SK Telecom and LG Electronics Introduce Phone Powered by Audience Voice
Processor
SEOUL, South Korea, July 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Audience, a leading voice
processor company specializing in advanced noise suppression, said today
that it has officially launched its business in Korea. The company has been
working closely with major mobile customers in Korea, including SK Telecom
and LG Electronics, and is increasing its presence in the local market with
the opening of a new support office in Seoul. With the Audience Voice
Processor providing advanced non-stationary noise suppression in the LG
Electronics LG-SH400 mobile phone launched by SK Telecom last week, Korean
mobile users now have access to a leading-edge cell phone which delivers
clear communications anywhere.
"We are thrilled to be working with such an innovative company as
Audience," said Byungrok Jung, SKT Manager of Mobile Device Team. "Audience
has the most impressive advanced noise suppression solution in the market,
and we believe that our customers will have a much better communications
experience in noisy places."
The Audience Voice Processor is the first custom IC that is modeled
after the most efficient and accurate auditory system, the human hearing
system. By understanding the entire auditory pathway - from the cochlea to
the brainstem to the thalamus and cortex - Audience is the first company to
deliver a commercial product based on the science of Auditory Scene
Analysis (ASA), or the grouping and processing of complex mixtures of
sound. Because the Audience Voice Processor handles signals the way people
actually perceive specific sounds, it is able to identify and suppress
noise sources in an extremely efficient and accurate manner.
As voice is the primary application for mobile phone usage, it remains
at the top of consumers' minds for improvements in their phones. According
to a 2007 survey of 15,000 consumers in 37 countries by Global Mobile
Mindset, consumers wanted "louder, clearer voice quality" from their cell
phones. Voice quality ranked as one of the top 5 improvements requested.
Just as the human auditory system can readily ignore background noises
while focusing on a voice of interest, Audience's technology enables
instantaneous noise suppression up to 25 dB for both stationary and
non-stationary noise sources to provide unparalleled voice quality within
even the noisiest environments.
Using this proprietary core technology, the Audience A1010 Voice
Processor provides the most powerful and robust noise suppression
technology available today. By using a mobile handset that has the A1010
embedded in it, the caller can eliminate most of the background stationary
and non-stationary noise sources -- such as airport PA systems, restaurant
noise, car noise, acoustic echo and street noise -- regardless of whether
the noise is local to the caller or remote over the mobile network. This
results in a higher quality user experience, as well as stress-free and
more productive voice communications over mobile networks or VoIP
applications, such as PC telephony and video conferencing, in places before
unimagined.
"With the Audience Voice Processor embedded in their mobile handsets,
people will be able to hear and be heard everywhere from their cell phones,
even in the noisiest places," said Jennifer Stagnaro, Audience VP of
Marketing. "By mimicking the human auditory system, our new processor
defines a new standard for robust noise suppression, enabling unprecedented
voice quality and more usability of rich voice and data applications."
"We are pleased to have an opportunity to provide mobile handsets
installed with our leading-edge noise suppression technology to SK Telecom,
Korea's largest mobile operator, through LG Electronics," said Peter
Santos, CEO of Audience. "With Audience, Korean mobile users can benefit
from experience with much improved communications quality." He added that
the company was looking for more business opportunities to contribute to
providing better communications quality service to a larger number of
mobile users in Korea, which is considered one of the key mobile markets in
the world.
About Audience
Audience is a voice processor company that enables clear communications
anywhere with noise suppression technology based on the intelligence of the
human hearing system. The technology is applicable across a broad range of
consumer products where voice needs to be intelligible in noisy
environments, and its first commercial product is for the mobile handset
market. Audience was selected as the Most Innovative True Mobile Start-Up
for the "2008 GSMA Mobile Innovation Global Awards." The company is one of
34 founding member companies of the Open Handset Alliance and the only one
with advanced noise suppression technology. Investors in Audience include
Vulcan Capital, NEA, Tallwood Venture Capital and VentureTech Alliance.
Audience, http://www.audience.com, is based in Mountain View, California.
For more information, visit http://www.audience.com
SOURCE Audience
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Related links:
http://www.audience.com/
CONTACT:
Sacha Arts of Slider & Associates for
Audience, +1-408-356-3099, sacha@sliderassociates.com; Brian Bae,
011-9330-1038, bbae@hoffman.com, Soonyoung Chung, 010 4745 7098,
sychung@hoffman.com, or Sungkoog Hong, 016 348 1601,
shong@hoffman.com, all of The Hoffman Agency for Audience
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