How are IOSONO and the MP3 audio format connected?
MP3 is a revolutionary audio encoding technology, developed in the 1990s, which reduces the amount of digital memory required to store audio material. Using MP3 data compression, an entire CD track can be converted into a file that is only one tenth the size of the original track, with virtually no perceived loss of sound quality. MP3 thus paved the way for portable media players that can store thousands of songs. IOSONO is also an encoding technology, but it serves a different purpose: to create a virtual acoustic environment with multiple sound sources placed in practically any desired location within, or even outside of, the listening area. What the two technologies have in common is that they were both pioneered by renowned researcher Karlheinz Brandenburg, currently Head of the Institute for Media Technology at the Technical University Ilmenau, Germany, and Director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology IDMT, also in Ilmenau.
