Company History
SPIRIT DSP has been in the international software licensing business since 1992. A bootstrap company, SPIRIT has been profitable for 15 years. For the last 10 years SPIRIT's focus has been voice and video communication software products. SPIRIT counts among its customers brand name companies like Adobe, Agere, Arima, ARM, Atmel, Cisco, Compal, Flextronics, Ericsson, HP, HTC, Korea Telecom, Kyocera, LG, MediaRing, Microsoft, NEC, Nortel Networks, NXP, Oracle, Paltalk, Polycom, Quanta, Radvision, Reigncom, Samsung, Siemens, Texas Instruments, Toshiba, Trinity Convergence, Veraz, and among 200+ other communication OEMs and software vendors. SPIRIT communication software is used in over 80 countries and powers more than 100 million embedded voice channels. Both headquarters and R&D are based in Moscow, Russia.

Company Objective

The VoIP market is changing: bundled Hosted/Cable VoIP is replacing Skype-like services; IM customer base growth is no longer a major factor for VoIP market growth. Today, VoIP users are switching from public IMs to branded softphones and STBs. Voice and real-time-communication become not standalone but integrated features for the enormous range of applications for every carrier and operator. The market demands cross-platform high-quality voice and video as the "must-have" component, to serve demanding consumers.

ARM, the world's leading semiconductor intellectual property supplier that globally dominates 90% of mobile phones and communication equipment, has been an important strategic partner of SPIRIT for a long time.

SPIRIT, a member of the ARM Connected Community, has been chosen by ARM as a preferred software partner to provide outstanding performance and efficiency to media players and voice-enabled consumer electronic devices.

( http://www.spiritdsp.com/press/releases/ARM_uses_SPIRIT_engines_in_audio_processor.shtml ) SPIRIT is working with ARM to port and optimize SPIRIT's wide codec portfolio to the ARM data engines. Under the agreement, ARM actively promotes SPIRIT audio and voice software solutions to ARM Partners, OEMs and processor vendors worldwide.

SPIRIT software engines are integrated sets of highly optimized signal processing software components, including audio/voice codecs, that offer playback, record and live conversation functionality on portable devices with considerable power savings. SPIRIT software voice engines integrate acoustic echo and noise cancellation, PLC, jitter buffer, ARS and multiple codecs, including SPIRIT's wideband codec.

Primary Solution
TeamSpirit® Voice & Video Engine (for both PC and Mobile platforms) delivers the highest quality voice and video over a wide range of networks including 3G, WiFi and fixed line IP.

Seamlessly embedded voice and video communications over a wide range of networks; 3G, WiFi and fixed line IP. Target customers are OEMs/ODMs, Cable operators, VoIP service providers, Manufacturers of semiconductors, Software vendors, Online Games developers.

Company Offerings
TeamSpirit® 3.0 Voice & Video Engine PC
TeamSpirit® 3.0 Voice & Video Engine PC is a complete, pre-integrated IMS-ready embedded product which encapsulates wideband voice and video processing to offer the smoothest video and voice integration experience for NGN services and applications. Thanks to unique SPIRIT proprietary technology, the engine successfully solves all the issues encountered in V2oIP (Voice and Video over IP) communications, including voice and video lips sync.

The TeamSpirit® engine seamlessly bundles standard and proprietary wideband voice and video codecs, acoustic echo and noise cancellation, packet loss concealment, adaptive jitter buffer and network optimizing functionality, voice/video synchronization, all standard telephony protocols, CPU load control and more, allowing fast and easy integration into complex products designed to deliver low-latency voice and video over IP. The engine supports next generation IMS features: 3gp voice/video sharing, voice/video recording, 3gp playback/record, RTSP/SDP protocols, push-to-talk, etc, and is optimized for Microsoft® Windows® 98/2K/XP/Vista, Apple® Mac OSR X, and Linux, among other operating systems.

TeamSpirit® 3.0 Voice&Video Engine Mobile
TeamSpirit® 3.0 Voice&Video Engine Mobile is a complete solution that delivers a rich voice and video experience for mobile OEMs. Due to sophisticated algorithms the engine enables best-of-breed voice, as well as three-way video conference calls with 10 fps on a low cost 200 MHz mobile phone for 3G VT and V2oIP applications. The engine provides longer battery life thanks to extremely low MIPS consumption. TeamSpirit® Mobile is specifically designed for next generation mobile devices like portable players with Wi-Fi adapter, dual mode phones (cellular + WiFi), WiFi phones, softphones on mobile platforms, IP voice and videophones, and 3G mobile phones (with video telephony support).

TeamSpirit® 3.0 Mobile is available on all ARM9 and ARM9E-based processors (XScale, OMAP and others), along with ARM AudioDE and TI C64x.

TeamSpirit® 3.0 Conferencing Engine
TeamSpirit® Conferencing Engine is a complete packaged solution to create reliable voice and video conferencing systems. TeamSpirit® Conferencing Engine includes both media server engine and a client SDK or complete softphone. SPIRIT proprietary scalable voice codec SPIRIT IP-MR™ and conferencing manager SPIRIT Multi-PASS™ provide high server capacity with up to 12 hundred concurrent connections on a dual-core Intel-based server.

TeamSpirit® 3.0 Voice&Video Engine Embedded
TeamSpirit® Voice&Video Engine Embedded brings video telephony functionality to hardware. Video over IP enabled STBs are the next step for ISPs and cable operators. TeamSpirit® Voice&Video Engine Embedded is a comprehensive solution to develop CPU based VoIP equipment like video telephony set-top boxes, multimedia terminal adapters, video IP phones and residential gateways.

Audio Engine
Time and industry proven SPIRIT Audio Engine provides an easy-to-integrate high quality player/recorder solution for both mobile/portable audio and professional appliances. All the most popular audio formats for playback and recording are supported either in bundle or separately.

Target markets?
OEMs/ODMs, cable operators, VoIP service providers, manufacturers of semiconductors, software vendors, online games developers.

What is unique about your company's offerings?
SPIRIT has the only Voice & Video Engine that spans all market segments and all communications devices: OEMs/ODMs, manufacturers and semiconductors, Telco/VoIP service providers, cable operators, software vendors, mass-market gaming and social networking (PC and mobile softphones; WiFi and 3G phones, cordless IP phones, IMS platforms, Web conferencing, set-top boxes). And thanks to unique proprietary technology, SPIRIT Engines successfully solves all the issues encountered in voice and video communications, including voice and video lips sync. SPIRIT voice and video quality is unprecedented in the industry with technical features that surpass all other available market offerings (the fastest, the most compact, the lowest CPU load, the lowest resource consumption, etc). Today, only SPIRIT has voice and video together, ready to deploy. No other voice and video engine provider is ready to offer a complete high-quality solution.

Company History with ARM

How long has the company been working with ARM?
SPIRIT started working with ARM in early 2000, developing a portable multimedia player SoC with Atmel. Since that time, SPIRIT and ARM together have managed to integrate their joint field-proven technologies into various communication devices.

Why have you chosen to work with ARM?
People from all over the world benefit from the high-quality communications that ARM has consistently introduced. SPIRIT shares this commitment in delivering the utmost of modern communications. ARM brings new opportunities to SPIRIT, and in return, SPIRIT contributes with its award-winning solutions to ARM technologies.

This is ARM's quotation regarding the strategic partnership: "SPIRIT's power efficient software solutions, combined with the ARM AudioDE audio processor will enable consumer electronics manufacturers to bring compelling, next-generation multimedia products to market quickly and with low risk," said Dr. Tom Cronk, general manager, Data Engines, ARM. "SPIRIT and ARM share a common dedication to pioneering technologies that help maintain competitive advantage and leverage advanced efficiency for mobile audio and voice applications."

The primary benefits QSound has achieved by working with ARM are related to engineering and marketing initiatives. On the engineering front ARM and QSound have undertaken optimization of QSound's microQ technology for ARM based environments making microQ the industry's most optimized audio solution.

What one experience comes to mind during your early years working with ARM?
Slava Borilin, VP Products of SPIRIT, tells of his experience:
"When we started working with ARM and our Tier1 customer (the world's leading audio electronic vendor), it was a natural fit. ARM's best architectures and SPIRIT's best software multimedia engines turned out to be a great combination for the market. During the first year of our collaboration, even more important was the cultural fit - the ARM team was smart, highly professional and open-minded with the highest commitment to satisfy the customer. They have a great understanding of the software nature and its importance for customer design decisions.

At that time, there was a need for many pieces of a large multimedia puzzle to be put together. We definitely took advantage of the close geographic location between Moscow and London. I believe lately the ARM team has had the most impressive experience with Russian winters and summers, since our collaboration began in 2000. My passport is also full of UK customs stamps as I travel to ARM every quarter now.

Another great thing about our relationship with ARM is that we found a synergy and understanding between the ARM cores and SPIRIT multimedia engines. Once we found that, the whole ARM team, from engineering to VPs and CEO, was working together with the SPIRIT team and the customer team to make the project happen. It was an incredibly successful team. Later we extended the relations by forming and announcing a strategic partnership. I am personally very pleased with the great attitude and professional assistance that comes from the ARM Media Processing Division team who keep working with us on new and exciting opportunities."

Can you name any end products that your/ARM technology is being shipped with?

SPIRIT powered products in ARM showcase: Pocket Loox T Series - Fujitsu-Siemens,
http%3A//www.arm.com/markets/mobile_solutions/armpp/15641.html

HTC Universal - world's first 3G Videophone based on Windows Mobile 5.0http%3A//www.arm.com/markets/mobile_solutions/armpp/15643.html

There are other mobile devices, but SPIRIT is not in a position to go public with them yet.

More Information

• SPIRIT%20Profile (256Kb PDF)
• SPIRIT%20AudioEngine%20Datasheet (246Kb PDF)