xHE-AAC and MPEG-H Audio

Fraunhofer IIS's successors to mp3: xHE-AAC, which Netflix uses to stream audio on Android, and MPEG-H Audio, the sound system of South Korea's UHD TV and Brazil's next broadcast standard.

Made by: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft
From: Munich, Bavaria
Category: Consumer
Introduced: 2017

What it is

Fraunhofer IIS in Erlangen is best known for mp3, but its later audio codecs reach more people today. It co-developed AAC, the format used by most phones and streaming services, and is the primary developer of xHE-AAC, the newest AAC family member. It also led the development of MPEG-H Audio, a next generation broadcast sound system.

How it works

xHE-AAC handles speech and music efficiently at very low bit rates, scales up to near transparent quality and can switch bit rate seamlessly. It carries mandatory MPEG-D loudness and dynamic range metadata, so a device can keep volume steady between programmes and adapt dynamics to a phone speaker or a living room. MPEG-H Audio sends sound as objects rather than fixed channels, so viewers can adjust the mix, for example raising commentary over crowd noise, and the decoder renders it for headphones, soundbars or immersive speaker layouts.

Why it stands out

In January 2021 Netflix announced it was streaming its catalogue with xHE-AAC on Android, using Fraunhofer's licensed software, so audio quality follows the viewer's connection. Native support exists in current Apple, Android and Amazon systems. MPEG-H became the only audio system of South Korea's terrestrial UHD service based on ATSC 3.0, launched on 31 May 2017, and is part of the ATSC, DVB and Brazilian SBTVD standards. Brazil selected it as the sole mandatory audio system for its next generation DTV+ service.

Where you meet it

Netflix on Android phones, radio and podcast apps, Korean and Brazilian television, and personalised sound in sports broadcasts such as the 2022 football World Cup trials by Globo and SBS.

Fraunhofer's xHE-AAC and loudness control patents are included in the AAC licensing programme administered by Via Licensing at no extra cost, which helped device makers adopt them quickly. Fraunhofer's xHE-AAC implementation has also been licensed to Microsoft.

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