How IP radio stations benefit from seamless streaming and exceptional sound.
Radio broadcast provides information, entertainment, and education to billions of people every day and all around the globe. In recent decades, this tried and true medium has been enhanced through IP radio. Today, almost every radio broadcaster also provides radio streaming services, catering to a broader audience and a plethora of receiving devices. Highly efficient audio codecs such as xHE-AAC* enable broadcasters to use the potential of their streaming channels to the fullest. Upgrading to such a codec not only delivers tangible benefits when it comes to consistent audio quality and great customer satisfaction, but can also contribute to economic efficiency.
At the Asian Broadcasting Union’s recent Digital Broadcasting Symposium in Kuala Lumpur, Fraunhofer IIS partnered with Broadcast Communications International (BCI) to hold a workshop in which they demonstrated the advantages of xHE-AAC for streaming. The Ferncast aixtream encoder was used to show a live audience how encoding workflows for audio streaming can effortlessly be set-up through the modular user interface of the aixtream software. Participants were particularly interested in easily achieving audio brilliance with fewer bits and improving audio quality at the same time.
xHE-AAC, the latest generation of the renowned AAC codecs, is the audio codec of choice for AV and audio-only services such as Netflix, Audible, Facebook, and Instagram. The technology was primarily developed by Fraunhofer IIS and is natively supported on the Amazon, Android, Microsoft, and Apple operating systems. On more than 5 billion devices, it enables users to enjoy uninterrupted streaming with all types of content, including IP radio. xHE-AAC offers maximum coding efficiency with a usable bit rate range that spans from 12 kbit/s to 320 kbit/s and above for stereo services. Combined with seamless bit rate adaptation using DASH and HLS, this enables operators to stream at lower bit rates with highly stable audio quality and to reduce buffering as well as transmission costs. Additionally, xHE-AAC’s built-in mandatory support for MPEG-D DRC loudness and dynamic range control ensures a great user experience with consistent loudness, eliminating the need of frequent volume riding.
*xHE-AAC is a registered trademark of Fraunhofer in Germany, the United States, and other countries.
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