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Siren (codec)

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Siren is a patented, transform-based, wideband audio codec developed and licensed by Polycom, Inc. There are three Siren codecs: Siren 7, Siren 14 and Siren 22.

Siren 7 provides 7 kHz audio, bit rates 16, 24, 32 kbps and sampling frequency 16 kHz. ITU-T G.722.1 specification approved in 1999 is based on Siren 7, but provides only bit rates 24 kbps and 32 kbps.[1][2] The algorithm of Siren 7 is identical to its successor, G.722.1, although the data formats are slightly different.

Siren 14 provides 14 kHz audio, bit rates 24, 32, 48 kbps for mono, 48, 64, 96 kbps for stereo and sampling frequency 32 kHz. Siren 14 supports stereo and mono audio. It offers 40 millisecond algorithmic delay, using 20 millisecond frame lengths. The mono version of Siren 14 became ITU-T G.722.1C (14 kHz, 24/32/48 kbps) in April 2005.[3][4]

Siren 22 provides 22 kHz audio, sampling frequency 48 kHz, bit rates 64, 96, 128 kbps stereo and 32, 48, 64 kbps mono. Siren 22 offers 40 millisecond algorithmic delay using 20 millisecond frame lengths. In May 2008, ITU-T approved the new G.719 full-band codec which is based on Polycom Siren 22 audio technology and Ericsson’s advanced audio techniques.[5][6]

Software support

Siren 7 is commonly used in videoconferencing systems and is also part of Microsoft Office Communicator when using A/V conferencing. Microsoft Office Communications Server uses Siren 7 during audio conferencing. With the default Officed Communicator client, point to point audio is by default performed using Microsoft's proprietary code RTAudio. When a call is promoted into an audio conference (any time 3 or more participants have joined), the codec is switched on the fly to Siren. This is done for performance reasons.

In Windows XP, Siren 7 codec is implemented in %systemroot%\system32\SIRENACM.DLL. It is used by MSN Messenger for sending and receiving voice clips and also as one of the available codecs for the 'Computer Call' feature.[7][8][9]

FreeSWITCH communication open source software can do transcoding, conferencing and bridging of Siren 7/G.722.1 and Siren 14/G.722.1C audio formats.[10][11][12]

aMSN, an open source Windows Live Messenger clone uses open source library "libmsn", which includes "libsiren" for Siren audio compression and decompression.[13][14]

Licensing

Usage of Siren 7 and Siren 14 compressions require the licencing of patents from Polycom, in most countries. A royalty free licence for Siren 7 and Siren 14 is available from Polycom if certain fairly basic conditions are met.[11][15][16][17][2][18][19]

Usage of Siren 22 also require the licencing of patents from Polycom.[17]

See also

References

  1. ^ (2008-08-05) Polycom Enables Acceleration of HD Voice Adoption by Offering Royalty-Free Codec, Retrieved 2009-09-07
  2. ^ a b "Polycom Siren/G 722.1 FAQs". Polycom, Inc. Retrieved 2009-09-07.
  3. ^ Polycom, Inc. (2005-04-12) ITU Approves Polycom Siren14 as New International Standard, Retrieved 2009-09-07
  4. ^ "Polycom Siren 14/G 722.1C". Polycom, Inc. Retrieved 2009-09-07.
  5. ^ "Polycom Siren 22". Polycom, Inc. Retrieved 2009-09-07.
  6. ^ "G.719: The First ITU-T Standard for Full-Band Audio" (PDF). Polycom, Inc. 2009-04. Retrieved 2009-09-07. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  7. ^ "Siren". MultimediaWiki. Retrieved 2009-09-07.
  8. ^ "MPlayer - Status of codecs support". MultimediaWiki. Retrieved 2009-09-07.
  9. ^ Microsoft (2001-11). "Media Support in the Microsoft Windows Real-Time Communications Platform". Microsoft. Retrieved 2009-09-07. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  10. ^ "FreeSWITCH First to Support Polycom's 32khz HD-Audio". FreeSWITCH. 2008-12-15. Retrieved 2009-09-07.
  11. ^ a b "libg722_1 - COPYING". FreeSWITCH. Retrieved 2009-09-07.
  12. ^ "libg722_1 - README". FreeSWITCH. Retrieved 2009-09-07.
  13. ^ "Libmsn - is a reusable, open-source, fully documented library for connecting to Microsoft's MSN Messenger service". Libmsn project at Sourceforge.net. 2009. Retrieved 2009-09-07.
  14. ^ KaKaRoTo (2008-02-12) MSN Protocol documentation, Pidgin.im mailinglist, Retrieved 2009-09-08
  15. ^ Xiph.Org Foundation (2009). "CELT - Codec Feature Comparison". Xiph.Org Foundation. Retrieved 2009-09-07.
  16. ^ Xiph.Org Foundation (2006). "Speex - Codec Quality Comparison". Xiph.Org Foundation. Retrieved 2009-09-07.
  17. ^ a b Polycom, Inc. "Siren7/Siren14/G.719 License info". Polycom, Inc. Retrieved 2009-09-07.
  18. ^ Polycom, Inc. "Polycom Siren 14/G 722.1C FAQs - What are the terms on the free license?". Polycom, Inc. Retrieved 2009-09-07.
  19. ^ Greg Galitzine (2008-08-06). "Polycom CTO Discusses Siren 7 HD Voice Codec". TMCnet.com. Retrieved 2009-09-07.