Korzen
(973) 890 4070 ext. 218
jkorzen@audible.com
