AustriaMicroSystems, a leading supplier of high performance analog ICs, and SPL, manufacturer of high-end signal processors for the professional audio market, have concluded a collaboration to integrate SPLs Vitalizer studio sound processing into the AS3525 multimedia chip of austriamicrosystems.
Being the first to implement the digitized Vitalizer application, austriamicrosystems enhances its powerful single chip music player IC with sound processing capabilities previously only available in professional music production studios. Portable players using the AS3525 chip will be offering a number of sound processing presets tuned by experts for listening pleasure and user-friendly operation.
The presets are adapted to the specifics of audio recordings in the past decades, dating from today’s music back to the 1950s. For each decade, sound characteristics are considered in a preset. One general preset can be applied for all types of music and a special preset is provided for ageless classical recordings.
Hermann Gier, Managing Director of SPL, explains “digitizing our complex Vitalizer® structures was a hard piece of work – we worked for some years on this project to achieve the results we know from our analog processors. The next step was to find an appropriate platform for the implementation. With the integration into the intriguing AS3525 multimedia chip from austriamicrosystems we have found an ideal product to provide Vitalizer processing for a very wide range of high performance digital sound applications.”
“We immediately realized the amazing potential of the digitized Vitalizer® technology the first time we listened to it”, states M. Winter from SPL’s Financial Investor Equity Partners. “With the enormous growth of the Portable Audio Player market where quality sound processing definitely is an increasingly important demand today, a partnership with austriamicrosystems was the perfect match. Now the ultimate sound processing and the most advanced multimedia IC have come together.”
Alexander Harrer, Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Communications business unit at austriamicrosystems, adds, “We are very pleased with SPL’s decision to make AS3525 the platform of choice for their expansion from a professional studio equipment supplier to serving the music player market.
Our cooperation is a classic win-win situation. The innovative development team at SPL gains a technological edge through its access to our multimedia chips, which are particularly powerful and extremely power-saving at the same time.
We, on the other hand, can offer to the music player industry integrated circuits and reference designs with studio sound clarity and unprecedented audio precision in a compact and portable device. SPL’s algorithm has been reviewed by selected customers and is now available as optional part of austriamicrosystems’ AS3525 software development kit.“