September 20, 2006
VoiceAge AMR-WB/G.722 and VMR-WB Wideband Speech Standards Included As Optional Codecs in PacketCable™ 2.0 Specification
Codecs Demonstrated at CableLabs® Summer Conference 2006
Montreal, September 20, 2006 – VoiceAge, a leading developer of speech and audio coding technologies, announced that CableLabs®, the cable industry’s nonprofit research and development consortium, has included the AMR-WB1/G.722 and VMR-WB2 wideband speech codec standards as optional codecs in its PacketCable 2.0 codec specification [Ref. PKT-SP-CODEC-MEDIA-I01-060406]. Equipment manufacturers seeking compliance with the PacketCable 2.0 specifications have the option of including these codecs in their products. By leveraging these wideband codecs, cable MSOs could evolve their successful entry in the VoIP market towards delivering services with substantially richer speech quality than the traditional PSTN. Wideband speech, which more than doubles the communicated audible bandwidth from the typical 200 Hz – 3.4 kHz used in traditional narrowband telephony to 50Hz – 7 kHz, provides dramatically improved intelligibility and naturalness and imparts a sense of presence.
AMR-WB, the mandatory 3GPP3 wideband speech codec standard for 3G cellular systems and IMS4 also standardized in ITU-T5 as Recommendation G.722.2, has consistently outperformed competing codecs under rigorous standardization testing. VMR-WB, the 3GPP26 standard for wideband communications, has demonstrated similar outstanding performance and is seamlessly interoperable with AMR-WB/G.722.2. This proven and fully interoperable codec family delivers high-quality speech at remarkably low bit rates and can enable cable operators to roll out wideband speech applications across their networks without the added costs, delays and impairments that would otherwise be introduced by transcoding. VoiceAge recently demonstrated these state-of-the-art wideband speech codecs at the CableLabs® Summer Conference 2006 in Keystone, Colorado.
Laurent Amar, President of VoiceAge, said, “VoiceAge is delighted to have our wideband codecs referenced in the PacketCable 2.0 specification. We look forward to the opportunity of working with the cable operators to improve their VoIP services with the rich quality of wideband speech. User expectations for improved speech and audio quality are growing daily, and cable operators are well positioned to lead this transformation towards next-generation VoIP. We are confident that leveraging this innovation would help cable operators to sustain and grow their VoIP market share momentum.”
Additional information on AMR-WB/G.722.2 and VMR-WB technology is also available at the following web location: http://www.voiceage.com/technologies.php.
To experience the richness of wideband communication for yourself, please follow this link: http://www.voiceage.com/audiosamples.php
1 AMR-WB: Adaptive Multi-Rate Wideband, 3GPP wideband speech codec standard.
2 VMR-WB: Variable Rate Multi-Mode Wideband, 3GPP2 wideband speech codec standard.
3 3GPP: Third Generation Partnership Project, international standards body defining the evolution of GSM cellular networks to 3G networks.
4IMS: IP Multimedia Subsystem, a standardized architecture for enabling the convergence of Internet and cellular services.
5 ITU-T: International Telecommunications Union – Telecommunications Standardization Sector, coordinates the establishment of standards for telecommunications on behalf of the ITU, which is a United Nations organization.
6 3GPP2: Third Generation Partnership Project 2, international standards body defining the evolution of CDMA cellular networks to 3G networks.
About VoiceAge Corporation
VoiceAge Corporation is a leading developer of speech and audio compression technologies and solutions for Internet and wireless, 2.5G, 3G, Wi-Fi and WiMAX network applications. Using designs based on our widely deployed flagship ACELP® technology platform, VoiceAge® speech and audio codec solutions deliver unsurpassed quality experienced daily by well over two billion users worldwide.
VoiceAge is engaged in the development, standardization, integration and commercialization of digital speech and audio compression solutions for devices that operate over wired and wireless networks and in consumer electronics equipment and toys. Our business activities focus on three areas: codec and audio processing solution implementations, speech and audio compression technology R&D and licensing.
Contact
Baris Demir, Director of Marketing
VoiceAge Corporation, Montreal, Canada
baris.demir@voiceage.com
© 2006 VoiceAge Corporation.VoiceAge and ACELP are registered trademarks of VoiceAge Corporation in Canada and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
CableLabs and PacketCable are trademarks of Cable Television Laboratories, Inc. An equipment demonstration at a CableLabs’ event does not constitute CableLabs’ endorsement of that equipment
For further information about VoiceAge Corporation, please visit the Company's website at www.voiceage.com.
