QDESIGN
ANNOUNCES RAVESOUND FOR UNRIVALED AUDIO QUALITY AT LOW DATA RATES
RaveSound Technology
Delivers 44.1kHz Stereo over 28.8K Modem
Vancouver, Canada (January 6, 1998) - QDesign Corporation
announced the release of RaveSound, the company's new breakthrough audio
compression technology targeted at delivering high quality audio for very
low bitrate applications such as the Internet. RaveSound, the technology
behind the QDesign Music Codec ("QDMC") has been licensedby Apple Computer,
Inc. and is integrated into QuickTime 3.0, the latestversion of Apple's
award-winning, industry-standard software architecture for creating and
publishing digital media for Mac OS and Windows.
RaveSound represents a fundamentally new approach in audio coding that
enables it to reduce an audio file to as little as one percent of its
original file size while maintaining audio fidelity. Unlike MPEG or Dolby
AC-3,RaveSound is optimized for producing full bandwidth, 44.1kHz stereo
soundfor delivery over a 28.8K modem.
"QDesign is committed to providing the highest possible audio qualityto
meet the needs of the entire spectrum of audio for new media application.",said
Richard J. Beaton, president and founder of QDesign. "We developed the
world's first MPEG-2 stereo compression software for broadcasters becauseof
the demand for a software-only implementation of the standard that would
provide broadcasters with a flexible and cost-effective means for audio
storage and transmission. MPEG was designed to provide CD-quality sound
for studio and broadcast applications at higher bitrates. Bandwidth-limited
Internet applications, however, demand a fundamentally different approach
to achieve high quality audio at modem data rates. The RaveSound algorithmbuilds
a model of the signal, separating the signal into perceptually-relevant'audio
building blocks' which can be efficiently encoded for transmissionor storage.
This model allows RaveSound to minimize audible distortionwell below the
bitrates attained by perceptual coding systems such as MPEG,and makes
it possible to achieve truly high quality audio at extraordinarily low
data rates."
The QDesign Music Codec ("QDMC") is the QuickTime implementation of the
RaveSound technology. The QDMC decoder and an "SE" version of the encoder
have been licensed to Apple Computer for integration into QuickTime 3.0
as the Internet audio solution for QuickTime developers. A Developer Preview
Release is available for immediate download at http://www.apple.com/quicktime/preview.
"The licensing of QDMC to Apple represents a strategic move onQDesign's
part to ensure the RaveSound technology gets to developers who value high
quality content most, the QuickTime developers," said Mandy Chan, director
of marketing for QDesign. "QuickTime is the standardplatform for media
publishing and playback. QuickTime has already handledthe challenges of
media synchronization and packaging. Now that QDMC isa standard audio
format in QuickTime, developers will be able to add voice,sound effects,
and music to any video, animation or graphics media formatsupported by
QuickTime for truly compelling websites and presentationsthat will playback
across Mac OS and Windows."
With the support of QDMC in QuickTime, the RaveSound technology establishes
itself as a standard for all applications and media devices that require
high quality audio. QDesign expects that QuickTime 3.0 will be the ubiquitous
media player of choice.
The RaveSound technology is available on both the Mac OS and Windows platform.
For details regarding technology licensing, please contact QDesign at
enquiries@qdesign.com.
About QDesign Corporation: Based in Vancouver,
Canada, QDesign is a privately held company which develops and markets
state-of-the-art audio compression technologies tothe broadcast and new
media industry. The company introduced the world's first real-time, studio-quality
MPEG-2 stereo compression software in October1996; making available for
the first time, high-quality, high-performance MPEG sound to all broadcast
and studio professionals. QDesign is pioneering another breakthrough in
audio compression with the QDesign Music Codec technology for Internet
and new media applications. QDesign customers include internationalbroadcasters
such as Associated Press, BBC, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation(CBC),
CBS News, and Sony Worldwide Networks. QDesign technology has been used
by multimedia producers such as Broderbund and in new media applications
from innovators such as Iomega. Visit QDesign's home page at www.qdesign.com.
* The QDesign logo and i-Media Audio are registered trademarks of QDesignCorporation.
Contact:
QDesign Corporation
media@qdesign.com
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