> If you don't know about some projects, do you (the others as wel, of course)
> maybe care to share your views/opinions about the future of mpeg4 as a new
> and better audio coding system.
I feel most comfortable predicting success in these
three relatively narrow areas:
[1] Content developers using MP4-SA, in conjunction
with other MP4 Audio formats, as the file format
for "works in progress". The vision is, just like
all sorts of production tools support MIDI and
AES/EBU and other open formats today, MP4-SA gets
added to the list, as the way to exchange audio
under construction.
[2] As an extension of [1], MP4-SA becomes the
format for applications where "audio under
construction" needs to be the format for the
end user as well. This can range from music for
interactive entertainment like games, where the
game play modulates the music, to music that
looks up the local weather on a website on each
play and modulates the audio to suit the weather,
to applications like long-distance audiology tests
over the Internet.
[3] Finally, and closest to what you're asking about,
audio targeted for communication channels so tight,
that the artists are willing to choose both SAOL
models of soundmaking and perhaps algorithmic
composition techniques as compression. For example,
Eric Schierer's "beat.saol" example, that ships with
sfront/examples, is a 60-second, interesting composition
that has an MP4 file under 3 Kbytes. There may be
applications where it makes sense to pay composers
to write to Kbyte/minute specs, just like composers
get paid for weird formats like 15-second radio jingles
-- one obvious app is background music for cellphones.
Basically, these sorts of things have, in VC-speak,
"sustainable competitive advantages" over a data
based format, without having to predict any technology
breakthroughs on the encoding side. The real competition
to an open standard like MP4-SA is the various proprietory
formats taking hold for some of these niches -- I haven't
done real research, but I assume the "buzz" associated
with both Beatnik and Shockwave map to some market
penetration as computational audio formats (I could be
totally wrong on Shockwave -- I'm assuming the audio
part is normative and computational ...).
Basically, if MP4-SA becomes successful in the narrow
areas above, it has "crossed the chasm" into finding
a vertical market that uses it. Once that happens,
especially if it results in good decoders in desktop
media players like Windows Media Player, Real Audio,
WinAmp, Xmms, ect, then the stage is set for advances
in using MP4-SA for general-purpose coding to make
a real-world impact.
--jl
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Jan 28 2002 - 11:46:38 EST