Skype to give away wideband audio codec
Skype this week said it will soon be offering royalty-free licenses to its new SILK wideband speech codec to interested third-party developers and hardware makers.
The wideband codec recently debuted as part of Skype 4.0 for Windows (with a Mac version coming in April.) With a claimed 400 million Skype users registered worldwide, the VoIP provider is apparently none too concerned about handing the competition keys to the kingdom without the usual charges.
Skype says it's offering the licenses gratis to "establish a new industry-wide standard in speech processing," ranging from web developers to chip manufacturers to mobile device makers.
SILK transfers audio between 8kHz to 12kHz, compared with the 300Hz to 3.4kHz signals from most telephone companies. That means the conversation will sound clearer and more life-like, assuming both ends are using the codec.
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