November 16, 2005

VoiceAge and Université de Sherbrooke Team up with NSERC to Pursue Major Enhancements in Speech and Audio Compression Technologies

Sherbrooke, QC, November 16, 2005 - VoiceAge Corporation and Université de Sherbrooke (UdeS) are proud to announce that they have been awarded a four-year grant by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) under its Collaborative Research and Development (CRD) Program, valued at C$600,000, to further the state of the art in speech and audio coding technologies. This collaborative research initiative will build upon the rich history of groundbreaking wideband ACELP®-based speech coding technologies developed by UdeS and VoiceAge over the past six years. The bandwidth efficiency and high performance of these codec technologies are fundamental enablers for the widespread deployment of cellular and VoIP communication systems that have transformed the telecommunications industry and drastically improved business and personal communications. The UdeS and VoiceAge research and business teams have demonstrated notable past successes together in the development, standardization and commercialization of speech and audio coding. This team is now helping to accelerate the introduction of high-quality bit-rate-efficient communication across converged fixed/VoIP and mobile networks. Another key area of their focus for compression technology evolution is in the realm of hi-fi audio for emerging mobile multimedia services and audiovisual telephony.

“With the generous support of NSERC, combined with the substantial investments made by VoiceAge and UdeS in technology development and commercialization, we will be able to dramatically enhance our leading-edge speech and audio coding technologies to help drive the evolving suite of emerging innovative communications services. With the refinements and breakthroughs expected through this project we intend to maintain and grow our team’s and Canada’s leadership position in this critical domain,” said Redwan Salami, Vice President of Research and Development at VoiceAge Corporation.

“In addition to the significant commercial benefits expected from this project, our persistent focus on key compression technologies for the 21st century will help us to attract and maintain a critical mass of world-renowned researchers in Université de Sherbrooke’s Speech and Audio Research Group (Groupe de recherche sur la parole et l’audio – GRPA). The development of high-caliber graduate students for the advancement and accumulation of scientific knowledge in the areas of speech and audio signal digital processing and communications systems will be supported by this nurturing environment. I look forward to the exciting new discoveries resulting from this collaborative research initiative that will help propel the world towards an always-on, ubiquitous, high-quality multimedia communications reality,” added Roch Lefebvre, Associate Professor, Engineer, Ph.D., Head of the Speech and Audio Research Group, Université de Sherbrooke.

About VoiceAge Corporation
VoiceAge Corporation is the forerunner in the development and dissemination of speech and audio codec (compression) technologies and solutions at the convergence of wireless, 2.5G, 3G, Wi-Fi, and IP networks. Using designs based on our flagship ACELP® technology platform, VoiceAge® speech and audio codec solutions deliver unsurpassed quality experienced daily by hundreds of millions of users worldwide.

Our ACELP® technology platform is internationally recognized and was recently adopted at 3GPP and 3GPP2 as the core wideband speech and audio codec technology for wireless applications. The ACELP® platform was also adopted at ITU-T for teleconferencing and voice-over-packet applications. Today, VoiceAge occupies a strategic position in the sphere of emerging wideband speech and audio codec technologies. Our mission is to maintain our global leadership in low bit rate, high-quality digital speech and audio codec technologies.

Contacts

VoiceAge Corporation:
Baris Demir, Director of Marketing,
VoiceAge Corporation, Montreal, Canada
baris.demir@voiceage.com +1.514.737.4940 ext. 233

For further information about VoiceAge Corporation, please visit the Company's website at www.voiceage.com. For further information about RealNetworks, Inc., please visit the Company's website at www.realnetworks.com.

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