In Broadcast - September 2013 - 64

I N T E R N A T I O N A L

WWW.INBROADCAST.COM | ISSUE 23 - SEPTEMBER 2013

N E W S

InSIGHT

Orban: Ensuring Uncompromised Quality
Of Entertainment-Grade Streaming Audio
2013 marks the ten-year Anniversary of HE-AAC...

By Peter Lee
General Manager, Orban

decade ago, bringing
entertainment-grade audio
quality to Internet streaming
required uneconomically high
bitrate s that compromise d
reliability. Recognising this, Orban
embarked on an ambitious project
to make entertainment-quality
streaming economically feasible
and rock-solid. Under the direction
of Greg Ogonowski, VP Product
Development, Orban brought HEAAC to the Internet for streaming
audio. Opticodec-PC became the
ﬁrst commercially available HE-AAC
streaming encoder. Now, some ten
years later, HE-AAC has displaced
MP3 and WMA, and changed the
way Internet streaming is perceived
and consumed.
What Is HE-AAC? HE-AAC
(High Efﬁciency AAC, also known
as aacPlus™ by the original
developers, Coding Technologies), is
audio compression technology that
provides near-CD-quality using very
little network bandwidth. It combines
MPEG AAC and SBR (Spectral
Band Replication) technology. This
combination increases the efﬁciency
of MPEG AAC, resulting in superior
ﬁdelity compared to MP3, Windows
Media, Real Audio, and Ogg Opus
at bitrates of 64 kbps and lower.
(At 96 kbps and higher, pure AAC
offers similar advantages over these
older codecs.)

A

64

MP3 is dead – long live HE-AAC,
says Orban

HE-AAC efﬁciency makes it the
perfect choice for streaming audio
over the Internet. Since Orban ﬁrst
brought HE-AAC to this medium in
2003, HE-AAC has been adopted
and supported by Adobe Flash,
Microsoft Windows 7/8, Apple
OS/iOS, and most mobile
phones produced within the
last ten years.
MP3 and WMA are 20-year-old
technologies that have outlived their
usefulness. Because HE-AAC at 48
kbps can produce better subjective
quality than MP3 at 128 kbps, 128
kbps is no longer needed to achieve
entertainment-quality streaming.
State-of-the-art streams use HEAAC instead of inefﬁcient MP3 and
WMA to create better audio quality
at lower bitrates. It is no longer
possible to assess streaming audio
quality by bitrate alone.
To achieve the best audio quality
from HE-AAC, your application
developers need to understand its
technology thoroughly. Although
development for HE-AAC is not
quite as easy as it is for MP3, the
payoff is well worth the effort. Many
developers do not adequately
understand HE-AAC audio, or even
audio applications, for that matter.
Choose your developers wisely.
HE-AAC streaming is an enabler.
No longer bound by the coverage
limitations of terrestrial broadcast
or satellite radio, content providers
can ﬁnally reach a global audience
with even better audio quality.
HE-AAC allows content to be
monetised via global marketing and
advertising campaigns.
HE-AAC streaming is a game
changer - truly an incentive to
“think different.”
Adapt or die. You cannot afford
NOT to stream using HE-AAC today.
The HE-AAC Streaming
Advantage: The next generation
of MPEG-standard audio codec
technology is here to stay. HE-AAC
(formerly aacPlus) has the following
advantages over legacy MP3 or
WMA; MP3 and WMA are dead ,
and here’s why:
1. No streaming royalties required:
Many people don’t know that MP3

Orban’s Optimod – PC 1101

streaming requires paying
2% of revenue for streaming
royalties. The only way to avoid
this is to have non-proﬁt status,
but commercial radio stations and
netcasters do not qualify.
Technicolor, the current licensee of
MP3, will eventually send an invoice
to those in non-compliance and not
already paying MP3 royalties. On
the other hand, licensed AAC/HEAAC encoders include a one-time
royalty fee that is included with the
purchase. No additional licensing
fees are required.

2. Lower cost to stream:
Streaming server providers and
content distribution networks have
data plans that are less expensive
than MP3 or WMA while achieving
better audio quality and reliability.
3. Lower cost to listen, especially
for mobile data plans: Can be
up to four times lighter on data
consumption to the consumer,
which is very important to those
with monthly data caps.
4. Higher efﬁciency: HE-AAC at
32kbps can deliver 16kHz audio
bandwidth in stereo, while 128kbps
produces swishy-sounding MP3
or WMA. MP3 and WMA are
20-year-old technologies. They use
dated algorithms that are not as
effective and efﬁcient as HE-AAC.
More information here: Codec

Parameters AAC HE-AAC and
Codec Parameters MP3.
Streaming to iPhone over mobile
cellular networks requires streams
to be 64kbps or less. MP3 cannot
deliver full-bandwidth stereo audio
at that bitrate, and what it does
deliver sounds awful. HE-AAC
delivers full high-fidelity stereo
audio at 64kbps or even lower
with no problem.
5. Increased reliability: Today’s
crowded mobile networks need all
the help they can get to prevent
dropouts and interruptions. Despite
the billions of ad dollars spent by
the wireless companies telling you
they can “hang the moon,” none of
them can actually “ﬁnd the hook.”
6. Competitive, better, newer
generation, and higher performance
audio codec: MPEG-4 AAC, the
core audio codec for HE-AAC, is
the codec of choice for the most
popular downloadable music
service, Apple iTunes. It is a world
standard. Rigorous, double-blind
listening tests have revealed that
AAC/HE-AAC is far superior to MP3
and WMA, and the codecs used for
HD and satellite radio.
7. Natively supported: HE-AAC is
now natively supported in Adobe
Flash, Microsoft Windows 7/8, Apple
OS/iOS, and most mobile phones
produced within the last ten years.
8. AAC/HE-AAC: Beyond Stereo.
Now available for stereo-compatible
5.1 surround, using either discrete
or high-efficiency “parametric
surround” technology.
The Orban Optimod-PC
Audio Processing Sound
Card Advantage:
CONTINUED ON PAGE 65

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/dir/?first=Phillip&last=Izzard&search=Go https://twitter.com/inbroadcast http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpzEatLsHdE&feature=youtube_gdata_player https://www.facebook.com/InBroadcast http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/inbroadcast/id468652679?mt=8 https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.branded.inbroadcast&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwyLDEsImNvbS5icmFuZGVkLmluYnJvYWRjYXN0Il0. http://www.inbroadcast.com http://www.orban.com/products/streaming/optimod-pc1101/ ftp://ftp.orban.com/1010/Documentation/CodecParameters_AAC_HE-AAC.pdf ftp://ftp.orban.com/1010/Documentation/CodecParameters_MP3.pdf http://www.orban.com/ http://mp3licensing.com/royalty/ ftp://ftp.orban.com/1010/Documentation/CodecParameters_AAC_HE-AAC.pdf

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