According to AURO-3D, the AURO-CX Codec was designed for streaming but with applications in broadcast and has many advantages over existing Next Generation Audio codecs that make it desirable to the universe of content creators, content distributors, streaming services, and audio manufacturers. All these advantages are rooted in the codec's inherent scalability, which means less storage space and fewer encoding passes, both of which save considerable time, manpower, and costs.
Perhaps most notable is that AURO-CX enables scalable quality, meaning a variety of resolutions — from lossless, to transparent, to lossy — are included within a single bitstream thanks to multiple audio waveform coding techniques. Similarly, AURO-CX has scalable sample rates that allow a single bitstream to carry 48, 96, and 192kHz, giving the decoder the option to extract only what it needs from a single encode, depending on its capabilities.
"Thanks to AURO-CX’s scalable quality, content distributors have the flexibility to address multiple audiences using the same stream. A single stream can include high-res immersive audio for the audiophile community and lower bitrate mixes for a wider consumer audience," says Bert Van Daele, CTO of Newauro B.V. "Because AURO-CX is scalable, it is attractive to streaming services, which can make a single stream upgradeable for premium services. This is a powerful technology."
AURO-CX also has the flexibility to transmit objects embedded in the same bitstream for immersive audio. "Other formats have to extract objects from 7.1, resulting in a big reduction in audio quality, especially for the height channels in an immersive audio setup," adds Van Daele. "AURO does it differently. We embed objects in 13.1 immersive so that the user's 7.1 experience is more 3D due to higher-quality height information, allowing the mix to stay true to the artist’s intent and deliver to the end user what was heard in the studio."
In addition, AURO-CX supports a wide range of flexible broadcast features such as dialogue enhancement and localized audio for multiple languages. It also enables interactive and assistive audio, where the quality of the immersive experience can be set higher than the additional audio tracks, guaranteeing the best immersive experience while providing better access to all.
Since 2011, AURO-3D (former Auro Technologies) has pioneered true immersive sound experiences with a complete technology suite for both content creators and product developers. Originally conceived and developed by Wilfried Van Baelen in the famous Galaxy Studios in Mol, Belgium, AURO-3D's core techologies were always driven by some of the brightest engineers and creative minds.
Between 2011 and 2022, Auro Technologies NV was the first to introduce immersive sound in the audio industry. Starting in the professional cinema world, they further developed and marketed the AURO-3D technology suite to support integrations in leading brands of AVRs, soundbars, car audio systems and even set-top boxes, as well as providing cutting-edge creative tools for the artistic community.
In July 2022, the Saffelberg Investment group acquired all assets, teams and rights of AURO-3D and founded a new company, Newauro B.V., with the intention to further support the growth of the format and technology suite across all markets.
www.auro-3d.com
