SILK, our super wideband audio codec, is now available for free
Jonathan Christensen is Skype’s General Manager for Audio and Video.
Today marks a significant moment in the journey of Skype. Some of you may be aware of the SILK speech codec which is included as part of Skype 4.0 for Windows – it’s what enables super-wideband audio and optimizes call quality, even in low network bandwidth environments. It transforms sound quality for Skype calls, and if you haven’t already tried 4.0, believe me: you should.
I’m speaking at eComm today, and have some very special news to bring our developer community – we’re making the SILK speech codec available for a royalty free license by third-party software and hardware developers soon.
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What does this mean for the future of audio on the web?
SILK is Skype’s signature super wideband audio codec which achieves super wideband audio quality using 50% less network bandwidth than previously required. It is the outcome of a three year long development process in the Skype labs, which focused on four things:
- improving audio bandwidth going from 8 kHz to 12 kHz, meaning that a SILK conversation sounds like you are in the same room as the person you are speaking with
- providing real-time bandwidth scalability to deal with degraded network conditions
- balancing codec optimization between voice, music and background noise, each of which can have an impact on the overall user experience
- delivering a robust solution that delivers a more consistent audio experience, regardless of network conditions and an individual user’s voice signature
Making SILK available opens the door to its adoption as the standard across a huge range of platforms, applications and devices by web developers and chip manufacturers, as well as consumer electronics and mobile device manufacturers. By offering it for free, we are removing one of the biggest hurdles to adoption of wideband audio: cost. By doing so, I hope we’ll establish a new industry-wide standard in speech processing: clearer, richer, and warmer audio.
When can I get my hands on the code?
We are still working on the details but for more information about SILK, please visit our SILK website.
JC, excellent news for the partner community. Looking forward to seeing what is possible with the SDK.
DickS
I’m sorry about being slightly pessimistic about this however why are you now licensing this out when you cant ever integrate it into your own clients.
That said however it should be interesting to see what systems will adopt this.
I would love to see this enable a compatibility with Asterisk.
http://www.askterisk.org
GTalk is already integrated. A Skype compatibility would be great.
Actually it should read 3.5kHz to 12kHz, SILK runs at 24kHz sample rate. So they are selling SILK short!
/b
http://www.freeswitch.org
how do i get the SILK, the wideband audio codec for my skype? and wanna make my skype calling better! can i use it or where do i download it, who can tell me , thanks!
@jason_pitt: if you use Skype 4.0 on Windows, you already have the codec. Skype are sharing the codec that they already use.
Wideband for all!
Montreal March 4 2009
Not that good and sometimes brocken. The sound quality is very ordinnary and we still have trouble with the video.
Claude Pinsonneault
Montreal
This is excellent news, for the industry as well as for users. Thanks for taking such a forward-looking stance and making this so easily and widely available!
We requested the SDK by emailing our information and got a reply saying that we needed to Review & execute SILK Agreement (available within 1 week); then Return executed agreement to silksupport@skype.net and mail hardcopy to: Jin Kim, Skype, 2145 Hamilton Ave, San Jose, CA 95124. But so far we haven’t received any agreement or any instruction to let us know where to get the agreement. Please follow up and our request and let us know the next steps.
Thank you so much.
Hi,
We’ve applied for the SDK twice and haven’t had so much as a confirmation.
We’re dying to get hold of it so we can add support to our VoIP testers @ http://www.celideo.com
Stuart.
We requested the SDK by emailing our information
But we haven’t get any feedback from sliksupport@skype.net.
How can I get your reply?
I expect your information
Thank you so much.
: would love to see this enable a compatibility with Asterisk.
You can try one from http://sfinxsoft.com/silk