SRS Labs And Analog Devices Announce Licensing Agreement

SRS Labs, Inc. (Nasdaq: SRSL - news) and Analog Devices(NYSE: ADI - news) have announced a licensing agreement for SRS Labsínewly acquired Circle Surround technology. SRS, the world's leader inadvanced 3D audio enhancement technology, recently purchased CircleSurround from Rocktron Corporation. Cementing the agreement is theavailability of Analog Devices' SSM2005, the first integrated solutionfor the Circle Surround technology. ""Circle Surround is a truly amazing technology,"" stated Derek Bowers,corporate staff applications engineer, of Analog Devices. ""By creatinga surround soundfield from any stereo source, Circle Surround is thenext generation of surround sound decoding. The listening experience for both movies and music is greatly enhanced using this technology. Circle Surround is to regular stereo, what the invention of stereo was to monaural audio. We're pleased to have secured the licensing agreement for the analog chip design, and look forward to furthering our relationship with SRS.""""SRS Labs has embarked on an incredibly aggressive technologydevelopment and acquisition strategy. Circle Surround is the leadingtechnology demonstrating our commitment to improving listeningenjoyment. A testament to our goal of being the undisputed leader insound and voice enhancement technologies,'' stated Thomas Yuen,President and CEO of SRS Labs. ""As Circle Surround enhanced products become more prominent in the market, Consumers will truly appreciate the superior 5.1 conversion of their existing sound libraries that Circle Surround delivers for their multi-surround listening experience.""""Circle Surround was designed primarily with music in mind,"" statedJohn Sunier, Audio Magazine, July 1998 issue. ""It's the first surroundprocess I've heard that seems to have gotten music steering right. And it avoids a major problem found in many other matrix surround processors (especially Dolby ProLogic units), the tendency of the image to collapse to mono when there is a very strong center-channel signal or when the music becomes very dense or loud."" Most impressive is the SSM2005ís ability to separate five channels ofsurround sound from any stereo source. Whether the stereo signal isunencoded music, Dolby ProLogic encoded movies or other matrix encoded material, the sound is accurately placed. Circle Surround encoding is also available. With Circle Surround encoding, channel separation is better than Dolby ProLogic encoded material. The SSM2005 is available from Analog Devices Inc. in the surface mount, 48-lead SSOP package. Samples are available now, and production quantities will be available in February. Circle Surroundís Excellence In Recording Technology It simply encodes signals that produce a full 360 degrees soundfield.Recording engineers can encode sounds anywhere in a circle surroundingthe listener. Left front, right front, center and differential left andright surround channels are generated providing a realistic ambianceeffect with either a 4 or 5 speaker configuration. In Music mode, CircleSurround is optimized for music reproduction with full bandwidth on allchannels, unlike previous decoder designs. In addition, it includesdynamic Center Channel for full front stereo imaging of music.Independent two-band rear channel steering provides excellent surroundimaging, even in car audio applications. Well-balanced sound is obtainedeverywhere within the large ësweet area.í For more information, contact SRS Labs at 2909 Daimler Street, SantaAna, California, 92705, 949 442 1070, fax 949 852 1099.