Voice is our primary means of communication, and telephony has enabled us to connect using our voices for over a century. The phone call as we know it has evolved from analogue to digital, from fixed to mobile, and from low speech quality to natural speech quality. One major advancement, however, was still lacking: how to enable a fully authentic, immersive sound to be transmitted, live.
The introduction of the IVAS (Immersive Voice and Audio Services) codec, standardized by 3GPP in Release 18 in June this year represents a major advancement in audio technology. Unlike traditional monophonic voice calls, IVAS enables the transmission of immersive, three-dimensional audio, offering a richer, more lifelike communication experience. This innovation is made possible using new audio formats optimized for conversational spatial audio experience. One such example is a new Metadata-Assisted Spatial Audio format, MASA, which uses only two audio channels and metadata for spatial audio descriptions. Spatial audio calls allow users to experience sound as though it were happening in real life, complete with features like head tracking.
