Dive into the ecosystem of connectivity at MWC Barcelona 2023

Looking for connections is part of human nature. Discover the many faces connectivity in the 21 century can have at one of the most important events of the mobile technology industry.

The Mobile World Congress (MWC) is right around the corner and from February 28 to March 3, the world of communications looks to Barcelona. Of course, Fraunhofer IIS will be there, too, showcasing our technological innovations to leading companies, experts, and enthusiasts from around the world.

Visit us in Hall 7 at booth 7G31 to learn about the latest 5G solutions and their applications, get inspired by our key technologies for 6G, and hear superior, immersive and personalized sound on mobile devices, wireless headphones, and soundbars. Step into our soundproof rooms and experience how our AI-based, low complexity algorithms can filter out disturbing noise during audio or video calls.

The uphear range of Audio Processing Technologies

The upHear Spatial Microphone Processing technology has been designed to improve the audio capturing capabilities of professional and consumer devices using built-in microphones (e.g., mobile devices, action and 360° cameras, smart speakers and soundbars, audio and video conferencing solutions). By removing undesired noises, interfering sounds, and reverberation from the microphone signals, it extracts desired sounds such as speech and music even in demanding acoustic environments. With deep learning based AI noise reduction algorithms, it can extract speech while suppressing a large variety of noise types that can occur during audio calls and video recordings in indoor and outdoor situations.

The upHear Voice Quality Enhancement is an extension of this technology and enables human-machine interaction and hands-free full duplex voice communication using the built-in microphones of embedded devices.

MPEG-H Audio: Personalized and Immersive Sound for Broadcast and Streaming

MPEG-H Audio has made Next Generation Audio a reality and enables sophisticated broadcast and streaming functionalities as well as outstanding creative opportunities. It is the underlying codec for a broad range of customizable user experiences. In Brazil and South Korea, the technology already is on the air 24/7. MPEG-H Audio is also the basis of the 360 Reality Audio immersive music streaming services offered by Amazon Music Unlimited, Tidal, and others. Experience first-hand at MWC how MPEG-H Audio enables mobile devices to create superior, immersive and personalized sound.

Fraunhofer Cingo: For Truly Immersive Sound on Headphones

Cingo brings immersive sound to everyday life through your mobile device. It delivers best-in-class audio quality and is easy on the hardware, making it an optimal solution for DSPs integrated in mobile devices or even headphones, where processing power and power consumption are major concerns. When fed with head tracking-data, Cingo can create an even more realistic 3D sound experience by responding with minimal latency to the user’s head movement. As a state-of-the-art binauralizer, it is the ideal companion for Next Generation Audio Codecs such as MPEG-H Audio. Enjoy an interactive demo of Cingo, playing back MPEG-H content on mobile devices at our booth.

LC3/LC3plus: High-Quality Audio for Bluetooth, VoIP, and DECT

The new LC3/LC3plus audio codec addresses the drawbacks of today’s wireless communication platforms. By reducing the required bitrate by about 50 per cent compared to older codecs, LC3 and LC3plus enables energy-saving services, allowing longer battery life or the development of smaller products. Applications are not limited to voice services but can also be extended to high-quality music streaming. At the same time, the codec operates with low coding delay, low computational complexity, and small memory requirements. Recently, LC3plus has been certified for the Hi-Res Audio Wireless Logo of the Japanese Audio Society.

Goodbye to Interrupted or Buffering Audio and Video Streams – Thanks to xHE-AAC

xHE-AAC, the latest generation of the AAC codecs, is the ideal solution for today’s audio and video streaming services. Movies, music, audiobooks, podcasts, and digital radio – xHE-AAC serves them all. With a stereo bitrate range from 12 kbit/s to 500 kbit/s and higher, as well as improved speech quality and stereo imaging, xHE-AAC noticeably improves sound quality. xHE-AAC decoding is natively supported in Android, Fire OS, iOS, and Windows. It is already used by Netflix and just recently, Facebook licensed the xHE-AAC encoder. At MWC 2023, Fraunhofer shows its most recent feature: Live Automatic Loudness complements the already existing file-based encoding and is used for the encoding of live broadcasts and events.

Key Technologies for Your Path to 5G Advanced – and Beyond

Fraunhofer IIS is an internationally recognized partner for 5G technologies and their application. In recent years, we have been able to present the world premieres of RAT-dependent indoor localization with 5G and of the integration of satellite communication in 5G. Learn more about 5G Advanced at our booth– from automotive applications to satellite communications, from high-precision localization in industrial environments to the world of private networks with edge computing.

While the implementation of 5G technologies is still in full swing we already pave the way to 6G. Take a look at the future of connectivity as we showcase our “6G SENTINEL” project.

Learn more about our demos on our Fraunhofer IIS website.

We look forward to seeing you in Barcelona.

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