Cupertino, CA. With uncompressed audio over the net weighing in at upwards of 500 kbits/second, and the most heavily compressed speech files moving at around 8 kbits/second, Apple Computer figures there’s room for a new bandwidth-saving approach to moving speech across the web.

Apple engineers think the answer may be SPIDI (Streamed Phoneme Intonation Description Interchange), which couples a MIDI-like data description protocol with Apple’s speech synthesis software technology. Their goal is to provide natural, human-like speech at a very low bandwidth for interactive multimedia distribution.

Rather than encoding audio data in terms of digital samples, SPIDI represents speech as a sequence of basic sound units, or phonemes, combined with information about the rhythm and inflection of these sounds. The result is a form of synthetic speech which captures the emotion and emphasis used by human speakers, but which takes up only about 0.8 K bits per second of transmission bandwidth.

Creation of data in the SPIDI format requires a special authoring tool which uses speech recognition to extract vocal inflections from recorded human speech. SPIDI’s inflected data is played back using Apple’s existing synthetic voices (PlainTalk system software).

The SPIDI team is developing cross-platform player components that will be integrated into the QuickTime Media Layer (QTML) architecture. If they get the job done, it will mean that spoken-word audio can be delivered over the Internet without disruption even in low-bandwidth settings. The technology is also said to address the media authoring problem of maintaining lip synch.

Consumer audio trend setter Altec Lansing Technologies is making a hard pitch to capture “mind share” at the Fall’96 COMDEX computing technology exhibition this week. Altec’s focus is on the audio side of the new media convergence that is one of the big movements afoot at the show, which continues throughout the week in Las Vegas.

Convergence in this context means the combination of computing, multimedia, communications, networking, and home appliance technologies, to create new possibilities and impact in home entertainment and leisure activities.

Altec is offering its spin on new media technology with a multimedia theater presentation called “Sound Matters,” at its booth at The Sands Convention Center. Visitors are invited to explore a number of futuristic interactive computer systems demonstrating DVD-Audio, Dolby Digital Surround™, Internet Audio, and audio connectivity through Universal Serial Bus (USB), Firewire (IEEE-1394 protocol), and RF digital wireless technologies.

“We are announcing nine specific technology initiatives designed to provide advanced audio for emerging technologies,” says Edward Anchel, Altec’s President and CEO. “As a result of these initiatives, computer users will enjoy better quality audio than they have ever heard before because of the array of new technologies and products we will deliver to the computer market.”

A key introduction is a PC speaker system that Altec says will be the market’s first USB audio peripheral. Universal System Bus changes the computer audio environment by integrating speaker system functions with the host PC’s internal audio circuitry, allowing direct digital audio streaming to the speakers.

Altec’s first USB speaker system will include proprietary firmware and software, along with an Intel 80930AE chip. The software will function as a user-friendly control interface for the PC audio environment. The system will support multichannel sound streaming that will have applications for communications and video conferencing, as well as for music and gaming audio.

Altec Lansing has also announced that it will develop multichannel direct streaming audio to its speaker systems via the even speedier and higher-bandwidth “Firewire” protocol, also known as IEEE-1394.

Another of Altec’s new initiatives showcased at COMDEX demonstrates discrete multichannel audio delivered by DVD (Digital Versatile Disc). The demonstration focuses on Dolby® Digital Surround (AC3), encoded as six discrete channels, and streamed as compressed digital data to Altec’s USB speaker system. Altec will implement a system of this kind for home theatre applications.

The third key area of Altec Lansing’s COMDEX roll-out introduces high-quality wireless audio transmission for use with computers and home theater systems. The technology involves proprietary compression algorithms and modulation techniques to enable the delivery of audio via spread-spectrum digital RF transmission.

San Diego, CA. Pacific Research & Engineering today announced the roll out of AirWave™, their first on-air broadcast console targeted specifically to medium- and smaller-market stations.

The AirWave console is expected to hit the market in January 1997. It will be available in two models, each priced for the budgets of stations in middle to smaller markets.

Jack Williams, CEO of PR&E, touted engineering and manufacturing innovations as the keys to producing a high-quality broadcast solution while keeping it affordable for the nearly 4,000 radio stations in ADI’s 31-260.

“Our engineers have gone to great lengths to develop AirWave to the benchmark PR&E quality and reliability standards found in our high-end consoles,” commented Williams. “Fewer bells and whistles on this console, but standard features include all the technological essentials to provide operators with the flexibility and confidence to produce quality broadcasts day in and day out,” he added.

The console features welded steel construction which renders structural strength and stability for long-term usage. The steel mainframe completely encloses the electronics, providing shielding from radio frequency interference.

Much like its high-end console cousins, AirWave comes as a mainframe with a channel configuration determined by the customer. AirWave is a low-profile console designed for tabletop or inset mounting. Accessory blank panel positions give operators console customization advantages.

Other standard features include a unique preamplifier module containing five high-performance microphone preamplifiers with phantom power, balanced patch points, a stereo program-1 / program-2 / monaural output module, a dual remote line selector module, and a timer control module. AirWave also provides monitor facilities for control room, studio, co-host and guest headphone systems; four illuminated Sifam meters; assignable A/B input control logic; built-in cue-speaker and operator’s room headphone amplifier; and built-in studio talk-back microphone.

PR&E has also announced financial results for the third quarter of its fiscal year, which ended September 30. Revenue for the third quarter was $2.3 million (U.S.), up 51.9 percent over the same quarter last year. Net income after taxes was $65,000 (U.S.).

Williams attributed the sales increase to the recent approval of the telecommunications reform bill. “Radio stations and their ownership groups had placed equipment purchases on hold while this bill was being developed. With the approval of the bill allowing for multiple station ownership, we’ve seen an increase in demand for our equipment from new second-tier clients, and we’ve positioned ourselves to meet that demand and continue to grow.”

In addition to the AirWave console, the company has said that it will introduce a line of modular, ready-to-assemble studio furniture in early 1997.

Erlangen, Germany. WorldSpace and Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits reached a milestone in the development of their direct satellite audio technology last week.

The next satellite generation of radio is driving toward reality. WorldSpace and the Fraunhofer Institutehave demonstrated that a satellite direct-to-person audio receiver with small efficient antennas works.

In experiments throughout September, at Fraunhofer’s laboratory in Erlangen, engineers used a helicopter equipped with a digital transmitter to simulate direct satellite transmission to prototype receivers in several environments. The tests demonstrated the WorldSpace system will send digital audio and multimedia signals directly to listeners who are driving in their cars, walking along the road or sitting in their homes.

“This demonstration proves that the WorldSpace system will work for people on the move throughout Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Latin America and the Caribbean,” said Noah A. Samara, Chairman and CEO of WorldSpace, after driving along streets and highways around Erlangen while listening to CD-quality sound being broadcast from the helicopter. “It was a wonderful trip.”

Beginning in mid-1998, WorldSpace plans to launch three geostationary satellites that will broadcast audio and multimedia programs to a potential audience of more than four billion people in Africa and the Middle East, Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean. The system will offer hundreds of near-CD quality audio and multimedia channels to consumers equipped with personal, portable receivers.

The Fraunhofer Institute is a pioneer in digital audio broadcast. Their software engineers have developed a customized version of MPEG II Layer 3 digital compression which makes it possible for WorldSpace satellites to broadcast good quality audio transmission at rates as low as 16 kilobits per second. Further development and implementation tests of the WorldSpace system will continue in Erlangen over the next several months.