MPEG-H audio update

The year 2019 got off to a sensational start at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, where Sony presented »360 Reality Audio«, a new streaming format for an immersive mu- sic experience based on the open MPEG-H Audio standard. By fall 2019, around 1,000 songs were available in 360 Reality Audio from labels such as Sony Music, Universal, and Warner, and the format can now be heard on some of the most famous music streaming services, including Amazon Music HD, Tidal, Deezer, and nugs.net.

As well as being a format for music streaming, MPEG-H was also developed specifically for UHDTV content. We were therefore able to achieve its incorporation into other standards during the reporting period: Brazil has now joined, China, Europe, and South Korea in including MPEG-H Audio in their digital TV standard (ISDB-Tb).

We achieved this partly by conducting numerous successful trials over the past year, in which we were able to demons- trate how reliably and straightforwardly MPEG-H can be integrated into existing systems. One particularly noteworthy example was the live transmission of the Rock in Rio concerts in Brazil with MPEG-H audio via ISDB-Tb and 5G.

Reliable tools are needed to ensure that productions run smoothly both live and in post-production. With this in mind, prominent manufacturers such as Blackmagic Design or New Audio Technology have expanded their range to include MPEG-H Audio. With the new MPEG-H Authoring Plug-in, we are also offering users an additional building block in the DAW production chain, which is constantly being improved and expanded.