SRS Labs Successfully Completes Development of Multi-Dimensional Audio Specification 1.0; MDA Platform Enters Beta Testing Phase

Multi-Dimensional Audio (MDA) is the First Surround Sound Platform That Mixes Audio for Three Dimensional Space Rather Than For Traditional Channel Configurations

SANTA ANA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--SRS Labs (NASDAQ:SRSL), the industry leader in surround sound, audio enhancement, and voice post-processing technologies, announced today that it has successfully completed development of its Multi-Dimensional Audio™ (MDA™) platform specification 1.0.

MDA Platform Specification 1.0 is now available to members of the 3D Audio Alliance (3DAA), an independent CE industry organization designed to promote collaboration between member companies to create a complete ecosystem based on the revolutionary MDA platform. In addition to having completed the initial specifications for MDA adoption, SRS has also begun working with major production studios and content creators to beta test SRS’ new MDA creation tool, MDA Creator™, a software plug-in that is available for the industry’s most popular digital audio workstations, as well as MDA Player™, the playback software necessary for a system to playback and take full advantage of MDA content.

“Last year, MDA was merely a concept and a PowerPoint presentation, however, through the incredible efforts and time spent researching and developing the concept by our enthusiastic team of audio technologists backed by our entire organization’s passion for changing how the world experiences audio, we now have functional end-to-end implementation of object based audio creation and playback, all in the span of a year,” said Alan Kraemer, Chief Technology Officer for SRS Labs. “Our timing appears to be perfect as we are getting a great deal of interest from every direction; from our OEM partners clamoring to get access to the playback and processing technologies, to film makers and music production companies looking for the next advancement in content creation tools and delivery methods. MDA is, in my opinion, the most wide ranging technology we’ve ever worked on here at SRS and the market seems to be ripe and ready for a change designed to make audio creation and rendering significantly more flexible and infinitely more realistic.”

MDA Creator is a software plug-in designed to work seamlessly within all commonly used digital audio workstation (DAW) environments including, Pro Tools, Digital Performer, Logic, Cubase and Nuendo. The software is supported on both Mac and PC applications as RTAS, AU and VST plug-ins. With its seamless integration into the DAW, MDA Creator allows users to easily mix their soundtracks in an MDA environment and export an MDA deliverable. MDA Creator is also backwards compatible with legacy systems allowing users to export into any number of channel-based configurations from within the plug-in, making it painless for audio engineers to print an MDA mix for transmission and playback through a 2-channel, 5.1, 7.1 or greater conduit.

Multi-Dimensional Audio (MDA), developed by SRS Labs, is a revolutionary end-to-end audio platform, built on a foundation of object based audio, designed to deliver true three-dimensional surround sound to consumers in a wide variety of playback environments and devices. Breaking free of the decades old "channel based" audio paradigm, MDA allows content creators to create, maintain and deliver three dimensional positional data with soundtrack elements in a multi-dimensional audio space that includes height, depth and width, rather than standard planar (2D) speaker configurations such as 5.1 and 7.1. Since MDA is not channel based, there is no restriction or mandate on the number of speakers that can be used to represent the resolution of a multi-dimensional audio soundscape. Yet, MDA program playback easily maps to any number of speakers in any configuration a listener may have, from stereo, to 11.1 and beyond.

With applications ranging from D-Cinema to mobile devices, commercial releases of the MDA creation tools and MDA players are expected to be made available in Q2 of this year. For more information about MDA creation or playback tools, this announcement, SRS or our technologies, please contact us at [e-mail] or visit us on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. For parties interested in learning more about MDA Specification 1.0 or becoming a member of the 3D Audio Alliance (3DAA), please contact [e-mail].

SRS Labs’ company description and important cautions regarding forward-looking statements made in this release is available at www.srslabs.com/boilerplate.

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