Opticodec-PC Supports Additional Servers

In a product announcement aimed at online “netcasters,” Orban says its Opticodec-PC software now supports SHOUTcast and Icecast2 streaming servers in addition to Apple’s Darwin server, and includes aacPlus v2 audio.
aacPlus v2 is AAC coupled with Coding Technolgies’ Spectral Band Replication and Parametric Stereo technologies. SBR bandwidth extension enables a given audio codec to deliver the same quality at half the bit rate. Parametric Stereo enhances the codec efficiency a second time for low-bit-rate stereo signals.
The company said the addition of the HTTP/ICY protocol to the AAC/HE AAC/aacPlus streaming audio encoder extends the software’s support to the Nullsoft Winamp player client (version 5.05 and higher), and implements artist and title metadata. This feature works with Opticodec-PC’s existing support for the RealPlayer 10 player client via RTSP/RTP.
The company also says the HTTP/ICY protocol often is more “firewall-friendly” than the RTSP/RTP protocol Opticodec-PC previously supported exclusively, and Winamp’s support for HTTP/ICY extends a netcaster’s potential audience to those who prefer using Winamp because of its non-OS-obtrusive installation.
This move makes Opticodec-PC “even more attractive to any netcaster seeking the widest potential audience,” a company official stated. “Opticodec-PC allows netcasters to replace expensive, high-quality 128 kbps MP3 streams with equivalent quality Opticodec-PC streams at one-third the bit rate.”
Info: www.orban.com.