A new version of GIPS VoiceEngine is about to be released. Therefore I would like to give a brief overview of some of the most important feature updates. 

From a customer point of view, the two main additions are an expansion of our HD Voice support for Super Wideband (SWB), as well as support for Stereo Playout.   Let me start by describing the new integration of SWB in VoiceEngine 3.4. 

In order to expand support for SWB, all of VoiceEngine’s core functions now work efficiently at a 32 kHz sampling frequency. Currently, G.722.1 Annex C (or G.722.1C) is added to VoiceEngine 3.4, but the new architecture enables any codec using 32 kHz as the sample rate. G.722.1C provides 14 kHz audio bandwidth using 32 kHz sample rate at three different bitrates: 24, 32 and 48 kbps. However, as this blog has argued before, only supporting a SWB codec is not sufficient to providing high quality voice if the right additional components are not present. The new VoiceEngine from GIPS ensures true SWB quality since it contains SWB upgrades of all core components such as:

• adaptive jitter buffer and error-concealment unit (GIPS NetEQ)
• echo cancellation
• automatic gain control
• noise suppression
• voice-activity detection
• comfort noise generation
• mixers

In addition, utilization of the new SWB components are only activated when needed, hence the footprints for 8 and 16 kHz modes are not increased compared with the previous version of VoiceEngine.

 VoiceEngine’s other main new feature in is the added support of stereo playout. The existing version of VoiceEngine allows “stereo modifications”, such as panning, but all actions must be performed on the client side. In the upcoming VoiceEngine 3.4, it will also be possible to play out a received stereo-signal packetized according to IETF RFC 3551. In essence, this means that a GIPS client will now be able to play out a dual-channel RTP stream, where a conference server, for instance, has performed some sort of spatial filtering of the conference participants. The end result would be that a user gets a feeling of all participants sitting around a conference table, with their voices coming from different directions. Note that the client is not performing any stereo intelligence, as the actual stereo effect must be generated at the transmitting side. As this feature pertains to the new SWB capability, the new stereo features are activated and deactivated dynamically and no new API calls are required. The only action needed on the client side to enable true stereo playout is to register a certain codec (payload type, name etc.) as a dual-channel codec. 

In addition to SWB and stereo playout, the following features will also be added to the latest release of VoiceEngine:

• “RTP-dump” APIs which allow recording of received and transmitted RTP streams into rtpdump-compatible format.
• Complete Windows 7 and MAC OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) support.
• Automatic ducking or stream attenuation is a new feature in Windows 7 that is intended for VoIP. By default, the operating system reduces the intensity of an audio stream when a communication stream, such as a phone call, is received on the communication device through the computer. The latest VoiceEngine 3.4 fully exploits this new functionality in Windows 7 and allows the user to define a certain audio device as the default communication device.
• Possibility to build 64-bit versions of VoiceEngine for MAC OS X.

As the Technical Area Manager for voice technology, I can say that I am personally very excited about these new features, and look forward to seeing (and hearing) them enable some really cool and innovative products.

In June 2008, Nokia announced that it would buy the remaining shares of Symbian and that the S60, UIQ, and MOAP interfaces would be integrated into a unified development platform, user interface and development tool. Furthermore, it was stated that Nokia would transfer the Symbian OS and the related patents to the established Symbian Foundation. This acquisition and open source road map must be seen as a direct reply to Google’s Android Open Handset Alliance project, which is certainly getting a lot of attention nowadays. The Symbian Foundation’s list of founding members includes major handset vendors such as Nokia, Sony Ericsson and Motorola, in addition to mobile-software providers and several network operators. The initial press release also states that “a full platform will be available for all Foundation members under a royalty-free license, from the Foundation’s first day of operations.”

There has been lots of discussion and debate in this area ever since the news about the Symbian Foundation was first released. As a software developer, I want to know when the first handsets will be available, who will manufacture them, what tools and SDKs will be used, and if it will be possible to utilize any previous investments in Symbian and S60. According to Symbian Freak, the first handsets will appear in 2010, around the same time that the platform will be fully open-sourced. In addition, the Symbian Foundation states that the platform will offer compatibility with past versions (back to Symbian OS v9 and S60 3rd edition), and will have one common UI framework.  In practice, backward compatibility means that development can start today using the tools already available. This type of information is of course very positive for a company like GIPS, since we can utilize our current investments, and at the same time broaden the market space for our existing VoiceEngine Mobile for Symbian. 

Before the Symbian Foundation was formed, I would have placed Nokia (S60) in the same category as Apple (iPhone) and RIM (BlackBerry) – a mobile vendor who wants to be in control of both software and hardware. Other mobile vendors could turn to Microsoft (Windows Mobile), Google (Android) and the Linux based LiMo. Now this battlefield might have changed a bit, but I still find it hard to predict to what degree Nokia will be affected by the Symbian Foundation. Will they really move to the same side as Microsoft and Google? My guess is that Nokia will contribute with the core S60 parts to the Foundation but still maintain the existing Nokia Forum program, where 3rd party developers can apply for access to additional APIs needed to implement a given functionality for Nokia devices. Something tells me that Nokia is rather pleased with the current situation after all, no matter what happens with the Symbian Foundation platform. To give an example, Samsung licenses S60 today, but none of the available API plug-ins for S60 3^rd Edition from Nokia can be installed on Samsung devices. This means that the full value of Nokia’s version of S60 can only be utilized on Nokia hardware, which I assume will be the same even when the new platform is available. 

I don’t have an answer to the question in the title, but it actually seems like things are starting to move forward now, as the foundation is currently recruiting for roles in Technology, Marketing and Operations. No matter what happens, if one of the initial intentions was to compete with Android, the Symbian Foundation will be 1-2 years behind from the start. In the meantime, however, the existence of the Symbian Foundation will add pressure on companies like Microsoft to lower their license costs for Windows Mobile.