CagEnt Technologies Makes Announcement
SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 22, 1997--CagEnt Technologies Inc., the
leading developer of professional-quality, PC-based audio and video compression engines, today
announced that it has received certification from Dolby for the ACXpress 2000 audio encoder.
This 2-channel, real-time encoder is the first of a family of products from CagEnt that will offer 2 and
5.1-channel Dolby Digital (AC-3) encoding for a wide range of applications and markets, including
DVD movie title production, DVD ROM-based corporate communications, multimedia,
entertainment, education, training, and Internet-based store/forward.
The ACXpress 2000 is one component in a complete solution for DVD Authoring that CagEnt will
provide for the Windows NT platform. Other components include the MPEGXpress 2000
MPEG-2 video encoder and third party DVD authoring software.
"Dolby is pleased to provide certification for the ACXpress audio encoder," said Ramzi Haidamus,
Licensing Manager, Digital Technologies at Dolby Laboratories. "We are happy to help CagEnt
bring to market this low-cost, high-performance audio encoder for use by DVD and multimedia
content mastering professionals. By passing Dolby Certification, this encoder meets stringent
requirements for audio quality, and content generated with this encoder may bear the Dolby Digital
logo. We look forward to continuing to work with CagEnt to expand the opportunities for Dolby
Digital technology in the rapidly-growing DVD/multimedia market."
"Certification of the ACXpress 2000 is another major milestone in our drive to provide a complete
solution for professional quality DVD authoring on the PC platform," said Cliff Reader, VP Sales for
CagEnt Technologies Inc. "By integrating all these components on a single, Windows NT based
machine, we provide all the performance, all the quality and all the features needed, with the
convenience, ease of use, and low price of the PC environment."
Dolby Digital (AC-3) is an advanced perceptual coding technology for transmission and storage of
up to five full-range channels, plus a supplemental bass-only effects channel. Thanks to Dolby
Laboratories' unique experience with audio noise reduction, Dolby Digital yields higher sound quality
and allows multichannel surround sound to be encoded at a lower bit rate than is required by just
one channel on a compact disc.
Commercially, Dolby Digital is used in Dolby's digital film format and on the audio tracks of the
latest generation DVD discs. It has also been adopted as the audio format for the digital videodisc
Worldwide, and for high definition television (HDTV) in the United States. With the recent changes
to the PAL DVD specification, Dolby Digital encoders can be used all round the World including
Europe.
About ACXpress 2000
Comprising a single, half-length PCI card and user-interface software, the ACXpress 2000 includes
AES/EBU and S/PDIF inputs and outputs, plus the encoded bitstream can be stored to disk via the
PCI bus. The card also accepts SMPTE timecodes, which can be used to do timecode accurate
automatic start-stop encoding of audio clips, or to do timecode stamping of the audio data.
A comprehensive set of encoding modes is supported including mono, stereo, and dual channel. The
system's audio bit-rate ranges from a low of 56kbps for a single mono channel to a high of 640kbps,
covering a wide range of audio quality and broadcast bandwidth requirements. The encoder
supports all three standard sampling frequencies of 48kHz, 44.1kHz and 32kHz.
About Dolby Laboratories (www.dolby.com)
Renowned throughout the world for recording, broadcast, and film sound technologies, Dolby
Laboratories serves audio professionals worldwide from headquarters in San Francisco, European
facilities in the U.K., and offices in New York and Los Angeles.
About CagEnt Technologies (www.cagent.com)
CagEnt Technologies Inc. was formed in December 1996. It operated under the name AGT Inc.
until June of 1997 when the company acquired all of the 3D graphics, audio, video and software
technologies that had been developed by The 3DO Company's Systems Division.
Leveraging its expertise in 3D graphics, digital audio and video, software and system integration,
CagEnt is developing technologies for consumer applications such as DVD, network computers and
other forms of electronic entertainment. In addition, CagEnt develops and markets the
MPEGXpress and ACXpress lines of real-time desktop MPEG-2 video, MPEG-1 and Dolby
Digital audio encoders and decoders.
CagEnt Technologies Inc. 3525 Monroe St. Santa Clara, Calif. 95051 Fax: 408/557-3411
www.mpegxpress.com
Note to Editors: CagEnt, MPEGXpress, ACXpress and the CagEnt, MPEGXpress and ACXpress
logos are trademarks of CagEnt Technologies, Inc.
Dolby, Dolby Digital, and AC-3 are registered trademarks of Dolby Laboratories Inc.
All other trademarks and registered trademarks are the properties of their respective owners.
CONTACT: CagEnt Technologies Inc.
Cliff Reader, 408/557-3477
creader@cagent.com
or
Philippe Cassereau, 408/557-3443
philippe@cagent.com
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