Omnia A/X Software Gives Streaming Audio Power, Presence
Multi-band Software Audio Processor Now Shipping
29 October 2003, Cleveland, Ohio USA
Soon, the Internet will sound cleaner, clearer and brighter — thanks to Omnia A/X, the new software audio processor designed expressly for streaming audio. Omnia A/X works with third-party streaming audio encoders to bring audio workstations the power, clarity, punch and purity that are the hallmarks of Omnia broadcast processing.
Omnia A/X is a pure software audio processor for Windows® PCs, cleaning and conditioning audio prior to encoding for significantly improved sound quality. It works seamlessly with most applications that use the standard Windows WAVEIN/OUT driver interface, including Windows Media, Real™, and MP3 streaming encoders, making Omnia A/X perfectly suited to the needs of Internet broadcasters and audio production professionals for applications such as webcasting, satellite distribution, point-to-point audio streaming and video post-production.
“One of the most common questions we hear regarding bit-reduced audio is ‘Will pre-processing make my Web streams sound better?’” relates Frank Foti, President of Omnia Audio. “The answer is unequivocally ‘yes.’ As speech and music are bitrate-reduced, their audio quality degrades. Omnia A/X provides precision peak control and frequency response to prevent distortion and artifacts in encoded audio.”
The multi-band processing delivered by Omnia A/X is accomplished entirely in software — a major technology breakthrough. “Past attempts at processing audio on PCs needed outboard hardware or PC cards to do their work,” explains Foti. “Today’s P3 and P4 processors have enormous amounts of processing power, and Omnia A/X is written in compact, low-overhead code that runs native on Windows PCs. The result is less complexity, and lower cost.”
Omnia A/X features a wide range of professional processing controls, including wideband AGC (Automatic Gain Control), a three-band combined AGC/Limiter, high frequency EQ and an adjustable-bandwidth low pass filter. Most importantly, since clipped audio translates into digital artifacts when encoded by perceptual audio coders, Omnia A/X features a high-accuracy look-ahead final limiterto prevent clipping. Resulting streams are cleaner and clearer, with presence, detail and transparency.
A variety of processing presets are included with Omnia A/X to help users achieve significantly improved audio almost immediately. Presets can be used as starting points for custom-made processing configurations, which can be saved and recalled instantly.
Omnia A/X is now shipping to clients worldwide. It runs on any Pentium-III 800 MHz or higher PC with Windows 2000, NT or XP, and retails for a suggested $595.00 US. For more information, call Omnia Audio at +1-216-241-7225, or visit www.omniaaudio.com.
Omnia A/X — from Omnia Audio
(You can download a print-quality version of this screenshot at ftp://ftp.telos.cc/omnia/pix/OmniaAX_1.05.tif)
Omnia, a Telos company, is world-renowned for its digital audio signal processing expertise. Omnia audio processors for FM, AM, TV, HD Radio &DAB, Internet, and audio production are setting new standards for professional audio quality.