Coding Technologies Signs Broad aacPlus License with Nokia

Nuremberg, Germany, July 7, 2004 - Coding Technologies, world leading provider of audio compression for mobile, broadcasting and the Internet, today announced a major licensing deal with Nokia. The agreement enables Nokia to incorporate Coding Technologies’ internationally standardized aacPlus audio codec in future Nokia products.

Coding Technologies confirms that aacPlus, the world’s most efficient audio compression scheme, has already been adopted by mobile operators like SK Telecom, Vodafone and mmO2 for their mobile music services, which are expected to drive the market as the next killer application for 2.5 and 3G networks. By offering highest audio quality at lowest bit rates, aacPlus is the enabling factor for the technical and economic feasibility of such services.

Operators can expect a broad operational availability of aacPlus for their service offerings like music downloads, streaming or true-music ring tones. aacPlus is a part of the open standards world and is fully specified in MPEG-4.

“As world’s leader in mobile communications, Nokia has tremendous influence on the direction of the mobile industry”, says Oliver Kunz, Vice President Strategic Marketing at Coding Technologies. “We are very excited to provide aacPlus to Nokia and we look forward to this new era of mobile multimedia.”

MPEG-4 aacPlus
MPEG-4 aacPlus is AAC coupled with Coding Technologies Spectral Band Replication (SBR) and Parametric Stereo technologies. SBR is a unique bandwidth extension technique, which enables audio codecs to deliver the same quality at half the bit rate. Parametric Stereo significantly increases the codec efficiency a second time for low-bit-rate stereo signals. Both SBR and Parametric Stereo are backward and forward compatible methods to enhance the efficiency of any audio codec.

As a result, aacPlus delivers streaming and downloadable 5.1 multichannel audio at 128 Kbps, near CD-quality stereo at 32 Kbps, excellent quality stereo at 24 Kbps, and good quality for mixed content even below 16 Kbps mono. This level of efficiency fundamentally enables new applications in the markets of mobile and digital broadcast.

aacPlus is the latest MPEG-4 Audio technology. aacPlus v1 was standardized by MPEG as MPEG-4 HE AAC. Now, with the addition of Parametric Stereo, aacPlus v2 is the state of- the-art low bit rate open standards audio codec.

aacPlus is available on a variety of hardware platforms for a broad range of application fields in the professional and consumer space. For more information on implementations and licensing, please contact info@codingtechnologies.com

About Coding Technologies
Coding Technologies provides the best audio compression for mobile, broadcasting, and Internet. SBR™ (Spectral Band Replication) from Coding Technologies is a backward and forward compatible method to enhance the efficiency of any audio codec; putting the "PRO" in mp3PRO and the "Plus" in aacPlus. Parametric Stereo from Coding Technologies and Philips again significantly increases the efficiency of audio codecs for stereo signals at low bit rates. Products from Coding Technologies are fundamental enablers of open standards such as MPEG, Digital Radio Mondiale, HD Radio, and the DVD Forum.

Coding Technologies is a privately held company with offices in Sweden, Germany, and Silicon Valley. Founded in 1997 in Stockholm, the company later merged with a spin-off of the renowned Fraunhofer Institute in Germany, the inventor of MP3. Coding Technologies’ customers include Real Networks, XM Satellite Radio, iBiquity Digital, SK Telecom, mmO2, Thomson, Musicmatch and Texas Instruments.

For more information, visit www.codingtechnologies.com and www.mp3prozone.com