Audience Voice Processor increases cell phone voice quality in noisy environments according to first published data using new ITU-T test standard
Independent test house Dynastat reported Audience’s advanced noise suppression increased MOS scores by .77 for improved customer satisfaction and reduced churn for carriers
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – April 17, 2008 – Audience today announced that its Voice Processor raises voice quality of cell phone calls significantly in noisy environments according to the first published data of testing using the ITU-T P.835 Amendment 1 Appendix III test standard for subjective testing of non-stationary noise. Independent test house Dynastat measured the advanced noise suppression in the voice processor and found that it increased the Mean Opinion Score (MOS) by .77 points, to a score well above the churn threshold in noisy environments, enabling consumers to hear and be heard.
Voice quality has always been a critical metric by which telephone companies measure themselves. Recent studies by major mobile carriers around the world have shown that when voice quality drops below 3.2 MOS points, carriers see a large jump in the number of voice quality complaints. As mobile operators still generate most of their revenue from voice services – despite the tremendous growth of multimedia and data applications such as SMS and MMS – any opportunity to dramatically improve call quality can have a big impact on bottom line profitability.
“The ability to deliver vivid voice in noisy places is becoming essential in the mobile services industry,” said Jennifer Stagnaro, Audience VP Marketing. “The measure of how well you achieve it requires not only the objective measure of how many decibels of non-stationary noise are suppressed, but just as importantly, the subjective measure of how good the voice quality sounds, using the tried and true method of Mean Opinion Score testing.”
Measuring Voice Quality
Voice quality is a subjective concept, yet one that the telecommunications industry knows that
consumers value highly. When talking on the phone, consumers want the experience to be just
like talking to that individual in person. Dating back to the late 1960s, the industry recognized the need to measure voice quality. The system devised by the industry that is still in use today is the Mean Opinion Score (MOS) metric.
The ITU-T standards outline the test methodology for subjective testing of voice quality. The standards sets forth a five point “Opinion Scale” with 1 representing “Bad” and 5 representing “Excellent” sound quality. Data is gathered from the listening panel subjects, and an arithmetic mean is calculated, resulting in an overall MOS score.
The ITU-T P.835 Amendment 1 Appendix III was ratified in October of 2007. This amendment specifies the methodology to test for non-stationary noise. The test specifies noise sources including pink noise, single voice, music, babble, street, and car noise played back on a surround sound system to simulate the multi-directionality of realistic noise conditions.
Below is an industry-recognized interpretation of how user satisfaction ties to the 5 point MOS scale. Not surprisingly, everyone is satisfied with a 4.3, the same rating that the PSTN codec received. 3.1 is the point at which some users are not satisfied. And, 3.1 – 3.2 is the range which most mobile operators correlate to high volumes of customer complaint calls.
User Satisfaction |
|
4.34 |
Everybody satisfied |
4.03 |
Satisfied |
3.60 |
Some users not satisfied |
3.10 |
Many users dissatisfied |
2.58 |
Nearly all users not satisfied |
1 |
Impossible to understand |
MOS scores and user satisfaction
For more information about voice quality, go to http://www.audience.com/resources/pr.html
to get a copy of the white paper, The Next Generation of Voice Quality: The Audience Voice Processor with Vivid Voice.
About Audience
Audience is a voice processor company that enables clear communications anywhere with noise suppression technology based on the intelligence of the human hearing system. The technology is applicable across a broad range of consumer products where voice needs to be intelligible in noisy environments, and its first commercial product is for the mobile handset market. Audience was selected as the Most Innovative True Mobile Start-Up for the “2008 GSMA Mobile Innovation Global Awards.” The company is one of 34 founding member companies of the Open Handset Alliance and the only one with advanced noise suppression technology. Investors in Audience include Vulcan Capital, NEA, Tallwood Venture Capital and VentureTech Alliance. Audience, www.audience.com, is based in Mountain View, California.