Via Licensing Launches MPEG-H 3D Audio Licensing Program

Looking at differentiated spatial audio designs? Via Licensing Corporation announced the creation and availability of an MPEG-H 3D Audio patent pool with eight participating members. These initial participants include Dolby, ETRI, Fraunhofer, Orange, Royal Philips, Sony Group Corp., VoiceAge, and WILUS. The new pool enables manufacturers, developers and implementors to license MPEG-H 3D Audio standard essential patents under fair and reasonable terms.

In this article for audioXpress, Hans W. Gierlich, managing director of HEAD acoustics, explains how to test the different performance parameters of smart speakers and smart home devices under real-life conditions, how to deal with the challenges of optimizing systems for voice and audio quality, how to simulate environmental conditions, user behavior, and test the performance of the various functionalities. This article was originally published in audioXpress, January 2019.

This article discusses the plan for the new MPEG-H Audio standard, a real-time 3-D audio encoder system with applications for broadcast and streaming distribution, developed in large part by the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany, and recently finalized and submitted as an ISO/MPEG standard.

The HDBaseT Alliance, the cross-industry group tasked with promoting and advancing HDBaseT standard, and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) announced at the 2015 International CES that the HDBaseT Specifications 1.1.0 and 2.0 have been approved by the IEEE Standards Association (IEEE-SA) Standards Board for adoption as part of the organization’s standard portfolio.

PCB Piezotronics’ Dr. Chad Walber was appointed as the Acoustical Society of America (ASA) Co-TAs representative to the International Standards committee (IEC TC 29). Dr. Walber was voted into this position by a panel of his peers who are distinguished members in the acoustics field. Membership includes sensor manufacturers, consultants and end users.