QDesign
Launches Secure, Scalable Digital Music Platform Solution
New
QDX Format Provides Better-Than-MP3 Audio Quality & Exclusive Features
To Heighten Consumer, Label Experience
July 24, 2000 - New York, Jupiter Plug.In, Booth #39
-- QDesign Corporation, a leading provider of advanced digital audio compression
technologies for the new media, broadcast and Internet delivery markets,
today announced the launch of a next generation technology designed to
enhance the digital music experience for both consumers and content providers.
Distinguished by exclusive features that ensure unequalled ease of use
among consumers and content providers, the new QDX format offers better-than-MP3
audio quality and an unprecedented level of flexibility for music download
and streaming.
The QDX technology is based on two fundamental concepts,
audio quality and size scalability. Fully optimized for Internet streaming,
QDX provides the highest audio compression at the highest quality, delivering
-- in one single file -- both CD-quality audio at 128kbits (12:1 compression)
and full-bandwidth stereo at 24kbits (60:1 compression). QDX also supports
inherent bitstream scalability that offers users the unique Fit-To-Media™
and Fit-To-Stream™ capabilities.
QDX's Fit-To-Media™ function allows consumers to simply
click-and-drag personal playlists to portable players without ever needing
to transcode or convert music files. Using QDX Fit-to-Media™ users can
automatically store up to 2.5 hours of music on a 32MB portable digital
music player, compared to the maximum of approximately 30 minutes of MP3
files. Encoding music to QDX simplifies the transfer process and users
are freed from worry about available memory, transcoding, bit rates, sample
rates, file sizes, or storing multiple versions of songs at various bit
rates. To get maximum music "to go," consumers need only to know how many
songs they wish to fit onto their digital music player.
The Fit-To-Stream™ feature of QDX offers "master once,
deliver everywhere" flexibility, meaning a single source file is all that
is required to stream top-quality music over the widest array of modem
speeds, bandwidths and connections. This "on-the-fly" scalability results
in reduced asset management overhead for the music providers and consistent
delivery of the best possible quality audio according to consumers' available
connection or storage. Optimization of subscriber access and convenience
allows record companies and other music producers/distributors to capitalize
on the Internet's key asset - the ability to deliver personalized content
on demand, anytime and anywhere.
In addition to compression quality and user convenience
features, QDX offers copyright owners the benefit of an unpublished format
with integrated encryption and watermarking which contribute to preventing
access to content by unauthorized players. QDX is designed for SDMI compliance
and is compatible with the InterTrust's MetaTrust Utility ™ and other
industry-approved digital rights management/copyright protection measures.
"Each new generation of audio technology, from vinyl to
CD, has offered consumers significant enhancements to the listening experience,"
said Richard J. Beaton, President and CTO of QDesign Corporation. "QDX
takes digital music to the next level, providing not only fidelity but
unparalleled flexibility in streaming audio to both wired and wireless
consumers."
Further details are contained in a White
Paper available from the QDesign web site at www.QDesign.com; highlights
are also available at the QDesign web site. QDX is being demonstrated
at the Jupiter Plug.In Forum & Exhibition, Booth #39, Sheraton Hotel &
Towers, NYC, July 24 (8:00 am-6:00 pm) - July 25 (8:00 am-5:30 pm).
Availability - Fall 2000 QDX is supported in Version 2.0 of MVP, QDesign's
cross-platform, multi-format, multi-purpose music & video player/encoder
application. A Software Development Kit for both MacOS and Windows will
be available to third-party application developers with support for QDX
encoding and playback as well as the Fit-to-Media™ and Fit-to-Stream™.
The QDX decoder is available now to all portable device manufacturers
on the Texas Instrument C5410 and C5416 chipsets; complete reference designs
supporting QDX are available from QDesign partners eDigital (www.edig.com)
and PortalPlayer (www.portalplayer.com).
An ARM-based implementation of the QDX decoder will be available to all
other devices this fall. Please contact Mandy Chan, VP of Business Development
at licensing@qdesign.com or 1.604.377.6575
for complete licensing information.
About QDesign
From the release of the world's first real-time MP2 audio compression
software in 1996 to the introduction of its own MP3 and QDesign Music
technologies, QDesign has established itself as the leading provider of
the most advanced audio compression solutions in the broadcast, new media
and Internet delivery markets. Since the inclusion of the QDesign Music
Codec in Apple QuickTime as the audio compression solution for Internet
streaming, multimedia authoring and digital music, QDesign has received
numerous industry accolades for delivering the best web audio technology.
Last fall, the company introduced digital music to the masses with "MVP",
the first software application for creating and managing the most complete
range of music and video formats on both Mac OS and Windows platforms.
Today, QDesign's audio technologies appear in hardware
processors, digital audio production, automation and distribution systems
as well as consumer multimedia software. QDesign is a founding member
of the Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI), the Recording Industry
Association of America (RIAA) organization for developing solutions to
protect content owners rights for managing access and distribution of
their content. For more information on QDesign and its products, please
visit: www.qdesign.com.
Contact: John Rowe
media@qdesign.com
|
