DRM Digital Radio congratulates Fraunhofer IIS on 30 years of mp3, its successor, open standard technologies (xHE-AAC), and its ongoing contributions to DRM.
Thirty years ago, mp3 laid the foundation for the digital audio era. Developed largely by the DRM Consortium member Fraunhofer IIS, this open MPEG standard transformed the way we listen – to both files and live audio.
Today, this legacy of innovation continues: the modern xHE-AAC codec – once again developed with significant involvement from Fraunhofer – lies at the heart of the Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM) system.
xHE-AAC represents the fourth generation of Fraunhofer’s audio codecs:
- 1st Generation: mp3 – the original breakthrough in digital audio compression
- 2nd and 3rd Generation: AAC and HE-AAC – used in TV and DAB+, for instance
- 4th Generation: xHE-AAC – highly efficient, robust, scalable, and already available in billions of devices – the choice for DRM
🎧 DRM xHE-AAC demo – Listen and Compare
DRM is fully open and internationally standardised – not only in terms of audio. All accompanying services, including TextMessages, SlideShow, SPI/EPG and the advanced interactive text application Journaline, are likewise openly specified, easy to implement, and globally interoperable.
DRM Digital Radio congratulates Fraunhofer IIS on 30 years of mp3, its successor technologies, and its ongoing contributions to DRM.
🔗 30 Years of .mp3: Three Letters That Changed the World – Fraunhofer IIS Magazine
The development and global adoption of the open digital radio standard DRM is the shared effort of many stakeholders worldwide.
