MPEG-4 Becoming Louder, Clearer?

The push to make MPEG-4 the de-facto standard for digital
media distribution
will receive a shot in the arm with the expected adoption of the aacPlus, a
component that enables the delivery of high-quality audio codecs at half the
bit rate of existing technology.


MPEG-4, for the uninitiated, allows a single form of compression on all
media players and it has
become quite popular among the developer crowd because of the ability to add
text, animations and graphics in an object-based setting.

The new technology, from Swedish firm Coding Technologies is
expected to gain acceptance at a March vote to become the core component of
MPEG-4 Audio but even as the announcement set tongues wagging in the digital
media sector, analysts are cautioning the standards groups is still far away
from replacing propriety technologies from powerhouses like Microsoft and RealNetworks .

“The addition of this new component will definitely benefit the growth of
MPEG-4. The compression issue around any audio or video distribution is
always key,” said Michael Hoch, research director at
Aberdeen Group. “When you’re delivering audio and video on the low end and
on wireless platforms, it is logical to choose something that allows low
compression,” Hoch said of the move to adopt aacPlus.

While the move to add accPlus won’t necessarily displace the original MPEG-4
audio standard, Hoch believes it widens the choice for mobile and digital
broadcast companies looking to make use of a low bit-rate delivery
mechanism.

Coding Technologies said aacPlus was a combination of MPEG AAC and its own
Spectral Band Replication (SBR) technology. The SBR bandwidth extension
technique allows audio codecs to deliver the same quality at half the bit
rate. Because SBR is a backward and forward compatible method to enhance
the
efficiency of any audio codec, the company said aacPlus would deliver
streaming, as well as download,
CD-quality stereo at 48 kbps and excellent quality stereo at 32 kbps.

“This level of efficiency fundamentally enables new applications in the
markets of mobile and digital broadcast,” the company said.

Aberdeen Group’s Hoch agreed the addition of aacPlus opens up new markets
but he cautioned that the wireless sector, particularly in North America,
was still not advanced enough to make this a huge breakthrough. “Even at 46
kilobits per second, it’s still going to be too big for any North American
wireless network. For Europe and Asia, it makes a lot more sense.”

Steve Vonder Haar, an analyst with Interactive Media
Strategies
sees the upcoming adoption of aacPlus as an incremental
add-on to the MPEG-4 foundation. “This illustrates that there can be an
ongoing evolution of the MPEG-4 standard with improvements to help it stay
relevant in the marketplace,” Vonder Haar said. “Anything that helps MPEG-4
address the issue of improving quality helps the standard gain more traction
in the market. If you can make the audio file smaller and maintain high
quality, that is a positive development for
MPEG-4.”

Like Aberdeen Group’s Hoch, Vonder Haar sees aacPlus finding fans among
wireless clients. “Obviously, on wireless networks, you need to get the
packets as small as possible. Wireless is the one venue where data size is
at the most premium. Anything that helps reduce the bandwidth burden can
help further adoption of the standard,” he said.

Ryan Jones of the Yankee Group did not share Coding Technologies’ enthusiasm
for the coming adoption of the aacPlus componet. “This isn’t terribly
significant. Basically, it enhances the value proposition of MPEG-4 overall
but it won’t end up replacing MP3 for pureplay audio. Yes, it give you a
smaller file size but I don’t think it fundamentally changes the dynamics of
the industry,” Jones told internetnews.com.


For discussions of pricing issues, please see page 2

Analysts: pricing remains a sticky issue


Even as Coding Technologies has begun deploying aacPlus and licensing
libraries and reference source code on Mac OS X, Win32, Linux and multiple
DSPs, analysts believe the MPEG-4 standards body still have mountains of
hurdles to overcome to realistically pose a challenge to the proprietary
encoding formats from Microsoft and RealNetworks.

“The biggest concern around MPEG right now is the pricing issue,” Hoch
warned, arguing that the proposal by patent holders in the MPEG-LA umbrella
“makes it unaffordable to even use the standard.”

That’s still a big thing that has to be resolved. I expect that to be a key
part of the discussions at this final stage,” Hoch said.

The history of a pricing structure for the licensing of MPEG-4 has been filled with
controversy
. Immediately after RealNetworks announced it would support
MPEG-4, the 18 patent holders within MPEG-LA set its licensing fees at 25
cents per encoders and decoders for personal use, with a $1 million cap.
The terms included a two cents per hour fee that would be charged for all
streaming.

The furor eventually
subsided
but there is lingering distrust among many key players, least
of all RealNetworks. CEO Rob Glaser is on record as saying
the licensing terms could put the technology on the path of becoming
“irrelevant.”

Yankee Group’s Ryan Jones agrees the pricing issue remains a sticky one.


“They have reached agreements for smaller operators. I think there are
reasonable pricing caps in place that encourages innovation. The royalty
rates have been set to scale along with the size of the business but they
still have to sort that out properly,” Jones said.

Another headache for the standards body is the lack of digital rights
management (DRM) capabilities to protect content delivered in MPEG-4.
Without viable DRM software in place, Jones believes content producers
would still narrow the choice down to Microsoft and RealNetworks for
encoding because DRM tools are fitted within a single encoding platform.

“It is a big concern among many media companies, big and small,” Jones said.
“MPEG-4 is already at a disadvantage because of the installed base of media
players from Microsoft and Real. That popularity is very difficult to
overcome. The DRM hurdle is a huge one,” he said. MPEG-4 allows content
producers to use interfaces to accept third-party DRM software but because
it is left so wide open, Jones believes it is a turn-off. “Content owners
are going to Microsoft and Real because they want a single solution on a
single platform. That is something MPEG-4 has to figure out.”

Despite the pricing and DRM limitations, Jones believes MPEG-4 will become
the de-facto standard on wireless platforms, adding it remains attractive
because it solves many problems in the digital media delivery industry.

The standard continues to win support from a slew of big-name technology
firms, including Texas Instruments, Envivio and even rival RealNetworks.

Envivio and Real have tweaked its
partnership
to develop a mobile media encoder for the wireless sector
and IP video streaming play Sigma Designs has put its MPEG-4 decoder chips
in broadband set-top boxes and consumer appliances.

The Milpitas, Calif.-based Sigma Designs, which markets MPEG decoding for
streaming video, DVD playback and digital set-top, said a wide range of
consumer appliances and set-top boxes are being rolled out based on its
EM8470 or EM8500 series of MPEG-4 decoder chips.

“Digital entertainment features include MPEG-2 or MPEG-4 video-on-demand,
hard disc storage for direct media download and playback, and full-featured
Web browsing…MPEG-4 technology is quickly making its way into the next
generation of DVD players, PVR appliances, IP video set-top boxes and
digital cable set-top boxes,” the company said, touting MPEG-4’s compression
efficiency as a key to deliver video products and services over
bandwidth-limited networks.

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