CRLI Circuit Research Labs Inc (CE)

New aacPlus DirectShow Plug-in enables Microsoft's Windows Media users to enjoy near CD-quality radio at a mere 32 kbps. Professional broadcast equipment manufacturer Orban / Circuit Research Labs, Inc. (OTCBB:CRLI), along with its partner, Coding Technologies, announced today the immediate availability of a public beta for the new Orban / Coding Technologies AAC/aacPlus(TM) Player Plugin. When installed, this free software will enable any of the 80+ million users of Microsoft's Windows Media Player to take advantage of the remarkably high-quality, low-bandwidth audio format that is changing the way consumers experience digital audio via the Internet, mobile and broadcast applications. The Orban / Coding Technologies AAC/aacPlus(TM) Player Plugin is a free, full-featured Microsoft DirectShow component that enables MPEG-4 aacPlus audio files and streams within Windows Media Player. aacPlus (also known as HE-AAC) is an industry standard superset of the AAC codec that uses Coding Technologies' Spectral Band Replication (SBR) and Parametric Stereo (PS) audio compression technologies to provide CD-quality audio in a footprint four times smaller than content encoded with MP3 (MPEG Layer-3) technology. Digital television, radio and Internet broadcasters take advantage of aacPlus to deliver high-quality audio streams while realizing dramatic savings in bandwidth costs. Consumers listening to aacPlus streams benefit from an enhanced listening experience. Their compact bit rates virtually eliminate content rebuffering, a process that interrupts source playback and negatively affects the consumer's listening experience. "Orban and Coding Technologies realized that Windows Media player users should be able to enjoy the outstanding efficiency and quality of aacPlus," said Greg Ogonowski, Orban/CRL vice president of product development. "The AAC/aacPlus Plugin moves MPEG4 standards-based streaming into a previously closed system. This is a good thing for consumers." "Content rebuffering is the static of digital radio," said Shawn Hopwood, senior director of Coding Technologies. "We're delighted to work with Orban to bring the high-quality audio and the continuous streaming experience of aacPlus to such a large Windows Media listening community." "Spacial Audio Solutions welcomes the addition of the Orban aacPlus Windows Media plug-in," said Louis Louw, CTO of Spacial Audio. "In conjunction with Orban's Windows Media plug-in, Spacial Audio's recent adoption of aacPlus will allow broadcasters to offer more player choices for listeners." The Orban / Coding Technologies AAC/aacPlus Player Plugin works with Microsoft Windows Media version 9 or 10. It supports standard ID3 metadata tags that display real-time stream data such as artist, album, and song information. Installing the free plug-in component is fast and simple. It takes less than a minute to install and requires no authentication, registration, monitoring or tracking. The Orban/Coding Technologies AAC/aacPlus(TM) Player Plugin can be downloaded without charge from: http://www.orban.com/. Consumers can tune into a wide variety of MPEG-4 aacPlus Internet Radio streams at: http://www.tuner2.com/. About aacPlus aacPlus is an audio codec developed by Coding Technologies which delivers high-quality 5.1 multichannel audio at 128 kbps, near CD-quality stereo at 32 kbps, and FM quality stereo at 24 kbps. It is widely adopted by many international standardization and proprietary bodies including 3GPP, MPEG-4, ISMA (Internet Streaming Media Alliance), DVB (Digital Video Broadcasting), the DVD Forum, Digital Radio Mondiale, HD-Radio and MediaFLO. aacPlus is currently available on over 150 mobile phone models worldwide and is the solution for most over-the-air (OTA) consumer mobile music providers including: AOL, Sprint, KDDI, SK Telecom and XM Sataliite Radio. Coding Technologies estimates there are over 20 Million aacPlus mobile phones/devices in the market today, and project this number will rise to 100 million by the end of 2006. About Coding Technologies Coding Technologies is a privately held company with offices in Sweden, Germany, and Silicon Valley. Founded in 1997 in Stockholm, the company later merged with a spin-off of the renowned Fraunhofer Institute in Germany, the inventor of MP3. Coding Technologies' customers include America Online, EMP, iBiquity Digital, KDDI, mmO2, Nokia, Orange, RealNetworks, SK Telecom, Sprint, T-Mobile, Thomson, Texas Instruments, Vodafone, and XM Satellite Radio. About Orban/CRL Founded in 1970 by Bob Orban, the world's foremost expert in transmission audio processing for broadcast, Orban leads the industry in the design and manufacture of audio processors for radio, television and Internet broadcasting. Recognized for its standard-setting Optimod(R) digital audio processors and the Audicy digital audio workstation, the Orban name has become synonymous with reliable, high performance products. Today, its versatile audio processing equipment, editing tools and codecs are the products of choice in fast-paced production environments worldwide. In 2000, Orban(R) was acquired by Circuit Research Labs -- a manufacturer of high-quality digital and analog audio processing, transmission encoding, and noise reduction equipment. Orban/CRL Systems now accounts for the majority of the global market for radio, TV and Internet audio processing. As technology evolves, Orban/CRL continues to innovate with state-of-the-art audio processing products for DAB, DTV and streaming media. Orban/CRL Forward-Looking Statements This news release may contain "forward-looking" statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Management's anticipation of future events is based upon assumptions regarding levels of competition, research and development results, raw material markets, the markets in which the company operates, and stability of the regulatory environment. Any of these assumptions could prove inaccurate, and therefore there can be no assurance that the forward-looking information will prove to be accurate. Orban/Circuit Research Labs, Inc. develops, manufactures and markets electronic audio processing, transmission encoding and noise reduction equipment for the worldwide radio, television, cable, Internet and professional audio markets. The Orban division manufactures and markets audio processing equipment, primarily using digital technology. Orban Europe is a worldwide leader in ISO/MPEG, audio, ISDN, satellite transmission, networking, and storage. More information is available at www.orban.com, www.orban-europe.com, and www.crlsystems.com.