Sonaptic 3D Positional Audio Adopted for New NTT DoCoMo FOMA 901i Series Mobile Phones – Global Sound

Global Sound – High Wycombe, England (PRWEB) December 15, 2004

Sonaptic Limited, a leading developer of Advanced Audio Technologies for the Mobile Device market, today announced that its Next Generation 3D Positional Audio Technology has been adopted by NEC, Fujitsu and Mitsubishi Electric Company for the N901iC, F901iC and D901i 3G FOMA™ phones, announced on November 17th by NTT DoCoMo. The company’s advanced technologies provide high quality 3D Positional Audio and are especially created for the low power, low resource requirements of the Mobile Device environment.

3D Positional Audio adds new dimensions to the user experience allowing applications to place multiple sound sources in 3-dimensional space around the user. Sonaptic’s technologies offer a considerable advancement in 3D sound realism and quality for mobile devices. Sonaptic’s technologies allow excellent quality 3D Positional Audio to be delivered to the user through a headset or through stereo microspeakers built into the device. Mobile Phone speakers are placed very close together, due to the physical size of the device. Delivery of high quality 3D Audio through such closely spaced sound emitters represents a considerable audio engineering challenge. Sonaptic’s technology is portable and has been implemented on the leading chipsets and platforms. The company’s technology is also available in LSI solutions from Yamaha and Rohm.

The new DoCoMo devices will support multi-channel audio content for games and music as well as voice applications. The technology brings new and exciting possibilities for the production of content such as “i-appli®”, “Chaku Mero“ (Ringtones), “Chaku Uta™”, and “i-motion®”in the Japanese market.

Sonaptic provides tools to enable content developers to create exciting new 3D Positional Audio content effectively. A VST plug-in allows creators of musical content to use this familiar tool for the creation of pre-processed iMotion 3D audio for the DoCoMo platform.

“We are very proud to be able to support NTT DoCoMo by incorporating our 3D Positional Audio technology in the majority of these new exciting and innovative devices,” said David Monteith, Managing Director of Sonaptic. “DoCoMo’s 901i handsets set new standards in mobile multimedia entertainment, enabling an exciting range of content, including amazing Ringtones, Music and Games in which the listener will be totally immersed in sound.”

Mr. Hideyuki Sasou, Director of Mobile Phone Division, Fujitsu Limited, Japan, commented, “We expect that Sonaptic’s 3D Positional Audio technology, used in our new product, will raise the possibility for mobile phones to be the new entertainment device in the future.”

Mr. Takashi Kokubo, an environmental music composer known for providing environmental music for “Roppongi Hills Arena” and surrounding environmental music for “Ikspiari” (Maihama) of the Tokyo Disney Resort, commented, “My encounter with Sonaptic’s technology has warmed my spirit as a creator of sound, and Ihave not been this excited for a while. The 3D sounds I have created run through the senses and dance with delight. Using Sonaptic’s 3D Positional Audio technology I can create a real soundscape and a sense of sound movement, which gives a whole new meaning to the existence of sound. I see a new era beginning for sound, mankind and the environment.”

Sonaptic Limited

Sonaptic Limited was founded in 2002 to develop a new generation of multi-channel 3D Positional Audio for mobile devices. Sonaptic is committed to continuous innovation and development to create effective and efficient technologies for next-generation portable audio devices and has successfully ported the technology to a number of leading platforms. Sonaptic technology produces incredibly authentic Audio realism on both stereo microspeakers and stereo headphones and Sonaptic can provide acoustic design expertise to assist manufacturers in creating effective 3D Audio devices. Sonaptic technology is based on over 12 years of research by the company’s founders, initially at EMI Music’s Central Research Laboratories in the 1990’s. LSI solutions containing the company’s technologies are available from Yamaha and Rohm. Sonaptic’s Japanese office, Sonaptic K.K., was established in March 2004.

To learn more about Sonaptic please visit our website at http://www.sonaptic.com

FOMA is a registered trademark of NTT DoCoMo, Inc. in Japan and other countries.

i-appli and i-motion is a registered trademark of NTT DoCoMo, Inc. in Japan.

Chaku Uta is a registered trademark of Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) Inc.

Press Contacts:

Japan

Kazuhiro Amemiya, Market Communications Department

Sonaptic Japan Office

ICK-4F, 1-42-5 Chuo, Nkano-ku, Tokyo 164-0011, Japan.

Tel: +81 03-3365-0554

Email: kamemiya@sonaptic.com

(Media contact)

Sonaptic Public Relations Office

TOCS Inc.

Ohmiya / Takahashi

Tel: 03-3261-7715

E-mail : sonaptic@pr-tocs.co.jp

UK and Europe

Ken Norbury, Director, Sales and Marketing

Sonaptic Limited

Chancery Court, Lincolns Inn, Lincoln Road, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, HP12 3RE, U.K.

Tel: +44 (0) 7785 976391

Web: http://www.sonaptic.com Email: mail@sonaptic.com

United States and Canada

Mark Klonower

Sonaptic US Office

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