Music-Protection -- Echo Cancellation Feature from Octasic Improves Call Quality via Transparent Transmission of Music by VQE Devices

Octasic is announcing the Music-Protection software feature for the OCT6100 Series of Octasic echo cancellers. Effective Music Protection means that music heard on hold or in the background of speech during phone conversations is not cut, clipped or incorrectly transmitted by the echo canceller on the line.

Montreal, (PRWEB) November 11, 2004 -- Octasic Inc., a fabless semiconductor company delivering silicon solutions to telecom manufacturers, continues to strengthen the feature-set of its industry-leading echo cancellation solution with the introduction of the Music-Protection feature. This software feature for the OCT6100 Series of Octasic echo cancellers ensures that both recorded background music heard while on hold, and live music heard in the background of conversations are not clipped or incorrectly handled, as is the case with echo cancellers in the network today.

A large carrier was not satisfied with the call quality delivered by their equipment provider at the time, and challenged one of our customers to solve the problem. As their voice quality supplier, that challenge in turn fell to Octasic." said Fabio Gambacorta, VP Sales and Business Development at Octasic. By developing the Music-Protection feature, Octasic considerably improved the carriers call quality and allowed our customer to win significant new business."

Traditional echo cancellers do not distinguish between music and generic background noise when processing residual echo. Instead, the typical echo cancellation algorithm replaces the entire signal with white (or similar) noise while trying to remove the echo. This results in music sounding unrecognizable, or as though the connection itself was bad". Callers hearing such a result get annoyed or worse yet, end their calls assuming something is wrong with the connection. This results in lower caller-satisfaction, reduced productivity and potentially lost business for a company that puts a customer on hold. Octasic voice processors are able to recognize that music is on the line and process it accordingly resulting in a natural-sounding connection while still removing the echo.

"We work closely with our customers and are frequently developing new features to ensure Octasic voice quality solutions continue to solve the emerging call-quality challenges experienced on VoIP and wireless networks," says Frederic Bourget, Director Product Management with Octasic. The Music-Protection feature continues to widen Octasics quality advantage among voice processing devices."

Octasic Music Protection software is available for Octasics OCT6100 Series of echo cancellers and voice quality devices, and as an upgrade for current customers of these devices - protecting their investment in Octasic technology.

Listen to a Demonstration of the Music-Protection Feature:
Octasic has set up two demonstration phone lines -- one with Music Protection enabled on the echo canceller and the other without any Music Protection functionality. When calling, please ensure that you are using a standard analog or digital phone and not a wireless or IP-based phone. There are several songs that will play. You can hang up to end the demonstration at any time. The numbers to call are:

Line without music protection: 514-597-0864 OR 866-334-5402

Line with Octasic Music Protection enabled on the OCT6100 Series: 514-597-2802 OR 866-550-5402

About Octasic and the OCT6100 Series of Echo Cancellers
Octasic is a privately held, fabless semiconductor company designing, marketing, and supporting best-in-class silicon solutions that deliver exceptional voice quality for network equipment providers within the wireless, VoP and TDM segments of the telecommunications industry. Octasic's processors are optimized to perform key voice functions such as carrier-grade echo cancellation, packetization and compression.

The OCT6100 Series of echo cancellation and voice quality enhancement devices feature low power and space requirements and densities ranging from 32 to 672 channels.

Key features of the OCT6100 Series include carrier-deployed echo cancellation with high-quality noise matching, automatic level control, adaptive noise reduction, acoustic echo control, advanced tone detection and full capacity conferencing.

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