QDesign
Ships Windows™ ACM MPEG Codec
Encode MPEG
audio directly from the most popular audio applications, including Sound
Forge, Cakewalk, and Cool Edit.
Vancouver, BC Canada - January 26th, 1999 - QDesign
Corporation, a leading provider of audio compression technologies, announces
the release of the QDesign MPEG Layer II Audio Encoder and Decoder software
as a Microsoft Audio Compression Manager ("ACM") component. The availability
of the technology as an ACM component means that audio and multimedia
professionals are able to easily create CD-quality MPEG files from any
application that supports the Windows ACM architecture. The built-in ACM
support by one of the industry's most popular audio applications, Sound
Forge from Sonic Foundry [AMEX:SFO], means Sound Forge users are now able
to easily save their audio as an MPEG file directly from their open session.
With the QDesign MPEG ACM installed, users may even choose it as a streaming
format in Microsoft Netshow. The Microsoft Windows Media Player supports
full playback of QDesign's MPEG-1 Layer II files whether those files are
stored on local disk or "streamed."
"Compression is becoming an increasingly important part of the audio production
process," states Rimas Buinevicius, Chairman and CEO of Sonic Foundry,
Inc. "Collaborative production is very common whether it is for the remote
production of a voice-over or for auditioning talent. If you want to send
audio electronically, it must be compressed. With the QDesign MPEG ACM,
Sound Forge users are able to easily and quickly save a CD-quality audio
file to a fraction of its original size directly from their session. This
file can then be sent 6 times as quickly via the Internet or FTP than
a standard uncompressed wave file."
MPEG Layer II is the international standard for digital radio broadcast
and is widely used for program archival and transmission. Using QDesign's
MPEG Layer II technology, CD audio can be reduced to less than 20 percent
of its original file size with indistinguishable difference in quality
to the source. Based on an advanced implementation of the MPEG Layer II
standard, the QDesign MPEG ACM offers superior MPEG quality and performance.
CD-audio can be recorded to disk and/or streamed in real-time using computer
systems with Pentium 100MHz processors. On a higher end system, such as
a Pentium II 450MHz machine, encoding a 4 minute audio file with the QDesign
MPEG ACM takes as little as 22 seconds.
"Not all implementations of MPEG audio technologies are the same," says
Richard J. Beaton, President and CTO of QDesign. "While the QDesign MPEG
encoder/decoder technology is fully compliant to the International Standards
Organization (ISO) MPEG 1 and 2 Layer II standards, in excess of two-thirds
of the intellectual property (IP) in the QDesign MPEG is proprietary.
QDesign has heavily optimized both audio quality and encoder/decoder performance
to ensure it efficiently produces the highest possible MPEG quality."
QDesign's MPEG audio encoding and decoding technology is available for
licensing and as stand-alone and plug-in applications. The MPEG stand-alone
product for Windows 95/NT is US$299. The MPEG AudioSuite Plug-In for Pro
Tools 4 is US$495. The QDesign MPEG ACM is US$79. A few other applications
supporting Windows ACM include: CoolEdit 96 and CoolEdit Pro from Syntrillium
Software, Cakewalk Pro from Cakewalk, and many others.
About QDesign
QDesign Corporation develops and markets state-of-the art audio compression
technologies to the broadcast and new media industries. QDesign's technologies
appear in hardware processors, digital audio production systems, broadcast
automation and distribution systems as well as consumer multimedia applications.
The company's latest technology is the QDesign Music Codec - incorporated
as the audio compression solution in Apple QuickTime 3 for both MAC and
Windows OS - which streams 44.1kHz stereo sound at unprecedented quality
over a 28K modem. QDesign's technologies are used in Internet streaming,
production, archive, broadcast, and new media applications by organizations
including Apple Computer, Associated Press, BBC, Sony Worldwide Networks,
and Iomega.
Contact:
QDesign Corporation
media@qdesign.com
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