INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATION FOR STANDARDISATION
ORGANISATION INTERNATIONALE DE NORMALISATION
ISO/IEC JTC1/SC29/WG11
CODING OF MOVING PICTURES AND AUDIO
ISO/IEC JTC1/SC29/WG11
MPEG98/N2253 (Audio)
July 1998/Dublin
Source: Audio Subgroup
Title: Audio Press Release of the 44th MPEG Meeting
Format for music synthesis harmonised across industry
Dublin, Ireland, July 1998 - Subjective tests have shown that MPEG-4 Audio offers better quality than analogue for AM radio. They also show that scaleable MPEG-4 Audio coders work better for 'digital AM Radio' than the simulcast options.
An agreement was reached on a new format for wavetable synthesis, which will harmonise the previously fragmented marketplace. MPEG-4 Structured Audio includes this format.
The technical specification for Intellectual Property Management and Protection (IPMP) in MPEG-4 was finalised. The specification, that will allow the play back of protected content in an MPEG-4 system, will now be tested in a demonstration platform.
The 44th MPEG meeting took place from 6 - 10 July, in Dublin, Ireland, at the invitation of National Standards Authority of Ireland and hosted by Teltec Ireland and Radio Telefís Éireann (RTE).
At this meeting, several real-time demonstrations showed that MPEG-4 technology is real. These included a PC-system with several simultaneous video streams, graphical elements and interactive menus, an interactive 3D virtual world with integrated sound and video, an MPEG-4 broadcast system, and systems showing 2D Animated Mesh and Face Animation working in 'software-only' forms on PC and workstation platforms.
MPEG-4 Version 1 is ready in October; the backward compatible version 2 will follow a year later.
Free MPEG-4 software released for implementation of MPEG-4 compliant systems
A software implementation of MPEG-4 Visual part of the standard was released for public use. It can be utilised by anyone wishing to implement an MPEG-4 compliant system, and is free of copyright. Such software exists for all parts of the standard. It was decided to add support for the coding of multiple alpha planes within one bitstream, for instance to convey transparency or depth, e.g. for 3D Video. Other work for version 2 focuses at scaleable coding of arbitrary shaped video objects, error resilient coding of still textures, and flexible access to parts of large textures.
Structured Audio in harmony with MIDI
An agreement was reached on a common format which harmonises methods for creating sounds with popular "wavetable synthesis" technology. Main actors in this agreement were Creative Technology Ltd, and Microsoft Corporation, in collaboration with the MIDI Manufacturers Association (MMA). This agreement builds on MMA's current specifications and extends them for use in MPEG-4 structured Audio.
Through this agreement, the previously fragmented marketplace for hardware and software synthesisers has been unified in a single direction. This makes it much simpler for musicians to create music which plays accurately on a broad range of platforms, for companies to create hardware and software to support the format, and ensures that every synthesiser will have access to playing the broadest range of content.
MPEG-4 Audio for digital AM broadcasting
The first formal tests on MPEG-4 Audio codecs were completed, based on collaboration between MPEG and the NADIB (Narrowband Digital Audio Broadcasting) Group. These tests explored the performance of speech and music coders working in the bitrate range 6 kb/s to 24 kb/s, including some scaleable codec options. The results show that a significant improvement in quality can be offered in relation to conventional analogue AM broadcasting and that scaleable coders offer superior performance to simulcast operations.
Text-to-speech combined with Facial Animation gives attractive possibilities at almost no bandwidth
The MPEG-4 Text to Speech Interface (TTSI) and the Face and Body Animation (FBA) have been aligned, so that they are now mutually supportive. The mechanism identified carries ‘Markup language’ information with the TTSI text stream to ensure synchronisation between the two functionalities. This means that a marked-up text can be used to drive both the speech synthesis and the facial animation, allowing audiovisual communication and presentation at extremely low bitrates (some hundreds of bits per second).
Further progress on MPEG-2 AAC and "one-stop" access
A technical corrigendum to MPEG-2 Advance Audio Coding was finalised, so that AAC now includes the feature of dynamic range control. This means that all aspects of IS 13818 (MPEG-2) have been updated to include the use of AAC coding.
Agreement on the means of MPEG-2 AAC licensing was announced at the Dublin meeting of MPEG. Four companies owning patents and copyright covering AAC have agreed the terms under which AAC technology can be licensed and a "one-stop" point of contact is provided. Interested parties are referred to AAC Licensing Administrator, Dolby Laboratories, fax: +1 415 863 1373.
Future MPEG meetings will be held in Israel (December '98), Korea (March '99), Canada (July '99), Australia (October '99) and Hawaii (December '99)
For further information about MPEG, please contact:
Dr. Leonardo Chiariglione, (Convenor of MPEG)
CSELT
Via G. Reiss Romoli, 274
10148 Torino, ITALY
Tel.: +39 11 228 6120; Fax: +39 11 228 6299
Email: leonardo.chiariglione@cselt.it
This press release and a wealth of other MPEG-related information can be found on the MPEG homepage:
http://www.cselt.it/mpeg
The MPEG homepage has links to other MPEG pages, which are maintained by some of the subgroups. It also contains links to public documents that are freely available for download to non-MPEG members.
Journalists that wish to receive MPEG Press Releases automatically can contact the author:
Rob Koenen
KPN Research, Netherlands
tel. +31 70 332 5310
fax +31 70 332 5567
Email: r.h.koenen@research.kpn.com
For more information, check the full Press Release of the 44th MPEG Meeting.
Heiko Purnhagen 18-Aug-1998