Archive notice: This article was originally published on January 6, 2009. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
Fraunhofer IIS is enabling the online distribution of surround music in cooperation with the entertainment industry, artists and device manufacturers.
At the international Consumer Electronics Show CES, held January 8–11 in Las Vegas, the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS is presenting MPEG Surround as a new standard for downloading 5.1 surround music. The Erlangen institute is also showing, for the first time, a prototype iPod docking station through which a conventional iPod plays MPEG Surround music at the highest quality.
MPEG Surround enables the distribution of 5.1 surround content over the internet. This will soon make 5.1 surround commonplace on PCs, in living rooms, in cars and even on portable devices such as iPods and mobile phones. A broad alliance of artists, producers and the music industry therefore supports the format.
“We are convinced that MPEG Surround is the key to distributing music, films and television content in 5.1 multichannel sound over the internet. It gives the music industry a way to sell iPod-compatible surround music through existing download or streaming portals,” said Harald Popp, Head of the Multimedia Real-Time Systems department at Fraunhofer IIS. He added: “That is why, in 2009, we are focusing on establishing MPEG Surround as the new standard format for multimedia-content downloads, just as we have already done for digital broadcasting. We are also providing optimized MPEG Surround software to help content providers, network operators, music stores and device manufacturers integrate it quickly.”
Record companies including Eagle Rock Entertainment and Telarc International support MPEG Surround. Renowned American producer and multiple Grammy winner George Massenburg is also enthusiastic: “As a mixing professional, surround music opens up a whole world of dramatic possibilities. I have long been looking for the right technology that lets everyone listen to this surround music easily and at the highest quality. It must integrate easily into existing distribution channels, provide a genuine stereo-downmix solution, be scalable and, of course, sound really good—good enough to pass modern, critical listening comparisons by independent professionals like me. That technology is MPEG Surround.”
Fraunhofer IIS is also demonstrating MPEG Surround in a car at CES, because modern vehicles provide excellent conditions for reproducing 5.1 surround music. In Las Vegas, Fraunhofer IIS is additionally presenting the new lossless HD-AAC coding method and the mp3D and SX Pro audio technologies. Further information is available in the trade-show section at http://www.iis.fraunhofer.de.