Microsoft Licenses xHE-AAC Audio Codec Software from Fraunhofer IIS

Fraunhofer IIS announced the licensing of its xHE-AAC and MPEG-D DRC software implementation to Microsoft Corp. Consumer devices powered by the latest Android, and Apple operating systems all support the most efficient AAC codec with mandatory MPEG-D DRC loudness and dynamic range control metadata – delivering a seamless streaming experience on any device in any environment. A rapidly growing number of platforms and playback devices already support xHE-AAC decoding natively, and now Microsoft can join the improved experience.

Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS, the inventor of mp3 and primary developer of the xHE-AAC and MPEG-H Audio standards, announced that NXP Semiconductors has licensed Fraunhofer’s MPEG audio SDK. The complete software package covers four generations of audio codecs, from legacy MPEG Layer-1/2/3 to the next-generation MPEG-H 3D Audio standard and the AAC codec family, including xHE-AAC. NXP will incorporate these codecs in home entertainment product development, from set-top boxes and soundbars to smart speakers.

A rapidly growing number of platforms and playback devices now support xHE-AAC decoding natively, which means interrupted or buffering audio and video streams are becoming a thing of the past. Consumer devices powered by the latest Android, Fire and Apple operating systems support the most efficient AAC codec with mandatory MPEG-D DRC loudness and dynamic range control metadata – delivering a seamless streaming experience on any device in any environment.

With the release of the Android P beta 3 preview, Fraunhofer IIS announces a new version of the popular FDK library which has been a part of Android since 2012. The FDK2 version will bring several new technologies to Android OEMs, service providers and developers, including xHE-AAC for video and music delivery down to 12kbit/s for stereo sound and MPEG-D DRC dynamic range control for better listening in noisy environments. An important update for a very fragmented platform.

To encourage adoption of the highest efficiency encoding audio technology, world-wide intellectual property solutions provider, Via Licensing, announced the upcoming availability of Extended High Efficiency AAC (xHE-AAC) as part of the Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) patent pool. The expanded patent pool license will be available at no additional cost to licensees, starting in Q4 of 2017. This will enable audio streaming services to adopt the most efficient encoding technology available, at lower costs.

At the IBC 2015 show there was a unique chance to compare how really efficient audio compression algorithms have become, from mp3 and ogg-vorbis to AAC, HE-AAC and the new xHE-AAC, optimized for speech and music transmission with very low bit rates. The Fraunhofer Institute For Integrated Circuits IIS together with Modulation Index promoted the demonstration.