August 20,
2004
VoiceAge Contributes
AMR and AMR-WB Open Initiatives
Montreal, Quebec, Canada — August 20,
2004 – VoiceAge Corporation is pleased
to announce its contribution of two open initiatives
to the software developer community—implementations
of the AMR and AMR Wideband speech codecs. These
two free, single-port, Win32 implementations
are available through Vovida.org,
which provides “a forum for open source
software used in datacom and telecom environments.”
Since September 2001, VoiceAge has been offering
the developer community a free Win32 G.729 implementation.
At that time, the proliferation of information-sharing
sources motivated the R&D team to associate
the VoiceAge name and technology with initiatives
that would ensure optimal dissemination and
credibility within the developer community.
Today, VoiceAge is pleased to add new low bit
rate codec implementations to the Vovida.org initiative and support its stated purpose to
“promote rapid improvements in interoperability
across the industry by providing a specification-correct
implementation that is freely available to test
against.”
“VoiceAge is committed to support the
public exchange and improvement of source code
under the open source philosophy, founded on
the belief that the general community has much
more to gain from sharing improvements at the
source-code level than from keeping such improvements
in private hands. The addition of the AMR and
AMR-WB open initiatives allows developers worldwide
to design and test codec solutions that deliver
enhanced efficiency as well as improved QoS
without limitations in all pre-commercial phases,”
says Laurent Amar, President of VoiceAge.
About AMR
The AMR standard speech coding algorithm operates
at variable bit rates in the range of 4.75 to
12.2 Kbps. It is the only narrowband speech
codec offering eight different bit rates that
can be adapted according to network congestion,
thus enabling significant enhancement of quality
of service (QoS). The codec bridges packet network
and wireless applications, eliminating need
for transcoding and the resulting degradation
of quality.
This technology was initially developed for
the GSM system, the single most deployed 2G
mobile telecommunication system worldwide, used
mostly in Europe and Asia. It was later adapted
by the 3GPP as the mandatory codec for 3G wireless
systems based on the evolved GSM core network
(WCDMA, EDGE, GPRS). The AMR narrowband codec
was standardized by the European Telecommunications
Standards Institute (ETSI) in 1999.
About AMR-WB
The adoption of AMR-WB by ETSI/3GPP and ITU-T
(where it is referred to as G.722.2) is of significant
importance because, for the first time, the
same codec has been adopted for wireless as
well as wireline services. This eliminates the
need for transcoding and facilitates the implementation
of wideband voice applications and services
across a wide range of communication systems
and platforms.
Wideband speech coding results in major subjective
improvements in speech quality. Compared to
narrowband telephone speech (limited to about
200-3400 Hz and sampled at a rate of 8 kHz),
low-frequency enhancement in AMR-WB from 50
to 200 Hz contributes to increased naturalness,
presence, and comfort. The high-frequency extension
from 3400 to 7000 Hz provides better fricative
differentiation (for example, between words
like fin and thin), and therefore higher intelligibility.
Not only does AMR-WB provide superior voice
quality over the existing narrowband standards,
but it is also very robust against transmission
errors due to multi-rate operation and adaptation.
The AMR-WB standard is the only wideband technology
offering a comprehensive range of built-in features.
In addition to the codec, the package comprises
VAD, CNG, DTX, payload and storage formats,
and hooks to media file formats.
About VoiceAge
VoiceAge Corporation is the forerunner in the
development and dissemination of speech and
audio compression technologies and solutions
at the convergence of wireless, 2.5G, 3G, and
Internet protocols. Using designs based on our
flagship ACELP® technology platform, VoiceAge
codec solutions deliver unsurpassed quality
experienced daily by hundreds of millions of
users worldwide.
Our mission is to maintain our global leadership
in low bit rate, high-quality digital speech
and audio compression.
Our ACELP® technology platform is internationally
recognized and was recently adopted at 3GPP
and 3GPP2 as the core wideband speech-audio
coding technology for wireless applications.
The ACELP® platform was also adopted at
ITU for teleconferencing and voice-over-packet
applications. Today, VoiceAge occupies a strategic
position in the sphere of emerging wideband
speech and audio compression technologies.
About Vovida.org
Vovida.org is a “communications community
site dedicated to providing a forum for open
source software used in datacom and telecom
environments…” including “any
type of software for broadband, wideband, or
narrowband environments for cable, xDSL, wireless,
or other media.”
Josée Benoit
VoiceAge Corporation
Tel: +1 514 737 4940, ext. 274
E-mail: josee.benoit@voiceage.com
Any product features,
specifications or statements in this document
that are not historical facts are forward-looking
and involve risks and uncertainties. Actual
product features, specifications or forward-looking
statements are subject to change.
