Nokia completed the first cellular call using the new 3GPP Immersive Voice and Audio Services (IVAS) codec.
The IVAS codec, which is part of the upcoming 5G Advanced standard, allows consumers to hear 3D spatial sound in real-time instead of today’s monophonic smartphone voice call experience. The 3GPP IVAS codec standard has been developed by a consortium of 13 companies under the framework of the IVAS codec public collaboration. Nokia has been a leader in these standardization efforts and has contributed major parts of the technology to the standard, including the development of a smartphone specific format for the IVAS standard.
The company described the call as “the biggest leap forward in the live voice calling experience since the introduction of monophonic telephony.”
Nokia was able to successfully demonstrate the IVAS technology in a real-time call even though the technology has not yet been implemented in mobile networks. This first live call used Nokia’s proprietary Immersive Voice technology to achieve the experience over a public 5G network.
Pekka Lundmark, Nokia’s President and CEO, held a live immersive audio and video call with Stefan Lindström, Finland’s Ambassador of Digitalization and New Technologies.
Stefan Lindström, Finnish Ambassador of Digitalization and New Technologies, said: “The live immersive voice and audio experience enabled by IVAS improves the richness and quality of the call, and the three-dimensional sound experience makes interaction more lifelike and engaging, bringing a wealth of new benefits to personal and professional communication. Immersive communications technology will also take XR and metaverse interaction to the next level.”
Pekka Lundmark, President and CEO of Nokia, said: “We have demonstrated the future of voice calls. This groundbreaking audio technology takes you to the caller’s environment creating a spatial and massively improved listening experience for voice and video calls, offering significant benefits for enterprise and industrial applications.”
