SAN
JOSE, CA., and ‘s-Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands, August 3rd 2009 – ARC International (LSE: ARK) and SiTel
Semiconductor announced today a collaboration effort to provide superior voice
clarity for phones implementing SiTel’s
high performance chips and ARC’s new Vocal Clarity post-processing software.
The improvements in voice clarity and audio fidelity represent a quantum step
forward in voice communication.
Voice
clarity and audio improvement have been anxiously anticipated by major phone
Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) striving to enhance their phone’s
performance to deliver a superior end-user experience. The jointly integrated audio solution will
result in much clearer voice recognition, without the need to increase the peak
amplitude of the incoming voice stream. Such perceived volume increases with
ARC’s unique pseudo wideband extensions will dramatically ease listener fatigue
and improve comprehension in noisy environments, even if the incoming voice is
distorted or received with relatively low signal strength. The ARC Vocal
Clarity software for cordless phones will run on SiTel’s “Gen2DSP” processor.
This Gen2DSP co-processor is included in all SiTel SC14480 and SC14450 series
cordless phone chips as a standard.
ARC’s
unique Vocal Clarity Software is a subset of a broad range of technologies
included in ARC’s Sonic Focus Audio post- processing software enrichment
technology. Sonic Focus Audio IP has
been successfully deployed in over 25 million products by major Personal
Computer (PC) OEMs delivering superior sound quality to the consumer. The Sonic
Focus technology enables superior audio and voice quality for all classes of
consumer products, including mobile and portable devices, while also lowering
overall power consumption with the potential to reduce build-of-material (BoM)
costs. The ARC Sound-to-Silicon
solution integrates the ARC Sound multi-standard audio processor with industry
standard codecs and ARC’s Sonic Focus Sound enhancement technology, and is the
only single-source vertically integrated solution that provides IC and system
designers with a low cost solution for superior sound quality and voice
clarity.
“We
identified the potential of ARC’s Sonics Focus Audio Enrichment technology to
help improve SiTel’s DECT solutions’ voice clarity. When watching an action
movie with lots of background noise, with actors having meaningful
conversations, the overall sound quality and voice intelligibility dramatically
improved when Sonic Focus was turned on.
Suddenly, the actors’ conversation became clearer and a lot easier to
understand”, said Asmund Tielens, SiTel’s CEO. “Our goal by working with ARC is
to bring this voice clarity feature into every phone conversation. I am
confident that any DECT phone using SiTel’s enhanced vocal clarity DECT IC will
produce clearer voices which are better to understand than in any other phone
in the market today.”
“We
are delighted that SiTel Semiconductor has chosen to partner with ARC for the
implementation of our Sonic Focus Vocal Clarity technology in support of their
industry leading OEM solutions. Having one of the world’s leading SoC companies
in voice telephony endorse our audio solution confirms the unique value of our
IP in this huge market space” said Sean Redmond, VP of Worldwide Sales and Marketing,
ARC International. “Working with Sitel
has proven to be a mutually valuable partnership that will successfully deliver
superior voice experience to OEM companies and their consumers.”
# # #
About SiTel Semiconductor BV
SiTel Semiconductor BV was established in June 2005, following a management
buy-out from National Semiconductor Corporation. Headquartered in
‘s-Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands. SiTel is a fabless IC manufacturer with
design centers in The Netherlands and Greece along with regional sales offices
in Hong Kong, Japan and the U.S. The company specializes in the design,
manufacturing and marketing of high-performance CMOS solutions for digital
cordless and corded communication and is the world’s number one DCT supplier
for cordless voice, real-time data and VoIP.
For more information, please visit www.sitelsemi.com
About ARC International plc
ARC International
is a world leading provider of consumer IP to OEM and semiconductor companies
globally. ARC’s award-winning,
vertically integrated audio and video solutions enable high quality multimedia
content to be captured, shared, and played on a wide range of electronics
devices. ARC’s 150+ customers
collectively ship hundreds of millions of ARC-Based™ chips annually
in products such as Mobile TVs, Portable Media Players, WiFi-/WiMAX-enabled
computers, flash storage, digital cameras, network appliances, and medical and
government systems.
ARC
International maintains a worldwide presence with corporate and research and
development offices in San Jose and Lake Tahoe, Calif., St. Albans, England,
and St. Petersburg, Russia. For more
information, visit www.ARC.com. ARC
International is listed on the London Stock Exchange as ARC International plc
(LSE: ARK).
ARC, ARC-Based, and Sonic Focus are trademarks or
registered trademarks of ARC International with the U.S. Patent and Trademark
Office and other international trademark organizations. All other brands or
product names contained herein are the property of their respective owners. This press release may contain certain "forward-looking
statements" that involve risks and uncertainties, including the
development, implementation, and release of features described herein. These
are at the sole discretion of ARC International. Licenses from 3rd parties for
certain software and essential patents may be required depending on licensee's
use/implementation. For other factors that could cause actual results to
differ, visit the company’s Website as well as the listing particulars filed
with the United Kingdom Listing Authority and the Registrar of Companies in
England and Wales.
SiTel's Media Contact:
Barbara Janmaat-Van Arkel
SiTel Semiconductor B.V
+3173 6408341
marcom@sitelsemi.com
