Philips Electronics White Paper
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powerful game-focused systems, a new way of thinking about
PC sound was required.
Managing a wide range of variables is called
Holistic Sound
Management
. While MP3 is important, there is still a
surprisingly large number of digital file formats, each with its
own unique advantages and disadvantages. There are an
infinite number of speaker and headphone combinations. And,
whatever the speaker arrangement, the nature of the room
plays an important role.
Holistic Sound Management.
Recently, Philips announced the availability of innovative PC
sound technology capable of dramatically improving the sound
quality of personal computers. This technology is now available
to personal computer OEMs as well as current PC owners,
and was developed to address new requirements of fast-
growing PC entertainment applications.
The new Philips technology is called
Sound Agent 2
. Sound
Agent 2 uses sophisticated algorithms to analyze sound along
two dimensions: the source of sound, which can be
any
source
type, and the room or headphones where the sound is going
to be played. Combining input and output with the sound card
itself results in high-quality total
holistic
sound optimization.
Importantly, the end-user also has a means of easily identifying
and manipulating variables that affect sound quality in context
of their particular listening experience. So, while Sound Agent
2 will automatically optimize sound quality along the two
dimensions described above, the user also has the option of
tweaking and adjusting sound to suit his or her unique needs –
via an easy to use graphical user interface.
Sound Agent 2 performs real time
logic functionality
that
determines where audio streams are coming from and where
they are going at any given moment. This control center
“brain” acts as a media traffic cop – analyzing, processing and
directing multiple audio streams independently and
simultaneously. The end result is fully optimized PC audio
fidelity, in any listening environment, and with any equipment.
Sound Agent 2, and the underlying Intelligent Media Processing
(IMP) technology, is available to PC users bundled with two
new Philips retail sound cards, the Dynamic Edge 4.1 with
quad surround, and the Sonic Edge 5.1 with 5.1 Channel
