At Integrated Systems Europe, Biamp Systems was introducing Sona, its latest innovation in acoustic echo cancellation algorithms. Sona offers features that will deliver enhanced audio quality — even in the most challenging acoustical environments — while also providing increased efficiencies for integrators when installing audio networks.

"We know from experience, how difficult it is to effectively echo cancel in challenging room environments," said Steve Metzger, president of Biamp Systems. "With the advancements we've developed within Sona, we believe it will be accepted by integrators and end users as a leap forward in making tough rooms work for distance conferencing."

Adding further perspective to this expectation, Metzger cited the growth in distance conferencing as a component of Biamp's business. "We sold tens of thousands of distance conferencing channels in our previous fiscal year. We expect this to increase with the availability of a powerful innovation like Sona, which customers can obtain for free as a firmware upgrade to existing Biamp distance conferencing systems, or when they purchase AudiaFLEX or Nexia with AEC."

Sona AEC algorithm is now available in AudiaFLEX AEC-2HD card, Nexia VC (videoconferencing) and Nexia TC (teleconferencing) processors.

In addition to true 20Hz to 20kHz wideband AEC, Sona introduces the following innovations and benefits.

* Longer tail length — The tail length available with Sona is up to 300 milliseconds. This means that conference sessions can be held in larger rooms or even acoustically-challenging environments and participants will experience clear, crisp, echo-free audio.

* Faster convergence — The time to converge is faster with Sona than with other algorithms on the market. As a result, echo-free audio will be maintained under almost every condition, such as at conference start-up, when a microphone is moved, when a participant enters or leaves the room, or if someone opens or closes a window or door.

* Enhanced performance — Sona is less sensitive to changes in gain structure than other systems. As a result, it is easier to set up and install, saving the integrator effort, time and cost.

The new Sona algorithm provides wideband echo cancellation without compromising resources dedicated to other DSP functions. During multiple- participant conferences, the algorithm allows for full duplex wideband transmission of speech in every instance, including doubletalk, and greatly enhances intelligibility and audio performance. Sona also provides users with improved background noise reduction resulting in clearer, more natural sound. [www.biamp.com]