Zoran and QSound Labs Announce the Immediate Availability of QSurround 3D Audio on the Vaddis DVD Decoder.LAS VEGAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--January 8, 1998--QSound Labs, Inc. (NASDAQ NASDAQ in full National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations U.S. market for over-the-counter securities. Established in 1971 by the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), NASDAQ is an automated quotation system that reports on :QSNDF) and Zoran Corporation (NASDAQ:ZRAN) announced today the immediate availability of QSound's QSurround 3D Audio implementation on Zoran's Vaddis single-chip DVD DVD: see digital versatile disc. DVD in full digital video disc or digital versatile disc Type of optical disc. The DVD represents the second generation of compact-disc (CD) technology. decoder IC. This makes Vaddis the world's first DVD decoder available with integrated 3D audio capability. The QSurround implementation running on the Vaddis decoder is currently shipping in Sharp Corporation's new DVD player, model DV-S100. The Vaddis QSurround implementation is now available for licensing to DVD player and PC DVD manufacturers and OEMs. The Vaddis QSurround implementation will be demonstrated at the CES show in Las Vegas, January 8 through 11, in the Zoran booth, Las Vegas Convention Center The Las Vegas Convention Center is owned and operated by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority and is located in Clark County, Nevada. It is one of the largest Convention centers in the world. At the end of 2004, the center had 3. , South Hall 2, Booth no. 3838. Visit QSound's Booth no. 6032D for demonstrations of the company's 3D audio technology. "We are very excited to offer the capabilities of the QSurround implementation on the Vaddis decoder," said Dr. Isaac Shenberg, Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Zoran Corporation. "The implementation of QSurround on the Vaddis decoder is proof of the power and flexibility of the Vaddis architecture. By performing 3D audio together with DVD decoding on the same chip, significant cost savings result. Our close cooperation with QSound to offer this solution to our customers is yielding impressive results as demonstrated in the new DVD player from Sharp Corporation." "We value our continued partnership with Zoran," said David Gallagher, President of QSound Labs. "This latest collaboration is yet another demonstration of the leading edge technology available from both companies in the DVD market." On the Vaddis DVD Decoder The Vaddis decoder is the world's most advanced DVD solution targeted at second generation consumer stand-alone DVD/VideoCD/CD-DA players and PC-based DVD systems. Based on Zoran's proprietary MPEG (Moving Pictures Experts Group) An ISO/ITU standard for compressing digital video. Pronounced "em-peg," it is the universal standard for digital terrestrial, cable and satellite TV, DVDs and digital video recorders (DVRs). 2 video and Dolby Digital audio technology, the Vaddis decoder integrates the decoding and presentation functionality required for full implementation of the DVD standard in a single chip. This includes DVD content protection (CSS (1) See Cascading Style Sheets. (2) (Content Scrambling System) The copy protection system applied to DVDs, which uses a 40-bit key to encrypt the movie. ), Program stream demultiplexing, MPEG 2 video, MPEG 1 video, Dolby Digital (AC-3) audio, MPEG audio, audio and video synchronization, Linear PCM (1) See phase change memory. (2) (Plug Compatible Manufacturer) An organization that makes a computer or electronic device that is compatible with an existing machine. audio, Subpicture, OSD (1) (On-Screen Display) An on-screen control panel for adjusting monitors and TVs. The OSD is used for contrast, brightness, horizontal and vertical positioning and other monitor adjustments. , Letterbox, Pan-Scan and more. The first member of the Vaddis family, the ZR36700 integrates many of the different components required in first generation DVD systems and interfaces efficiently to the remaining components in the system. Using a Zoran proprietary implementation, the Vaddis decoder requires only a single 16 Mbit SDRAM (Synchronous DRAM) A type of dynamic RAM (DRAM) memory chip that has been widely used since the late 1990s. SDRAM chips eliminated wait states by dividing the chip into two cell blocks and interleaving data between them. for full operation. The Vaddis decoder dramatically reduces the number of chips and the size of the required memory thereby lowering the power consumption and overall cost of a DVD system. Zoran's highly integrated Vaddis decoder offers the advanced feature set and flexibility which enables the development of robust, powerful second generation DVD player solutions. Addressing the needs of today's competitive market, the Vaddis decoder implements Zoran's SiliconSoftware architecture, based on a high-performance DSP (1) (Digital Signal Processor) A special-purpose CPU used for digital signal processing applications (see definition #2 below). It provides ultra-fast instruction sequences, such as shift and add, and multiply and add, which are commonly used in math-intensive technology for enhanced flexibility and programmability. This architecture enables DVD player manufacturers to add features enabling them to differentiate their products. For example, a 3D sound feature such as QSurround can be implemented on the Vaddis decoder as a SiliconSoftware application and executed simultaneously with all the other required DVD audio decoding functions. 3D sound brings the movie theater experience of multi-channel audio to a DVD player or PC with just two speakers without requiring any additional equipment or circuitry. The Vaddis ZR36700 DVD decoder is in volume production now and is priced at under $30 in volume quantities. On QSurround QSurround is a patented, key enabling technology for playback of DVD multi-channel audio providing accurate audio positioning from two speakers. It effectively meets the challenge of new multi-channel audio delivery formats and enables decoded Dolby Digital (AC-3), Dolby Pro Logic See Dolby Surround. or MPEG 2 information to be reproduced across the entire range of playback systems. By creating "virtual speakers", QSurround reproduces the full surround sound effect of multi-channel audio so that surround sound encoded movies and music can be enjoyed with only two speakers. QSurround is certified by Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation for both the Dolby Pro Logic and Dolby Digital processes. About Zoran Zoran Corporation develops and markets integrated circuits, integrated circuit "cores" and software for digital video and audio applications enabled by compression for the PC and consumer multimedia markets. Zoran's product lines include JPEG JPEG in full Joint Photographic Experts Group Standard computer file format for storing graphic images in a compressed form for general use. JPEG images are compressed using a mathematical algorithm. codecs, MPEG and DVD decoders, Digital Audio Signal Processors, real-time Video CD and DVD software for the PC, and VLSI VLSI: see integrated circuit. (1) (Very Large Scale Integration) Between 100,000 and one million transistors on a chip. See SSI, MSI, LSI and ULSI. (2) (VLSI Technology, Inc., Tempe, AZ, www.semiconductors. cores. The company's SoftDVD and SoftPEG software for software-only and hardware assisted decoding of DVD and VideoCD on the PC is bundled by leading PC and graphic system manufacturers. Current applications for Zoran IC products include professional and consumer video editing systems, filmless digital cameras, PC-based or stand-alone VideoCD systems and DVD players, and digital audio systems. Zoran is headquartered in Santa Clara, California Santa Clara, California (IPA: /ˌsæntəˈklærə/) , founded in 1777 and incorporated in 1852, is a city in Santa Clara County, in the U.S. state of California. with additional operations in Haifa, Israel, Toronto, Canada, and Tokyo, Japan. Zoran's products and technologies have been adopted by many of the world's largest manufacturers including Acer, ATI (ATI Technologies Inc., Markham Ontario, http://ati.amd.com) A leading manufacturer of graphics chips and display adapters. Founded in 1985 by K. Y. Ho, Benny Lau and Lee Lau, ATI chips and boards are widely used by OEMs. , Avid Technology, Cirrus Logic, Compaq, Denon, Diamond Multimedia, Dolby, FujiFilm, Fujitsu, Harman Kardon, Hewlett Packard, Hitachi, IBM (International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY, www.ibm.com) The world's largest computer company. IBM's product lines include the S/390 mainframes (zSeries), AS/400 midrange business systems (iSeries), RS/6000 workstations and servers (pSeries), Intel-based servers (xSeries) , Iomega, Kenwood, Marantz, Matrox, Matsushita, miro/Pinnacle, NEC (NEC Corporation, Tokyo, www.nec.com, www.necus.com) An electronics conglomerate known in the U.S. for its monitors. In Japan, it had the lion's share of the PC market until the late 1990s (see PC 98). NEC was founded in Tokyo in 1899 as Nippon Electric Company, Ltd. , Packard Bell, Pioneer, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, Toshiba, Truevision, Yamaha and many others. For more information about Zoran call (408) 919-4111 or visit our web site at www.zoran.com . About QSound Labs, Inc. Founded in 1988, QSound Labs, Inc. (NASDAQ:QSNDF) is an advanced audio technology company specializing in 3D sound placement and audio image enhancement. Based in Calgary, Alberta, the company uses patented 3D audio technologies to serve the home entertainment, PC/Multimedia, consumer electronics and professional audio industries. The technologies provide immersive, realistic environments that include positional audio, stereo enhancement and virtual surround sound See 3D audio. . PC OEMs and manufacturers and consumer electronic manufacturers who have licensed QSound include Acer, AIWA AIWA Asian Immigrant Women Advocates AIWA Armenian International Women's Association , Crystal Semiconductor, IBM, Sharp and Yamaha. Electronic Arts, Microsoft, Mindscape mind·scape n. A mental or psychological scene or area of the imagination. and Sega have all employed QSound technologies in developing video games. Musical artists Sting, Madonna and Janet Jackson have recorded music using the system, and television shows such as The X-Files and Ally McBeal utilize QSound technologies during post-production. -0- Note to Editors: Vaddis, ZR36700 and SiliconSoftware are trademarks of Zoran Corporation. Dolby Digital is a trademark of Dolby Laboratories. QSurround is a trademark of QSound Labs. CONTACT: Zoran Contact: David Anisman Director of Marketing - MPEG 408/919-4274 davida@zoran.com or Zoran Media Contact: Carey Mitchell Virtual Public Relations 650/369-7833 carey@virtualpr.com or Investor Contact: Hannah Bruce Financial Relations Board 415/986-1591 hbb@sf.frbd.com www.zoran.com or QSound Contact: David Gallagher President 403/291-2492 djg@qsound.com or QSound Media Contact Michael Quint Alexander Communications 404/897-2300 Ext. 323 mquint@alexander-pr.com or QSound Investor Contact Paula Murray 954/783-6952 Fax: 954/783-6952 www.qsound.com |
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