This is the ‘world’s first’ phone call made using spatial audio
Nokia CEO Pekka Lundmark made the call with Stefan Lindström, Finland’s ambassador of digitalization and new technologies. | Image: Nokia
Nokia has made the first audio and video call using 3D spatial audio, the company announced on Monday. It placed the call over a cellular network using the 3GPP Immersive Video and Audio Services (IVAS) codec, allowing callers to hear “sound spatially in real-time.”
The IVAS codec is part of 5G Advanced, an upcoming upgrade to 5G networks that could offer faster speeds, improved energy efficiency, more accurate cellular-based positioning, and more. Currently, all phone calls made over a cellular network are monophonic, meaning audio is compressed into a single channel. Spatial audio, on the other hand, makes it seem like sounds are coming from different directions as they’re delivered through multiple channels.
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