Fraunhofer MPEG Audio Codecs and Mobile Surround Sound Available for Android

DENVER--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Fraunhofer IIS, a reliable supplier of ready-to-run-software with more than 20 years of experience in the development and implementation of MPEG audio codecs, announced today that they will introduce a broad range of MPEG audio codecs, such as MPEG-4 HE-AAC v2 and MPEG Surround, suitable for Android-based mobile phones at the 2010 Mobile World Congress (Barcelona, February, 15-18). These state-of-the-art MPEG audio technologies round out an innovative software portfolio from Fraunhofer IIS.

In line with its continuing focus on new audio technologies, Fraunhofer is now able to offer a comprehensive range of codecs for the Android operating system, including the MPEG-4 HE-AAC v2 standard, the codec of choice for any mobile multimedia application including digital television and radio broadcasting as well as Internet radio streaming over 3G or WiFi connections.

Fraunhofer IIS will also launch MPEG Surround, the new ISO standard codec that brings multi-channel audio to mobile devices and the living room. Operating on top of existing audio codecs such as HE-AAC, it enables content providers targeting mobile devices to deliver highest surround audio quality at stereo bit-rates to handsets equipped with conventional headphones. Music and video streaming as well as Mobile-TV services can be enhanced with a true surround sound experience without an increase in audio bitrate. At the same time, legacy devices play the streams in excellent stereo quality.

Fraunhofer’s MPEG audio software portfolio for Android is complemented by additional innovative offerings, including MPEG AAC-LC, HD-AAC and AAC-ELD codecs. All software libraries are specifically optimized for low resource consumption on Android-based devices.

Fraunhofer IIS is involved in all MPEG audio standardization activities and offers quick access to product-ready implementations on embedded processors. Implementations are available for all popular platforms, including ARM, MIPS, Texas Instruments, Analog Devices, Freescale, PowerPC, Starcore and other processors.

For further information, please visit www.iis.fraunhofer.de/amm.

About Fraunhofer IIS

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, MPEG Spatial Audio Object Coding 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 1 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 17,000 employees worldwide, Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft is composed of 59 Institutes conducting research in a broad range of research areas. For more information, contact Matthias Rose, [e-mail], or visit www.iis.fraunhofer.de/amm.