Codec comes face-to-face with reduced bandwidth

Cisco is using the MPEG-4 AAC-Low Delay codec from the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS to transmit audio in the Cisco TelePresence meeting solution, which transcends traditional video to provide a 'face-to-face' meeting experience through a simple interface. The Fraunhofer codec provides a realistic sound image through several channels of full-bandwidth, music-quality audio, with the low-latency delay needed for interactive conversations. 'We chose Fraunhofer not only because it invented the technology, but because of its outstanding technical reputation, which was clear in the process of integration of the technology'.

'When coupled with Cisco's hardware and echo control software, the quality of the audio experience was fantastic', said Philip Graham, Senior Director of Engineering for Cisco's TelePresence Systems Business Unit.

'Fraunhofer is pleased to have a leader such as Cisco join the many companies using AAC-Low Delay for interactive conferencing'.

'The Cisco TelePresence system offers a new level of realism in conferences that needs the super-wideband fidelity of our codec', said Harald Popp, Head of the Multimedia Realtime Systems department at Fraunhofer IIS.

AAC-LD is a low-delay version of the MPEG AAC codec family, which includes the AAC-LC codec used by the iPod and ISDB television, as well as the HE-AAC codec used in XM Radio and 3G mobile music download services.

Developed by Fraunhofer IIS, AAC-LD offers similar audio quality to music codecs with coding delays of only 20ms instead of 100ms or more.

An open international standard, MPEG-4 AAC-LD is the predominant codec for next-generation audio and video conferencing systems offering realistic audio fidelity.

AAC-LD is also used in broadcasting and communication systems for music-quality audio transmission where delay is a factor.