Fraunhofer IIS, the world’s renowned source of audio and multimedia technologies, and innovative plug-in designer/manufacturer Sonnox Ltd bring their new professional audio workstation software plug-in to NAB. For the first time, this convenient tool enables broadcast, post-production, and audio professionals to use high-quality, bandwidth-saving MPEG audio codecs from the AAC and mp3 families directly in their favorite audio editing software.

At NAB, broadcast professionals will be able to gain a handson experience and learn from the product manager about the benefits of the plug-in for their everyday use that include the possibility to monitor the quality of each codec output in real-time.

Installing this plug-in in digital audio workstation software such as Pro Tools, Audition, Acid, WaveLab, Logic, or Cubase will allow files to be saved in formats such as AAC, HE-AAC, mp3, or the lossless formats HD-AAC and mp3HD. Additionally, the plug-in allows real-time “on-the-fly” monitoring of the codec output in the DAW software during mixing and mastering and is able to encode to multiple formats and bitrates simultaneously.

“At NAB, Fraunhofer will be showing a mastering-quality plug-in developed with Sonnox that will bring the audio quality and bandwidth savings of our codecs to the broadcast and professional markets,” says Robert Bleidt, General Manager Fraunhofer USA Digital Media Technologies. “For example, the use of HE-AAC for podcasts could save 2/3 of a station’s download bandwidth costs. Our codecs can also save downloading time and provide higher quality for demo and approval clips, or for sending voiceovers or actualities. With HE-AAC now supported in Windows Media Player 12, QuickTime, WinAmp, and Flash streaming as well as Android and iOS devices, we wanted to offer the industry a professional tool for preparing compact, quality content for these platforms.”

The plug-in is also the first professional production offering of Fraunhofer’s surround codecs mp3 Surround, AAC Multichannel, and HE-AAC Multichannel, enabling surround content to be encoded in these formats for gaming or electronic distribution.

Sonnox has developed an intuitive FFT display to illustrate the input signal, output difference signal, and a unique graphical indication of the audibility of codec-induced noise. The plugin offers decoder clipping meters to reveal potential decode overloads, instant A-B auditioning to enable engineers to glitchlessly switch between codecs, and an ABX blind listening mode to aid in codec comparisons.