Fraunhofer Announces New EVS Audio Codec For 'Media-Quality' Full-HD Voice Calls

[Guest]

Fraunhofer, a German research company, announced an audio codec for high-quality fullband voice calls.

Fraunhofer Announces New EVS Audio Codec For 'Media-Quality' Full-HD Voice Calls : Read more

 

[magicandy]

For the unaware, Fraunhofer is the company that created the MP3 codec. Not sure why the article didn't mention that right off the bat, they're not just some random newcomer audio company.

 

[agnickolov]

It'd be quite useful if they tried to extend the range towards the lower end of the spectrum too, e.g. bass frequencies. Also, the chart shown is quite misleading since it is shown in a linear scale while audio frequencies are experienced by the human ear on a logarithmic scale. E.g. the expansion (over 7kHz), while certainly not insignificant, is not that big either. It's approximately 1.5 units on a base 2 logarithmic scale (2*sqrt(2)). For comparison, if the bass frequency range were to be improved 1.5 units it'd be extended to ~106Hz. The human ear can experience sound from 20Hz, so we have a lot more room for improvement there (about another 2.5 units). And the range 300Hz-7kHz has ~4.5 logarithmic units in it. The above numbers are all based on base 2 logarithms.

 

[HPBaumeister]

Hi - just to add to the last commenter's remarks: agnickolov is quite correct in saying that the lower frequencies are rather important as well in achieving better communications quality and a much better audio fidelity.
EVS does go down substantially lower than today's lower limit of 300 Hz for AMR or G.711: 50 Hz.
Keep in mind that usually only a fraction of the information that was exchanged during an interview actually gets into an article.
Journalists don't want to publish "White Papers", but rather inform the public about the major trends and key information/takeaways.
I am puzzled about the non-linear characteristic of human hearing however - can you explain/quote something here?

 

[HPBaumeister]

check @HPBaumeister for more

 

[BrandonYoung]

Hi - just to add to the last commenter's remarks: agnickolov is quite correct in saying that the lower frequencies are rather important as well in achieving better communications quality and a much better audio fidelity.
EVS does go down substantially lower than today's lower limit of 300 Hz for AMR or G.711: 50 Hz.
Keep in mind that usually only a fraction of the information that was exchanged during an interview actually gets into an article.
Journalists don't want to publish "White Papers", but rather inform the public about the major trends and key information/takeaways.
I am puzzled about the non-linear characteristic of human hearing however - can you explain/quote something here?

For a non-linear comparison of human hearing in reference to Hz:
take 20Hz -1000Hz, huge range of tones here, under 1KHz difference between the two. Now take 18,000Hz - 19,000Hz, almost no perceivable difference in tone, same 1KHz span.