Summary
“Genuine Radio” ™ AAC / HE-AACv1/ v2 / aacPlus Streaming from Orban—The World Leader in Transmission Audio Processing for Radio, TV, and DBS Broadcasting.
Features
Now Supports:
RTMP Flash Media Server
RTMP Wowza Media Server
RTSP/RTP QTSS/DSS Servers
RTP Real/Helix ™ Mobile Servers
HTTP/ICY SHOUTcast ™ / Icecast2 Servers
NEW!! – v3.1:
PE-Professional Edition
- Improved User Interface
- Reach more players and devices than any other encoder.
- Now supports MPEG-4 Flash.
- Now supports streaming to Apple iPhone / iPod Touch.
- Uses standards-based AAC/HE-AACv1/HE-AACv2 codecs and protocols.
- Achieves the best audio quality.
- Achieves the most cost effective streaming.
- Achieves the best streaming reliability.
- Supports standards-based realtime PAD metadata injection.
Opticodec-PC is the first MPEG-4 AAC/HE-AACv1/HE-AACv2 aka aacPlus™ encoding software for high quality streaming audio. Opticodec-PC offers the most important feature that the basic netcaster is looking for in an encoding product — entertainment-quality sound at economical bit-rates.
AAC/HE-AACv1/HE-AACv2 aka aacPlus™ is changing the way streaming audio and netcasting is perceived. For a given bitrate, it sonically outperforms any other codec currently available. It is perfect for crowded Intenet infrastructures and mobile streaming.
The software lets streaming providers supply content encoded with the Coding Technologies® AAC / HE-AACv1 / HE-AACv2 / aacPlus codec, widely acknowledged as offering the highest available audio quality at the lowest possible bit rate. Streams encoded with Opticodec-PC can be experienced through several players, including Adobe Flash, RealPlayer® , Winamp, Apple QuickTime, and many iPhone Players such as Tuner2 HiFi. Streams can be listed on Tuner2, a Directory service for AAC / HE-AACv1 / HE-AACv2 streams.
For the last 30 years, Orban’s patented Optimod technology has helped radio and television broadcasters everywhere shape their sound to grab and hold their listening audiences. Orban’s Optimod-PC 1101, a professional PCI sound card designed for streaming media, provides “genuine radio”™ audio processing for Internet broadcasters for professional smooth consistent level controlled audio. With three on-board DSP’s providing equalization, AGC, multi-band compression, and look-ahead limiting, Optimod-PC 1101, especially when combined with HE-AAC/aacPlus encoding technology, delivers a polished and produced stream that has the same loudness, consistency, and punch as major-market FM radio.
Opticodec-PC is available for Microsoft Windows® XP/Vista and 2003/2008 Server. It supplies streams compatible with the open standard RTSP/RTP free Darwin Streaming Server, available for multiple platforms including Linux®, FreeBSD®, Sun Solaris®, Microsoft Windows®, and Apple Macintosh®, the popular standard HTTP/ICY free Nullsoft SHOUTcast™ and Icecast2 servers, available for Microsoft Windows®, Linux®, FreeBSD®, and Sun Solaris®.
Opticodec-PC PE is offered solely in a premium package coupled with an Optimod-PC and can encode multiple simultaneous streams at bit rates from 8 to 320 kbps, and additionally can encode streams targeting Flash, MPEG-4, and 3GPP mobile devices. Optimod-PC ordinarily processes the resulting stream or file for consistency and punch, but it also comes with presets that allow it to do simple protection limiting.
In addition to sound card and audio processing functionality, Optimod-PC 1101 is two separate sound devices, and also a capable mixer, having one stereo analog input, two AES3 / SPDIF digital inputs, and two wave inputs, all of which can be mixed or switched. Thanks to onboard sample rate converters, the two digital inputs can accept and mix asynchronous sources. In practice, the five inputs might be used for a local feed, a network feed, a voice channel, and two wave players, making Optimod-PC the heart of a “desktop netcasting studio.” Thanks to separate “processed” and two “unprocessed” mixers, any of the inputs in any combination can be processed or passed directly to the input of Opticodec-PC without processing – the user can always choose how much processing (if any) to apply to the audio. Since 1101 is two separate Sound Devices, content insertion systems, such as commercial replacement no longer require two separate sound cards. It can all be done with Optimod-PC 1101.
Compared to MP3, Opticodec-PC’s aacPlus codec provides a better than 60% improvement in audio quality versus bit rate, reducing network streaming bandwidth requirements and costs accordingly. At 32 kbps, Opticodec-PC streams offer close to FM quality, without the phasey, watery character of other popular codecs operating at this bit rate. Many listeners prefer the audio quality of 48 kbps HE-AACv2 streams to FM and other codecs.
The marketplace has been screaming for broadcast quality from low bit-rate Internet streaming and audio file serving. For the first time in this young industry, combining Optimod audio processing with Opticodec-PC makes it possible to offer the sonic texture of major-market FM broadcasting via the Internet. Streaming is red hot, and Opticodec-PC is the fuel that puts you ahead of the pack.
“Streaming has just become profitable,” said Rusty Hodge of netcaster SomaFM after first hearing the aacPlus codec at 32 kbps. Netcaster and respected broadcast engineer Gary Blau described it as “the quality breakthrough we’ve been waiting for.”
Technical Specification
Technical Specification
Compatible Players:
RTMP Flash
Adobe Flash Browser Plugin
AAC/HE-AACv1/HE-AACv2
Tuner2 HiFi iPhone/iPod Touch
AAC/HE-AACv1/HE-AACv2
Orban/Coding Technologies AAC/HE-AAC Windows Media Player Plugin
AAC/HE-AACv1/HE-AACv2
RTSP/RTP
RealNetworks® RealPlayer® 10 and above
AAC/HE-AACv1 / aacPlus v1 Audio Streams
Apple Computer® QuickTime® Player 6.0 and above
AAC Audio Streams; Currently does not support HE-AAC/aacPlus
Will currently play AAC portion of HE-AAC/aacPlus streams
Orban/Coding Technologies AAC/HE-AAC Windows Media Player Plugin
AAC/HE-AACv1/HE-AACv2
HTTP/ICY
Nullsoft Winamp 5.05 and above
AAC/HE-AACv1/HE-AACv2
Orban/Coding Technologies AAC/HE-AAC Windows Media Player Plugin
AAC/HE-AACv1/HE-AACv2
PE Version – Professional Edition
Computer
- Minimum System Requirements:
- Microsoft Windows® XP
- Intel Pentium II 400MHz, RAM 128MB, 256MB recommended.
- Microsoft Windows® Server 2003
- Intel Pentium III 500MHz, RAM 128MB, 256MB recommended.
This specification denotes the minimum CPU power necessary to control one OPTIMOD-PC card with external audio sources and one instance of the OPTICODEC-PC encoder. Additional cards, audio player, and/or encoder software will require additional CPU power.
Processor and Chipset: This software has been tested and qualified with Intel CPU and chipsets.
Sound Device:
An Orban Optimod-PC 1100/1101 audio processor / sound card must be installed in the host computer in order to run the Opticodec-PC PE application.
Interface:
Graphical User Interface (GUI), standard Microsoft Windows
May be executed from command-line using configuration file for each stream.
Encoder
Codec Technology:
MPEG-2 AAC ADTS
ISO/IEC 13818-7
MPEG-4 AAC
ISO/IEC 14496-3
http://www.iis.fraunhofer.de/ amm/techinf/aac/index.html
MPEG-4 HE-AAC / aacPlus v1 / aacPlus v2
ISO/IEC 14496-3 : Amd-1 : Amd-2
http://www.codingtechnologies. com
Sample Rates:
24kHz, 32kHz, 44.1kHz, 48kHz
Bit Rates (kbps):
8, 10, 12, 16, 20, 24, 32, 40, 48, 56, 64, 80, 96, 128, 160, 192, 224, 256, 320
Number of Channels:
1-Mono
2-Stereo
Coding Options:
Optimize for Voice
Encoder Instances per Computer – Multicast:
1 Encoder Instances per Computer – Unicast:
Limited only by available CPU power.
Streaming
Transport Protocols :
RTSP/RTP : RFC 2326/3550
HTTP/ICY SHOUTcast : RFC 2616
HTTP/ICY Icecast2 : RFC 2616
RTMP Flash : Adobe Protocol
Methods:
Multicast RTP/UDP (Internal Server)
Transmission:
Multicast
TTL:
1-255
Unicast RTSP/RTP/UDP (Internal Server)
Transmission:
Unicast
Unicast RTP/TCP (External Server)
Transmission:
Manual Unicast
Unicast RTSP/RTP/TCP (External Server)
Transmission:
Automatic Unicast – Announce
Session Description Protocol (.sdp) file per stream generated and sent to server : RFC 2327
RTP Payload Format:
ISMA (audio/mpeg4-generic) : RFC 3640
3GPP/3GPP2 (audio/MP4A-LATM) : RFC 3016
Unicast HTTP/ICY/TCP
Content Type:
audio/aac
Content Type:
audio/aacp
Packet Size:
1450 Bytes plus IP Header Bytes = Total < 1500 Byte MTU
Packet Optimization (PE Only):
Multiple audio frames per packet without fragmentation
Packet size not to exceed specified MTU
Connection Fallback – Unicast:
Automatic Reconnection to External Server upon Connection Failure
Stream Information:
Stream Name and Description; Artist and Title; URL; all server-supported metadata
Metadata Input :
Text File, Serial, Ethernet TCP/UDP, Manual Entry
Several Audio Playout Systems Supported Directly
Server Requirements/Platform – RTSP/RTP Unicast:
Free Darwin Streaming Server 5.0 or later
http://developer.apple.com/ darwin/projects/streaming/
Available for Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional/Server, Windows XP, Windows 2003 Server, Apple Mac OS X 10.2.8 or later Server and Proxy, Red Hat Linux 9, FreeBSD, Sun Solaris 9
Helix Server 10.0 or later
http://www.realnetworks.com/ products/media_delivery.html
Available for Microsoft Windows 2003 Server, Linux (RHEL 4.0), Sun Solaris 8 (Native) and 9
Helix Mobile Server
http://www.realnetworks.com/ industries/serviceproviders/ mobile/products/server/index. html
Available for Microsoft Windows 2003 Server, Linux (RHEL 4.0), Sun Solaris 8 (Native) and 9
Server Requirements/Platform – HTTP/ICY SHOUTcast:
Free Nullsoft SHOUTcast DNAS 1.9.4 or later
http://www.shoutcast.com/ download/serve.phtml
Available for Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional/Server, Windows XP, Windows 2003 Server, Red Hat Linux 9, FreeBSD, Sun Solaris 9
Server Requirements/Platform – HTTP/ICY Icecast2:
Free Icecast2 Server 2.2.0 or later
http://www.icecast.org/ download.php
Available for Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional/Server, Windows XP, Windows 2003 Server, Red Hat Linux 9, FreeBSD, Sun Solaris 9
Server Requirements/Platform – RTMP:
Adobe Flash Media Server
http://www.adobe.com/products/ flashmediaserver/
Available for Microsoft Windows XP, Windows 2003/2008 Server, Linux
Server Requirements/Platform – RTMP:
Wowza Media Server Pro
http://www.wowzamedia.com
Available for Microsoft Windows XP, Windows 2003/2008 Server, Linux, Mac OS
Metering/Status Indication
Graphical Interface:
Audio Level, True Accurate Peak Indicating
Connected to Remote Server
Disconnected from Remote Server
Bitrate of Connection to Remote Server
Connection Elapsed Time – DDD:HH:MM:SS
Metadata Scroll
LOG File
Functions:
Enable/Disable
ASCII Text
Log File Size Specifier
Content:
Connect Date/Time, Connect Remote Server, Connect Bitrate
Disconnect Time
These specifications are subject to design improvements and changes without notice.