NEC today announcedd the successful development of a cutting-edge audio coding algorithm as the extension of the current "MPEG AAC (Advanced Audio Coding)" technology. MPEG-4 AAC is the high-quality general audio coder standardized by ISO. CD-quality sound realised by AAC requires 96Kbps of stereo. NEC's new , MPEG-4 AAC Ext.1 codec has been developed to further decrease bit-rate while maintaining the same audio quality.

The advantage of the new technology is that it realises higher sound quality at lower bit-rates enabling audio services on bandwidth-constrained networks. For example,. 128 kbps of stereo CD quality (MP3) can be encoded into only 48Kbps, an approximate reduction of 50% from MPEG-4 AAC's current requirement of 96Kbps. The new MPEG-4 AAC Ext.1 coding technology also supports high compatibility with current MPEG-4 AAC.

NEC has developed the Low-Complexity Decoding Algorithm for mobile devices. This algorithm decreased the volume of calculations by 25% while maintaining current standards in sound quality. The impact for mobile terminals is the advantage of quality audio with lower power consumption.

NEC will demonstrate this technology at 3GSM World Congress and examine feasibility for adoption into mobile services for real-time, high audio-quality music delivery services.